Listening to Kids
How can we make listening a key part of our time together with kids?
Let's discuss faith-shaping ministries to kids.
Write your own blog post to share your ministry experience with others.
How can we make listening a key part of our time together with kids?
The answer seems obvious: to teach the Bible story or lesson we've been assigned. But I wonder if it's more nuanced than that.
Sitting still to answer questions is really hard for active kids. So I’m collecting ideas for jumpstarting conversations and disguising discussions. Here are a few that have worked for me.
Break up the long winter weeks by incorporating a “Beat the Winter Blahs” day into your season! Here's how . . .
On Thanksgiving Day (USA), YouVersion launched a new Bible app for kids. It promises to be an animated adventure designed to help kids explore the big stories of the Bible and begin cultivating a love for Scripture at a young age.
It's September! Are you ready to share the stories of faith? To create space for wonder, awe, worship, and imagination? Sometimes the thing that takes a lesson from excellent to amazing is the little spark of creativity that piques kid's interest.
Looking for new ideas for praying with kids in your classroom next season? Check out these creative prayer practices collected on Pinterest by our friends at the NC Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Many Sunday schools take a break during the summer months. If yours is one of them, how do you say goodbye to your class as you send them off to enjoy the sunshine? If you’re coming to your last week of Sunday school, consider setting aside time do something special. Here are a few ideas.
It’s been a couple weeks since the premiere of the BIBLE on the History channel. I’ve heard a range of opinions, some hating it, some loving it. Last night I caught a rerun of some of the first and second episodes. I have to say that it was better than I expected, and it made me wonder what other Sunday school teachers are thinking.
What should fifth-grade children know about the Bible and about God? What values should Christians embody by the time they reach adulthood? These are interesting questions without easy answers.
We tell a lot of stories about persecution in Sunday school. But our North American kids don’t experience the daily persecution faced by Christians in other parts of the world. It is easy to forget their struggle and to think of these stories as ancient history.
It’s been a few weeks now since Sunday school began. You’re getting to know the kids and getting comfortable with the curriculum. Now is just the right time to pause and consider what’s going well, and what could go better.
Calling kids by name sends them the message that they aren’t just one of the crowd, but are known and valued individually (not only by you, but also by God). Use these easy ideas to get to know the kids in your group.
I’m always looking for ways to incorporate a good children’s storybook Bible into the times I spend with children. Each Bible story is skillfully summarized in kid-friendly language with illustrations that send the imagination soring. I love to pause after each page to wonder a little about the story
It's always fun to visit other churches and see what they do. One pastor I spoke with this week told me about something unique that his church does for 6th grade Sunday school. The group meets after the worship service and spends the whole time discussing the sermon
As Sunday school teachers, we know how critical prayer and preparation are for sharing a great lesson. If you tend to be like me and associate planning with panic and procrastination, try these tips to help you skip the stress.
This activity involves making up a prayer to the tune of a song you know. This is great for kids who are musical or who love to move around, and it works as an individual or a group prayer activity. It also lends itself to a broader conversation about worship and prayer.
How do you use technology in your ministry, and what techi tools work well for you?
Togetherville.com is a Facebook-like social network for children. I clicked the link to check it out and was struck by their tagline: “Online Neighborhoods for Kids and Their Grownups.”
A scene from the Prodigal Son story flashed through my mind--the moment when the father is telling the older son, "You are always with me, and all that I have is yours!" On a smaller scale it’s like that with children’s ministry, too.
A six-year-old girl stormed into my class this Sunday with fists clenched. She was angry at a friend — another one of the girls in my class. What do you do in moments like these — when you have a class full of kids and one of them is struggling with real life stuff?
It's bound to happen. An energetic eight year old will test your patience. A sixth grader will start to annoy the other kids in your group... How will you respond?Here are four quick tips to help you keep things under control...
Okay, that advice might be a little extreme, but the first few weeks of Sunday school are critical.
Holy week was a whirlwind of noise, energy, and emotion! Help your kids wonder at the sound of tables crashing in the temple, the thump, thump of approaching soldiers, the crow of a rooster.
I don't usually think of chairs as a distraction, but at my church they are. What about you, what distractions to do you face in your Sunday school room? What solutions have you found?