Nooma like videos for Kids?

[BryanGood]

My kids (10 and 11 yo) are bored in Sunday School at our church.
I started wondering if there are videos, podcast or other things out there that our geared toward kids with a much more progressive Christian lens?
I remember the Nooma videos that Rob Bell did were pretty interesting, but too high level for my kids. Figure if there is something out there I can supplement what they get on Sundays (they can only listen to me talk about this stuff so much).

 

[hedrick]

I've looked, and haven't seen anything. A few of the Nooma videos might work. "Noise" would be worth trying, together with a discussion afterwards. I used it with a 7th and 8th grade class. It might work with a 10 year old. Nooma has its limits even for adults. Bell tends to focus on converting evangelicals. That leads to a focus on a few issues. His material doesn't provide a very broad coverage of Christianity.

Joan of Arcadia is an interesting TV series, but 10 is a bit too young for it. In a couple of years it might be worth going through, as long as you watch it with them and debrief. It's really intended for high school and adult, but I think would work starting at 12 or 13.

The "Connect" Sunday School series from Sparkhouse is aimed at that age group. It has videos for each lesson, but they wouldn't make sense without the lessons.

I've taught Sunday School for 7th and 8th grade for most of my life. Changes in our program moved me to a class with 5th through 7th this year. (8th is now Confirmation.) I've been frustrated at not finding video resources, nor have I found curriculum that I'm happy with.

 

[BryanGood]

Thanks for the very thorough reply hedrick. It does surprise me there isn't more out there, but I haven't looked much either. I think finding slightly more 'progressive' Christian stuff for kids seems difficult in general, let alone unique things like media. Maybe need to go and create our own.

 

[hedrick]

The video material I'm aware of is intended for use in Sunday School or youth groups. In that context they're intended as discussion starters, so they're usually a couple of minutes, and would only work if you're willing to do the equivalent of a Sunday School lesson yourself. Several series of Sunday School material have that kind of video. Even Nooma is probably intended to be a discussion-starter.

For longer material you pretty much have to look for movies and TV shows. I've collected a few TV episodes and a few youtube videos on various topics. I've been looking for years and that's all I've come up with. I will admit I've looked at shows for adults and youth, so I don't know what's there for younger kids. Maybe there are Disney shows with episodes you could use. I haven't looked.

Even finding Sunday School material is challenging. Cokesbury is the best place to start, though Sparkhouse looks good if you're willing to put more time into preparing the lesson. But even their material assumes that kids know more about the Bible and Christianity, and have more church background, and more commitment to the church and piety than our kids do.

It's very worrisome, since getting kids to appreciate Christianity is critical to our future. Bible knowledge isn't enough. There's plenty of material like that. It's appreciating why it matters and how we use the Bible and other resources.