Another AWANA question....

[Samiam]

Some background info:

1. We do not regularly attend church. We are not against church, or Christians, and do partake of certain church activities such as VBS, Choir, etc at times.

 

2. Older DS attended Awana for two years (then aged out), and loved it. I have good thoughts about Awana, and had always planned on taking middle DS when the time was right. I am familiar with how Awana works and what the night is like.

 

So now, DS is 7 and 2nd grade, and I think it would be good for him. We are in a brand new state, and so he needs to get out and meet some people and this is one way to do it.

 

We have a HUGE fancy ritzy the whole nine yards type Baptist church right around the corner from us. DS7 and DS4 went there for VBS and had a great time. Signed DS7 up for Awana.

 

He went twice. First time he said it was boring. I figured he was just saying that, and it was the first night, so I expected there was some dissarray to the night. The next week, I took him (DH had prior week), and I just happened to be walking through the hall and saw his classroom. He was just sitting at the table, kind of off by himself, just sitting there all sad looking. (he is not normally shy and makes friends easily). There were other children kind of sitting here and there at the tables. A fleeting thought entered my mind to go in and check on him, but I ignored it.

 

When I picked him up, they were handing out the books to some children, but only handed out the first flyer to my son. It's been a while since older DS was in, so I forgot the protocol. Asked why DS7 was not getting a book and she said he had to memorize/pass this verse on this flyer first. (oh, yeah, now I remember that part) and then he gets the book. She said "He said he can't read, so you will have to help him at home (duh, expected to!). I have 13 children in the class so I was not able to get to him tonight to help him." It didn't dawn on me what she meant at that point.

 

So on the drive home, I asked him about the night. He said the games in the beginning were fun. But then they go to the class room and just sit there. He said everyone was reading their paper but him. I asked, "Do you mean everyone was taking turns reading out loud, or everyone was sitting there reading their own papers to themselves?" He said "reading to themselves, except me because I can't read. I asked the teacher for help but she said I had to sit down and wait for my turn." OOOOHH, so then it dawned on me what I had saw when I walked by his class earlier. The paper they were reading was the first memory verse, and if they got it that night, they got their book (which is exciting). Because the teacher did not even get to help DS7, he was just sitting there for 45 minutes staring at the table, and so did not even get a chance to attempt to try for his book. No wonder he thinks it is boring.

 

So I am thinking I might have him try Awana at a different, smaller church. I mean, I don't expect the teacher to totally cater to DS7 since he can't read, but I imagine that there are 2nd graders at different reading levels in the room, and it sounds like she is overwhelmed with 13 children in the room. It just seems like there could have been a different way to do it then to sit with each child individually while the rest languish in this circumstance. Our previous experience with Awana, there were several volunteers for each group and it just seemed like they kept the children busy the whole time.

 

Then DH asks why even do Awana?? I just think it could be fun for DS7. I like the memory work for him. I think it would give him something to be proud of, accomplishing the tasks in the book, since he does struggle with reading so much.

 

So I guess my question is, what would you do? Would you make the extra effort to find a better Awana environment for him, or just scratch it altogether since he can't read and that will probably be an issue regardless of which church he does it at?

[SonshineLearner]

Well, my son is 2nd grade, like yours. He can't really read well enough to do the memory work himself. Help him at home? Duh! I guess I could, but at our church they help the children memorize it when they go, and a couple of times through and he knows it. Perhaps offer to stay with him the first couple of times to get the feel for it? I would point it out that he can't read, gently, so that they know he needs help. Also, I think they have cds for all the memory work now, so after the first paper, you'll be able to play the memory work before hand.

I kinda get tired of it, but he loves it. UGH.... we're in the "Do we do Awanas again" spot :)

[mhg]

I wouldn't let her large class and lack of time to help him lead me to a different church. I don't know anything about AWANA's, but can't she just give you the upcoming verse for the week and you and he work on it at home beforehand to head-off the problem?

[Starr]

Even if his reading was great it sounds like they spend 45 minutes at the table looking at their own paper.

[BMW]

Well, I could kind of understand how this could happen, being in a very large church myself... I think if it is close to your home and you like the church, I'd figure out the verses and be proactive... showing up and speaking with the leader when you pick up your child is a great way to follow up and keep working through these beginning weeks. Often, the first few weeks are hard on the leaders who are learning new groups of kids and all and sometimes the leaders are new recruits. So, I would give it a few weeks and if after that you are not satisfied, I'd be looking for a smaller group! Hope that helps a little...

[Cinder]

Only 1 teacher for 13 kids? I've only been involved in 2 different Awana programs, but in each they tried to have 6-8 kids per group at most. And a helper if possible. At our current church they have Awana on Sundays so the high schoolers can attend (no conflict with youth group) and also be helpers for the younger kids.

 

Personally, I think this church has too many kids for the number of leaders they have. Handbook time requires the leader to work one-on-one with the child. Hence the need for a helper if you have more than a handful of kids in each group. If it's important to you for your son to be involved in Awana, I think you should seriously consider trying another church, especially if the alternative is for your ds to have bad feelings about Awana.

 

Just my opinion, of course.

Cinder

[fhjmom]

If he was in the second grade class, then most of them were probably on the second or third Sparks book if they had been in AWANA before since Sparks is from K-2. If they have previously done the entrance booklet in K or 1st, they would go straight into the next book.

 

Here is a list of Sparks materials:

Entrance booklet

HangGlider Handbook

WingRunner Handbook

SkyStormer Handbook

 

All kids start with the entrance booklet (i.e. the flyer you mentioned) then move on to the HangGlider book the first year they are in Sparks. The memorization verse in the entrance booklet is John 3:16. This is typically the first verse a child memorizes in any church related thing (from a Baptist perspective) so other kids that were new to AWANA but attend a Baptist church very well may have already known that verse as well. They at least would have been familiar with it and probably would not take much effort for them to memorize it quickly.

 

Our AWANA leaders are very clear that they do not have time to help the children memorize their verses. Memorization work is expected to be done at home. They also don't have time to give each child multiple tries to say a verse so if you are ready to say a verse, you are expected to *know* it.

 

That being said, our kids have always had other activities to do with one leader while another leader was listening to the child reciting verses. The kids typically don't just sit and study their verses ever, since that part is supposed to be done at home.

 

Another thing is that our church has a policy that never allows just one adult to be alone with a child or group of children. That part would concern me. I would gently ask about the lack of help in that class (but be careful as they might try to recruit you ;) ). I can't imagine that the leader will be able to handle it solo all year. They should at least be able to give her some help when she is listening to verses so the other children can be engaged in activity.

 

It would bug me if the kids were just expected to sit while each one recited verses. It wouldn't bug me if they didn't help DS memorize his verse because our leaders don't do that for anyone. We do memory work at home. I would ask what the expectations are for this club since others seem to have had a different experience.

[Cinder]

I wanted to add (since I wrote my reply late last night and wasn't very clear), that what Tamara says above about the leader just having time to listen to verses is true. When I said the leader "works" one-on-one that is what I meant. The leader has a few minutes per child to listen to their verses but not actually help them memorize--unless it's a very small group and there is extra time. If the group your son is in has 13 kids that gives the leader only about 3 minutes per kid.

 

I'm still not comfortable with them not having a helper for that class.

 

Hopefully my first post is a little less confusing now.

 

Cinder

[Pam L.]

Hi,

 

I am an Awana leader! :lol:

 

I do agree with a previous poster about the recommended group size for handbook time being around 5 kids. Most churches do in fact have more than one adult present per group of five. (In our case, we use two large rooms for two of our groups - but always a minimum of 3-4 adults present). We are fortunate, that we average 1 person for every 3 kids (again this is not unsupervised). This gives us the extra time to help a child work on a verse as necessary. With our particular group of Sparks, we find that many of them do need that additional help to work on a verse.

 

Awana is a great program. Before you pull your son, I would encourage you to go and observe in this larger church at least one time. It could be just hectic one of those first few nights. (Believe me that leader with 13 kids KNOWS it was not a perfect situation). If after a visit, you may choose to look for another church with a smaller program. Most churches have no problem allowing a parent to sit in with the child. Some will allow you to visit without the child if you contact them ahead of time.

 

I hope you and your family will find a pleasant solution and that your son would come to enjoy all that Awana can offer him. If you would like to pm me, please feel free to do so.

 

Blessings,

Pam

[Daisy]

Wow, I thought it was Awana rules that handbook time had to have a 1:5 teacher:student ratio. CRAZY. I taught the 1st grade Sparkies. It is VERY difficult to work on children's actual memory work during church time. The expectation is that the child will be working on it at home with their parents during the week. Almost my entire handbook time was taken up in listening to children recite their verses. I only had a few minutes to help kiddos who had not already memorized their verses. If you stay with this church's program you might mention the idea of having coloring sheets for children who are waiting. I did this with great success.

[Mimm]

I agree with everyone talking about class size. I went to a large megachurch where we used to live and volunteered to be an Awanas teacher. We had a teacher in each class and two assistant teachers (I was one of these). We had a class size of about 15-18. And it was absolutely chaotic most of the time. Of course, my particular main teacher didn't know the first thing about managing groups of kids so she let them run wild. :p