New Blog

I have been thinking of creating a themed blog or website for a while and one thing that I love doing is christian children's work. I'm not an expert - more of an enthusiastic amateur - but have been involved in various activities over the years. I am aiming to gather together resources on the web and experiences from stuff I've done so that I can find them easily and so others can too.

This will kind of be a cross between a blog and a website so things might move around a bit as I sort them out but have a look and let me know what you think.

Current Sections:

New Wine Kids' Workers' Day

Planning A Holiday Club

Games

Games - Moving Around Games - Stuck in the Mud

This is an old favorite. Its a version of tag. You pick a few children to be 'it'. Every one else runs around trying to aviod being touched by these that are on 'it'. If they are touched they need to stop and stand with their arms outstretched as though they are stuck in the mud. They can be freed from the mud by a person who has not been tagged running under their arms. (If the children are of a similar size and you think it is appropriate you can let them be freed by a nother player running under their legs.) The game ends when every one is stuck in the mud or you think it is time to stop of change the people who are it. If you have some means of identifying who is it - i.e. a tabbard or tape to put over them then it would be a good idea to do this.

FUSS - September

After the summer off and under new management we started again with Fuss. We didn't advertise this one a great deal but still got a reasonable turn out. We played a few simple games to start with and then split off into the three zones as per usual.
The games we palyed were:
Musical chairs (with paper instead of chairs).
Stuck in the mud
and Musical statues.

Games - Misc Games - DIY Obstacle Course

In this game I gave teams of children paper and pens and some objects to include in an obstacle course. I told each team to use the paper to design signs that would lead a member of the opposing team around the obstacle course. Once they had made signs and arrows etc... they demonstrated the course to the opposing team and then each team attempted the opposing teams course. The needn't be a winner as the teams that looses obviously made the best signs.

Games - Misc Games - Pictorial Simon Says

This came came out of my own fevered imagination and actually, to my surprise, worked quite well. I prepared a number of simple pictures with stick men performing simple actions (with arrows to indicate movement is necessary) and used them instead of saying the action in the style of the traditional game of Simon Says - and if Simon didn't say it then they are out and if he did then that's fine. I have used this as an introduction to the game "DIY Obstacle Course".

FUSS - June

It's that time of the month again. Only this month and then we are having a party next month and then we are having August off.
I'm not sure what activities to do yet but am mulling over ideas in my head. I find it hard with such a busy life to find time to sit down and plan things like this. Is is easier to let it fester away at the back of my mind until things coalesce into a meaningful whole. I'll let you know what coalesces.

Well it did finally coalesce - though into a rather complicated game. I am just glad the other leaders are very resourceful at taking my instructions and turning them into constructive activities. The games we played were:
Pictorial Simon Says
and
DIY Obstacle Course
The children seemed to enjoy it. It was a bit chaotic and I think the teams should have been smaller - we had 2 teams of 15, whereas teams of 8 or less would have worked better.

FUSS - May

I didn't go to FUSS this month as I was at the new wine kid's worker's day. It is good to be able to allow those who lead at children's things to have the freedom to not be present every week We shouldn't feel trapped into beng made to be there, we should feel a commitment to the work we are doing but not a guilt if we are unalbe to come everytime.

One of the activities that was done were building structures from spagetti (uncooked). I loved doing this when I was younger. I'm not sure how it went but I bet it was fun to clean up!.