LITTLE KIDS WORSHIP PRESENTS... THE ABC'S OF THE BIBLE

$19
My whole life I have prepared and practiced for becoming a teacher and a mom.

At the age of 12, I took the Red Cross babysitting class. Before the signature on my certification card had dried, I was riding through the neighborhood looking for children to babysit.

When our high school youth group went on mission trips, I would plan crafts and games for the children we would visit, while the rest went on to paint fences.

After graduating with a dual major in education, I was certified to teach children in the state of Ohio from birth through eighth grade.

I worked as a teacher by day, helped run the Sunday school program on the weekend and taught vacation Bible school in the summer.

After years of writing church curriculum 1-6 weeks at a time… I had an idea.

What if we wrote a 52 week curriculum for children ages 4-6?

First off – no one but ME wanted to commit to that. And, second, what would we pick? In my decade + of church curriculum experience, there were a few observations I had that led me to this question:

Church curriculum in 2000 was VERY expensive. It came in kits that cost hundreds of dollars.
My friends who were starting home churches couldn’t afford the curriculum, and it came with more sets of materials than they needed for their handful of children.
Our mega church didn’t have a mega curriculum budget. In order for our church mission to be accomplished, our curriculum budget was 10 cents per child per weekend.
Our children’s curriculum was being taught based on themes instead of as a comprehensive Bible series.

Since I was young and ambitious, I decided to GO FOR IT and write a 52 week curriculum for 4-6 year olds that covered 52 Bible stories. The curriculum was designed to be taught 2 years in a row so that the children would hear each of the stories twice.

I started to get excited and knew there were a few more things I wanted to include in my curriculum.

Our church is run by volunteers. Some have only been to church a few times! I wanted my curriculum to be easy enough for anyone to walk into a classroom and teach with only minutes of notice.

I started to get excited and knew there were a few more things I wanted to include in my curriculum.

Our church is run by volunteers. Some have only been to church a few times! I wanted my curriculum to be easy enough for anyone to walk into a classroom and teach with only minutes of notice.

I wanted each lesson to flow like a mini preschool day – Bible Verse, Bible Story, Snack, Craft and Prayer.

Each lesson had a coloring page for transitions and a prewritten parent activity page for extensions.

I decided to organize the Bible stories by the letters of the alphabet instead of in chronological order. In my mind, I thought I might use this as a kindergarten homeschool curriculum for my kiddos in the future.

Writing

I was busy writing and implementing the curriculum in our church. I received many compliments. I think the simplicity of the lessons as well as the familiarity of repetition put both the kids and the teachers at ease.

I also gave the curriculum to some of my friends who were home churching and launching churches. It worked well in all settings.

We spent hours coloring child sized Bible characters to line the halls of our church. The kids really got to know who Adam and Moses and Joseph were.

For 7 years, our church used that curriculum – long enough for both our kiddos to go through the curriculum twice!

God’s timing

I also gave the curriculum to some of my friends who were home churching and launching churches. It worked well in all settings.

We spent hours coloring child sized Bible characters to line the halls of our church. The kids really got to know who Adam and Moses and Joseph were.

For 7 years, our church used that curriculum – long enough for both our kiddos to go through the curriculum twice!

I had written this curriculum 4 years prior, but at just that time, the shift in curriculum writing was moving and 52 week curriculums were just being created.

Since mine was already done, it went to print and was available for purchase 16 months later!

While the book was being published, I was given the opportunity to be a contributing author to the Magnify Series. I was a REAL author!

I had written this curriculum 4 years prior, but at just that time, the shift in curriculum writing was moving and 52 week curriculums were just being created.

Since mine was already done, it went to print and was available for purchase 16 months later!

While the book was being published, I was given the opportunity to be a contributing author to the Magnify Series. I was a REAL author!

God’s provision

Back when I wrote the curriculum for our church, we had a meeting. It was decided that since I wasn’t on staff, the curriculum would remain my intellectual property. I never charged the church the 7 years they used it, and when they were ready for a change – they changed.

I had based my lessons and the Bible stories on Thomas Nelson’s My First Study Bible by Paul Loth

Most books are published and done within 6 months. This curriculum was purchased with the intent to sell it for years and in multiple countries. BUT, if they ever did stop selling the book, I could get the rights back.

After eight years as a published Thomas Nelson author, I now have the rights back to my book and have released it as an eBook.

Eight years later, I don’t need to change a word in my introduction; it all still rings true.

Allow me to introduce you to Little Kids Worship Presents… The ABC’s of the Bible.

$19
Little Kids Worship is a culmination of my dream to make the Bible come alive for young children ages 3-6. As an early childhood educator, I believe this preschool age group has been given special gifts to help them know God in an intimate way.

“Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them. The kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these little children.”

Mark 10:14 ICB

Young children learn best through repetition, routines, movement, and predictability. Little Kids Worship is based on a familiar routine each week, consisting of a story, discussion, craft, weekly Bible verse, snack, worship and prayer. When used in a church setting, a parent page is sent home at the end of each class, communicating with the parents the week’s theme and Bible verse and related at home activities.

In addition to the ABC theme, Little Kids Worship has a unique interactive component between the children and the Bible. At the beginning of each lesson, a Bible character is introduced using the narrative in My First Study Bible by Tommy Nelson Publishing. As the year progresses, the children meet more and more Bible characters, providing both repetition of characters as well as a concrete way to bring the Bible alive to children.

Little Kids Worship provides small and large churches an easily duplicable curriculum with easy to follow directions. The Vineyard Community Church in Springdale, Ohio, has been using Little Kids Worship in their church school for over 5 years. I am excited about the possibility of sharing Little Kids Worship with more families and churches like yours. Thank you for choosing a Little Kids Worship product to make the Bible come alive for the children in your life.

🙂

Lisa Woodruff