Christianity Cove's 100 Simple Service Projects and Lord's Prayer Lesson Pack: Review

 

Our family has a long lineage of ministry. My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all full-time pastors. My husband's grandfather and father were also full-time pastors. I think sometimes people get the impression this wonderful spiritual heritage automatically translates into endless ideas and creativity for teaching Scriptural truths to our kids. While learning about the Word of God is a part of our everyday lives, I'm not all that creative when it comes to unique ways to teach my girls. I am always on the lookout for new ideas and creative ways to teach. Christianity Cove is a fun company with a wide range of Sunday School and Children's Church lessons, games, crafts, and songs. If you are stuck for ideas, this is an excellent place to go!

We reviewed two products from Christianity cove: 100 Simple Service Projects ($19.95) and Lord's Prayer Lesson Pack ($19.99). There are products for all ages at Christianity Cove, but the two we reviewed are for elementary age children. 

This short e-book is packed with creative ideas to serve. There are several categories and many ideas are listed in each. I like that there are so many ideas to fit the interest and needs of a variety of children. I also like that these are ideas which could be implemented with both large and small groups. Although I used this with my girls at home I plan to keep this in mind for the next time I'm teaching a group of kids at church.

Some of the projects focus on volunteering and others on how to raise money for a cause. Rose opted to make a craft and earn money for missions. She has always had a heart for telling others about Christ and she loves hearing the missionaries at our annual missions conference at church. She has been making pot holders with a loom for a few months and she asked if she could sell them to friends and family to earn money for missions. Our church is helping raise money to start an Awana program in Chile. 

She is hard at work and has raised a modest amount from 11 pot holders so far. She is still excited about the project and still has orders coming in! The best part is she came up with this idea and what she wanted to do with the money she earned. We bought her first set of supplies to get her started, but she has also purchased more with her own money. This has been a great lesson in hard work, perseverance, and giving. She has been good to make sure her creations are well-made and has been churning them out rather quickly!

Ever since Rose was very young she has always had a heart to serve others. She especially loves to tell others about Christ and is always looking for new ways to share her faith with her friends. Her favorite time of year is our church's missions conference and she usually sits completely enthralled as she listens to the missionary speakers each year.

The girls loved learning the song for the Lord's Prayer. You can hear us singing it if you click the player above. While this study on the Lord's Prayer could be used over a few weeks I chose to spend an evening completing it. There are many options for activities, snacks, teaching ideas, and more! I love when curriculum gives you a variety of options because not everything will work in every situation. When I plan to teach a group of children I always over plan. So if i have an hour of teaching time, I plan for an hour and a half. You just never know when something won't work or not take as long as expected.

First I taught the girls the song and then for the lesson portion I chose to explain how our prayers go to God in heaven just like balloons float up to the sky. Beth was a little nervous they would pop!

We sang the song again, then my ladies took the Lord's Prayer mixed up onto different pages and put it in order. It took them a little while to get started, but once they found the first couple of parts they moved quickly! The materials needed for this study were minimal and easy to find around the house. These pages were already made and part of the unit.

This only took about 3 minutes...an example of what I mean by you never know what is going to happen! I didn't anticipate the team-work factor and expected more at least 10-minutes long. Making the adjustment in homeschool is easy, but not as much in a group setting. It's not big deal to finish early at home, but in a classroom down-time can spell disaster. I really appreciated the variety of activities so several extra could easily be prepared in advanced.

The craft we completed was a set of praying hands which the girls inserted their prayer requests into. I traced their hands and the girls cut the both out at the same time. They then glued the thumbs and pinky fingers together, leaving a pocket in the center.

We talked about praying for others and then they listed those individuals on slips of paper.

Grace joined us for our snack about prayer. As is typical for a 3 1/2-year-old she was not in the mood to participate at the time of our other activities. Cookies have a calming participation-encouraging affect in our house!

We talked about how sometimes we don't feel like is right there. I took apart a cookie and told them that just like the icing sticks the two cookies together, our prayers stick us close to God. I really liked this parallel and it's something I will definitely remember!

The Crew reviewed MANY more titles than these from Christianity Cove, so take some time to click through the reviews linked up below!