The Bible NETWork ~ Impacting the World for Christ one post at a time!

I have recently taken on leadership of our childrens church and I regret to report that I am struggling with the chaos. I am used to teaching teens and was asked to take this ministry until we were able to get a childrens leader. The group I have is between 4 & 10 years old, most of which are coming from our bus ministry. Mostly the children are great, we sing, share, and pray together and they all participate. However, I am having a growing problem with keeping attention during Bible story time. I have a couple that are headstrong against keeping their seat and listening. Unfortunately they are coming from homes where life is difficult to say the least. I have a pretty strong feeling that their is an abuse issue with them at home so I definately do not want to give their parents any reason to stop letting them come. How do I motivate them to listen without making them feel like they're being punished? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

I taught ages 3-12 for many years, but not all those ages at the same time.

It is difficult to handle the 4-10 range you have all at once. Is there a possibility of splitting them into two or more groups for story time (4-6 and 7-10, for example).

For the story to be relevant to the 10 year old, it will probably be over the head of the 4 year old. And for it to be relevant to the 4 year old, the 10-year old will be really bored.

_________________
Cobra (the car, not the poisonous reptile)
all scripture is NRSV unless otherwise noted

After the story time, we would have a contest to see how much was learned.

I called my contest at the end "Bible Bowl." I divided the group into 2 teams (trying to keep them equally matched). I would ask a question from the lesson to one of the teams. If the answer was correct, that team got a point. If not, the second team got a chance to answer.

To keep things close, the team that was lowest in points got the first chance to answer. (A blow out makes for a bored and rowdy losing team.)

If someone from the team that was supposed to be waiting answered out of turn, the other team could use the answer. That tended to keep the other team quiet.

It only takes 5-10 minutes to play Bible Bowl. And I would keep some critical questions in my back pocket that are not based on the story but are good information -- like "how many years before Jesus did King David live" or "Name the four gospels" or "Who was the cousin of Jesus who was a prophet announcing he would come."

_________________
Cobra (the car, not the poisonous reptile)
all scripture is NRSV unless otherwise noted

Children's Bible StoriesInteractive Children's bible stories from NestFamily are Award Winning, Advisory Board Approved with a 90% retention rate! Like The True Story of Noah's Ark
One of the most stunning, unique and captivating books on the account of the Ark and the global Flood of Noah's day ever produced. Based on the account recorded in Genesis 6-9 in the Bible, the narrative is true to the biblical record and its timeline of events conccerning Noah's flood, with added insight as to what it might have been like to be in Noah's shoes.

More wonderful children's bible stories can be found at http://www.nestfamily.com

I have found that mostly you have to involve the ones who you interpret to be potential troublemakers.

Have them help you with skits, programs and the like.

If you involve them then they have purpose and what you have with these kids right now is no purpose for them so they are testing the limits.

The limits they have probably never gotten at home.

I think that if you involve them directly then you will see a dramatic change. Give them time to become involved and you may have a future class leader on your hands.