#KidsMin from A to Z: Butcher Paper & Bible's

First off, is anyone else out there in Blog land absolutely freezing?  I love a good winter day as much as the next person but this southern girl is no where near ready for 5 degree temperatures with a -8 including the wind chill.  I mean that is bone chilling cold!  And... I'm just saying that if it's going to be this cold that it could at least snow as a courtesy.  If this polar vortex or whatever it's called isn't going to provide me with white and fluffy snow it can just move on out of my corner of the world.  (And all my southern friends said... Amen!)

Today is Day 2 of my #KidsMin from A to Z series.
I got some great feedback on yesterday's blog and am excited about continuing. 

A is for Attendance & AWANA

Butcher Paper: To see a post I wrote last year on Butcher Paper feel free to visit here.  

There are so many things that you can do with butcher paper that I recommend that everyone have a couple of rolls lying around.  It's great for covering toddler tables before coloring.  Unless of course you love having to spend your Thursday mornings scrubbing crayon marks off of your white table.  It's great for throwing on the floor and having your kids make a mural with that extra five minutes that you weren't prepared for.  My preschoolers love to be traced!  It's by far one of their favorite activities.  And butcher paper is great for tracing.  You can buy your butcher paper at office or school supply stores and it will last you forever!  I promise you.  I haven't bought any in over a year and I still have a lot left.

Bibles: I am the biggest advocate and believer that you will ever find in having your kids bring their Bible's to church!  The Bible is the lifeline for Christians.  You won't ever need a phone a friend or poll the audience when you have that with you.  It is the guiding force for our whole life and I want my kids to be familiar with what is in it.  I want them to know where the book of Habakkuk and Zephaniah is in the Bible.  I want them to know the difference between the Old and the New Testament.  Bibles are important!  If any of my kids don't have a Bible I will provide one for them.  I buy cases of 20 and hand them out as needed.  All of my kids deserve to have a Bible.  I encourage them to mark in it, to highlight there favorite verses, and to carry them in their backpacks.  When I'm teaching Sunday School I wait for every child to find our verse before I read it so that they can get familiar with what we are doing.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that kids don't need to bring their Bible's or be familiar with them.  They do!  I encourage my kids to read their Bible's at home and to study them and to ask me questions. 

For a post on some of my favorite Bible's for kids visit here.  

What are some creative ways that you use butcher paper in your ministries? 

And how do you encourage your kids to bring their Bibles?

Come back tomorrow for letter C... Communication & Curriculum! 

Let's talk about it! 

Butcher Paper

My Wednesday night program begins at 6:30 PM.  My registration opens at 6:00 PM.  This leaves me with 30 minutes of time to occupy my early birds with.  And arrive early they do.  By 6:10 I have anywhere from 15-20 little ones already running around my sanctuary.

This leaves me with a slight problem.

What to do with those 30 minutes.  We all know that if we leave that many little ones with nothing organized to do that the sanctuary will quickly erupt into chaos.  And many nights, that can be exactly what happens.  However, I try my best to make sure that we have organized activities waiting on the kids from 6:00-6:30 PM.  This year on the 1st Wednesday of every month we are going to have Butcher Paper night!

If you work with kids butcher paper should be your new best friend.

This was a super simple and easy pre-service activity to set up.  I literally rolled out 3 long sheets of butcher paper, put crayons in bins, and let the kids have at it!  Kids love to color and express themselves and something about coloring on paper on the floor just makes everyone happy.

I usually greet kids and parents on arrival at our check-in point so when I walked into the sanctuary at 6:28 last night to get ready for the opening I saw happy kids and volunteers calmly coloring on the floor.

I'd call that a #KidsMin win.