Bible Study for My Kiddos

[9-iron]

Our church has been struggling of late. The attendance and such is down and last Sunday we didn't have 'children's church', not that we have strong children's ministry.

All that to ask is there a study guide or something out there to help with teach the kid's at home. We have nightly prayer and on occasion I have quick 2-3 minute lesson with them. However, I wanting something more. Like a 20-30 session with them. Encorporate by activities, but not to many and a type of teaching that involves a lot of participation.

My two oldest are 8 & 5 so their attention span is 15-20 minutes usually. Less than that if they aren't doing a craft or coloring.

Any help??

 

[pmcleanj]

So, my church has a less than stellar children's ministry, too. I don't believe in separating children and adults for worship (I "don't believe" in it in the strongest possible terms) so a year ago when they decided to have Sunday School at the same time as worship, instead of in the hour before worship, they stopped attending Sunday School and I started teaching them during that hour instead. The class was open to others, too -- but about half the time it was just me and my two girls (8 and 11) and the rest of the time it there was one or two other adults with us.

My strategy is to cover the Bible readings, hymns, and liturgy that will be used later in that week's worship service. When the readings are familiar to the children, they're better able to listen intelligently. When they know the hymns, they are better able to participate. When we started doing this, I planned lots of crafts, songs and dancing in the hour. But as time went by, more and more time was taken up by memorizing Scripture, finding the Scriptures in our Bibles, reading aloud and discussing the readings. At this point my eight-year-old has no problem concentrating for 45 minutes on a lesson which is purely focussed on reading and learning Scripture. You can build up to this slowly. But children don't by definition have short attention spans, whatever you may have heard. I think our culture just fosters short attention spans. We as Christians need to "lean against the wind" of prevailing culture.

Anyway, if your church uses the Revised Common Lectionary, then the following site will help you with appropriate worksheets, activities and crafts related to the bible readings for each week: www.sundayschoollessons.com. You can find additional material on the same readings at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/5400_ENG_HTM.htm There's an object-lesson and colouring sheet on one of the readings at www.sermons4kids.com. And, finally, you can find a quite good set of challenging adult- (or at least middle-school-)level questions on the same readings at http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/index.html. Oh, and wordfind puzzles at: http://www.efree.mb.ca/lectionarypuzzles/

And if your church doesn't use the Revised Common Lectionary, that's still a great source of resources, and it will take you on a survey of the entire Bible once every three years.

 

[Mary_Magdalene]

great great studies for kids at: www.precept.org

follow to online store. I am teaching "How To Study The Bible" to our 5th graders and at home we are doing "Names of God" with my 3rd grader! Awesome studies!!!