• A duplicate of something they already have.
• The gift is something they truly don’t like. (Your 14-year-old receives a brown and purple sweater dotted with green squirrels.)
• The gift is for the wrong age. (Your 12-year-old gets a preschool coloring book.)
• The gift is inappropriate. (You might not like your child having toys or apparel promoting a certain TV or cartoon character, but Aunt Jane doesn’t know that.)

Modern Day Joseph, a web site of the children’s ministry AWANA, has a great article with practical tips on how to encourage our kids to be gracious when they receive gifts.

If you are looking for a fresh way to tell the Christmas story, especially to young children, there is a great idea over at Eliab.com.

Using only a soft pillow as a prop, Don Stott demonstrates his method.

While you are over at Eliab.com, have a look round. Don has heaps of really useful ideas and resources available.

Amplify your message with story-telling

We have blogged here before about the value of story-telling. And today I saw a recent post from Steve Fogg on the same topic.

His post tells of a stunning presentation given by his Pastor, which began with the story of a young man sharing his faith with a friend and ended with…

Well, I’ll let you find that out by hopping over to Steve’s post. I know your heart will be stirred.

He writes on the topic 4 Ways To Use Storytelling To Amplify Your Message.

If you gave me six hours to cut down a tree I’d spend four hours sharpening the axe.

In other words, he planned to take twice as long preparing for a task than actually doing it. So, what constitutes preparation for a Bible lesson or task in a class or meeting? 

• Gathering together all equipment – visual aids, demonstration items, snacks, whatever you are going to need to fulfil your responsibility. If your memory is as bad as mine make a list and check it off physically as each item is bagged and taken to your transport.
• Becoming thoroughly familiar with what you will be doing – how you will teach the lesson, how the skit will run, or the sketch-board item, how the song visuals and actions will work, etc.
  I find it very helpful to “run a video” through my mind of how the meeting/class will progress. Ever seen the downhill ski competitions? The cameras often pick up an athlete waiting for his or her start, eyes closed, hand in front of them dipping and swooping, bending and stretching, as they replicate in their mind the run they are about to do, with all its turns, dips and leaps.
  By “running the video” of your club meeting ahead of time, you may realize that you have not planned for an important element. You might, for example, imagine yourselve organizing the pre-schoolers hand painting project. Then, as you “fast-forward” to the end of that session, you realize you have not planned a vital ingredient… and you would really regret it if you didn’t take the wet-wipes and paper towels for use after the hand-painting!
• Relying on Christ  – At the end of the day, all your planning, list-making and forward thinking will be of little value if God is not in what you do.
  I realized at one point in my ministry that I was, in reality, relying on my familiarity with the lessons and visuals, human personality and even past spiritual successes. But “without Christ we can do nothing”. Breakthrough in kids’ understanding of spiritual matters can come only as the Holy Spirit does his work. I need to always rely on Christ to anoint me, flow through me and open young eyes and hearts to Bible truth. And that is essential preparation.

As the writer says, you may already be using this method of quickly breaking up a large group into two or more teams. But it may never have occurred to many who are starting out in  kids’ or youth work or have never come across it.

Using this method you will, in a few second, have divided even a huge group (Youth Leaders Stash say 75 kids and over!) into as many teams as you wish, each with  the same balance of boys and girls, and a similar age ranges.

>> Check it out here.

One that recently caught my eye is All you Need. Get in a circle, grab a soft ball or even a wadded up pair of clean socks and follow the clear instructions for a great discussion starter.

This movie has been widely watched by adults and children. The discussion questions are aimed at children and you may find them  useful in an informal conversation, or as part of a club or class meeting.

Check out the Toy Story 3 discussion guide from Damaris Culture Watch.

You may also like the related post, Just a Piece of Plastic

With summer fun days and other events these days, help with group games is always welcome.
Youthministry.com have some great posts to stimulate your own thoughts and also to get you started with tried and tested group games.

Here’s one about how games can enhance your ministry.

And another about how to avoid common mistakes when playing games with your kids. The writer tells us that these are the ones which can derail our effectiveness.

The article outlines some simple, inexpensive but fun crafts, where the kids can express their own creativity.

Check it out here.  While you are there, why not browse the site. If  you like what you see, you could sign up for the e-news yourself.
Go to this page http://www.childrensministry.com/magazine/ then scroll down a bit. You will find an orange “E-newsletter sign up” place.

One sure way to help kids memorize bible verses is to say them out loud. An article on the Psychology Today website confirms what we have probably known all along!

They looked at people’s memory for items like a list of words. They found that if people studied the list by reading half of the words silently and the other half by saying the words out loud, that he words spoken aloud were remembered much better than those that were read silently.

There are lots of games and strategies to make out-loud repetitive learning fun. Speaking out the Word of God is a proven help to remembering.

Kathy Vincent (aka Scripture Lady) has some great ideas from making out-loud learning fun for kids.  Here is a great one. Check it out and see if you would like to use it this week with your class or club

CRAZY STAND UPs  Bible memorization from Scripture Lady