Steve Aiello

Strategies for Successfully Teaching Kids' Bible Studies Steve Aiello

Students don't care how much you know; they only know how much you care.1 So, you've decided to teach children about God! Let me welcome you to the challenge, because that's what it will be. Be assured, if God has called you to do this, He will be with you if you ask Him to be. Begin your work in prayer. Ask for guidance, patience, and for the Holy Spirit to be with you in your planning and teaching. If you use Precept materials, you are already on the path to success because of the solid biblical base. Does this mean you will succeed in all you do? Will every part of your lesson plan work every time? Will you end each lesson with a mountain top experience for you and for your students? Not likely. Your first course or study will be fraught with challenges and, from your viewpoint, more failures than successes, but remember, failure is a great teacher. It isn't fun, but it will make you stronger, wiser, and better able to handle future challenges. Every first-year teacher experiences this. Every first-year teacher questions why they ever chose to teach. But every teacher knows their students leave better than when they first came if the lessons were delivered with love; yours and Christ's. Children are not little adults. They don't think the same as an adult thinks. They don't have fully developed reasoning skills like an adult. This doesn't happen until late teens for girls and mid-twenties for boys, which, when you think about it, explains a lot about the crazy things boys do! That being said, children are more capable than many people give them credit for. When their high energy and creativeness and natural curiosity are channeled properly, the give and take in the classroom can be extremely satisfying. I can honestly say I looked forward to beginning a new day, every day of the thirty-nine years I taught. So, if you love kids, let's begin! Remember... Students don't care how much you know; they only know how much you care!