I had the same basic thoughts heading into our first parent meeting
just this past Sunday night. I wanted to present K4T in a "doable" way,
but I also knew from first hand observation (a parent of an 8-year
old), K4T was going to require much more parental involvement
throughout each week than did our previous children's ministry (AWANA).
I basically landed on 2 concepts: 1. REVIEW; 2. IMPLEMENTATION INTO
OTHER AREAS.
Let me explain:
1. REVIEW (K4T is based on REVIEW.)
WEEKLY - Memorizing 5 truths a week leaves 2 days for review.
MONTHLY - What is memorized and quoted in weeks 1 & 2 is memorized
and quoted in weeks 3 & 4 (week 3 mirrors week 1; week 4 mirrors
week 2). The difference b/t weeks 1/2 & 3/4 is that in weeks 1/2
the kids are quoting the truths ONE at a time, and in weeks 3/4 the
kids are quoting the truths FIVE at a time.
YEARLY - The
truths that a 1st grader memorizes will be the same truths he memorizes
in 3rd grade with the difference being there will be a longer catechism
answer and an extra verse or 2 over the course of 5 truths. In
addition, what he memorizes in 3rd grade he will memorize again in 5th
grade, again with a longer answer and a few more verses. The same is
truth with 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades. Obviously this benefit won't be
seen for several years, but over the long haul, it will greatly benefit
the kids!
2. IMPLEMENTATION INTO OTHER AREAS (Within our ministry and within individual families)
OUR MINISTRY - We have chosen to implement K4T into our Jr. Church
ministry each Sunday. The way we are planning to do this is with adult
supervision in each class to have the Sr. High teens teach the lessons
each week. They will also review the truths that the kids are working
on at that time. This implementation will also accomplish another
positive - teaching the teens the same truths (straight Bible doctrine,
Amen!)!
Our elementary teachers in our Christian school are
choosing their weekly Bible memory verses from the K4T books based on
what the kids are working on that week. By the way, the parents
appreciated this implementation greatly!
INDIVIDUAL
FAMILIES - We are encouraging parents to make their kid's TruthBook
their daily devotional book. When you see the daily content of the
TruthBooks, it doesn't take long to see this is a great idea!
We also encourage parents to use their kid's TruthBook for their family
devotions. This will accomplish another positive - teaching parents the
same truths (do I hear another Amen?!).
I have attached the
documents I made available to parents the night of our meeting. Parents
were given a week's schedule for their kid(s) grade to see how it would
look over the course of a week and a month. Weeks 3 & 4 are shaded
to note that they are REVIEW weeks.
Also, I told the
parents at the outset of the meeting that K4T might seem overwhelming,
but I asked them to think of one word every time they were tempted to
think this was impossible. The word was 'REVIEW'! We even said it
together as a group several times to 'practice'! :-) During the Q &
A time at the end of the meeting, several questions alluded to this
being impossible, at which time I reminded them what word they were to
remember. Hopefully they got the point! :-)
I have other thoughts on this topic that I will try to share in an additional reply. Hope this has been a help.