Week 1, 1-20-08

1-20-08

This week I observed at my home church because I was at home for a family gathering.

I spent three hours in church, to observe Sunday school, take part in the worship service and for fellowship time after the service.

I had the opportunity to observe this Sunday school class that was taught by Mrs. Chamberlin, who is also my good friend’s mother. This class was comprised of about ten first grade students. As I came into the class, it was funny to see the reaction that the students had. Most of them seemed confused and others laughed (I don’t know why). But I was introduced and the children took turns telling me their names. It was interesting because in a class that small, there were actually two sets of twins. They had been given a paper to color as they came in, so they were intently working on coloring. After they were done coloring, they went into the lesson time.

It has been a long time since I was this age, so I don’t remember much of what happened when I was in Sunday School, but this seemed different. Each student was given an age appropriate Bible in which they took turn reading out of. I thought this was interesting because at this age it takes a child what seems like forever to get through one paragraph reading out loud. The kids were more disruptive during this time. (I think they liked looking through the Bible at the picture drawings that depicted different stories.) But Mrs. Chamberlin only had to say “hey” somewhat loud in order to regain their attention. After that, they seemed to follow the message out of the book of Matthew very well.

At the end of class, there were several volunteers to pray. As they were praying I couldn’t help notice how funny their prayers were. For example, one girl prayed for her brother to be nice to her, haha :). But overall I thought this was a very good class, the students seemed to comprehend and it seemed like they had a good relationship built with Mrs. Chamberlin.

I am curious about these age appropriate Bibles that they were using. I would like to know if it is better to use an age appropriate Bible, or just to use a set curriculum. What would the advantages or disadvantages be?

Also, Is it better for students to read and interact at that age, or is it better to read a lesson to them and have a different type of interaction?