Children's Church

I have used the Character Trait books and Bible Memory for Sunday School. I've used the Character Trait books two ways. I have gotten each child a book to use, they are inexpensive and if used for several weeks are certainly no more expensive than other Sunday School curriculum. I divided the book up into sections for each week. Part of earning the badge is to keep a journal for 30 days and there is room for journal keeping in the book. However, if the students take the book home, they often forget to bring it back. In my case, a lot of my kids are brought by their grandparents who are overcoming obstacles just to get there with the kids much less keep up with a book too. I have some kids who pop in once a quarter or so, which makes having a book available for everyone difficult. You could just keep the books at the ministry location and have the kids keep their own notebook. The second way is the way I usually do things now. I have a book for myself. I plan a lesson from scripture that teaches the character trait and usually have a modern day story from the book or other source for each lesson time. I supplement with other scripture passages if I need to add another lesson. I cannot use the puzzles in the book, like word searches, since the books are not to be copied. However, I make my own with some puzzle maker programs I have for wordsearches and crosswords. I also have a few books with reproducible activities that I have collected over the years and use when they have an applicable activity. For either method I pick activity projects from the list in the book or come up with others. For kindness we made cards for shut-ins at least twice. For thankfulness we made a collage poster from magazine pictures. We worked on that for two weeks so I could include as many kids as possible. I usually plan to do these studies for about six weeks. Usually it takes longer because to complete the badge requirements the students will probably need to attend at least four times. With irregular attendance, completing badge requirements can easily stretch out to eight weeks. If attendance becomes an issue you may have to put a deadline on the time they have to complete the badge with the class. Of course they could complete it on their own and show you what they have done to earn a badge. With younger children you will have to simplify requirements. I usually award silver badges to children under 5th grade. An example of adjusting requirements is to require a 5th grade student to copy five verses about cheerfulness and a first grade student to copy only one verse. Ambitious younger students may always complete requirements for older students if they want a gold badge (which I have never had happen!). An older student who could not complete gold badge requirements may be awarded a silver if appropriate (which I have never had happen either). The other thing I have done in Sunday School is work on Bible Memory. We worked on a passage every week for several weeks and then recited it our church service. For clarity, I had each child recite one verse of the passage in turn, because in unison it sounded more like mumblings. To teach/learn the passage one thing I used was a marker board and wrote the passage on it. Then we took turns erasing words and also rewriting it with symbols like a heart for love. The kids enjoy comimg up with symbols and little pictures to use for the words in the verses. Our church is blessed to have enough financial support to purchase the badges for the children. Otherwise, I would send a notice home to collect money for ordering the badges. The kids love earning the badges. Remember, with this program you are in control and have the freedom to adjust it to serve your ministry needs.