AWANA

[ebrindam]

Can anyone tell me about AWANA? I am thinking of 'enrolling' DD in the fall, but also considering having our church start out own AWANA program. What does it entail? Do kids enjoy it? I have looked at the samples and some looks kind of heavy, but maybe it's more fun than it looks. Any info is great!

[Goldilocks]

My only involvement with AWANA is helping my children with their memory work and sending them with grandma, but my boys LOVE it. I am not sure why, but they really do. 

My guess is they love the game time. The game leader is really dynamic and really gets the kids excited.

I like the memory work. Especially when they get to T&T. It is definitely challenging,  but really cool the way they have the memory work organized. Kind of like a catechism with questions and answers.

[Night Elf]

I taught 5 and 6 year olds. They loved it. They all did fairly well with the memory work and loved getting the acknowledgment. We played games, sang songs and always had some type of paper activity for the kids to do. One year I was the attendance person. I enjoyed that too. I don't know anything about the administrative side of the program though.

[JoJosMom]

My DD is 12 and in 7th grade. She's done AWANA since 3rd grade. It is a fantastic program; the curriculum is wonderful and the games are a blast. We choose AWANA at a different church over our church's youth group because of the quality of the program. I highly recommend it.

[JoJosMom]

dp

[JoJosMom]

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[JoJosMom]

On my phone; sorry about the multiple posts. Will fix later.

 

Fixed.

[Evergreen State Sue]

Singing the praises of AWANA here.  My kids started as 3 year olds (Cubbies), and my youngest will finish at 18 this month earning her Citation award. 

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I grew up attending AWANA and it was fantastic. I loved the memory work. We tried it with my boys, though, and they didn't enjoy it. I wish they did! 

[LinRTX]

My children love AWANA. One of mine started at 5, the other 3 at 3. Three of mine have earned their Citation and the youngest only has 3 more

years before she has hers. It is fun and it is challenging. My husband and I each have 20 years experience as leaders, directors, and commanders.

Starting your own program is quite a bit of work. We did that at one church we were going to. By that time however we had already had one receive his citation, so we knew the program fairly well.

 

Linda

[Mom23Boys]

My kids were in it and enjoyed it, but I stopped after my oldest's first year in T&T. He has difficulty memorizing things and it was set up to very obviously reward children who memorized well.  I am not an "everyone must get a ribbon" person, but I didn't want him to get discouraged and feel like a failure at church. He didn't ask me to pull him, but he struggles with memorization in school too and I know that discourages him, so I didn't want to take a chance. 

 

The other thing I didn't like about it was the extent they rewarded children for being there and not missing. At that age they are dependent on parents getting them there and it honestly felt like a punishment to at least some of the kids who missed a lot. I think there could be a better balance there. We missed more than the program "allowed", but it didn't bother my kids. Some of the ones it bothered were kids who for the most part were only at church for AWANA. It just seemed counter productive.

 

The above is probably program specific to a degree, but my understanding is the AWANA program requires strict adherence to the program.

 

The materials were great in my opinion, and my kids enjoyed it. Overall, it was a positive experience. We switched churches later (not related to AWANA) and our new church doesn't do AWANA and I am completely happy with that. 

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

I loved AWANA as a kid. We had an excellent program at the church I grew up in. I started at 3 and went until we moved when I was 15. I was 2 years from getting my Citation award. I'm still bummed about that. The kids at my church didn't have any problem with the material - and I know it's easier now than when I was a kid.

 

I'd love for my kids to be able to go to AWANA but we don't have any churches near us (that I would be comfortable with) that have it. I've been thinking about just driving a little further to take them. I met the AWANA missionary for our area at our homeschool convention and he was telling me about some churches a little further away that have good programs.

[kathkath]

AWANA is fantastic but is tremendously volunteer intensive. We do it at another church and the kids love it. I did it as a child.

[ebrindam]

Do parents stay? Does it run through the summer?

[athomeontheprairie]

My kids were in it and enjoyed it, but I stopped after my oldest's first year in T&T. He has difficulty memorizing things and it was set up to very obviously reward children who memorized well. I am not an "everyone must get a ribbon" person, but I didn't want him to get discouraged and feel like a failure at church. He didn't ask me to pull him, but he struggles with memorization in school too and I know that discourages him, so I didn't want to take a chance.

 

The other thing I didn't like about it was the extent they rewarded children for being there and not missing. At that age they are dependent on parents getting them there and it honestly felt like a punishment to at least some of the kids who missed a lot. I think there could be a better balance there. We missed more than the program "allowed", but it didn't bother my kids. Some of the ones it bothered were kids who for the most part were only at church for AWANA. It just seemed counter productive.

 

The above is probably program specific to a degree, but my understanding is the AWANA program requires strict adherence to the program.

 

The materials were great in my opinion, and my kids enjoyed it. Overall, it was a positive experience. We switched churches later (not related to AWANA) and our new church doesn't do AWANA and I am completely happy with that.

I think this is church specific. Our program doesn't "reward" those that memorize and it isn't tied to attendance. I've seen a church where the kids earned "money" to use in the "shop" and that was probably based on memorization.

 

Awanas IS a memorization program. It IS challenging. Especially t&t. If you have a child that struggles, it might be hard. But I've seen kids excel at it that didn't know they could, I've seen kids that struggles learn new skills, and I've seen kids grow in the church WITHOUT completing a book. At our club they won't stand up for the awards each week when they ate announced, and they won't receive a ribbon at the end of the year. The purpose of those things isn't to emphasise so-and-so didn't complete a section but to celebrate that someone did.

 

To you, I'm glad you pulled your son if he was really struggling. Did you talk with your commander first? Were they aware of the problem and trying to help? (Sometimes they really AREN'T aware, especially if you were on a large club. Unfortunately kids fall through the cracks). Fwiw, we have many kids here who can't finish a book in one year. Two of our third year t&t'ers finished book one this year. They can take all the time they need, and they are still learning during lesson tine, and having fun at game time.

 

ETA: I'm hoping this didn't come off as snooty-it is not my intent!

[athomeontheprairie]

Do parents stay? Does it run through the summer?

Here parents stay b because of distance, but not required. Ask your church.

 

And most only run from Sept-Apr, through the normal school year.

[ebrindam]

Here parents stay b because of distance, but not required. Ask your church.

 

And most only run from Sept-Apr, through the normal school year.

 

I wondered if I'd be allowed to stay...I guess I will ask the people running it. Thanks!

[vonfirmath]

I LOVE AWANAs. ARound here, most programs are only K-6 (Sparks and T&T)  Cubbies for the volunteers' children.  If you want to continue on past that, you do the work without a set class set up and get a leader willing to sign off that requirements were completed. Generally, teens doing this are also helping out during AWANA time in other ways. (recreational time, listener, or missions time0

 

I'm a listener in the T&T younger girls groups. Our group is probably 50/50 in finishing the book. There seems to be a higher percentage that finish the book in Sparks and then it drops off.  Also, as the program goes on, the memorization gets harder.  We did have 10 kids complete the Timothy Award this year (A really high number. It means they have completed the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade books in 4 years.) And at the award ceremony said those kids had learned something like 300 verses over the courses of those books.  (http://osj.awana.org/club-verse-count/club-verse-count,default,pg.html  though it includes review verses in the counts) There is review built into the program.  Just about every section they are learning a new verse and reviewing an old verse.  Some of our kids memorize slow, but when they have the verse, they REALLY have them so the review part of future sections becomes easy.  Others are more of the "Look at the page and can say it" types. But they are having to rememorize the verse every time.  (And they start getting hung up too as the verses get longer, is what I noticed at the end of 4th grade.)  Yes, attendance is important. But more important is working on the AWANA books outside of class time. AS a listener, I'd be perfectly willing to get together with a child wanting to say verses outside of class time to help them meet their goal if they were having problems getting to enough classes to say their verses within class time -- but they would need to know their verses. Not be speed memorizing at the moment.

 

Every AWANA program I have been part of runs during the school year and takes the summer off. In fact, we've already had our end of year ceremonies for our AWANA program.

 

[Mom23Boys]

I think this is church specific. Our program doesn't "reward" those that memorize and it isn't tied to attendance. I've seen a church where the kids earned "money" to use in the "shop" and that was probably based on memorization.

 

Awanas IS a memorization program. It IS challenging. Especially t&t. If you have a child that struggles, it might be hard. But I've seen kids excel at it that didn't know they could, I've seen kids that struggles learn new skills, and I've seen kids grow in the church WITHOUT completing a book. At our club they won't stand up for the awards each week when they ate announced, and they won't receive a ribbon at the end of the year. The purpose of those things isn't to emphasise so-and-so didn't complete a section but to celebrate that someone did.

 

To you, I'm glad you pulled your son if he was really struggling. Did you talk with your commander first? Were they aware of the problem and trying to help? (Sometimes they really AREN'T aware, especially if you were on a large club. Unfortunately kids fall through the cracks). Fwiw, we have many kids here who can't finish a book in one year. Two of our third year t&t'ers finished book one this year. They can take all the time they need, and they are still learning during lesson tine, and having fun at game time.

 

ETA: I'm hoping this didn't come off as snooty-it is not my intent!

It didn't come off as snooty. :) I'm glad not all churches are like that one. We didn't talk to the commander, although I guess that would've been a good idea to do before we stopped going. I honestly never though of it.

 

My pulling them was child specific though. It was also complicated by the fact that his younger brother is only one year behind him and most likely would have passed my oldest up.

 

We ended up switching churches not long after that, although that had nothing to do with AWANA. It was a huge church and my oldest would've gotten lost in the youth group and he was one year from moving up. It was also 30 minutes away.

 

After about 2 months at our new church, Jacob started saying things like, " People know my name here. They actually know my name." It was a good move for us.

 

Unrelated, but Jacob was very excited about moving up to T&T because he though it was TNT and they were going to learn about explosives... He was very disappointed when he found out it was basically the same thing at a different level. Sometimes I worry about my kids. ;)

[clementine]

Our dds loved it!  They went through T & T and have fond memories of the program. 

[JoJosMom]

 

Unrelated, but Jacob was very excited about moving up to T&T because he though it was TNT and they were going to learn about explosives... He was very disappointed when he found out it was basically the same thing at a different level. Sometimes I worry about my kids. ;)

 

:lol:  That would have been a bonus in DD's book, as well!

[Cinder]

I think AWANA is a good program and my dd enjoys it a lot. But your experience will depend on your child and the particular club dynamics. The first club we were part of was very strict about completing the sections exactly as they're laid out. Attendance was a big deal too. I would have had some trouble with that program if we'd stayed but we moved (to a different state) and were not involved with AWANA for a number of years. (My ds is an introvert and didn't want to go to a club that wasn't at our church.)

 

Our current club is more relaxed. A child doesn't have to complete the section on bringing a friend to club. This is my main problem with AWANA--that one section requires you to bring a friend. Some clubs have the kids just invite, some have them do alternate activities. Our club allows the kids to skip that section altogether. They're always encouraged to bring a friend but it's not required. This will vary by club. Our club also doesn't do the attendance awards.

 

Otherwise it is a scripture memory and discipleship program. Most clubs only go up through 5th grade and then the kids move into youth group. Our club goes up through high school because it meets on a different day than youth group. Also the high schoolers meet an hour earlier for their study and then are encouraged to stay to help out with the younger groups; most do. At our club parents are welcomed to stay but not required to.

 

I've never been involved in the running of an AWANA club but I think it would be wise to be part of an existing club before trying to start a new one.

[Mrs. B]

As far as parents staying, it is club specific. The program I volunteered with allowed parents to drop off, but we didn't have the youngest ages, Puggles I think. A larger church allows Sparks' (starts K year) parents to drop off, but the younger Puggles and Cubbies levels had to have a parent on site as either a volunteer or attending the evening group church service.

[ebrindam]

Is there going to be any issue that a *quite liberal* Christian might need to be aware of in the AWANA curriculum?

[Mrs. B]

Is there going to be any issue that a *quite liberal* Christian might need to be aware of in the AWANA curriculum?

I think it would be wise to review the materials and make that decision yourself. i do know the club organization requires adherence to the guidebook materials.

 

ETA: we are conservative Christians so I am not sure if there is problem doing AWANA from a liberal Christian perspective, but I think the guidebooks lean toward conservative Christian viewpoints. Not familiar enough to know for sure.

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

You can do AWANA at home as homeschoolers now. I'm not sure of the details of the homeschool program as I just discovered this at our homeschool convention a month ago. Maybe the materials are slightly different or you can do a small co-options type group? I'm not sure. Maybe the only difference is that individuals can purchase the books. It used to be that only churches could purchase AWANA materials.

[athomeontheprairie]

On the "bring a friend" section- our church allows this to be completed any time throughout the year, and if as the end of the year approaches  it is proving difficult there are other options. Most of the kids within 20 miles are already coming (rural church) so it's hard to find someone else to come (literally.) I really hate this section-while it is important to share at this age it is completely parent dependent.

 

One kid this year brought his three cousins who were visiting from out of state and asked if he could "bank a friend" for the next two years :)

 

For those of you that attend clubs that reward memorization with things-is it helpful? We do not do this. And I'm grateful that we don't come home with extra *junk*, but memorization comes easily for my kids. Is it helpful for the kids that have difficulty?

 

[MyThreeSons]

I think that starting an AWANA group at your church without having been a participant in another group would be extremely difficult. 

 

An AWANA program takes a bunch of committed people to make it work. Your commander really needs to be someone who has been around the program and knows how it works. 

[ebrindam]

I think that starting an AWANA group at your church without having been a participant in another group would be extremely difficult. 

 

An AWANA program takes a bunch of committed people to make it work. Your commander really needs to be someone who has been around the program and knows how it works. 

 

Yes, starting our own is out for this year. Still interested in joining in the fall for DD to try though.

[MyThreeSons]

Yes, starting our own is out for this year. Still interested in joining in the fall for DD to try though.

 

If you're going to be taking your DD anyway, maybe you can see if you can assist in some way, so that you get a better sense of how the whole thing works. Some churches will allow you to volunteer in some capacity, but some may have a rule that only members of their church may actually work with the kids, due to liability issues. 

[Little Nyssa]

Though we are not Protestants, (we are EO) my DD enjoyed Awana very much. It is at a friend's church. I reviewed the materials, and since at age 7 it was really Scripture memorizing, I did not find anything that would be puzzling for DD in terms of theological differences. For the older ages, there were more things that were different, so we didn't continue after that one year.

That church put on a tremendous program with lots of wonderful volunteers. They had a time for practicing verses, a talk (basically telling a Bible story), singing, games, and handing out awards. I thought it was great!

[jewellsmommy]

I am the AWANA commander at our church. We are currently a small group. I only have 4 other volunteers (very dependable) and myself. AWANA offers lots of training. You should look up your local AWANA missionary and ask questions if your church is really interested in starting a club. You should be able to find the local missionary through the AWANA website or give the main number a call and they will direct you. Our church started our club about 12 years ago and none of us had prior experience.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Our Awana program was amazing back in the day.  My kids got so much out of it.  I was the leader of the Sparks for years, it was a great age group to work with.  It was a lot of work though and took up a fair amount of time to prep each week.  But I have no regrets.