Talking to Kids about Halloween

     It's that time of year again. And no matter how you feel about Halloween, the reality is that Halloween has become a cultural institution and most families think it's no big deal. To the contrary, many families build it into an opportunity to spend some family time and have some inexpensive fun. Most or all of the kids in your ministry will likely participate in some sort Halloween related activity no matter what the church may have to say about it. That's what I'm facing in my 3rd-4th midweek small group.

     Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that the battle is lost or that the church should completely embrace Halloween as a means to an end. I do not believe that at all. But when my 3rd graders are excitedly planning their costumes and their parents and schools are encouraging safe, clean Halloween fun at every turn, what do I tell them? How do I turn this into an opportunity to teach them about God?

     The folks at What's in the Bible? have posted some great resources for Kidmins who find themselves in positions like mine or are looking for a better way to deal with Halloween culture issues this year.

Halloween: the Meaning, History and Christian Response  More seasoned Kidmins, I'm sure, have done their homework on this already; but for those of us who still don't know how Halloween got started in the first place, here is the article to help. This blog post gives an in-depth history of Halloween and an overview of how Christians respond to Halloween, as well as pointing out some great teaching opportunities you can make use of during this holiday.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Halloween This article was really helpful to me in thinking about how to talk to my class about making Halloween a chance to glorify God and not the world. Brief History of All Saint's Day included.

Costume and Candy Pack And finally, this is a free PDF download from WITB?. All you do is type in your email and you'll receive the simple download in your inbox. The pack is perfect for Halloween alternatives and for equipping both church and parents for family outreach. 

The pack includes:

• Ideas and printables for dressing up like your favorite WITB? characters 
• Labels you can put on candy or giveaways that have a web link to a WITB? Gospel message
• An activity page about All Saints Day.

Hopefully these resources can help us all improve our Halloween game plan this year. 

Thank you What's in the Bible? from a humble, small group teacher. 

Talking as if God is in the Room

When you teach, do you talk as if God is in the room?

     Our brains can multitask but they truly excel when their focus is directed to one thing at a time. When we teach, we capitalize on this fact by trying to organize our material into sections and present it one piece at a time with obvious transitions in between. We want that main point to stick so we zero in on that topic and follow it up with reinforcing activities.
     That's often how I approach my 3rd/4th grade Bible study: read scriptures on topic; talk about the meaning; do something fun to help us remember.

While that may be affective, Christianity is not about topics like faith, temptation, or how to deal with anger or peer pressure - it's about Christ. It easy to get too focused on the main point of our lesson and forget to recognize its true Author teaching it with us. When we talk about God, do we talk about what he did or what He does? Do we talk about Him as if He's is out there waiting for us or here presently with us?

Kids need to know that God is real and present with us at all times. How can we make them aware of God's presence while we teach?

Be aware of God's presence yourself -  Recognize God's spirit with you as you teach. Look for the ways God is moving here and now.

Emphasize prayer - Talk to God not just about God.

Encourage kids to look for God themselves - Help them identify ways God is working during class time and also how He will be with them when they leave.

New Territory!

     Hello Kidmins! It has been a very fun but challenging month for me. Our kidmin team at our church (Lake Gibson Church of the Nazarene) decided to write our own VBS curriculum this year! After a couple months of meetings and brainstorming, we finally buckled down and started putting it all together - decorating, forms, lesson plans - the whole kit and caboodle. All of us at Rock, Paper, Scissors were thrilled to work on this project and expand our creativity and pick up some new skills. Writing curriculum is something that we have never done before. Most of us tweak our curricula to suit our kids or teaching styles, but writing your own from scratch is a much more daunting task. I've learned so much this past month. I'll be praying about it and putting together a series of posts about what I've learned about writing curricula, so if you've ever wondered whether writing your own curriculum is right for you, check back often. If you have any comments or questions, shoot us an e-mail. I look forward to sharing with you all!

Social Saturdays: 5/5

Want to see what we're following for ideas and encouragement? We'll be posting our favorite tweets, articles, and media from the week! I hope they help you, too.

Blog Posts:
- Matt Mckee: Orange Conference 2012: Great Quotes
- Relevant Children's Ministry: Brad and Angelina, Kids and Marriage
- Ministry-to-Children.com: Giveaway: Angry Birds Curriculum from CMD

Tweets:
  
-Dale Hudson ‏ @dalehudsoncm

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible!" - Walt Disney

 

-Crystal Narrow ‏ @CrystalNarrow

Whyyyyyyyyyy wasn't this book out years ago? #kidmin #erictrapcaught myself several times banging it on my head ... aha moments a plenty!

 

-Ryan Frank ‏ @r_frank

#kidmin leadership nugget: Kids are like clocks, they are made to run!

 

-Wisdomalive ‏ @wisdomalive

#Passion is the fuel for action. Habit, although sustaining, can only take you so far before you need to "fill-up."

Friday's Find: Five Fantastic Freebies

     There is no excuse for not taking advantage of free trials and curriculum samples...Unless of course you don't know about them.

     This week I'm filling in the marketing gap to tell you about five sites that are currently offering some awesome downloadable freebies from media and handouts to entire lessons:

• CMD - Children's Ministry Deals: Their "Free Deals" page has some fun media, music, and object lessons.
• Answers in Genesis Store: In promotion of their new Sunday school kits (available June 15), Answers in Genesis is offering a free Teacher Guide and Student Take Home Sheet in every age group. If you like what you find, keep poking around their inventory; you might find a few other freebies.
• Hillsong Kids BIG: Hillsong Kids is offering an entire free lesson on worship for you to test out their new series entitled Supernatural.
• River's Edge Curriculum: River's Edge offers one complete lesson of almost all of their series for free just for you to see if you like it. Free for Elementary  Free for Preschool
• Orange Curriculum: Fill out a quick registration form, and Orange will let you try a few weeks (and  months of some curricula) of their age-appropriate curricula for free. If you're wondering what the all the buzz is about, here is your chance to find out. (You might have to temporarily allow pop-ups to view this site. Don't worry; your browser will prompt you if that is the case.)

Ideas for a Family Movie Night

     Looking for inspiration for a family event? We recently put together a successful, themed Family Movie Night at our church.

     We sent out postcards and flyers to advertise and took orders for pizza for each family that signed up. (We asked that each family that ordered pizza pay $5 to cover the cost, but admission to the movie was free. We also provided a free snack and dessert.)We decided to show the movie Dolphin Tale, so we decorated our eating and viewing areas with island and ocean decorations that we had leftover from some camps and VBSs. We encouraged people to bring their beach chairs and gave prizes to kids who came dressed in tropical or beach themed outfits (not swimsuits). We also found some free activity sheet and parent guide on Focus on the Family's PluggedIn. Here's the link and some photos:

http://www.pluggedin.com/~/media/PIO/PDF/MovieNights/Kids/2011/DolphinTale.pdf

Inspired? Got any questions? Drop us a comment or e-mail. We'd love to have a conversation and share ideas with you.

Friday's Find: Kids of Courage

     I was so excited to find this website! It will be the first place I go next time I need resources for a missions lesson. Kids of Courage is run by the organization The Voice of the Martyrs to teach kids to stand up for their faith and bring awareness to the persecuted church. They have developed thirty activity books to teach kids about the church and peoples of other countries. Each book is available for FREE download (you will be required to register and will be given a password) and contains 50 pages of activity sheets, stories, coloring pages, recipes, and facts about a specific nation or people group where Christians are experiencing some form of restriction or persecution. This includes nations such as China, India, Colombia, Burma, Turkey, Egypt, etc. While your at their website check out their VBS. It's only $45 and comes in several teaching formats. You can also read some inspiring stories on their blog. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!