Dad School

Not to be confused with Home Schooling – though it is very similar, I have started something called “Dad School.” Now, all you home schoolers out there – don’t be offended that I’m not calling this home school, in fact, I’m seeking your advice! The only reason I’m making a distinction, is that home schooling is when you aren’t sending your kid to school. And my son does go to preschool and we will be sending him to full time school this fall. But in the meantime – I want to start pouring into him as his dad, while he is still in the home while he is young. There is so much I can teach him, and relationally the benefits will be huge! I already do an evening “Family Pit Stop” for spiritual formation, but I’d like to invest just one hour a day in teaching my son other skills that he needs as a young boy, especially areas he is struggling with in school. We had our “parent-teacher” conference last week and learned where he is struggling, and what is a parent to do, say “O.K., that’s interesting?” Not me. I prayed about it and decided, just as…

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Object Lessons on Steroids

Object Lessons on Steroids! That’s how I described Kidz Blitz when I first saw it at my church back in 1999 at the very first Kid U conference! Children’s Pastors have been using object lessons for as long as… well, since Jesus used them! But it was Roger Fields who decided to take them and blow them up ten times bigger. (Sometimes literally!) Roger Fields, the creator of Kidz Blitz, is a pioneer of Children’s Ministry. In fact – he was one of the first workshoop presenters I heard at my first CPC waaaay back in 1995 at my first CPC. I loved this guy’s passion and unique approach to ministry and knew right away he was a guy to watch, learn from, and one who would always approach ministry differently than everyone else. He isn’t afraid to try new things – whatever it takes to reach kids. (He was the one who brought leaders the Children’s Ministry Conference Cruise in 2001-2002 and is the creator of CMX!) Famous for his “T.P. Blower” – Roger is a guy who knows how to “BRING THE FUN” to a kids outreach event! Here is me “BRINGING THE T.P.” to Roger at CPC:…

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Cloud Technology – What Is It?

At CPC last week, I got to teach a workshop with Michael Chanley on technology – and it was a lot of fun! We bantered back and forth, live webcasted and confused half the room with everything we covered, but it was a blast! I demonstrated remote accessing my Macs back home as well as all my backup drives from my iPhone and iPad among other cloud perks and tried to answer questions on a wide variety of technology issues. I went over why Cloud Technology is so important – why it enables you to have access to all your data from anywhere from any device and never lose your data again, as well as the difference between POP and IMAP e-mail so your e-mail is all synced across all your devices. Plus we did webcasting with live chatting right from my iPhone – and showed how to do that for free and embed it on your website with live chat, also for free. (See it on my blog and Kidologytogo.org as well.) I’ve had a ton of requests for the workshop, so here’s what I’m gonna do. 1) Here is the PDF handout: DOWNLOAD HERE (668kb) 2) Here’s an…

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It’s Kid’s Ministry, Pal!

Despite the popularity of my ToyBox Tales, I don’t consider “voice impersonations” a talent of mine. I believe the secret of ToyBox Tales is simply the humor and (more importantly) a grown up entering the world of children and playing to teach the Bible – BUT, having said that – Micky Mouse is one voice I have down pat, so much so, when I do it at Disneyland, I get heads to turn and have people thinking the REAL mouse is coming around the corner! Granted, I usually only do this for my son, and when I do this at home, I add the word “Pal” to the end of every sentence. (Quite to the annoyance of my wife!) Well, Pal, I’m off to CPC 2011 in the morning, and it’s at Walt Disney World, PAL! – and it’s my zillionth CPC, Pal! (I’ve lost track – I haven’t missed a single one since 1995.) If you will be there, Pal – it’s a special year because KIDOLOGY IS EXHIBITING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER FIVE YEARS! So look for us next to DiscipleLand, Pal. Also, here are my workshops, all on Thursday: 8am – Technology – An Easier…

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Luke Walks Us Thru Jesus’ Life

As we started our Family Pit Stop yesterday I asked Luke if he would review for me our Bible Trading Cards. Sara grabbed my iPhone and Luke surprised us by going through all the cards with very little help. This wasn’t staged or planned. And while the video is a little longer than I normally would post – I post it first and foremost for family to enjoy and secondly as an encouragement to dads to show them just how effective just a few minutes a day is of being intentional with your kids in opening up the Bible (or Bible trading cards as the case may be) and teaching your kids the Word. It’s not the church’s job, it’s your job to teach your kids the Bible. (Deut. 6) Hear me dads: When we are doing our Pit Stop (as we call our family devotional time) Luke is often fiddling, fussing, fidgeting, etc. and I half wonder if he is “getting it” – but this video demonstrates that he is hearing it and learning, and there is lots he knows that comes up other times that isn’t reflected here in the video. It was especially touching when we got…

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