Little Hearts as Children's Church Curriculum?

[patekake]

Ladies, I would appreciate your thoughts on how this would work. This is my first year with HOD and CTC has been an amazing experience!!! I wished that I had discovered HOD earlier so that we could have had the opportunity to use the younger programs. I am the Director of the Children's Ministry at our church (recently went back after resigning in March) and would love to use Little Hearts during our Children's church time.
I have read where others have used HOD for their classes at church, and I would like suggestions on how to make it work. My heart's desire is for more children to experience this amazing journey through the Bible. I teach 3 yrs old - 2nd grade all together and that is the reason that I was looking at Little Hearts.
Any suggestions?


Patti

[crlacey]

After having used Little Hearts, I imagine you would just be using the left side of the page with the Bible history reading, the memory verse, the devotional thought, the rhymes in motion and the activity relating to the history reading. I believe that gives you roughly the first 20 weeks or so of Little Hearts. I think (though maybe someone who has the manual can help since a friend has mine) that sometime not long after week 20, you start using the Little Pilgrims book more and the Bible stories less.

[my3sons]

I used Little Hands in the church setting with a big group of 2-5 year olds. We did it once a week during a women's Bible study time for about an hour or more. We got through about half a unit's worth of plans each time, and finished the first half of the guide one year, and the second half of the guide the second year. We checked off the boxes as we did them, and rotated sit down activities with get up and move activities. We did the Fingerplays a bunch of times. We marched around to the music. It was a big hit! We also had a snack time in the middle. It was a blast, and the parents commented on how much their dc enjoyed coming. I know LHFHG would be different, butI hope something here helps, and bless your heart for taking on that position in your church.

In Christ,
Julie

[rainbowacreshs]

Hi! This is our first year with HOD too. I started using LHTH this past summer in small chunks with my 4 & 5 year old Sunday School Class. I pretty much use the following with the class:
Fingerplay
Bible Story
The Singing Bible or other Bible Sunday School songs that fit the lesson
Bible Activity
Art Activity or one of my choosing that fits the lesson
From LHFHG--- Devotions for the Children's Hour ---Awesome resource!!!! This gives an extra and deeper devotion for my older ones and has been great in helping me answer their questions about God.

I also add a Bible verse that fits the lesson. We used Gen. 1:1 for all of Unit 1.

I started over once Septemeber came around and began with Unit 1, doing one day each Sunday.
We just wrapped up Unit 1 this past Sunday and I can tell you LHTH has been a hit with the kids. There is more action and animation from my lil guys than ever before. They have been eager to do more and even ask for more story. Adam and the Animals was a blast to do each week. As an art activity to draw the whole thing together, I had the kids make a class mural of Adam and Eve in the garden. We hung that on a bulletin board in the main foyer for all the church to see .I'll try and get a picture of that posted this week...

All I can say is compared to the previous curriculum we were using to using LHTH now... Wow what an amazing difference in the lil ones desires to learn!

[patekake]

Thank you, ladies. You have been so helpful. Do you think Little Hands could be used for 3 year olds - 2nd grade? Again, thank you for any suggestions.

Patti

[Shimmer]

I'm looking at starting a children's service during the sermon part of our church's service. I'm trying to target 4-8 year olds and I'd like it to be pretty interactive. It'll be about 20-25 minutes. I would have never dreamed of starting this a year ago. It's amazing what HOD can do for you.

I'm trying to get this going asap. My first idea is to use the ABC Bible Verses devotional book from Little Hands and make the devotional story a puppet show or skit instead of a reading.

If anyone could share more ideas on adapting HOD to children's church, I'd love to hear it. Also please PM me if you have any additional thoughts or resources to share.

Thanks so much!