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!

Challah Braid

Challah braid is a special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. You can read more about it here. I am sharing it today because it makes for a great companion to soups, especially pea soup, and homemade meals.  My family loves this bread! It is light, almost like a popover texture inside, and irresistible with softened butter! This recipe takes a while so start it ahead of time. It is definitely worth the effort!

INGREDIENTS

2 1⁄2-2 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour or 2 1⁄2-23⁄4 cups bread flour
2 1⁄2 teaspoons dry yeast or 2 1⁄2 teaspoons quick active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3⁄4 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg
vegetable oil
1egg yolk
2 tablespoons cold water
poppy seed (optional)


DIRECTIONS

Mix 1 1/4 cups of the flour, the yeast, sugar, and salt in large bowl. Heat water and 1 tablespoon oil until very warm (120 to 130). Add water mixture to flour mixture. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat in 1 egg until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

Lightly grease cookie sheet with shortening. Punch down dough and divide into 3 equal parts. Roll each part into a rope, 14 inches long. Place ropes close together on cookie sheet. Braid ropes gently and loosely--do not stretch. Fasten ends and tuck ends under braid securely. Brush with oil. Cover and let rise in warm place 40 to 50 minutes or until double.

Heat oven to 375. Mix egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water and brush over braid. Sprinkle with poppy seed if desired. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Check bread at 15 minutes and tent with aluminum foil if it seems to be browning too quickly. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack and cool.

Sunday Scriptures - Psalm 90:2

Photo by Shari House missionary in New Zealand

Caught Between

I can feel it in my throat. It gets stuck right there. I try to swallow it back, but it is difficult. I feel it in my heart.

It aches.

And yet it is mingled with smiles and joy.  I want to laugh, and I want to cry. I am not sure why I am telling you all this. Maybe I need a hug or a word of encouragement. Maybe I am telling you this because I need you to tell me this is normal.

Or maybe I am telling you this because deep down inside there is a longing...

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!

Italian Quiche (with tomato, basil, and garlic)

Depending on the size of your family, this recipe can be served as lunch or a light dinner meal. This is a delicious quiche that makes your house smell delicious!

SERVES: 8
PREP TIME: 20-25 minutes
BAKE TIME: 50 minutes

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)

Ingredients:

1 prepared 9-inch pie shell (I make mine from scratch following this recipe)

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup evaporated milk (I have omitted this if not available)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

4 large eggs, beaten

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

3 tablespoons seasoned, dry breadcrumbs 

(I use small seasoned salad croutons commonly sold here in Russia)

1 tsp. dried basil leaves, crushed

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 3/4 cups fresh or canned diced tomatoes, drained

1/4 cup ripe olives, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Whisk sour cream, evaporated milk, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper in medium bowl; pour into pie shell. Combine remaining cheese, breadcrumbs, basil, and garlic in small bowl; sprinkle over sour cream mixture. Top with tomatoes and olives.

**I allow the quiche to bake for about 5-10 minutes before sprinkling on the cheese, breadcrumbs, basil, and garlic mixture, as well as, the tomatoes and olives. This prevents them sinking too deeply into the quiche during baking.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Remove from oven. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Note: The quiche will "poof" up while baking but will shrink back down to its original size once you remove it from the oven.

Sunday Scriptures - Proverbs 31:28 & 30