Children's church curriculum recommendations

[Patching Cracks]

I am looking for recommendations regarding Children's Church curriculum. We have a growing program (for a small church) and have found it difficult to find good material that holds the interest of small children for more than a few minutes. Any help or pointers would be appreciated.

 

[beforHim]

I'll be 100% honest. You mustmustmust have children's teachers who are Gifted. ie, gift of teaching form the HS. But not only this, the gift of teaching aimed at children. I know there's no "Gift of teaching those under 12" or something like that, but God obviously shapes us for specific tasks.

I can somehow- well, not somehow, it's obviously God working- take our theologically thin and rather boring curriculum, and the kids come alive. They're answering and asking good questions, remembering stuff from months ago, etc. This is the same exact curriculum that other teachers at my church do, yet they always complain how the kids won't pay attention, or how the kids are bored, how they don't respond in any way, etc.
(Again, it's %100 God, I'd never be able to do stuff like that, must be God using me)

So my point: there are lots of places to get curriculum. Type in Children's Church Curriculum at a good search engine and it'll be easy to sift through the crappy stuff and find the good stuff. BUT, I can't stress this enough, none of it will do the kids any good what-so-ever, if the teachers themselves are not actually gifted by God to teach children. I haven't been much help in pointing you to good curriculum, but again: the curriculum can be the best, but if it's not wielded by a teacher who actually has the gift of teaching, it'll do the kids no good. I know the objections churches give for being skimpy when it come to children's ministry, but I know God is stronger than any objection any church will give.

I can help in this little way: go to google and type in "top 100 children's ministry blogs", and your search will come back with, well, just that! There's a children's ministry that has a page with the "top 100 children's ministry blogs" ranked, form the last year (I think it has 2013, and 2015). I use it mostly to learn from, but most of those blogs have TONS of resources attached to them, including whole webpages and forums you can ask questions (like "Hey, anyone know of any good curriculum?"). But again. . .again. . .

None of this is a substitute for the Christians who God gives the gift of teaching to. Pray for them, God will send them.

 

[Paidiske]

Partly it depends what you're looking for. I've used this series quite successfully:
But it worked well for us because we were a parish who followed the lectionary and had a similar ethos to the people who developed these materials, so it "fit" our existing style.

So I'd say before being able to make specific recommendations, we probably need to know a bit about your church and its approach in general?

 

[Patching Cracks]

Partly it depends what you're looking for. I've used this series quite successfully:
But it worked well for us because we were a parish who followed the lectionary and had a similar ethos to the people who developed these materials, so it "fit" our existing style.

So I'd say before being able to make specific recommendations, we probably need to know a bit about your church and its approach in general?

We are a small church in a ranching community. Pretty conservative Church of God Anderson congregation. Lots of kids for a church our size... lots of musicians, so we have a varied worship experience, depending on who is leading it that day... though, heavily country leaning because half the church is farmers or cowboys... Not sure if that answers your question...

 

[Paidiske]

Okay, that resource probably isn't for you!

I'm not sure that I have something appropriate to recommend - hope others can point you in the right direction.

 

[beforHim]

http://ministry-to-children.com/top-blogs-2015/ This is very good for finding resources.

 

[vinsight4u]

/

 

[Anton's Antics]

Hey there I was previously a full time children's and families minister and let me say there are loads of materials out there, and every term, every year we tried some of them, plus wrote our own. Writing your own has the advantage of being tailor made for your needs and trains you and the team up. But its a tough call and hard graft. Using pre-made stuff is like wearing other people's clothes...they never quite fit and you have to be good at adapting and fitting stuff around it. So its a case of finding stuff that really hits the sweet spot but doesn't try and do too much, leaving you to adapt things around a kind of 'generous foundation'.

In the end I wrote my own stuff as that came naturally and I'm now a christian performing artist for kids and families making live shows and resources for churches. Right now I'm starting to develop video and support materials for entertaining but bible focussed content. If you'd like to stay in touch or find out more, simply email me at info@antonsantics.com or subscribe on the website www.antonsantics.com

 

[Bill Beaver]

I am looking for recommendations regarding Children's Church curriculum. We have a growing program (for a small church) and have found it difficult to find good material that holds the interest of small children for more than a few minutes. Any help or pointers would be appreciated.

I have two suggestions:

1. You need a leader who has a heart for children and loves to see them grow spiritually. This takes a special kind of person but if you have a lot of children you have many parents who could probably fill the role or share the role. This may sound simplistic but it's a crucial first step.
2. Contact Cokesbury at www.cokesbury.com. They have a very comprehensive program for all age groups and activities. You can also Google "children's Christian activities" and get some pretty good results. Our church uses Cokesbury and we have been very satisfied. They are also a great source for VBS programs.

Hope this helps.