What?
You may not have the time or people to run a weekly club, but you still want to reach out to the children in your community. One idea is a once-a-term fun club, held perhaps on a weekday afternoon, after school for 2 hours. Manageable, staffable, exciting in its novelty - it could be great!
Some ideas to get you going - adapt to fit your situation
- Keep clear in your mind why you’re doing this
- Focus the session around a season (e.g. Easter) or just before a key church event (e.g. family service) to which you can invite children
- Limit the places to what you’re confident with and what your room will hold
- Get the children to book their places.
- Keep a phone number for every child attending.
- Have one helper for every five children expected.
- Have a nominated First Aider.
- If you’re giving them tea, make sure your cook has the right Health and Safety certificate.
- Remember child protection and make sure all the helpers know not to be alone with a child.
- Have a programme clearly set out for all your helpers but be ready to be flexible.
- Have cheerful welcomers to bring them in.
- Have activities ready for them to get involved with as they come in (usually over a 20 minute period, bless ‘em) - games, craft, badge-making, big poster-making etc.
- Have somewhere for coats to be hung
- When everyone’s there, tell them your expectations and rules clearly and outline what is going to happen in the session. For rules, usually a simple - stay in this room, don’t go in the kitchen, this is what you do if you need the loo - will suffice.
- Ingredients could include a mixture of games - both run-around ones and quiet ones, craft, story, food, drama, dancing, quizzes, singing...
- Keep activities short and change before boredom kicks in - always leave them wanting more.
- Remember it’s FUN. You can still include a Bible message somewhere, but you don’t have to make every activity deep and meaningful!
- Get your teenagers helping out - great for extra pairs of hands and for children to see you don’t have to be old and wrinkly to be a Christian (i.e. over 22).
- Involve lots of people: invite older members of the church to teach the children crafts - knitting, water colours, crochet...
- Ask the Men’s Group or the Mothers’ Union to bake you some buns.
- Have a proper sit-round-the-table meal with adults sitting interspersed with children - this may be the only TV free ‘family meal’ some children get.
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