A ‘normal’ Sunday School probably involves singing, sharing for prayer, a craft, maybe a game and at the very least a Bible Story with a chance to ask questions about what it means for us. Church services have often moved to some kind of streaming which works great for sermons but less well for small group situations.
That all becomes very tricky when you’re stuck at home with kids who might normal be split by age into different groups and with only the crafting implements you would normally have. Leave a comment with any resources you’ve found useful.
So here we have 5 resources that can help you to do Sunday School at home.
Let’s start by blowing my own trumpet: On this very website there’s a series of Digital Sunday School lessons which include a story, questions to link it to our lives today, memory verses, links to youtube videos for singing together and some crafty, and less crafty, activities you can try throughout the day or week.
At the moment there are four available and producing two more a week seems like a sustainable pace to keep up with so you could do a midweek Bible lesson if you wanted. The series will be 20 lessons long and each lesson is based on God healing someone - wonder where I got that idea!
1. Digital Sunday School
Ages 5-10
2. Big Picture Bible Crafts
Ages 3-10
If you’re looking for craft resources my friend Gail Schoonmaker, illustrator of the Big Picture Story Bible, has written a book, Big Picture Bible Crafts that takes you through the major plotpoints in craft form. The book is excellent and Crossway Publishers have made it available free on PDF (although I would definitely recommend buying it for the long haul if, like me, you’re a Bible teacher who isn’t strong on the craft side). Each craft comes with a resource list, a Bible passage a memory verse and how you can adjust it for different ages and abilities!
My go-to videos for Bible Stories are Crossroads Kids Club. The God’s Story series are short, thoughtful, with high quality animation and designed to show how this individual story fits in to God’s greater rescue plan. They’ve made loads of them, I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find one that fits in with any other material you are or have been using.
3. Crossroads Kids Club
Ages 3-12
4. Olly Knight Worship Music
All ages
If you want some family friendly music Olly Knight and family are producing regular worship sessions live on Facebook (they also post the lyrics) - they’re chatty, they’ll read the comments and praise Jesus. So why not grab whatever instruments you have and your dancing feet and join in.
The Village Church is super committed to Bible Education run by the church and has a massive selction of resources you should check out. Including a podcast for kids! Originally designed to be something you could play on a car journey they’d be great for younger kids at home as well. They are very American so come with a healthy dollop of cheese, but when that dollop is on a serving of easy to understand, well grounded Bible stories form John, then it’s very stomachable. They even include original songs. Search for God’s Big Story wherever you get your podcasts from.
5. God’s Big Story Podcast
Ages 3-8