Praise God for Bible Activity Books!
As previously mentioned, Bible curriculum usually offers a variety of activities for teachers to do with their classes. This is a great thing because having choices gives the teacher some flexibility when planning their lessons. However, sometimes challenges arise with the provided activities and they won’t work for special situations. For example, sometimes the activities take too long for the allotted time period. Also, a lack of supplies can render an activity useless for that day. Room size and the number of students in class can also affect the activity plans. When the provided activities won’t work, the teacher must find something else to fill class time.
Also, there are days when the planned lesson gets completed earlier than expected. When this happens, the teacher must scramble to find something for the students to do to fill their time. It would be great if activity books were available so this extra time could be used for another Bible-teaching activity. Activity books, coloring books, puzzle books and similar materials can go a long way toward helping a teacher when he or she finds extra time in class that needs to be filled.
Searching for additional materials that go with the students’ Bible lessons, age group and abilities can be a real challenge. Over years of teaching in various children’s ministries, I spent quite a bit of time looking for activities and resources to go with our church’s Bible curriculum packages. Finding appropriate materials can be a burdensome chore.
To meet the challenges with activities and time slots, I learned to keep a selection of Bible activity books (of various kinds) on hand—just in case. These relatively inexpensive resources came in handy on several occasions. I even suggested keeping these books on hand to other Bible teachers.
Bible activity and coloring books could be even more useful if they contained a small basic lesson outline and scripture reference for each activity (like a themed book). By doing this, publishers could make these books useful to Christian schools, homeschooling families, youth groups, and even churches. These would also be great tools for people who cannot afford to purchase expensive textbooks or curriculum packages. With an activity book and a Bible, parents could more readily have a Bible activity time with their children at home. Older children could even look up the scripture references on their own or just do the activity for fun. Parents with students in public school could even schedule a short Bible time to teach their children, training them up in the ways of God.
Spending time with fun Bible activities could be a great alternative for our youth who now spend hours each day in front of the computer, electronic game machine or television watching deceptive, questionable or even evil games or programs. Many of our young people could use an alternative or even a break from all of the electronic gadgetry. Even cell phones can be addictive and can contain games and internet access to a whole world of evil.
Praise God for the fun activities included in Bible activity books. They can make learning the Bible challenging, yet fun and they can be a big help to parents and teachers alike. So why not take these Bible activity books and make them more available, cost effective and productive by including mini lesson plans that cover a wide range of timely (about Jesus and Christian living) topics from the Bible? This wouldn’t take much more of an investment of time and money but it could reap a vast eternal reward. What a wonderful reward it would be if people came to know and receive Jesus Christ through the pages of a Bible activity, coloring, or even a puzzle book!
*Christian * Education * Station 