When I give seminars on increasing meaningful, life-changing learning in Bible classes for children, I am usually asked to address a sensitive topic. Most churches and ministries have purchased some sort of prepared Bible curricula for their teachers to use in their Bible classes. Yet, the teachers often find the curricula frustrating and at times practically useless for real, meaningful learning to occur.
The reasons most are unhappy with any curricula they can purchase for children’s Bible classes are varied, but one fact is important to remember. Although, I feel certain most authors and publishers have the best of intentions, they face certain economic realities. Many churches still have an environment which encourages their teachers to make little or no preparation for their classes. They want everything “in the box” so they don’t have to put in one second more in preparation time than absolutely necessary. The publishers have to meet the demands of their average client in order to make a profit on the product.
Just because your church or ministry gives you prepared or “boxed” curricula does not mean you shouldn’t do what you can to enhance student learning. Ultimately, your students will learn as much as they can from what you give them. If you give them little Bible or make it boring – they will learn very little. If you can make it meaningful, hands-on. experiential and memorable – they will learn a lot and remember your class and what they learned for years to come.
If you have prepared curricula, but know your students won’t learn as much from it as they could, making several tweaks can dramatically increase what they learn and how well it is retained. Here are some of the top tweaks you can make to improve your prepared curricula:
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