ONLINE HACKS
GROW KIDS | September 2020
HOW DO I ADAPT GROW KIDS CURRICULUM TO AN ONLINE-ONLY PROGRAM?
INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1: BUILD A WEEKLY STRATEGY
You’re going to need a weekly strategy that’s unique to your church. But don’t worry! We have some resources to help you decide what you’ll do and when. Check this out if you need some help building your new weekly plan for online children’s ministry:
- FACEBOOK LIVE | 10 Tips for Building a Weekly Strategy for Online Kids Ministry (with Elle Campbell): Join our kids ministry Facebook group to watch this 1-hour workshop with Elle, where you’ll learn to build a weekly strategy and learn what other kids pastors are already doing well. WATCH
- PODCAST | 10 Tips for Building a Weekly Strategy for Online Kids Ministry (from Kids Ministry Answers): Join our hosts TJ and Kellee for a conversation unpacking Elle’s tips and sharing ideas of their own. LISTEN
- TRELLO BOARD | A Template for Online Kids Ministry: Grab our free Trello template to give you a structure you can customize and repeat each week for your ministry. VIEW
STEP 2: PLAN YOUR ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
By now, you’ve figured out that what works in person doesn’t exactly work online. Here’s a basic outline for an online service that you can use each week, using the curriculum you already have:
- MUSIC: Sing two worship songs.
- THE BIG IDEA: Share the Big Idea of the week.
- SCRIPTURE: Tell the Bible story (or show the teaching video) and repeat the Big Idea.
- DISCUSSION: Give families at least one question to discuss.
You can always add more elements if you’d like, but this is the basic formula you need for an effective online service — and with Grow Kids, you already have all of the elements you need to make it happen!
STEP 3: BUILD A LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Instead of talking to parents as if they’re only observers of what’s going on in your ministry, invite parents to participate as teachers and discussion-leaders for their kids! While families are watching church at home, equip parents with a weekly lesson guide that contains bite-sized versions of your curriculum that parents can teach with ease.
To create a simple lesson that parents can teach, edit the Word documents provided in your downloads to create a simple lesson for parents each week that follows this format:
- THE BIG IDEA
- SCRIPTURE
- ACTIVITY
- DISCUSSION
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE
To make things extra easy for you, at the end of this post, we’ve identified the specific modules each week of the curriculum that we suggest including.
STEP 4: REPURPOSE (OR SKIP) THE REST OF THE LESSON
With Grow Kids, you get tons of activities, object lessons, videos, and more in each lesson! It might be sad to think you won’t get to use all of them during an online service, but there are ways you can still make use of those ideas! You can still make videos of object lessons and post them online! You can send parents the instructions for activities and games so they can play them at home!
At the end of this post, we’ve identified a few specific modules for each week of the curriculum that we suggest repurposing.
HACKS FOR EACH WEEK
WEEK 1: Wisdom comes from God.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | “Not the Same”
- THE BIG IDEA | Wisdom comes from God.
- SCRIPTURE | Solomon Gets Wisdom: 1 Kings 3:1-13
- VIDEO | Wise, Episode 1
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | Wisdom comes from God.
- SCRIPTURE | Solomon Gets Wisdom: 1 Kings 3:1-13
- ACTIVITY | Wise-pedia (elementary) or ACTIVITY | People of Wisdom (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | James 1:5
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- ACTIVITY | Chocolate Bar Race This activity can be adapted to use what families may have at home- ice cream sandwich, rice crispy treat, anything!
- VIDEO | The Wisdom of Solomon Show this video about the wisdom of Solomon.
- SCRIPTURE | Proverbs 1:7 Using the graphics we’ve provided in your downloads, create an image of this Bible verse and post it on social media during the week, along with a suggestion for families to read and discuss it together.
WEEK 2: God can be trusted.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | “Trust”
- THE BIG IDEA | God can be trusted.
- SCRIPTURE | The Ark of the Covenant: 1 Kings 8:1-21
- VIDEO | Wise, Episode 2
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | God can be trusted.
- SCRIPTURE | The Ark of the Covenant: 1 Kings 8:1-21
- ACTIVITY | Temple Design (elementary) or ACTIVITY | Fill the Ark (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | James 1:5
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- ACTIVITY | Magna-Temple This activity can be done at home with Magnatiles, Legos, or as many pillows as families can find!
- VIDEO | Solomon’s Temple Show this video of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8).
- ACTIVITY | Coloring Page Send a copy of the coloring page to families and host a weekly coloring page competition! You can create an album of completed ones and even get people to vote on their favorites.
WEEK 3: We can ask God for the right words.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | “One Way”
- THE BIG IDEA | We can ask God for the right words.
- SCRIPTURE | Solomon’s Wise Ruling: 1 Kings 3:16-28
- VIDEO | Wise, Episode 3
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | We can ask God for the right words.
- SCRIPTURE | Solomon’s Wise Ruling: 1 Kings 3:16-28
- ACTIVITY | Words vs. Actions (elementary) or ACTIVITY | Right Words (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | James 1:5
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- ACTIVITY | Throw Kind Words Around Suggest families do this activity together during the week. If they don’t have yarn, use a ball to toss instead.
- POLL | Kind or Unkind Post this poll on social media, have families vote by choosing a thumbs up emoji for kind words or a thumbs down emoji for unkind words.
- SNACK | Tip of My Tongue Suggest this snack as a fun treat during the week. Provide two to three additional discussion questions for parents to ask.
WEEK 4: We can ask God our questions.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | “Not the Same”
- THE BIG IDEA | We can ask God our questions.
- SCRIPTURE | Nehemiah Asks to Rebuild the Wall: Nehemiah 2:1-20
- VIDEO | Wise, Episode 4
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | We can ask God our questions.
- SCRIPTURE | Nehemiah Asks to Rebuild the Wall: Nehemiah 2:1-20
- ACTIVITY | In the Form of a Question (elementary) or ACTIVITY | Bread Walls (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | James 1:5dwa
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- MEMORY VERSE | Musical Blanket Using the instructions provided, give families the option to play this game at home this week.
- VIDEO | Nehemiah Post this video, “God’s Story: Nehemiah” by Crossroads Kids’ Club.
- QUESTION | What’s Your Question? Have families come up with one question and send it to you via email or text message. Choose some to answer every day this week on Facebook Live or other social media platform.
In this post, here’s what we’ll cover: