So many people have piggybacked with the latest soon-to-be-released DVD, Polar Express and the Narnia movie for children’s church themes. I am not opposed to using pop-culture and the hottest trends or movies for themes or lesson topics. I have done many myself. However, I chose to do something a little different.
I looked at several Christmas themed curriculums and none really seemed to fit what I wanted to do. I realized that as I was looking through some of the old stuff that I had done in the past that the curriculum was already there.
I picked up the first ever volume of K.I.D.S. CHURCH – no, it’s not from the Power Tool Box Series. Many don’t even realize that there was an entire year of curriculum published by Charisma before the Power Tool Box set. It was simply called K.I.D.S. CHURCH and the first Quarterly was called “It’s P.A.R.T.Y. Time” it was all about gifts…
…and here’s a little history lesson and fact list for you: Carl Lindelien was the Editor and Senior Writer and wrote some of the skits, object lessons, puppet skits and dramas for it; Randy Christensen wrote the giving lessons, skits and object lessons; and Bill Wilson was a contributor of stories and object lessons as well.
The first four lessons are on gifts that God gives to us. As I read through the material, I realized that many Christmas things were used to illustrate the lessons. So I am using three of the lessons before Christmas and creating a new lesson for the New Years Eve weekend about sending the “Thank you notes” for the gifts you’ve received.
The entire curriculum is an incredible collection of 13 lessons and it’s worth looking for. Sorry, Charisma does not publish this series anymore. But you might find it on www.ebay.com or in your church’s junk closet behind the old Train Depot Curriculum.
Yeah, I know – a curriculum that’s almost 15 years old is NOT the latest trend. I realize that! That’s why each lesson has to be updated a little. But most of it is salvageable like the object lessons, the giving lessons, the main scripture and the Bible stories. I’ve added my own DVD clips from popular Christmas movies and I don’t use overhead transparencies – I use cool pictures of cool kids doing cool Christmas things in my Keynote program (yeah, I’m a Mac guy). And we use our characters to help introduce or enforce the points.
Here’s my point – before you jump on a bandwagon or buy that latest curriculum, what do you already have that you can repackage and serve up so the kids will talk about it?
Carl Lindelinen
Randy Christensen
Bill Wilson
Jamie,
I think it is healthy to look at older stuff. Often times we deem it useless because it is not on DVD with Widescreen, Special features, and with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.
One other way of acquiring older curriculum is ask other Churches. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but if it is no longer in print I believe it is o.k. to share.
One of my favorite lessons that Don Bursell teaches is if you want to find something new, just look in an old book!