VBS Program (Science Theme) "Laboratory of Fun" - Day One

Last week I shared with you the weekly "Laboratory of Fun"  Science theme for a one week long VBS program. This week I wanted to look specifically at Day one of that same week to share the schedule and day's activities to give you a better idea of how to fill the time for each day.

First we begin with Registration. The kids come up to the tables which is labeled for their ages. We split our kids up from ages five to eight (younger) and nine to ninety-nine (just for fun). When they approach the tables we ask for their names and confirm correct spelling. We use a simple form that I designed to keep track of their attendance. On the second and following days, we will use that chart to track their points for: attendance, verses memorized, papers completed and brought back the next day, friends invited, and participation. We do not hand out the point cards on the first day because they are not needed until the second day.

Registration

We gather all the children together for prayer. At that time I introduce the point system and theme for the week.

Once the points are explained, I announce that the older kids will be walking to the last set of benches to hear the Bible story from my husband while the younger group of children simply move closer together to hear the Bible story from me. We have a set time for the lesson so we try to keep the time the same in order for both groups to be ready to move on to the review game. Sometimes the older group goes longer so I stall the younger ones with songs and crazy stories or questions. :)

Dee teaching the smaller age group.

Don't  you love our flannel graph holder? :)

David teaching the older age group.

***The exception from the norm for this Science themed VBS was that instead of a review game right after the Bible stories, we did the science experiments first to allow the lesson in the experiments to also be used for review.

The children were looking forward to something new and exciting to watch when it was time to gather around for the experiment. 

This experiment can be described in detail here but these photos just have to be shared! Mrs. Pipetkina has a fear of balloons. So, this first experiment was a challenge for her to have to pop THREE balloons on purpose! We even offered to pop them for her since David understands her fear (hmm, his wife has the same "strong dislike" for balloons!) but she promised to be brave. She did great! Best of all were her faces as each balloon popped!

Sin separates us from God.

Can you help me put the balloon back together?

But, John 7:38 says, " He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Both water and salvation are priceless and free. 

Both are available to everyone!

The balloon filled with water does not pop, but is protected, when it is exposed to open flame.

As is the person who puts his/her faith in Jesus Christ!

The experiment went well! The children understood and were amazed that the water balloon did not pop!

Next on the schedule, review game time!

While one of my helpers is playing the review game with the kids, several other helpers are setting up for snacks and Kool-Aid for our break time.

Once the review game is done, we pray for snack time and the children have about ten to fifteen minutes to eat. During their break, we would gather their point cards (that they wear around their necks) and put them away for the day in preparation for game time. The children are left with a stretchy colored wrist band to distinguish which team they are on so the cards are able to not be a safety hazard and get in the way while they try to play games.

I plan on saying more about point cards and games but I will share for you what games we played for this particular day.

The first game required the kids to hold each other at the elbow and without breaking the chain, get their bodies through the hula hoop and on down the line.

There are usually a few clowns in the group but this little guy just made us laugh with his funny faces while he concentrated on getting through that hula hoop!

The next game was a bit of a risky one on our part but we saw this game played at a good friend's son's birthday party and it was a lot of messy fun!

We did a little simpler version where the kids stand in line, each team having two players (one on each side of the table) blindfolded and ready to dig into a jello and whipped cream pie with their hands! Inside the pie were gummy worms, rice, and beans. The goal was for the children to find as many beans as they could, pull them out of the pie mess and onto the tablecloth in 30 seconds. The team with the most beans found wins!

I gave the instructions and my husband made sure to taste test the whipped cream just in case it was bad! ;)

The beautiful pies!

And their off!

Okay, so the risk was worth taking! They LOVED this game! Girls and boys alike!

We have a set time for games that determines how many we are able to play each day. If two games take up the entire time allotted for games then we stick with our time frame, although we try to have three games each day. 
At the end of the games we gather the kids all back together again to remind them to invite their friends. We also hand out their homework sheets for points as well, reminding them that the points they earn through the week will be like money to spend in the "store" on the last day. We then gather up their wrist bands, close in prayer, and they are free to go home. Some stay after to play soccer with some of the VBS workers. :)

Whew! 

Our program lasts two hours and it is a packed two hours with no time in between activities for them to wander off. This year the first few days felt like the two hours was more like 30 minutes! The time seemed to pass so quickly from start to finish! 

VBS Program (Science Theme) "Laboratory of Fun" - Daily Themes and Lessons

Now that we have discussed the planning stages of a Vacation Bible School program, I wanted to share what I believe was one of our favorite (if the kids could vote) VBS themes from 2013. I had been looking over different ways to incorporate science experiments into our VBS program as a way to really get the kids' attention and help them "see" the Bible lessons we are trying to teach them. Using these Bible stories along with the experiments from Mad About Jesus, was a great success! These experiments are a lot of work to gather and prepare for each day but they add so much to your program and the looks on the kids' faces definitely are only one reason they are more than worth it!

Theme for the Week: Laboratory of Fun

Goal: To use science experiments as visual reinforcement to the daily Bible lessons.

First you will need a Professor to do the daily experiments.

We asked a lady who attended our services if she would be our Professor and perform the science experiments each day. Please meet "Mrs.'Pipetkina' - (taken from the word 'pipette') 

It was a great experience for her to help out and gain this experience. She and I spent much time together praying for each lesson as we gathered together daily over several days to translate the experiments into Russian. Each day I stood by her to help in case she needed something and to hold up verses which we had printed out that went along with the experiment.

Day 1: Theme: Sin separates us from God but by accepting Him as our personal Savior we can receive forgiveness of our sins. 

Story: Samaritan woman at the well

Verses: John 4:1-30, 39-42

Science Experiment:  - Object Lesson 1: "One Sin"

Day 2: Theme: We are saved by faith, not our good works.

Story: Pharisee and the Publican 

Verses: Luke 18:9-14

Science Experiment: Object Lesson 8: "Only the Penitent Man Shall Pass"

Day 3: Theme: Through Christ we can do all things.

Story: Peter walks on the water

Verses: Matthew 14:22-33

Science Experiment: Object Lesson 12: "Leap of Faith"

 THIS was a lot of work but a HUGE hit with the kids!

Even some of the adults wanted to "walk on the water".

Day 4: Theme:He will strengthen us if we ask Him in prayer.

Story: David and Goliath

Verses: I Kings 17

Science Experiment: Object Lesson 2: "Even Little People Can Do Big Things"

NO PHOTOGRAPHER MEANS NO PICTURES FROM DAY FOUR. (Insert sad face)

But, I will take this time to show you an amazing photo booth another missionary painted for our special VBS week. Isn't it awesome!?

Day 5: Theme: Christ died for us because He loves us.

Story: Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch - 

Verses: Acts 8:26-40

Science Experiment: Object Lesson 11a: "Nothing Gold Can Stay"

 This was the greatest object lesson of the week which made it perfect for the final day's experiment. A great illustration that had passersby stopping to watch to see what happened.

We pray this post is a help and encouragement to you as you prepare for upcomingVBS programs in your area of the world. We would love to hear from you if you use any of these ideas.

Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments!

Vacation Bible School - Using a Point System (re-post)

Hello again! If you are dropping in this week we are talking about a great way to use a point system and keep track of it throughout the week of your Vacation Bible School program. 

I can tell you that every day of every VBS program we have held, the day's activities begin with a registration time. We set up two tables labeled for each age group - one for the younger children (ages up to 8) and one for the older children (ages 9 and up). This 30-45 minutes is the time when as the children arrive they can report to the registration tables, giving us their name, worksheet from the previous day, quote their Bible verse, and report/register any visitors they invited and brought with them for that day. 

One of the first things to consider is how YOU will keep track of attendance and  of how many points each child earns throughout the week. 

Here is a basic chart that I designed to fit our VBS point system. It is basic but it works for me! One added advantage that I had was obtaining a list of students from the local school so that I could enter in the children's names even before we held our first VBS. This saved us time by not having to write all of their names in each year. 

As you can see there are the point categories for Attendance, Bible Verse, Activity Sheet, Visitor, and Participation. I also added a "Note" section to the far right for any additional information including the name of their visitor so we can be sure everyone is counted for and points are awarded to those who invited them.

We print up two copies of these sheets - one for the younger age group and one for the older age group. I take these sheets home at the end of each day and use them in tallying the daily points to be punched onto the children's point cards.

As you can see in this photo below, each child is wearing a card that corresponds to his team color (we usually divide the children up into two teams.) At the top of the card is a place for the child's name. Then below the name are "point stars" of (in this case) 10 points value each. Each day the child attends VBS, he is  given this card to wear for the day until game time so that he too can see his progress and be excited about how many points he earns throughout the week. Let me add that the children only receive these cards beginning on the second day. Everyone who comes for the first time (no matter what day) receives points for attendance, Bible verse, and the activity sheets. We do this to give those who can only attend one day a few points to be able to purchase something from the "store" at the end of the week.

Each day during snack time, we gather these point cards, and I take them home to use a hole puncher and punch the points on each card once I have tallied the child's points for each day. It is a bit time consuming, but I think it is important to do things orderly, and it is also so exciting for the kids each day to see more holes punched in their point cards!

The last day is quite busy as you must take time during the day's activities to add up the rest of the points earned from that last morning's registration and add it into the totals. That way the children have all of their points tabulated and you can reward those who invited the most guests, memorized the most verses, and then give them ALL of their points to spend in the "store"!

VBS 2010 - Some of the children with prizes they bought with their points

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like me to better explain some aspect of these posts so far about planning a VBS program. I look forward to hearing from you!

Vacation Bible School - Tips for Inviting Children and to Keep Them Coming Back! (re-post)

Hello! We are back again this week to discuss more about planning a fun and successful Vacation Bible School. By the way, what makes a VBS program successful? In my opinion, you can count it successful if you are able to make contact with new children that have never attended your Sunday school class and if you have met a few parents as well! After all, that is the goal - to meet new children and parents, praying that they might begin attending services and come to Christ! A more open and relaxed atmosphere like a week of VBS provides a wonderful opportunity for the community to see what you are all about and how you work with their children. If you are new on a field, a VBS program can be a great way "ice breaker" to give both the children and parents a better idea of what you are about. 

One important rule to guide you throughout the program - 

What if a stranger came knocking on YOUR door to invite YOUR child to attend a daily Bible school? 

Think about it!

What would you like to see in that person or in the way he invited your children? 

What are some things that might cause you not allow your children to attend?

Thinking about the situation from the parent's perspective helps us better understand any hesitation we might receive from parents or children. It also helps us think more seriously about how we will go about inviting children to attend.

I believe the best way to invite children and actually have some attend is to walk around the village/city and hand out flyers, hang up posters, and do your best to meet the parents. We even gave out candy or balloons with the invites as well just for effect. The kids become much more interested when they see a big bunch of balloons walking around!

Our daughter (2007) ready to walk through the village
and hand out invites to our first VBS!

When you are walking around and not in a car, you are less intimidating and more approachable for anyone to come up to you and take an invitation or inquire about the VBS program. Obviously, you may need to drive to an area due to the distance away from your church or area where the VBS will be held, but then get out and walk around a bit so you can personally hand out invitations to children and parents.

Another great encouragement to help the kids get excited about coming out as well as bringing new visitors during the week is a point system. We have used a point system every year, and it is a great motivator. Here is the general breakdown we use...

Attendance

Memorizing Daily Memory Verse

Bringing Worksheets back each day

Participation

Bringing a First-time Visitor

VBS 2007

The point values can be determined based upon your needs/plans. One determining factor for us is that we have a "store" at the end of the week where the children can spend their points to purchase toys and small items. Usually, on Thursday evening, my husband and I pull out all of the items so that we can give them "prices" based on the number of points the children have earned during the week. We do this in order to be sure that every child can take something home, even if he was only able to attend one day during the week. 

Preparing the store - VBS 2012

VBS 2009 Store

Another idea that we tried this past year with our Olympic theme was to award the first, second, and third place winners for most verses memorized and most visitors brought. These children were rewarded with gold, silver, and bronze medals. This was a great idea to me, and I think we will implement it into future VBS programs even though we will use other themes besides the Olympic theme.

Scripture Memorization winners (2012).
They were wet from playing water games!

I will leave you with one more piece of advice in using a point system. You must have a very organized method to keep track of each child's daily points.
This gives us great material for next week's VBS post! 

See you then!

Vacation Bible School - Scheduling (re-post)

I originally wrote this post and several others regarding the planning and execution of a Vacation Bible School program about two years ago. Since that time, some new ladies have joined our BMW group and have asked that more information regarding these topics be shared. I will begin by re-posting many of the previous posts and hopefully add to them as questions come in. I pray the lessons we have learned in the building of a children's ministry might be helpful to you in your ministry.


--Originally posted on February 27, 2013

One of the most effective ways to boost your Sunday school class attendance is to hold a Vacation Bible School during summer school break on your field of service. I say that because summer is not June, July, and August for all of us around the globe! For the next few weeks, I am going to share my experience in planning and executing a VBS program on the mission field. I pray these posts will be most helpful and encouraging to those of you who have been wanting to plan such an event in order to help grow your children's ministry.

My husband and I have been working in Russia for fourteen years. Just over seven years ago, we moved out to a village to begin a new ministry. After getting settled in a bit as a family, we secured a room in the local House of Culture to meet in for services. We immediately started a Sunday school class which met in the same room, just before the main service. Upon getting to to know a few families, we planned our first VBS program in 2007.  Since that time, we have held week-long VBS programs each summer. God has blessed, and these programs have become a favorite summer activity for many of the village children!

VBS Children and Workers  - 2007

In order for a VBS program to be a smooth success, most of the preparations are made in the months prior. Although you may be nervous about it all coming together at the last minute, I can honestly say that if you have prepared well enough ahead of time the problems (if any) will be minimal during the actual execution of the program. Then, as each day passes, you can relax a bit and enjoy the week more!

Very first day of our very first VBS 2007

Starting from the beginning of the planning process and building up to the week of the program, I will break down the planning process into several sections. In this first post, I would like to cover the scheduling part of the program.

Months ahead of time:
1. Determine WHERE you will hold the VBS program - Ideally you should have several rooms inside a building (in case of rain) and a nice yard or open field outside for more active games and activities. IF you have a situation like ours to where you do not have a building available and must meet outside, don't forget to have some sort of  tents or shelter in case of light rain.

2. Determine WHEN you will hold the VBS program - Planning the date requires much consideration. If you are in a smaller city or village, check with the school administration to find out their schedule so that you don't schedule a VBS program during the same hours of the school's day camp program times. Here in Russia the children also attend long summer camps. Often there will be a general date when most of the children leave for camp. Being aware of these dates helps you have more children in attendance and prevents them from missing either the beginning or ending of the program.

3. Determine HOW LONG the program will last (which days of the week and hours per day). We usually hold VBS on Monday through Friday from 11 am until 1 pm. If we have a daily craft time, we extend it until 2 pm. Speaking from personal experience, that is plenty of time! You may only be able to do three days a week. Whatever the case, do your best to ensure the best time frame for the most children to be able to attend. Also, remember you want to have a FULL schedule with little to no downtime. It is best to keep the children busy and not give them time to wander around because wandering results in a quick loss of control! Strict time frames help them stay busy, help the time pass quickly for them encouraging them to come back tomorrow, and help you maintain order.

4. Determine WHO (workers) will be involved. This is a big decision! You may not have anyone to help besides yourself (husband and wife); maybe you have several missionary families in the area, or maybe you have a few nationals to help out. Whoever you have as help, make sure the duties are distributed accordingly. A new missionary that has not yet learned the language will not feel comfortable leading the songs! Also, if you are helping another missionary and your job/s have been assigned to you, be sure to see them through to the end. If you volunteer to do something, do it! There is a balance that is necessary when working with other helpers in these type of programs. For one, people (nationals) are watching! They are watching the faces, personalities, expressions, body language, and interaction between the workers. They are watching how well the whole program is thought through and organized. They may not be able to pull something off like a VBS program, but they will sure be there to watch how you pull it off! Trust me, if you hold your VBS program outside, they will come to watch! That can be a good thing or a bad thing. The Lord can use a well-organized plan to help you win the hearts of your neighborhood, village, or city. The Devil can use a poorly organized program against you. Doing things 'decently and in order' (I Cor. 14:40) will be a huge benefit when you go to introduce yourself to those parents and grandparents later. When everyone understands what is expected of them and is committed to helping in whatever capacity needed, the whole program can run like a well-oiled machine!

Next week, we will discuss more of the paperwork involved in planning a VBS program. We will view a sample schedule, talk about themes, teaching materials, and such in order to work out the details of VBS planning.

In the meantime, please feel fee to write me at: danddsterling@juno.com with ANY questions, concerns, ideas for discussion that you would like to know more about so that we can be better prepared to use one of  the greatest evangelistic tools in Children's ministries - Vacation Bible School.

BMW Talk Shop: What Sunday School Curriculum Do You Use?

Our Common Work

One of the most common jobs that Baptist Missionary Women do for their ministries would be teaching and managing Sunday School or children’s Bible clubs. We often have to be quite flexible about where we gather: the Sunday school classroom might be outside on mats on the ground under a tree or in a dark cramped room. Challenges also include having to translate all materials ourselves and having children of all ages in one class, from age 2 to 14!

Having spent years translating our own materials, I was curious as to what curriculum other BMW preferred. I wish I had asked long ago, but since I just spent years translating one curriculum, I have no desire now to switch to anything else! I took a poll of several BMW to find out what Sunday School curriculum materials they preferred.

Several responses came back, including recommendations for curricula I had never heard of; and I’m sure that there are many resources out there that aren’t included here. If you’re about to begin a children’s ministry on your field, maybe these tips and explanations will help you think through where best to invest your money.

Our Common Preferences

The top three choices were Betty Lukens flannel graph, A BekaBook’s Flash-A-Card series (ABB), and Child Evangelism Fellowship’s materials (CEF), in that order. But before I compare and contrast these three, let me first mention some general comments that kept popping up.

First, even if BMW voted for a certain curriculum, many did not use the lesson plans but wrote their own. Most desired a curriculum that was straightforward Bible, not adding much conjecture. Secondly, most BMW when describing why they chose ABB or CEF mentioned their preference for flashcards over the flannel graph. So if you add together the votes for those two to reflect this desire, flashcards won out over flannel graph.

Betty Lukens’ felt curriculum was praised for being colorful and durable, holding up well in humid climates, versus paper cards which can stick or mildew. BMW like its CD with activities and coloring pages, and that it comes in Spanish. Kids enjoy adding pieces to the board themselves. Negatives include what I mention above—not being purely biblical and complaints about the hassle of transporting felt pieces, losing pieces, distracting transitional times while adding pieces, being locked into one location while telling the story, and dealing with pieces in the outdoors (do you tote an easel with you to prop up the felt board? And what do you do when the wind blows off your pieces?)

Other negatives have to do with the art: characters are too white-skinned, or one woman mentioned that the figures didn’t seem to be all of one size, some being bigger than others. One point would really bother me: all the cutting! Death by cutting out pieces! If you get a used set or a gift that includes the cutting-out-of-pieces already done, that would be wonderful. (I was gifted a set with the smaller size of pieces, and while I prefer flashcards, I may use this with preschool someday, as it seemed that the stories were much shorter.)

Next with almost as many votes is A Beka’s Flash-A-Card series. This is not their newer Sunday School company but the elementary school curriculum. The art is excellent, especially Brian Jekel’s work. I love these, because they have several large, colorful, interesting pictures for each story, and you can easily transport them and move freely in your classroom or outdoors with just picture cards. Some are in Spanish. Negatives include occasional conjecture added to Scripture or incongruent applications. Another negative is the price. I do feel, however, that they are worth the price.

This was my favorite choice. I shortened or split some lessons, sometimes changing applications or cutting conjecture; but in general, I felt that the stories thoroughly covered and explained Scripture. They don't clutter the lesson books with lots of extra teacher notes and objectives. The pictures help keep the children’s interest, and a ministry in the States helped me to laminate several sets so that they would hopefully be indestructible by potentially careless future teachers. I cut costs by searching for several of them on used homeschool curriculum sale websites. (One BMW found several at a garage sale for $10 for all! Sweet deal!)

A man teaches a children's Bible club, using a CEF flashcard story.

 A lot of people appreciate Child Evangelism Fellowship’s materials, especially the Bible and missionary stories, the older materials, as the newer ones begin to lean more Pentecostal. They seem to be good for exposing kids to other cultures, missions, and are very evangelistic. They include several teacher helps on how to write lessons using symbols from the wordless book (gold circle, black heart, red cross, white heart, green leaf). They have the benefits of flashcards, and are easily stored. Some already come translated into Spanish. BMW praised them for great application.

Our Uncommon Preferences

Here are other choices that were appreciated. Some I had never heard of.

• Calvary Curriculum
• Regular Baptist Press (I was given several sets free, but found these not as practical or straightforward.)
• Bible Centered Ministries--series Footsteps of Faith (four series in both the Old and New Testaments). Some are translated into French.
• The Story of Hope by ABWE
• New Tribes Mission Firm Foundations for children—(also in Spanish). We were also gifted this set, and I translated (and shortened) and used it. I loved how it gives a great overview of the Bible, clearly pointing to the Deliverer in the Old Testament. I did not love how it usually only had one picture per lesson. Now that I have it translated however, I can easily switch out ABB’s pictures when I want to teach these lessons.
• Homemade--several BMW are quite clever and resourceful!
• Bible Visuals International: I really want to talk this company up. They are non-profit and include downloads of several of their resources, and have pursued translation work for their materials in several languages. They approached me to translate into Tsonga, but I was exhausted from having just finished translating all of the ABB series, so I doubted that I would do theirs. I love that they have 5-day biographical stories as well (like the new release on George Mueller) or other missionary stories or works that would be great for a 5-day continuing story for VBS. They even have Holy War and Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan summarized into 5-day lessons, including a PowerPoint option for the visuals. The visuals aren’t that great in some cases, but the lessons I have seen are good. They use flashcards and plan to soon release other media as well.

A Final Tip

Don’t forget to search for curriculum already published in your specific country. Some countries have materials in their home language already, and can target their own cultures better, and you win on the shipping costs. For example, a friend mentioned a curriculum where I am in South Africa called iVangeli. The stories have South African situations and names of children, and worksheets come in three local languages.