Introduction- New Testament
Hi everyone!
With the church putting out new curriculum this year, I thought it might be fun to document our ideas (my husband and I co-teach the 7-8 year olds) as we navigate the new lesson manual.
Brian and I have been married for almost 7 years. Of those 7 years, we have taught together 3 years.. going on 4. We really absolutely love it. We love that we get to plan lessons together and that we get to spend all 3 (now 2) hours of church together.
Sometimes, during sharing time, we even have a chance to talk without Rylan being there to interrupt us every 5 seconds, haha! We love that girl, but boy does she love to talk...
When we found out that we would be moving to a new curriculum with a shorter class time, we were ecstatic! We have been talking about the need to update the manuals for years. It's incredibly difficult to teach children of the 21st century with pictures and lessons that correspond mostly to the 80's generation. There have been many times when we have showed a picture of "toys"- you know the ones I'm talking about, the spinning top and jacks?! Yeah .... our kids have no idea what those are. Distractions to kids these days include being involved in far too many extracurriculars, iPads, video games and phones (yup, kids are getting phones younger and younger).
We hope that the ideas we include in this blog will help you. With the shorter class time, we won't be able to do as many activities we once did... not everything I post will we actually include in our lesson. So feel free to pick and choose. I think it's always better to be over-prepared with lots of activities than to be under-prepared and just spend the last 5-10 minutes of class staring at each other.
If you are not teaching a primary class, but have a family with children, feel free to use these as a teaching aide for your family study. With Rylan (she's 4), we usually do one activity per night as to not overwhelm her with too much information. However, if your children are older you may be able to get away with doing 2 at a time. Also, it has been helpful to go through the lesson during the week with Rylan so I can work out the kinks and be better prepared for my lesson on Sunday. Poor Rylan, she really is the epitome of a guinea pig kid. :)
Another caveat: I will NEVER charge for the materials or ideas that I come up with. I know a lot of people are doing that on pinterest and blogs these days... but I don't know... that has always seemed a little off to me- so I'm not going to personally do it.
I am so excited to be able to study the New Testament in depth this year. I am so excited to teach our 7-8 year old class. I have a testimony that these manuals were inspired by a living prophet and a Heavenly Father who loves us. I know that the results we see with the changes will rely heavily on the effort we are willing to put into it.
With the church putting out new curriculum this year, I thought it might be fun to document our ideas (my husband and I co-teach the 7-8 year olds) as we navigate the new lesson manual.
Brian and I have been married for almost 7 years. Of those 7 years, we have taught together 3 years.. going on 4. We really absolutely love it. We love that we get to plan lessons together and that we get to spend all 3 (now 2) hours of church together.
Sometimes, during sharing time, we even have a chance to talk without Rylan being there to interrupt us every 5 seconds, haha! We love that girl, but boy does she love to talk...
When we found out that we would be moving to a new curriculum with a shorter class time, we were ecstatic! We have been talking about the need to update the manuals for years. It's incredibly difficult to teach children of the 21st century with pictures and lessons that correspond mostly to the 80's generation. There have been many times when we have showed a picture of "toys"- you know the ones I'm talking about, the spinning top and jacks?! Yeah .... our kids have no idea what those are. Distractions to kids these days include being involved in far too many extracurriculars, iPads, video games and phones (yup, kids are getting phones younger and younger).
We hope that the ideas we include in this blog will help you. With the shorter class time, we won't be able to do as many activities we once did... not everything I post will we actually include in our lesson. So feel free to pick and choose. I think it's always better to be over-prepared with lots of activities than to be under-prepared and just spend the last 5-10 minutes of class staring at each other.
If you are not teaching a primary class, but have a family with children, feel free to use these as a teaching aide for your family study. With Rylan (she's 4), we usually do one activity per night as to not overwhelm her with too much information. However, if your children are older you may be able to get away with doing 2 at a time. Also, it has been helpful to go through the lesson during the week with Rylan so I can work out the kinks and be better prepared for my lesson on Sunday. Poor Rylan, she really is the epitome of a guinea pig kid. :)
Another caveat: I will NEVER charge for the materials or ideas that I come up with. I know a lot of people are doing that on pinterest and blogs these days... but I don't know... that has always seemed a little off to me- so I'm not going to personally do it.
I am so excited to be able to study the New Testament in depth this year. I am so excited to teach our 7-8 year old class. I have a testimony that these manuals were inspired by a living prophet and a Heavenly Father who loves us. I know that the results we see with the changes will rely heavily on the effort we are willing to put into it.
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