Sunday School, What's the Norm?

Advice from a Mom of a 17 year old.

My son attended Woodstock Christian School so when it came to Sunday School he would be board to tears because he had it already in school 5 days a week. He also attends Royal Rangers which is Christ based. He had all he wanted through out the week. ( Just to brag - He loves Ranger )
We sat down with him and asked what he would like to do and he said come to church with and just skip the Sunday School before. By the time he was in 7th grade he started attended the mens Sunday School so he could get Christ Feed.
He now is waiting for his answer from Moody Bible Institute to see if he will be accepted there for next year.

What this comes down to is listen to what she is saying. If she is board she either needs to move on to something more advanced; or skip Sunday School for a while.

If she is looking to get feed and you live around a Church that offers Missionettes (that is a program that is just for girls - it is non-denominational but is usually at an Assembly of God Church) Woodstock Assembly has this program on Wednesday nights.
Another good program is Awana (I know it is offered at the Bible Church in Woodstock and Ev. Free Church in Crystal Lake)

We are Christian family and live for the Lord. I am saying don't force her to go because she may turn away from the Lord. We always listened to our son and now he wants to do Gods Work.. Hope this helps..

Many Blessing,
S.

Hi Kolee-

I'm a Sunday school teacher for the very little ones at a Lutheran church. I know your daughter is a little older, but is there an option to sit in the class? Maybe see if you feel the same way as your daughter...if yes, I would talk to the pastor/reverend and voice your concerns. I know there are some of my little ones that act like they'd rather not be there, but I do my very best to try and make it fun while getting them to finish their work and listen to the lesson.

Kolee, growing up our family has always been affiliated with Baptist churches. But I started looking at other local churches that had exceptional teaching for children. I found a church off Thorndale/Gary Ave, the Evangelist Church of God.

The Church has an unbelieveable program for children of all ages. Including during the week while your attending bible study for yourself. If you are located in Wooddale, that is not very far from you and my 3 year old has never been bored with sunday or bible school for her age. The kids (including teenagers)are having a ball while learning.

Swing by to get some ideals of how this multicultural church filled with children are worshiping/learning each week.

I am a single mom of 1 she is now 21yrs old, I took her to church since she was 7 months old, and she has never been in a sunday school class, take her to church servicxe she will learn a whole lot more than you think, speaking from experience.

I'm not sure there is a norm. But I do enjoy when Sunday School is available for children during church service. I had taught 4 and 5 year olds for 2 1/2 years before we moved. At our new church, I was teaching 2 and 3 years olds for about a year and a half and just recently started teaching 4 and 5 year olds again. Right now, I am using the Group publishing for their curriculum. It is awesome! and my most favorite of all the curriculum's I've tried. I look forward to teaching it each time, even when I come home on Sunday, I'm thinking "I can't wait to teach again!" and it's fun going shopping for the art supplies. The kids really like the activities that are presented and they are attentive to the stories too. They were able to clearly understand the message I was trying to get to them because it is geared perfectly for their age level and repeated through each activity and even the snack is tied in with the message. Our church has a nursery for infants to age 2. And the 2 and 3's have a class. Our class for 4 and 5's just started, then a class for 6 to 12's, and then a teenage class, although I think another class is starting soon that will be breaking up the older kids by age. Hope this helps!

Hi Kolee,
I have a 11 year old daughter who did exactly the same thing. She was loosing interest and saying they treated her like a baby. I think it is really puberty thing. It started in the 4th grade and now that she is in the 5th, it isn't much better. I think there is a disconnect between the need to feel like an older child and a need for more mature curriculum? I tried to talk to the director, even offered to put lessons together for just that age bracket. In the end she wanted to attend church with me. When they enter puberty they are very confused with what is happening to them and feel insecure. I think it plays out like a loss of interest or being bored. It took some time, but I now see my daughter starting to sing the songs in adult worship and learning what the actual scripture means. My daughter attends another group during the week that we discovered is more like a club setting, it is called AWANA and it is offered all over at different churches. Hope this helps. God Bless, J. H Mother of 5 girls and 1 boy

Have you ever heard of Bible Study Fellowship? It is an independent (non-denominational) Bible study group that also runs excellent children's programs. Check out their web site (http://www.bsfinternational.org/) and see if they have any classes in your area. HTH!

Hi, I at least have a parallel experience with Lucca's Hebrew School on Saturday. I was a little concerned when I learned that they also do mixed grades, also, as in your case, because of lower attendance. At our synogogue, it's K-2, 3-5th grade, and then the bar-mitzvah class, which is the 6th and 7th graders. Lucca is in first grade, but he is the oldest and most advanced in his class this year. Is there a confirmation class or a class that has students in the 6th to 8th grade level at your church? For Lucca, the teacher involves him in the hands-on projects with the other students in his own class, but then has an older student from one of the other classes tutor him one on one for part of the morning as well, so that he continues to learn at his level as well. Another thought, if she is the only or one of the only older students, is to ask if she might volunteer as the Teacher's Aid. It would probably help the teacher, help teach leadership skills too. At any rate, while our religions are different, your situation sounds very familiar

Hope any of this is helpful, and would welcome hearing any ideas you get as well.

D.

The church I go to is very small, maybe 100 people.
The children's ministry is broken into
newborns-3
3-5 year olds
Kin-1
2-3
4-5
Jr high
High School
We adjust if we need to. It's about the children and their needs and wants. We ask for their feedback.
I have heard of good books in the past, maybe call Focus on the Family, tell them what you are looking for and they can suggest something.
What a blessing to have a child want to learn.
S.

Our church, Community Christian Church in Naperville does an outstanding job. Not only are the kids never bored, they talk about the service for days afterward. They have large group time where all the grades are together singing and having a lesson communicated. Then they are off to learn the lesson (and maybe do a small project) in detail with their peers. I do not know the cirriculum used but, the person to contact for info is Rachel Carroll @ ###-###-#### and the website is http://www.communitychristian.org/ministries/kids

Hi. I go to Cross of Glory (Lutheran) in Homer Glen. We group 3 year to 5th grade on Sunday mornings during our service. Kids go for kids sermon and activity during the adult sermon. I know they use a curriculum, but not sure which one. When we had big enough groups of kids, we would divide into older and younger, but I don't think they do that much now. I think the older ones now can help the younger ones with their projects. I just know the teachers were much happier b/c it planned out each session with readings and then a game or craft. We then do different age groups(pre-school, the different grades then, but I think this depends on attendance) during the week on Wed. nights for pre-school-5th grade. We are also low on attendance for kids programs. Good luck w/ your program, hope this helps. You might consider a tour of churches to get new ideas, or find a new home if you're not having your needs met at yours.

Some churches have mid week programs for kids. One church started a program for especially for girls in 4-8th grade a few years ago. They follow a bible study and also some fun activities scattered in through out the year. The girls are broken into two groups 4-6 and 6-8th.Programs like these sometime take awhile to get started but its worth the work. Or you could find a neighbor who might have something like this and attend with them

Kolee, I wasn't raised Methodist, I married Methodist and we said, we would raise our children Methodist. We had the same problem with the low numbers and lumping the younger kids together. What I did is, I taught for several years so my son would have a group his age. 6,7 & 8yr. olds after which I retired but still help on occassion. My kids mostly boys, We watched a 20 minute tape about Jesus life. I have age appropriate questions about what we watched and a treasure box. Pencils, toys and candy. The kids listened because they wanted to see what I brought. When I retired one of the boys younger sister said, You can't retire I'm old enough to be in your class. I have sons 30, 27, and 16 and 1 daughter 12. Do what you can to help them, have a hunger for God. A seed planted will not be forgotten. Also you might want to talk with the youth or worship committee and do what you can there. God Bless and Best Wishes. M. W.

Sounds like you might need to look for a church that better meets your needs. I don't know where you live but our church Parkview Christian church in Orland Park IL has a wonderful children's program. My daughter is really smart (straight A's) and her teachers loved answering all her questions about God. Our childrens program is one of the best I have seen. Our Jr. High and high school kids have mid week classes and they also take mission trips and attend camps. I grew up in a small church with the same type of situation and it was nice but I really didn't learn much either. Try the Family bookstore for children's cirriculum, they are always very helpful.

I am in charge of a children's church that is set up like school so that each grades learns spiritual principles at their own level. We use the bibe and do bible stories. I have found that to be the most effective but we can do that because we have a large sunday school(children's church). We allow a lot of interactive participation so we know that the children are learning the bible and things that can help them.
We have lessons that are appropriate for each grade level as well as take home lessons for the parents to review with the children. Hope that helps. Your church perhaps needs to consider a curriculum that would work for your teachings.

Hi Kolee,
I teach sunday school at my Methodist Church in Plano. The way ours is broken down follows: under 3 (nursery); age 3-5 (preschool); grades 1-2; grades 3-5 (which I teach); grades 6-8; high school. I know attendance levels are low some days, especially at a small town church. Some days I have only 1 or 2 kids, especially during flu season! But then somedays I have 6-7! I love the way the grades are split up. I think it would be very hard for a 1st grader to be on the same page or even relate to a 4th grader. We even have some of that from 3rd to 5th. Maybe it would help speaking to her teacher. She should be able to come up with some ideas to keep your daughter more engaged or maybe even to make your daughter a "teacher's pet" if she is in the minority of being a 4th grader. They may both benefit from that. Just some thoughts. But I also agree with some of the other comments in that if she begins to detest Sunday School because of this class, take her out for a while and start up later when she will be in a different class. You don't want to ruin Sunday School for her forever! Good Luck!

I am also Methodist, a mom of 4 ( an 8 yr old and 5 yr old triplets) and a Sunday and Bible School teacher. We have been using Group Publishing for our Sunday School and Bible School. It is as much fun to teach as it is to learn. We also have small numbers. We meet together first for singing and a short lesson sometimes it is a skit, sometimes a video. We then break up into three groups: Preschool and kindergarten (which is our biggest group with 5-10 kids), First-Third grade, which I teach (about 4-6 kids) and Fourth-Sixth (with about 4 girls). The Group Bible School is great too. We also do a quick breakfast with cereal and juice between Church and Sunday School since our service begins at 9. Most of the children are already downstairs since we have a Children's Church during the service. I hope these ideas help. It's increasingly hard to get the number of children up since it is not a priority with most parents. Good luck.

Hi, Kolee.

A lot of small churches use the rotational Sunday School model. Groups of same aged children rotate learning stations each week. This is great for small churches because fewer teachers are needed and their commitment is only for a few weeks rather than the whole year. I might suggest that your church have two groups--K-2 and 3-5. Only two teachers and two helpers would be needed at a time. Cokesbury, the Methodist book publisher, has some great programs. They can be costly, but a good Christian Education Director can base her own curriculum upon the concepts and Bible stories used.

My sister and her daughter lived in Genoa about 10 years ago. They were members of the Methodist church and just loved it. I'm sorry to hear that the Sunday School program isn't keeping the kids interested.

A.

Book suggestion - "The Story" (for kids or for family). Tells the bible in chronological order written as a novel and comes with a study guide which helps to structure discussion and q&a.

Highly recommend it. It's done wonders for all the families that I know that have read through it.

Kolee:

You might want to shop for a church that better meets your needs. I attend New Horizon Methodist Church. I think you would appreciate the children's programs.

At our church our classes are split this way o-3 nursery,3- 1st grd, 2nd-4th grd, right now we have 5th-8th grd because of teacher shortage and then a high school class. Our lower grades are low attendance as well especially during the winter mnths, but unless there are no kids in one of the classes we still split them up. I am on our CE board as well, and we have done a lot of revamping and revamping until we have found something that works. Is there a teacher available to split classes up? If not maybe that's why and maybe you could be the teacher if your not already teaching a class. Hope this can be helpful to you. It's hard if your child is bored because she's going to start hating going to sunday school. Keep us posted!
H.

Dear Kolee I'm not a big advocate on church hopping but my family once left a very good ministry for my husband and I and relocated because of our daughter who at at time was 5. She is soon to be 19 and really enjoys going to church and witnessing to others. Maybe you should look into another ministry that will supply all of your needs for the both of you.But please by all means pray about it first and speak with your Pastor before relocating because he is the shepard over your soul until God gives clearanc for you to go elsewhere.

Maybe calling around to other churches who have successful children ministries and find out what they suggest. We are Christians and attend Westbrook Christian Church in Bolingbrook and their Children's Ministry is just phenomenal!! So is their pre-teen and teen program. My children are younger, 3 and 6 month but my 3 year old already knows alot of bible stories and loves talking to God. Their ministries are age appropriate and are not lumped together. If you are interested in contacting them their number is ###-###-#### and Mary Fischer is in charge of Kingdom Avenue, the Children's Ministry. Their website is http://westbrookchurch.org/

God Bless and I will pray that your daughter's seeking is fulfilled with open arms by her Abba!!
J.

As low attendance is a problem with many churches for Sunday school, alot have lumped quite a few grades together. This goes back to the days of the one room school house, but everyone was still instructed at their level. Structure of this only works if you get everyone engaged in a wide age ranged project at the beginning(younger ones take longer to finish such a project). The project is usually utilized at the beginning to occupy time and then at the end to sum up the lesson. Then instruction begins for the oldest, with a follow up of another self work time. While that self work time goes on, the little ones are given a small lesson to conicide with their shorter attention spans.

Start off projects include rain sticks(made with paper towel tubes)
pipe cleaner flowers, all the components of the flower
black crayon pictures, showing there is always beauty in everything and everyone.

Also making sure there are time occupiers for the students not currently being attended to, so they know what to do with their time other than get into trouble.

The other option is to go ahead and do a better division of grades and know that even a one on one class can be productive. Also invite them to the concept of 1 time a month find a friend to bring to church. Sometimes this spurs extra kids, reaches extra families and puts the kids, especially the older ones into a situation of spreading the word of God.

Hope these ideas help.

I have found the best way to change something at church is to offer to do it yourself. It sounds like you are working on that. What about doing the CS Lewis Narnia series? 9 & 10 year olds should be able to read and draw some conclusions from that series.