Without a curriculum strategy, the children in your ministry risk repeating the same topics and getting bored with their time at the church, and it leaves parents with no idea of where their kids are in their learning journey or in which direction they are going. This naturally forces them out of the loop.
Are you ready to elevate your children’s ministry curriculum and give your little learners the best beginning you can? Here’s how you can start it today.
Break It Down
Creating a children’s church curriculum strategy involves looking at the pieces of your curriculum. What are your yearly goals for each age group? How can you break that down into simplified monthly chunks? What will the bite-sized weekly snippets of content look like? To make a coherent vision, you need to take it step-by-step.
Managing your kids' church curriculum in this way will naturally boost your students’ faith as each week goes by. Every lesson should be a building block, setting the foundation for the classes to come so that by the end of the year, it all feels like common sense. Disjointed lesson plans that switch to and fro can leave kids feeling lost.
Find Your Resources
Choose resources that you can reuse year after year. That ensures you already have the next batch of lesson plans ready to go, saving you valuable time (though they might need a tweak here or there to enhance their relevance). When you organize your kids' ministry like this, you know exactly what content your students will be covering in each age group.
You can find free curriculum resources online, which will save your church money and give you freedom over which topics you want to cover. The downside to this method is how time-consuming it can be wading through the internet and trying to build a comprehensive curriculum. You can create your own content from scratch, but this takes valuable time too.
Choose a Provider
The alternative to this is opting for a kids’ ministry curriculum provider. They take on the role of creating the strategy for you and even send you all the resources you need. Depending on which provider you go with, this can be costly. But is the ease of having everything taken care of for you worth it? We think so!
Plus, many of the youth ministry curriculum strategies that you can buy online for your kids' ministry are created by experts. That means that your youngest congregants are receiving stellar educational resources. With different learning styles accounted for and with fun incorporated into the fabric of the curriculum, there is one that stands out more than the rest.
Think Orange Curriculum
Designed by child development experts and educational leaders, this curriculum meets children where they are. It comprises different modules and strategies that are carefully connected to create a larger vision of what faith means for every child. As every age group from preschool to high school is covered in their strategy, using this curriculum ensures a comprehensible learning experience the whole way through.
At the core of their vision is a collaboration with parents, and their strategy is designed to make it happen every step of the way. Orange goes above and beyond to think of everything, from engaging and helpful apps to take-home exercises that get mom and dad involved, and when you pair it with Playlister, the weekly content is streamed directly to the classroom you need it in.
Be Kind to Yourself
Any church leader who has decided to improve their kids' ministry has already gone above and beyond. Switching from randomized or topical tasks to a curriculum strategy is a significant shift, so don’t be hard on yourself if there are some slip-ups at first. Remember that everything you’re doing now is laying the groundwork for future years to come.
Don’t expect it to be perfect instantly, but recognize that your strategy is a work in progress. Seek to streamline how smoothly it runs by reflecting on what went well and what could be improved. And why not open yourself up to the thoughts of everyone involved? Gather feedback from students, parents, and volunteers for an all-around feeling of how well it’s going. They will certainly appreciate that their opinion is valued.
Organization and planning are essential to success. Your kids' ministry is no different. For the best results, use clear and concise weekly lessons. Design them so they contribute to meatier monthly goals that all feed into a yearly strategy.
A tell-tale sign of a good kids’ ministry is when the students themselves can inform you what they are learning that year. So, encourage parents to get involved and continue the lessons at home while gently reminding your children of the path they are on this year
If you start building a strategy today, you could be ready to launch in just a few weeks. In a few months, the students will be progressing faster than ever before, and in a few years, you will barely have to lift a finger, as the students will organically move through each cycle, or you could make your life a whole lot easier by opting for a pre-existing provider. The choice is yours.