02.08.12
Valentine's Day Party Ideas
Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and I've been tagging some party ideas on our LifeWay Kids Pinterest account. If you're looking for a few last minute ideas, check out some of these:
Decorating
Everyone loves a streamer ceiling. Try just red, white, and pink and hearts instead of dots for a Valentine's Day theme.
Just attach the streamers to a hola hoop and hang!
Games/Prizes
If you grew up watch The Price is Right, this may look familiar. If anyone decided to make this, let me know. I might just show up!
Here's a tutorial for how to make it!
And who doesn't love a decorated kraft bag for Valentine's Day. It's a fun way to encourage kids to show God's love to each other!
Crafts
There are several more craft ideas on the LifeWay Kids Pinterest, but here are a couple of my favorites.
From MarthStewart.com.
I hope you enjoyed some of these ideas! We'd love to see pictures of your Valentine's Day activities, just post them to our LifeWay Kids Facebook Page. And if you're on Pinterest, you can follow us here.
If you have any Valentine's Day Party ideas share them in the comments below!
category:
Events
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Fun
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02.07.12
The Joys of Bible Drill
Ready! Present Bibles! A Prayer of Forgiveness. Begin!
The children quickly open their Bibles to Psalm 51, place their fingers on the passage and step forward. The caller states, “Number 3,” at which time child number three states, “A prayer of forgiveness, Psalm 51.” The caller states, “Thank you,” and each of the children step back and the drill continues.
If you have never watched children participate in Bible Drill, you have missed a blessing, as well as a challenge. How well can you memorize 25 Bible verses and references, 10 key passage titles and references, and locate them in your Bible all within 10 seconds? Could you do the same? Can you name all 66 books of the Bible in order? If not, maybe you should participate in Bible Drill.
Every year, I am amazed at the skills our children are learning by participating in Bible Drill. Not only do the children learn Bible verses, they learn how the verses apply to their lives. My oldest daughter is now in her fourth year of Bible Drill. Having participated in Children’s Bible Drill, Paige has moved to the youth drills. Moving from 10 seconds to 8 seconds to locate Bible books, key verses, and key passages seems to be a bigger mental challenge than I thought, but as we practice each day, I see Paige getting stronger in locating the passages. I also she her recalling the verses when she faces challenges at school and with her friends. Now, Paige has to work a lot harder to memorize the verses, but because of this she knows the meaning and application of the verses better than some who can read and quote the verses without much thought.
My younger daughter, Carrington, is just beginning her Bible Drill experience. The first week, she went into practice ready and eager to learn. The next week, she had memorized half of the verses and was ready when her teacher asked her to quote a verse. I have watched Carrington sing the verses and use what she is learning in Bible Drill during worship on Sunday morning. She is my competitive child and always ready for a challenge. Locating any book in the Bible in less than 8 seconds has become her goal (Children’s Bible Drill allows 10 seconds).
If your church does not have Bible Drill, let me encourage you to check with your associational office for information on beginning Bible Drill. I promise you, it is a ministry well worth the time and effort.
tagged as:
Bible Drill
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category:
Encouragement
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Leadership
,
Training
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Lots of buzz surrounds a brand new product from LifeWay called The Gospel Project for Kids. You have have heard about it here, on twitter or facebook, or you may have even visited the official site. What in the world does that have to do with camp? Believe it or not, we hear from kidmin leaders all the time who absolutely love the gospel-centered approach CentriKid takes each and every summer and ask how they can find a curriculum that matches. We believe The Gospel Project for Kids is just that -- a gospel-centered curriculum for kids that teaches them the story of Scripture in chronological fashion, but most importantly shows how the whole Bible points to Christ.
Just last week, our CentriKid team gathered with some kidmin leader as well as our Bible study writers for 2013 and 2014 to plan the spiritual direction and Bible study outlines for the next two summers of camp. We can't wait to help kids see how the Bible is all about Jesus through a week of studying scripture together at camp! Even this summer, you'll see some added flavor of this solid new curriculum at CentriKid Camps. You'll also see our constant commitment to provide a safe place for kids, to serve churches well, to make the gospel clear to kids through age-appropriate methods, and to continue to build relationships with kids!
We are excited about partnering with The Gospel Project for Kids at CentriKid Camps. What are you waiting for? Go check out CentriKid Camps and go check out The Gospel Project!
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There are so many neat parts of The Gospel Project for Kids and over the next few weeks we'll share some of the highlights. Today, I want to share with you about activity pages.
Each week during the first small group portion of the Bible Study session teachers will have the option to use a prepared activity page.
Several years ago I was convicted about what I do with early arrivers (kids who get to class early) and late stayers (kids whose parents run late in picking them up) in my class. I realized that I will be held accountable for every minute that kids are under my supervision. I've dealt with that conviction in a variety of ways to make sure that when the first child enters the room we start learning. I've used early arrival activities, Bible skill games, and puzzles. I have to admit it's not always been easy to come up with 15-20 minutes of "extra" material.
In The Gospel Project for Kids leaders will be provided with weeekly activity pages that can be used by one child or the whole group. So, when the first child arrives... learning begins. Additionally, there are two options for session starters. I plan to use one session starter at the "official" beginning of class and the other for those who complete the activity page and are ready to move on.
Another option in this resource for preschoolers and younger children are coloring pages. Each week lined versions of the sylistic art will be provided to use as needed.
This past weekend I led a session at the Vacation Bible School Preview event in Nashville on The Gospel Project for Kids. Around 130 folks showed up to hear more. We decided it would be a great opportunity to create some excitement and have a "coloring contest" where one of the talented artists would win a free years subscription to The Gospel Project for Kids. They had a blast and we did indeed choose a winner.
Congratulations to Florence Watts of White Springs Baptist Church, Rainbow City, AL. She did a great job!
Activity pages, session starters, and coloring sheets are just a few teaching tools that we can use to engage boys and girls and help them get the Big Picture of the Gospel. I look forward to seeing kids really "get it" as they are guided to Jesus each week during The Gospel Project for Kids.
category:
Leadership
,
Sunday School
,
Training
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01.27.12
The Gospel Project for KIDS!
If a parent stopped you in the hallway and asked you, “Why do you do what you do?” what would you say? Would you respond with, “I like kids,” or “I don’t know; I don’t have time to think about why I do what I do”? Most likely your answer would reflect your passion for kids to know Jesus Christ and to be in a growing relationship with Him. Your purpose is clear, but how do you accomplish it? You may desire to partner with parents in teaching Bible truth to kids. But what tools do you use?
The Gospel Project for Kidsis a new Bible study curriculum designed to help you partner with parents and teach kids the big picture of God’s story. This curriculum is part of The Gospel Project that includes Bible study materials for students and adults, too.
The Gospel Project for Kids takes children, as young as three years old and as old as sixth graders, on a three-year chronological journey, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. Since kids are visual learners, they can see God’s story develop in pictures, using the large timeline map.
Each week, as kids see God’s story of redemption unfold, they will encounter a Christ Connection and see that Jesus is the point of the Story.
The Christ Connection is part of each week’s Bible story video. That’s right! Every week kids will hear the Bible story told by a master storyteller while watching a video. As a teacher, you will also have a copy of the Bible story script for you to use as well. Additional video includes music (with lyrics and backgrounds) and countdowns for all ages. School-age kids will also view brief discussion starter videos each week.
To help cement the truth of the gospel in kids’ hearts and minds, teachers will guide kids to learn a key Bible passage every Bible study unit, and a Big Picture Question and Answer every week.
Parents can continue to reinforce learning with The Big Picture Cards for Families.
To further assist you in partnering with parents, The Gospel Project for Kids includes emails, texts, tweets, and Facebook messages so you can personally communicate with parents.
What does a typical Bible study experience look like? Kids will begin the session with small group activities and activity sheets to introduce them to the day’s Bible content. Then, they move to the large group where they engage with the Bible story in an exciting environment. After large group, kids transition back to small groups where they open their Bibles and continue to learn the big picture of God’s story as they interact with a teacher and one another and participate in learning activities. To expand the Bible study experience, an optional worship hour is provided where kids continue to learn the same Bible content. All of this can be done in a large/small group format or in a self-contained classroom.
Another exciting fact about The Gospel Project for Kids is that it is available in two formats. You can choose to purchase the digital version and customize the content for your church, or you can purchase the print version.
You may be wondering how you sign up for this exciting new curriculum. You can see more examples of the curriculum materials at www.gospelproject.com. Once there, you can also sign up for a pilot program to receive a month’s worth of curriculum to try out for free. Take a look at the samples on the website and tell us what you think!
category:
Resources
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Sunday School
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