Wednesday, 12 November 2008
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Using Awana To Teach Your Children About Jesus?
Guest post submitted by kristenmomof3
What are your thoughts on Awana? Do you have children that have done Awana? What did you think? Tell me the positives and negatives!
If you have no idea what Awana is, here is what I have found so far on the web. Awana is an acronym for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed, from 2 Timothy 2:15. The organization supplies local churches with weekly clubs, programs and Bible training for students in preschool through high school. It seems to be an expensive program, as parents need to pay for workbooks, vests and things like that.
Participants typically meet once a week throughout the school year. The focus of the curriculum is on the presentation of the gospel and Scripture memorization. Most programs include a group teaching time, individual one-on-one time with a leader to review the lessons learned that week, and a time for games.
For each child or teen the components of the program include:
1. a handbook that allows each child to learn at their own pace;
2. a uniform shirt or vest, and;
3. awards that are earned as the child or teen successfully completes the requirements of a section of the handbook, usually including Scripture memorization.
Awana is a non-denominational program and licenses the curriculum to any church willing to pay for and use the Awana materials consistent with its principles
What are your thoughts on Awana?
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Comments (41)
It's a fun program that works (in my opinion) because there's competition in the program. Competition is key in getting kids to do things (for me at least) and getting kids memorizing scripture at such a young age helps them on their way to becoming more Christ-like; they can quote verses, or even passages, at the drop of a hat and they will be helpful if they get in trouble (spiritual trouble of course).
I went through AWANA (first grade through eighth, and was a leader in training all through highschool) and my kids are in AWANA.
The kids love having an activity to do, they love the game time, and they love earning the awards for memorization. The mental training and challenge that memorization affords is useful in the temporal, and the verses permanently engraved in little hearts are useful in the eternal.
Once a week, very seldom do they have "extra" things, no down side as far as this mama is concerned.
i remember being in charge of a group of kids while this program was going on at my old church. they HATED it. the only ones who were entertained were under the age of four. everyone else said they felt like they were being talked down to.
I absolutely LOVE Awana...I was in it 4th-9th grade, and have led the Kindergarten Sparks group for 3 years (going on my 4th year now!). I know Awana works because it led every one of my family member's salvations, including my own. Also, scripture memory is so important but so overlooked these days, and it's wonderful to have that discipline from a young age!
When I was a kid I went through a program similar to Awana, it was called Sonlight. I think it's great...I have been to Awana with some friends before, I know people who have done it and I think it's cool.
My daughter was in Awana for a while and loved it! I think, as with everything, it's a matter of participation. The adults have to make it fun and informative for the kids. All in all, I think it is a great program!
I've never heard of Awana - but it sounds VERY similar to the GEMS group my daughter goes to (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour) and the Cadets group my son used to go to. The emphasis with both of these groups is outreach, teaching the children there the gospel using stories, devotions, memorization and songs. They also do a lot of social events together.
I've been in awana since kindergarten (12th grade now) and I don't think I've ever liked it, and since high school I've strongly disliked it. First though, I'm quite grateful for the program because through it I've been able to learn so many verses. I don't like awana though because (surely most awana clubs aren't like this, but mine and many of my friends' clubs are) it's turned legalistic (again, not saying the entire awana program, but I'm refering to my awana program). There are other reasons which I won't get to on here, but they are there.
But, I owe a lot to awana. First off, I LOVE awana camp. Secondly, I was saved at awana camp.
I've been an AWANA leader for the past two years and I think it's pretty helpful. It's actually been helpful for myself cause I get to re-go through all the versus and get the ingrained in my head by the kids.. also, it's supposed to teach the children discipline and respect etc etc through the training/routines each week. It seems like a lot of fun, I think it would have been cool to go through...but I guess the older you get the weirder it would become to do it, I'd probably stop my kids from going after they enter grade 7.
I was in Awana from 4th grade till 11th and I loved it. As an adult now, these verses still come back to me when needed. It is a great foundation to have.
All my children attended AWANA at some point. I have our 6 year old in the Sparkies program right now. They all loved it. The 4 older children stopped going because of other activities. (basically they couldn't do everything and I made them choose, AWANA lost.) I would never make them continue if they didn't want to. (They would have to finish out the year if they started it though). Our 6 year old loves it. I think a lot depends on the leaders. My son has a lot of fun and he is like a sponge with the verses! I wish I had a memory like him!
I never saw any down side to it.
I went through the Awana program from Sparkies through JV. (a few years ago) I loved it!!Now my younger sibs are in it and they love it to! Not only did it help me learn lots of verses, and more about God, but I made lots of good friends. The one thing that I have noticed in the lasst couple of years and that I don't like is that it seems like they are dumbing down the Cubbies program, it used to be that the child was sllowed to do as many sections as they could in one week, however in the cubbies program now, they are only allowed to do 1 section a week unless they get behind. And in the older grades the only let the kids go through one book a year, the kids around here seem to get them done just over half way through the year and then they don't really have anything to do during the recitation time the rest of the year. Maybe this is just our program though.
I taught my youngest daughter's class of Cubbies last year (3&4s), and had a older daughter in TnT. This year I have a Sparks. I think the program is great. We have over 150 kids attend on Wednesday nights for our program and probably only 60 are our "normal" church kids. It's been a great outreach program and most importantly, the kids are learning. They're learning scripture and concepts. It's great. There are suggestions on how to do the program, but we've tailored it to meet our needs.
i was about 10 when AWANA came to our church. i was already set in my ways and rebelled against participating in the program.
well, this is our 25th year with AWANA and all 3 of my kids are in/have been through the AWANA program. from Cubbies to TREK (we don't do the high school part here).
I think AWANA is a great program for reaching kids that wouldn't normally come to church with their families. every year we have so many salvation decisions and it just makes my heart glad to know i will see these kids in the Kingdom one day.
we have a very awesome council time director who really brings it to the kids' level. be is Sparks or T&T. they get it. she makes it fun and then BAM! throws out the "moral of the story" before they even expect it. she's great!
And don't even get me started on our fabulous game director...haha...he's my dad!
anyway. we have a pretty successful program and our kids love it! i have been a leader for over 10 years and a game director for 2 or 3 of those years. I LOVE AWANA!!
@living_in_the_Spirit - that's too bad. My one son started Sparks in 2nd grade and he did all the books and reviewed the first one. He loved it. And he didn't even know how to read when he started! I was wondering how I would have time to help him, and he was inspired to learn to read so he could memorize the stuff on his own and he did! He was so excited to come home with a bag of candy...cause he did so many verses at once! Unfortunately his older brother was in 6th grade and had a horrible leader, and when I went early to pick him up one time, they were in the meeting room, the leaders had nothing organized so the kids were loud and all they did was yell at them. I found out this was the regular way of running things. Also when the other boys were done with their books my son was continuously put down(by his leader) for not being done yet(he started late November, later than everyone else) and he was doing a good job where the others did the minimum. He would be learning and the others were watching tv....it was bad. But the leaders for k-2 were so good, it was like day and night.
I was in AWANA, back in the dark ages- (I am, now, a Young-Grandma of two, perfectly-perfect, grandbabyboys!)...and it was a Wonderful experience for me...I still remember many Bible Verses I learned there and all the Books of the Old and New Testament, as well as So many awesome Bible stories and praise songs...Not sure if they still have "AWANA Olympics, but that was oh so fun, too!!!( I was raised in a Catholic household and needed our Priests' permission before my mom would let us go there)..I have since become a, "plain old Christian"...lol...and love all the stories, etc, here on Revelife...Thanks to ALL of you who share your feelings, here!
Honestly, my first encounter with Awana was when I was in like 6th or 7th grade, and I think it might have been the reason that I didn't become a Christian for another 4-5 years.
I hate saying that, because I honestly believe Awana is a good program now because it really does train kids up in the word which is a beautiful thing, but it is not something that I think non-believers should be a part of, I guess.
As a non-believer the sword drill just caused an anxiety attack, as we were split into teams and my team got mad at me that I couldn't find the verse at all, let alone fast. I'm sorry, I've never cracked a bible before and I have no idea what order these books are in, so I had to go to the table of contents.
Then there was this weird ice-breaker activity where we we relay teams and we had to crawl on our hands and knees to the other end of the gym and pick up milkbones (for dogs) with our teeth and bring them back. The team who got the most milkbones at the end won. As if that wasn't bad or weird enough, when we were done the youth leader ate a milk bone and encouraged the students to do the same. And everyone (except me) was standing around eating the milkbones.
I left that night thinking Christians were out of their flippin minds and I never wanted to be a Christian. Fortunately God brought me to himself in his good time, but I'm not convinced Awana is a place for non-believing children.
AWANA is excellent! It teaches children, at their formidable age, to memorize Scripture that will stay with them, implanted in their minds. The awards are also a plus. This shows that there is a reward for using and putting to use Bible knowledge. AWANA is also a great way to make friends - likeminded. Some of my very best friends were made through the AWANA program. The ONLY negative I have is that some Churches only go through 7th grade and also that they have been changing the format....that can be confusing. However, the good GREATLY outweighs the bad.
I don't have kids but I was in AWANA for one year (6th grade) and this is my 7th year volunteering as an AWANA leader. On the whole I think it's a good program, especially since they've revamped all their books and materials. They used to be SO UGLY and now they're bright and cute and kid-friendly.
I would have to say that the only downside, for me, is that I don't agree with everything being taught. It's nondenominational, yes, but the teachings seem very..Baptist, and I am not. lol. But don't worry, don't worry! I teach the kids what's in the books. That's what I'm there to do..
Mari-awana?
"We run, we jump, we swim, we play. We row, we go on trips.
But the thing that lasts for ever, are our dear friendships."
Oh wait, that's Anawanna....
I did AWANA as a 6th grader, and then since the curriculum at my church ended, I became a leader and helped out with Sparkies and whatever the 3rd and 4th grade girls were (I don't remember, it was a looooong time ago). I think it is an excellent program to teach kids the Bible and stuff like that. I still remember verses and "Christianese" terms I learned in AWANA, over 13 years later.
However, there is definitely the potential for legalism, such as saying "for" instead of "to" when memorizing a verse. If you have the reference and the gist of the verse, I'm pretty sure it's going to be just as useful as it would be had you perfectly committed to memory the NKJV version. It really depends on the church and the leaders.
I went to AWANA from preschool to 6th grade. I don't look back and regret it, nor do I look back and think it was something to shape my life. I was home schooled, as are many of the kids who go to AWANA, so it was in a way my social outlet as a child. I am sure it was beneficial also to have learned so many verses (though I couldn't necessarily site many to you, I am sure they helped mold my worldview).
On the negative side, and this is just from my experience, but a lot of the churches who hold AWANA are VERY conservative, and as in any religious group/church, if it is all one ever knows, it can make it difficult for kids to grow up and know how to function in the world and talk to people who are different than them.
There is also the tendency for cheese-ball nursery rhyme songs that teach children the jist of biblical events, without any real knowledge or understanding of what really happened (I guess that is also typical of a lot of Children churches, so if you don't have a problem with it than this isn't really an issue, just my opinion.)
It's a really good program. Yes, you do have to pay for vests and books, but some churches have sponsors that help with that. But, I look at it this way, I pay for baseball fees, equipment and uniforms that would be more expensive than that. I've heard somewhere that if you child goes successfully through all the levels, they have a college scholarships available! That to me is reason enough. The benefits of it are tremendous. They learn so many verses and biblical teachings. I've seen big changes in my son's attitudes. It teaches them responsibility. They have to have their Bibles and their vests each week. There is a point system for remembering their things. So they learn consequences, as well. Some churches do a better job of it than others.
@TrumvilleOrbison@xanga - hmm I think the majority of churches who hold AWANA are baptist or Assembly of God. This could be why you feel that way - the leaders probably are from the churches, so there is probably some influence there also.