Christianity Cove {Review}

One of the things I have enjoyed about being on the Schoolhouse Review Crew this year is discovering new vendors.  When the chance to review Christianity Cove came up I was really excited. Christianity Cove is a web based resource created by Mary-Kate Warner who is a Sunday School Director.  Her mission is to provide FREE ideas via her blog and PDF resources in her purchase product range to support Sunday school teachers in their ministry.  Prices vary between $1 - $29. The hardest part was deciding which two products I would like to use with Sir N.  I finally settled on The Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer.


The Ten Commandments

• The Ten Commandments pack comes as a 26.7 MB PDF download upon purchase.  
• Is is a 52 page resource 
• Aimed for use with children in the age bracket of 4-11 years.
• A comprehensive table of contents.
• All the needed graphics are supplied and easy to print.
• A materials list is provided at the beginning of each lesson, project etc
• Ten Commandments - Currently $27 (Normally $47)

 Contents

• 3 games
• 3 craft projects
• 2 Song options
• 2 snack ideas
• 3 worksheets 
• A Science project

I started off by loading the PDF booklet onto my Galaxy Tab and reading through each lesson and craft suggestion.  Once I had a good overview and had decided which crafts we would do I printed those off.  They were all in black and white and all the instructions were easy to follow.  There were also excellent pictures of each craft making it easy to understand what to do with Sir N.  Now it was time to learn the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20).

We started by reading the story of how Moses was given the 10 Commandments by the Lord at Mount Sinai in his children's bible.  Each day we tackled a different project which reinforced his learning.  The games, songs, snacks, crafts and worksheets all focused us in the right direction.  The object lessons were well presented and helped us see that the Ten Commandments are just as relevant today as they were for the Israelite people in the days of Moses.

We really enjoyed using this resource.  It was well presented and required very little work to implement each lesson. For all the lessons and craft pages we had all the items on hand at home and for the food ideas we had most of the items too. All the instructions are comprehensively written and have photographs illustrating the steps or the completed project which made them easy to do as you had a visual clue to aim towards.

All in all Sir N and I enjoyed our adventure with the Ten Commandments.

The Lord's Prayer

• The The Lord's Prayer pack comes as a 16.1 MB PDF download upon purchase.  
• Is is a 35 page resource 
• Aimed for use with children in the age bracket of 5-14 years.
• A comprehensive table of contents.
• All the needed graphics are supplied and easy to print.
•  Lord's Prayer - Currently $19.99 (Normally $39.99)

Contents

• 2 Object lessons
• 2 games
• 3 crafts
• Songs
• 2 Worksheets
• 2 Snack options

I saved the PDF to my Galaxy Tab and spent time reading and gaining an understanding of the principles being aimed at through each lesson. We started this section of learning by reading the story of how Jesus shared the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)with His disciples. We had one of the recommended resources for memorising The Lord's Prayer and played this CD regularly as we learnt the words (we are still in the process).

For the projects we are working our way through them.  Sir N loves hands on things to do.  All of the projects are easily completed with items on hand at home.  One of them needed dowel sticks and I simply replaced them with wooden skewers. Their are comprehensive instructions for all the crafts and activities. They are well written out but being a visual learner I found some a little bit hard to follow. This can easily be remedied with a couple of photographs illustrating the point in the same way as they were done for The Ten Commandments craft instructions.

Each of the lessons/crafts/activities illustrated an aspect of prayer in a practical way helping Sir N to understand it better.  Prayer is something that we have always done with him but struggle to get him to partake in.  This series is helping him come to a deeper understanding of prayer and that God hears us even when we don't think that He does and all of this regardless of the outcome that we see.

Connect with Christianity Cove

• Facebook
• Pinterest- 17 Boards
• Blog - here you will find over 700 FREE Sunday School Articles.
• Read their Statement of Faith and Mission Statement on their About Page.
• Contact

The thing I enjoyed about teaching through these lesson packs was that they were short and easy to implement.  On average it took 10-15 min a lesson.  It was fun and did not meander to make a point. We have taken slightly longer to work through the lessons than we thought but are enjoying them.

Each pack is specifically designed for Sunday School use but can be very minimally modified for home use to equip you to use all your child's senses to teach the topic at hand.  You do not need to do all the lessons you can pick and choose mix and match at your leisure and according to your need.

At present Christianity Cove have 26 resources in their Sunday School Product Range. The crew were given the opportunity to review 15 of these products. Don't forget to pop on over and read the reviews from the rest of the crew on how they used the following products.

1. Outstanding Object Lessons
2. Bible Science Experiments
3. 100 Simple Service Projects
4. Daily Dilemmas: 26 True-to-Life Devotions for Kids
5. Freedom Ride: 12 Lessons of Faith for Today's Teens
6. "Tween a Rock and a Hard Place" Lesson Blueprints
7. Bullying & the Bible Lesson Plans
8. KidMin Power Pack
9. Bible Memory Games
10. The Divine Dozen: 12 Parables of Jesus Every Child Should Know
11. Make & Take Bible Crafts
12. New Testament Life Lessons
13. Fruits of the Spirit Activity Kit

Blessings
Chareen