It wasn’t long ago that what I consistently heard from our son on Sunday mornings was along these lines:

“Mom, I don’t want to go to church.” “Mom, it’s boring.” “Mom, I just don’t like church.”

As someone who loves the Church in general and my church specifically, this was … heart breaking.  I really wasn’t sure what was at the root of this problem, but it was to the point where there were tears on quite a few occasions.  We stood firm on the fact that he needed to be at church with us, but Josh was trying to articulate a frustration that was beyond his capability to express.  Unknown to me, the leaders of our Kids Church were feeling like a change was needed in their curriculum.  I don’t think it was a coincidence that when they changed things up, Josh suddenly had a different response to going to church.

Enter 252 Basics. This is a curriculum that thinks outside the box of what Sunday School/Kids Church stuff has traditionally been.  As our Kids Church director said this morning, they take Bible stories that the kids think they know, and look at them from a different perspective.  Right now the theme is Creativity – today my son learned how Moses’ mother thought and acted creatively to save her son’s life.  He built a “Moses basket” that is a pontoon boat with an escape pod and what looks like a Swedish flag.  At home we’re talking about how God is creative and how we are creative too.

I think that what I really like about this curriculum is that it incorporates different ways of learning, doesn’t dumb things down for kids, and has loads of at-home opportunities to follow up.  We’ve made a family yearbook (yes, that is our family in the picture!) to journal our discoveries at home, and Brian has subscribed Josh to the “Cue Box” which is an additional tool for our family as we venture down the path to some super-creative family devotions.

I probably should say that this rave review is totally unsolicited – but as a mom who wants her son to love the things of God, I am so thankful that our Kids Church peeps decided to make the change to this curriculum.  I love it, and more importantly, I love the response of my son to what is happening at Kids Church and at home!