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A Fun Game with Stacking Cups

I try to use Sport Stacking cups any chance I get because they always engage and excite kids, and they can be a great learning tool too. Tonight I was tasked with teaching on teamwork and how we all must work together using our different gifts and talents. So, as I often do when I need to teach is I mine the incredible content found in DiscipleTown units and looked that the How to Discover Gifts and Talents, and found a great game! In the lesson it suggested numbered Styrofoam cups (since that is available to anyone) but I prefer to use Speed Stacks cups. I made two sets of ten cups using ten different colors. (Yeah, I own a lot of stacking cups, including many discontinued colors.) Then I made slips of papers with the colors names on them. To choose volunteers I simply passed out the slips one at a time to ten volunteers. The Rules: They needed to make a pyramid, BUT they could only touch the cup of the color they were assigned. Teamwork and communication were needed! Round One: Simple pyramid, one on two on three on four cups. Any order, but each child could…

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WHY I Do What I Do

Do you know what gets me out of bed in the morning? It is one passionate belief. “I believe that more than anything, kids need Jesus – and in order to reach them effectively, ministry needs to be FUN, CREATIVE and loaded with TRUTH.” – Karl Bastian That is WHY I founded Kidology.org 20 years ago – and it is the driving force behind EVERYTHING we do at Kidology. Whether you are looking at curriculum like DiscipleTown or Stickers Through the Bible – you will find that it is FUN, CREATIVE and loaded with TRUTH. Even the fun games we create, like our Bible Clue Hunts or Christmas Bingo, are designed because we know that to effectively reach kids, church must not only be FUN, but the products must be loaded with TRUTH and something new and CREATIVE in order to capture the hearts and minds of children. Even the 100+ Resource Providers we present in our store are selected because they offer FUN ideas in a CREATIVE way to teach the TRUTH. If YOU believe that kids need Jesus… And if YOU believe ministry must be CREATIVE and FUN… And if YOU are passionate above solid TRUTH over fluff……

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My Thanksgiving Lesson

Just wanted to post what I did for Thanksgiving this year and provide a link where you can get the PowerPoints I made for the lesson – it was a lot of fun and really got the kids thinking! As an introduction we played my Thanksgiving Gimmie Gimmie Game, which is always a TON of FUN! I introduce it by telling the kids there is something that spoils our attitude of gratitude, it is something I like to call “the gimmie gimmies.” It is when we start thinking about what we want, and forget all we have! I ask the kids, “how many of you are already thinking, or maybe even asking, about what you want for Christamas?” (hands go up!) “Have you thought yet about what you want to give?” (blank looks!) Below is my quick PowerPoint I used for explaining the rules. I had about 150 kids playing, so you’ll notice I used 5 cards per kid in my rules, even though in the official game, it says 7 cards each. I modified for our large group. We played for five minutes and it was a blast. If you have never played “Gimmie Gimmie” – you have GOT…

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If Angels Could Sing…

Before you watch this incredible new video from Pentatonix, I’d like you to consider something. A professor of mine in Bible college suggested an interesting theory he had about angels based on a textual study of the Bible’s original languages. An interesting fact, that while we often talk about “angelic choirs” or say someone “sings like an angel,” nowhere in Scripture are angels ever recorded as singing. But often, the saints are and we are commanded to! Keep in mind, this is a theory based on an argument from silence. So while we can’t say the Bible says “angels can’t sing,” – there is no evidence that they can in the original languages of the Bible. As Dr. James used to say, I will also say, “I sure hope they do! I bet they are amazing.” The point is simply that perhaps singing was a gift given uniquely to humans as a means of worship? Note, in Job 38:7, states that on the first day of creation, the angels “shouted for joy.” Consider that the classic Christmas play scene of children dressed as singing angels (as adorable as it is) doesn’t match the biblical text where the angels were “praising…

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WIN a FREE What’s in the Bible Christmas Series!

Want to win a FREE copy of What’s in the Bible’s Why Do We Call in Christmas? I know you do. And not just because it’s free, but because anything created by Phil Vischer and his team you know is going to be fun, engaging, educational and pretty easy to use. Let’s face it, Christmas is filled with a lot of fun, but confusing stuff! Cutting down trees, eggnog, hanging stockings, that Santa character, and more. Somewhere in the midst of it there is a Nativity Scene too. This December, I highly recommend you take your kids on an adventure with Buck Denver* and the gang to explore the true meaning of Christmas like never before. What I love about What’s in the Bible is that it’s not just fun, but tackles stuff that many curricula ignore or overlook – deep stuff even – but does it in a way that captures kids eyes and hearts while engaging their minds. This 4 week series includes customizable lessons in addition to the great videos, helpful leader guides, printable games and activities, take home cards, and more. And get this: Online access lets you lead from your iPad! How cool is that!?…

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