DawnM Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 UGH. I was asked to implement a program for the kids who are in another room while the parents are in "small group bible study." I tried an older VBS program, but that really didn't fit.....we couldn't do most of it ......skits, games outside, expensive crafts, etc..... I basically need something that will take about an hour and will have: Short/easy game Lesson/questions Easy craft or activity that goes along with the lesson Any curriculum out there where I won't have to reinvent the wheel? Thanks, Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-2-7 Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Take a look at this. We use this at our church for the kids. http://www.resourcewell.org/children-ministry/curriculum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Thank you. I am looking at it now. Keep ideas coming. I really don't know how this is going to work. WHY did I agree to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 I've used some materials from LIfeChurch before. http://open.lifechurch.tv/categories/288-kids I haven't used it, but I have also had recommended New Spring Church's children's stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Does it have to be a study? We've been doing once a month service activities with our kids that age. It takes a bit more planning but they really enjoy it. Things we've done...have them make bags of non-perishable food items that families then keep in their cars to give out to the homeless, Operation Christmas Child boxes, write/decorate letters for church members who are unable to attend church for whatever reason (sick, elderly), make and send care packages to oversees members in the military or new college students, make Advent materials for home, make Resurrection eggs at Easter, prepare food for the rest of the church (maybe something for after the adults are done with Bible Study), cleaning/gardening projects around the church. The other advantage is that I come up with the ideas and then ask different people to lead different months. People are more willing I think to help lead "October's homeless bag activity" rather than make a commitment to teaching every month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Great idea. Although the younger kids prob still need something more. And I am not sure that would take an entire hour.......hmmmm.....these kids tend to blitz through projects.....I tried something earlier and many of the boys just colored one color in 2 min. flat and said, "DONE!" The girls would take all hour coloring one picture. That is part of the issue. Some won't work......we eat a pot luck before the adult study, so making food won't work. And the parents DO want some sort of lesson of some sort, but might be open to some of the ideas as crafts. Dawn Does it have to be a study? We've been doing once a month service activities with our kids that age. It takes a bit more planning but they really enjoy it. Things we've done...have them make bags of non-perishable food items that families then keep in their cars to give out to the homeless, Operation Christmas Child boxes, write/decorate letters for church members who are unable to attend church for whatever reason (sick, elderly), make and send care packages to oversees members in the military or new college students, make Advent materials for home, make Resurrection eggs at Easter, prepare food for the rest of the church (maybe something for after the adults are done with Bible Study), cleaning/gardening projects around the church. The other advantage is that I come up with the ideas and then ask different people to lead different months. People are more willing I think to help lead "October's homeless bag activity" rather than make a commitment to teaching every month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justasque Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 ...And the parents DO want some sort of lesson of some sort, but might be open to some of the ideas as crafts. Dawn Once you have the service projects figured out, it shouldn't be too hard to put together a lesson based on them. Sort of "this is what we believe, now let's go out and actually do it". I think that could be a very effective combination, and the lessons are more likely to "stick" when you DO the thing you're talking about rather than doing a coloring sheet about it, you know? And by having the kids do real work for the church community (even if not perfectly), they gain some ownership and sense of belonging in the church community. You can always send them home with a relevant coloring page if that would make parents happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Not sure I can come up with 9 of them that will last an hour. I will think about some ideas. Plus we will need to think about who will pay for it all. I really don't want to tell the parents they have to buy a lot of stuff. Dawn Once you have the service projects figured out, it shouldn't be too hard to put together a lesson based on them. Sort of "this is what we believe, now let's go out and actually do it". I think that could be a very effective combination, and the lessons are more likely to "stick" when you DO the thing you're talking about rather than doing a coloring sheet about it, you know? And by having the kids do real work for the church community (even if not perfectly), they gain some ownership and sense of belonging in the church community. You can always send them home with a relevant coloring page if that would make parents happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Do you have a TV available and a laptop you can connect? There are free Sunday School curriculums that are video based that you can run off your computer with a high speed internet connection and they take exactly 1 hour. They usually have a lesson, a bible verse to memorize, maybe a short activity, some songs and interaction all planned neatly for you. New Spring above has one of those. Our church currently uses a free video based thing like that in our children's area, but I'm not sure what it is. I can find out for you if want it. I'm not a fan of plunking kids in front of video entertainment, but it would make life easy for you and still give a bible lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommytoFour Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 You might try here: http://ministry-to-children.com/lessons/ For example, here's a nine-lesson series on the armor of God: http://ministry-to-children.com/win-against-sin/, here's nine on Fruit of the Spirit: http://ministry-to-children.com/fruit-of-the-spirit-index/ They have a lot of series to choose from, many of them incorporate songs/crafts, etc with the lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Yes, I would have that. Is it called New Spring? I will have to look. Do you have a TV available and a laptop you can connect? There are free Sunday School curriculums that are video based that you can run off your computer with a high speed internet connection and they take exactly 1 hour. They usually have a lesson, a bible verse to memorize, maybe a short activity, some songs and interaction all planned neatly for you. New Spring above has one of those. Our church currently uses a free video based thing like that in our children's area, but I'm not sure what it is. I can find out for you if want it. I'm not a fan of plunking kids in front of video entertainment, but it would make life easy for you and still give a bible lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Actually that Fruit of the Spirit one is the one I did at our retreat. It was really hard to make it work for ages 4-12.....but I think anything will be. PLUS, I didn't realize that they had JUST done Fruit of the Spirit a month before at our FamJam at church......ugh.....but I was stuck with info they already had. But it went ok, just not great. You might try here: http://ministry-to-children.com/lessons/ For example, here's a nine-lesson series on the armor of God: http://ministry-to-children.com/win-against-sin/, here's nine on Fruit of the Spirit: http://ministry-to-children.com/fruit-of-the-spirit-index/ They have a lot of series to choose from, many of them incorporate songs/crafts, etc with the lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 There is this one from New Spring. You have to make an account to get to the resources, but it is free, no strings attached. I've never gotten so much as a single annoying email from them. I'll have to get back to you on the one we use now. I'm part of a new church start. We're small and don't have much in the way of resources, so free and easy are part of what we do. I teach preschool and I use different stuff there, so we haven't tried to stretch across the age range you are, but our kids do range from K-age 12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Not sure I can come up with 9 of them that will last an hour. I will think about some ideas. Plus we will need to think about who will pay for it all. I really don't want to tell the parents they have to buy a lot of stuff. Dawn Are the parents paying you to babysit their children? Because I don't think it's unreasonable for them to have to be financially responsible for an hour or so of childcare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Actually, what I agreed to do was to find curriculum and train the teens to do it. But that isn't going to work as planned completely, we are still going to need one adult in there per evening. I will be taking the first session. However, last time I agreed to do one session, I ended up doing all of the. I am hoping that won't happen this time around. Dawn Are the parents paying you to babysit their children? Because I don't think it's unreasonable for them to have to be financially responsible for an hour or so of childcare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Great idea. Although the younger kids prob still need something more. And I am not sure that would take an entire hour.......hmmmm.....these kids tend to blitz through projects.....I tried something earlier and many of the boys just colored one color in 2 min. flat and said, "DONE!" The girls would take all hour coloring one picture. That is part of the issue. Some won't work......we eat a pot luck before the adult study, so making food won't work. And the parents DO want some sort of lesson of some sort, but might be open to some of the ideas as crafts. Dawn Not sure I can come up with 9 of them that will last an hour. I will think about some ideas. Plus we will need to think about who will pay for it all. I really don't want to tell the parents they have to buy a lot of stuff. Dawn Obviously, it may not work for your church, which is fine. We do this as a once a month thing during Sunday School and it takes up about an hour. We pair projects together in stations and do some other things with it, music and a group memorization project...So for example: 10 minutes working on a song that we are learning together (usually a hymn) 5-15 minutes working on a group memorization project. We've had them memorize a Q/A from the Heidelberg Confession and Psalm 51, last year was a catechism year for us so they were all working on catechism. Other ideas are The Lord's Prayer, Apostle's Creed, other Psalms. I've tried to use things we say in our service so that even the kids who are little and can't read will begin to recognize those parts when they hear them in the service. And saying them weekly in the service reinforces what they are memorizing. The memorization time takes longer if I play a game with them, shorter if we just run through it. 35-45 minutes on project. We might pair projects that kind of go together and set up a couple of stations. For example one week we had one station where kids were making decorations for a bulletin board that has rotating displays on it in our church fellowship hall, one station had kids making cards for church members who can't attend on Sundays (sick/elderly) and one station had kids playing a game (something like Hangman or Simon Says or Musical Chairs (we do memory musical chairs where they have to say what they are memorizing when the music stops). A lot of the no-craft boys are ok because they are moving through different things and if they really love crafts we let them stay and work on them. We've also done things like have a lesson or someone speak paired with a project. My sister in law does medical missions and she came and spoke and showed photos of her trips. We paired that with collecting and stuffing boxes for Operation Christmas Child. As for cost, for things like the homeless bags our church has paid for it out of the fund that normally pays for community outreach. For things like a cereal drive we did for a local Food Bank I asked kids to bring in a box of their favorite cereal. I'm really careful about emphasizing that they bring it in if they WANT to and that they don't have to and I make sure that we collect donations in a way where it's not obvious who donated. If there is a kid or family that can't donate, I don't want them to feel embarrassed. It might not work for you but I thought I'd elaborate a bit more in case it sparked some ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommytoFour Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Maybe one of these will work: http://wonaz.publishpath.com/store or perhaps you can pull together something from here: http://www.sundayschoolsources.com/ (They are all free.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 We are using Great Commission Publications' new Pilgrim's Progress curriculum for a mid week program at church. So far it is great. Comes with dramatic reading on cd, books for kids, maps etc. www.gcp.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staceyshoe Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Combining a wide age range may be the biggest challenge--engaging the older children without losing the younger ones.National Center for Biblical Parenting has a Treasure Hunters book that has activities for kids while parents are in another group. It is designed for a variety of ages and has fun activities. Very well done. We did this as a family, but it's designed for a group of children.Group has a book series called All-In-One Sunday School that I've used successfully in a similar situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 Are the parents paying you to babysit their children? Because I don't think it's unreasonable for them to have to be financially responsible for an hour or so of childcare. Agreed. When we had adult bible study, we paid for childcare at the church and they didn't have any focused lessons or anything. Just let the children play and have fun (with a Veggietales to wind down at the end) while we had our bible study (which was about 90 minutes every other week) Will you have the adults to split the kids up? That might help as well. That's a really big age range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 3, 2014 Author Share Posted September 3, 2014 I will have one adult per week as a volunteer, not the same one. We haven't had anything structured in the past and the kids were completely out of control. Running around pushing, shoving, etc.....it was a huge crowd control issue. The parents wanted something more structured. The teens who were babysitting were complaining that the kids needed something to do as it was out of control and the kids fed off of the badly behaved kids. Dawn Agreed. When we had adult bible study, we paid for childcare at the church and they didn't have any focused lessons or anything. Just let the children play and have fun (with a Veggietales to wind down at the end) while we had our bible study (which was about 90 minutes every other week) Will you have the adults to split the kids up? That might help as well. That's a really big age range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 Following! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8circles Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 You might find something here http://www.sermons4kids.com I like Alice's ideas and also the video-based ones. I was going to say that you might want to change-it up and do completely different thinks for variety but if its something you want to implement & then step away from that makes it difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8circles Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 Re: donations. We have found that other members of the congregation are very happy to donate items for kids projects or activities. So if you know ahead of time what you'll need, you might consider asking the whole congregation for donations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 3, 2014 Author Share Posted September 3, 2014 Honestly, I doubt we can do this. It is a very large church. If they allowed every small group to put their wants/needs in the bulletin, we would have pages of wants. The expectation is that each group will just do their own and each member of the small group will find a way to ask their friends themselves. Dawn Re: donations. We have found that other members of the congregation are very happy to donate items for kids projects or activities. So if you know ahead of time what you'll need, you might consider asking the whole congregation for donations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8circles Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 Oh, that makes sense. Our church is teeny-tiny so for us it works. Honestly, I doubt we can do this. It is a very large church. If they allowed every small group to put their wants/needs in the bulletin, we would have pages of wants. The expectation is that each group will just do their own and each member of the small group will find a way to ask their friends themselves. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 You can look at what Life Church has for kids here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelaburke1000 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Looks like you've got some good ideas already, but thought I'd mention the What's in the Bible series. They offer a full curriculum, but individual episodes can be downloaded for $5 each. (I think, that may have been a sale, just bought some there for my group.) There are also coloring pages and activities on the site if you don't want to buy the whole thing. The series was put together by the creator of veggie tales, to remedy what he considers the failure that show. http://whatsinthebible.com/curriculum/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 Thank you all so much. I am keeping them all in mind. This last week we ended up just showing a Bible Story via a video I actually had on hand, about the prodigal son. Then there was some discussion, but the discussion was lead by a teen and was a whopping 3 min. of no answer so she gave the answers. We need to work on that for next time. She didn't show up for the training, didn't obey the rules of no cell phones on during the lesson, and then argued with me about which playground to go to. UGH. On a completely different note......we have now gone to the church and asked if we can become a Sunday School group instead of a Sat. night small group. If we can do this by January, this will solve so many issues (childcare, Sat. night often being an issue for our family with other activities, etc....) Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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