What Is Grow Curriculum?
Grow Curriculum is part of Stuff You Can Use, which provides digital curriculum and resources for kids and student ministries.
Grow Kids includes preschool and elementary teaching materials organized into series, generally lasting four or five weeks. Each series brings together lessons and supporting resources so teams can prepare several weeks around a shared theme.
You can explore the current options on Stuff You Can Use’s website.
What Comes With Grow Kids?
Grow’s teaching series include resources for both preparing a lesson and leading it in the classroom. These include lesson guides, small group discussion guides, teaching videos, editable graphics, Bible story illustrations, coloring pages, and handouts.
The materials serve different purposes throughout the week.
Lesson guides help your team understand the session and prepare the activities. Small group guides give volunteers questions and instructions to use with children. Videos and graphics support what happens on the classroom screen.
Grow also includes memory verse resources and suggested adaptations for toddlers, preteens, and children with disabilities. Those adaptations give leaders a starting point for adjusting a lesson to their group.
Other supporting materials include supply and preparation lists, music suggestions, and ideas for room decorations. Reviewing those resources together helps your team see what is ready to use and what needs local preparation. See Grow’s teaching resource overview.
What are the benefits and features of Grow Curriculum?
A plan for teaching the Bible
Grow Kids uses a semi-chronological teaching strategy. Its annual teaching guide outlines a three-year approach to major Bible stories, with time in both the Old and New Testaments each year. Teaching is organized into series, typically lasting four or five weeks.
For a kids pastor, a longer teaching plan helps answer an important question: what will children learn over time? Reviewing the year together also helps your team prepare for holidays, school breaks, and the months with five Sundays.
Spiritual habits kids can practice
Grow organizes its discipleship approach around four spiritual habits:
- Spend time with God.
- Spend time with others.
- Share your story.
- Use your gifts.
These give leaders practical ways to connect a lesson with everyday life. After teaching about prayer, you might help children practice a short prayer of their own. After talking about serving, you might invite them to help welcome another child or take responsibility for a classroom task.
The habits also give volunteers a shared language for encouraging growth throughout the year.
Resources for Volunteers and Families
Grow’s resources extend beyond the classroom lesson.
Teaching series include weekly family conversation guides, volunteer and parent devotionals, and prewritten communications. These can help teams share preparation information with leaders and give families a way to continue the conversation at home.
The wider catalog also offers volunteer training videos, meeting guides, orientation resources, and parent resources.
For a ministry leader, the practical value is having a starting point. A volunteer meeting guide can help organize a huddle. A parent resource can support a family meeting. Prepared communications can be adapted to match your church’s voice and schedule.
Support for Planning the Year
Grow also provides a strategy for organizing ministry across the year.
Its planning approach connects teaching with volunteer development, families, events, and leadership. That gives teams a way to look beyond the upcoming Sunday and consider what needs preparation over the coming months.
If your church already has a strong calendar and preparation process, individual teaching resources may be the main thing you need. If you want support in several areas, reviewing the broader bundles can help you understand what is available.
Start with the needs of your ministry, then look at which resources your team would realistically use.
See How a Lesson Fits Your Church
Before making a decision, review a sample preschool or elementary lesson with your team.
Walk through the guide, watch the available media, and look at the activities. Consider how it fits your service length, classroom setup, and volunteer preparation time.
Arrange the videos and graphics in the order you would present them. This gives leaders a clearer picture of the lesson and helps identify anything you would customize.
For churches already using Grow, the same review can help refine the weekly process. Organize materials by series, week, and age group. Keep leader instructions separate from classroom media, and share preparation materials before volunteers arrive to serve.
You can also prepare several weeks together, giving your team time to check supplies and media before the weekend.
Why do Grow partners love Playlister?
Because there’s never been an easier way to prepare and send curriculum to your classrooms than Playlister.
Does the following scene sound familiar?
- You sit through a time-consuming curriculum download.
- Then you take USB sticks of curriculum to your TVs
- Your volunteers struggle using things like ProPresenter or other ways to play the curriculum.
- You repeat this cycle every week.
How it works
There are three simple steps to using Playlister in your classrooms:
Step 1- Upload your Grow Curriculum
Step 2- Build and schedule your playlist.
Next, just build a playlist and then schedule when you want it to show up on your TVs. Never run USB sticks to a TV again.
Step 3- Point and click to present
Playlister runs on an Apple TV. Your volunteers will just point and click with the Apple TV remote to present your curriculum. Even better, all the curriculum is synced to the Apple TV so you can present even if there is no WiFi.
Free for 30 days with a coupon code
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The Playlister Advantage: Complement Your Curriculum
Grow curriculum is a perfect blend of time-tested biblical teachings and cutting-edge digital engagement designed to meet kids where they are. It isn't just a platform; it's a revolution in children's ministry curriculum. What sets Grow apart is its innate ability to resonate with the tech-savvy youth, offering a curriculum that doesn't just inform but genuinely connects.
For those still on the fence, consider this: the future of ministry is digital, and there's no better time than now to explore Grow's expansive offerings. While Grow stands robustly on its own, remember that integrating it with digital ministry tools like Playlister can further enrich and diversify the ministry experience.
When it comes to the best children's ministry curriculum, Grow is a beacon for the future, exemplifying the best of what a kids’ Bible curriculum can be in our increasingly connected world. So, embrace this wave of change, and let's shape a future where biblical teachings are not just heard but deeply felt and lived by our younger generation.
Need Help Using Grow on Your Classroom Screens?
Whether your church currently uses Grow or is considering it for the future, Playlister can help you organize its downloadable videos and graphics and make them available on your classroom TVs.
Set up a call with our team to walk through what using Grow with Playlister could look like at your church.