I've been doing research in a variety of areas--personal research and homeschooling research.
David is very much into Legos and I was sent some cool websites with activities as well as lesson plans. Here are a few sites for the LEGO enthusiasts out there: Making a Lego Movie ,Lego Engineering , Lego lesson plans , and Lego Ancient Architecture. I got these sites through an email newsletter I had signed up for. I get "Homeschool Freebies" from the TheOldSchoolHousestore.com .
Then I found what promises to be a cool new Creation Magazine-- theAnswers magazine. Looks like it's packed with all sorts of awesome articles on Creation research, as well as having a pull-out kids' section. Answers in Genesis also has a new book for sale on their site I'm REALLY interested in reading. It's titled Already Gone by Ken Ham. According to research, about two-thirds of children who attend Sunday School in a "traditional" church no longer want to have anything to do with the church when they're older. What struck me--and made sense--was the fact that in a lot of these Sunday Schools, they just do the Bible stories, sing the cute songs and that's it. No application. No analysis. No connection to reality. I mean...what's the point??? They need to see how all these stories and things connect back to Christ and them, and how these things can help them in their lives NOW! I haven't read the book yet, but that's what it's supposed to be about. The link will explain more.
...and the final thing I dug up today was this School of Biblical Evangelism I REALLY want to take this course sometime. I have "Foot-in-mouth" syndrome as well as a bad memory. I can either remember the reference to a verse or the verse itself, but not both of them together! I also need help in explaining myself much more clearly. I always think of a good response 5 minutes after the fact of something. This could be a big help in sharing Christ to others more effectively. The one thing I regret is not taking more Bible classes while at Bible college.
I saw that book advertised and it looked interesting. Another problem with losing churched kids is when the parents use SS and Wed. night programs as a babysitting service instead of getting activily involved by making sure the kids memorize verses and using the stories the kids learn as application during the week. SS and kid's programs are there to assist parents in teaching and training their kids, not do the work for the parent. As a former (and probably in the future again) children's worker, I'm always amazed by how many "church member" parents are completely clueless about what goes on in their kids' classes and how many of the kids were unprepared to say their verses.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely helps--I'll agree there. If the parents are hypocritical about church attendance (ie. act all "churchy" at church and totally different at home), the kids won't want to have anything to do with that either.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to admit, ever since Daniel's been born, I've been horribly negligent in what goes on in their SS classes, and Wed. nights. I ask them what they learned on the way home, and discuss it in the van and that's about it. We do have Family devotions, where it's made applicable for the kids and we have them apply what they've learned from that every night, as well as the Bible time they have every school morning.
If I was just depending on what they learned in SS or Wed. night, I'd be in trouble.