rachael's practicum report #6

From: Rachael mulder
Subject: Practicum Report #6
Time Spent This Week: 3 hours (1 ½ = service, 1 ½ = Sunday school)

Class this Week:
I did my practicum this week at Exit 59, which is my official practicum location. This week there were only 2 kids. Audrey was a year and a half. Linzie was 3 years old. The service was much shorter than normal, which was a great blessing! Instead of occupying the kids for over two hours, we were only there for an hour and a half. It was disappointing though to have such young kids. We were unsure of how we should structure the Sunday school time. So, we spent much of the time playing with toys, singing, and dancing around the room. Half way through we decided to tell a Bible story from one of the story books. There was a pop-up story book about Daniel in the lion’s den, and I decided to go with that one. Obviously, Audrey didn’t really understand or care about the story. She was too young. She did sit patiently with Kathleen and “listened” as much as a one year old can. Linzie seemed pretty impatient. As I read through the story I asked her questions. This helped her to pay attention and have a better understanding of what was going on. She was fascinated with the lions and loved making roaring sounds! In the end, I don’t know how successful the story time was, but I think for the age groups represented it went pretty well.
I do have some concerns with the lack of programming and emphasis placed on the children’s ministry at Exit 59. There is barely any structure, and it seems like whatever we want to do, we can. For example, there was no one to help out in nursery, which is why we had a baby in our Sunday school class. This is something that happens quite often, and honestly, it makes me sad. I can only hope that these children are getting adequate Bible teaching at home, because they are not really being supported at the church. Yet, it is a good experience for me because I have been able to “craft” a program, and I have the freedom to try out new things.

Questions this Week:
#1...What things can you do with young children to effectively teach them about the Bible?
#2...What are some craft ideas that younger kids can do? I would love to do more than simply coloring a coloring page.
#3...Should we request that nursery age children not be brought to us? It makes it really hard to effectively run a Sunday school when we have babies to take care of.