I see all the time on here that everyone's kids seem to be in AWANA. What is it!!!!!???? lol. I was looking for a church in the phonebook to see which one we used to go to ages ago and to find some new ones and I saw an ad for a Baptist church that offered AWANA. Can anyone tell me what this is? Any advice on finding a church to attend would be helpful as well. lol
AWANA is a kids' discipleship program that originated in the Baptist church. That's why you see them primarily in Baptist churches, but it is NOT exclusively Baptist. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the program. All three of my children started with Cubbies at age 3, though some churches now have a program for 2's, too. You DO NOT have to attend the church to go to AWANA. It's actually suppose to be an "outreach" program. The Cubbies learn that Jesus Loves Me. Their key verse is 1 John 4:10...God loves us and sent His son. They do Bible memorization, have an activity/craft time, and a story time. Sparkies are grades K-2. Again, the emphasis is on Bible Memorization. Each child memorizes at his/her own pace. SPARKS is an acronym for: Savior (The Father sent his son to be the SAVIOR of the world) Power (They changed it. It used to be: I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the POWER of God. Don't know what it is now!) According to the Scriptures (Christ died for our sins ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES) Rose again (He was buried and ROSE AGAIN on the third day according to the scriptures) Saved (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be SAVED) (Yes, I know them; I've had three kids go through it, lol!) In Truth And Training (grades 3-6), the kids go through four different books. Again, you need to memorize. You are asked a question, such as Who is Jesus? And then you're given the answers with back-up verses. For example, Jesus is God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1"; "I and the Father are one. John 10:30". You'll get six to eight answers to each question, with back-up verses. So it not only teaches you WHAT you believe, but WHY you believe it. There's also Journey and Trek for the older kids, but finding churches that do them can be difficult. Rachael has done both programs independently; she'll be up for her Citation Award (highest AWANA award) next year when she completes her last year of Journey. In Journey (high school), you do one required study, and one elective each year. This year, we did "The Will of God", and I can't remember the book study. We did Revelation last year. THERE!!! Now is THAT more than you want to know? LOL!
Well, as much as Jackie loves AWANA, I despise it. In fact, we're leaving our church because they only offer 2 things for kids: Sunday School [using a hideous program] and AWANA [another program I consider hideous]. We took our kids to a different church on Wednesdays because that church did its children's choir stuff on Wednesday nights while ours was doing AWANA. The kids far and away preferred the choir program, as did I.
I LOVE AWANA as well, much like Jackie. Shelley, I guess I am confused on what you don't like about it. From what you have said you don't like the CHURCH you left because it didn't offer more for kids, but not necessarily dislike Awana. ??? I'm confused, is all, and wondering your reasonings as to why you may not like the program. I love Awana for many reasons. It gives my kids another day in the week to attend something at church, be around other kids their age, learn more about Scripture, be motivated to learn about God and fasten their relationships with Christ...I could go on and on. The thing I love most is that it doesn't matter what church or denomination you consider yourself a part of...the curriculum and teachings are all Bible based and there isn't anything 'extra' from a particular denomination thrown in. We have different families from all different churches...some Baptist, some Lutheran, some Catholic, etc. We are a Protestant (non-denominatinal) church and have our own Awana program. I also love how our church makes it fun! We have an Awana shares store. The older kids get to earn shares (or play money) throughout the season by learning verses and lessons. They may use these 'shares' to buy things at the Awana store (people donate small items for the store which is set up in the lower level of our church). During Christmas time they buy things at the Awana store for people. At the end of the year they get to go play Lazer Tag if they finish their book for the year too. There are other things too, but those are just two examples. All of our Awana clubbers also have game time for about 20-30 minutes. In the middle of the year our church also competes in the Awana Games at a local church/school. A bunch of local churches come together and compete against each other and they compete using the games the clubs use for game times each week. It's LOTS of fun! For the last 8 years our church has taken 1st place! Our oldest got to compete this year, and he had a blast! I love Awana! It is a priority in our family that our kids be a part of it. My youngest will be in his second year of Cubbies this year and my oldest will be in his second year of Boys Club (T&T...Truth and Training).
Jackie did a great job describing the program and Jennie did a great job telling all of the benefits! My girls are in AWANA- just finished their second year. My husband and I are the Cubbies Directors for our church! We think it is a great program and love that our children are learning scripture and making Godly friendships!
I might add that our whole family will be going to AWANA camp this summer. Rachael went two years ago; last year I went with her as a couselor. She has really developed some very good, strong friendships through this. The kids are really close. They are there for one another. They're the kind of friendships I strongly encourage.
We LOVE AWANA.. Our church has it from 2 years old through 5th grade. THEN they go into the teens group that does their own thing. I'm considering leaving my soon to be 11 year old in the awana program one more year. I'm not too keen on the idea that she will be grouped with kids from 6th grade up to 12th. I wish they did AWANA all the way through 12th grade.. The kids REALLY learn scripture through this program.
Mommix3, ask them if they will order the materials for him next year so he can do it independently. You'll need someone to listen to him say his verses. When we started doing that, Rachael was suppose to say them to me, but kept putting them off. So I asked one of the ladies at church to listen to them after Staff Meetings. It usually only took about ten minutes. And that made a BIG difference. I've been told that technically parents aren't suppose to sign their kids off, but the other families that do it independently sign off for their own kids!
I sign off on Aiden's, as I am his table leader (or was, as the year is now over). That is only in Cubbie's though. Cubbie's is quite more lax than the older kids at our church. We worry more about them understanding the love of Christ over general memorization at that age. When hubby was Tanner's leader though, he had to have the other leader sign off on them. Honestly, this is the first time I have ever heard anyone say they don't like Awana. That's new to me. I have heard others say they don't like how a particular church runs the program (it is going to vary from church to church), but this is the first time I have ever heard anyone say they don't like Awana in general. Odd.
I'm not sure what you thought was unclear. I said pretty clearly that I despise the AWANA program. We are leaving our church because all it offers is two programs, both of which are unacceptable to our family in terms of discipleship for children. As for my reasons, I'll happily PM the OP if she'd like to know them in detail. I've met many a person who doesn't like AWANA, so I don't think it's all that unusual.
Thanks! I've met a lot of people in real life who aren't; and on another homeschool board I'm part of, the number of people who dislike AWANA far outweighs the number who do. So, if it comforts *you* at all, you're not remotely alone in your dislike of it, either!
It's not going to meet everyone's needs, so it's quite alright not to like it, for whatever reason. It's been hard going for Faythe, because she has difficulty memorizing scripture, and there's LOTS of emphasis placed on that. She chose to stop AWANA once she finished T&T. I told her that was OK, but she had to do SOME kind of discipleship program. TeacherMom wrote an INCREDIBLE study guide for "Hind's Feet on High Places" for me, and we did that one year. But, since Carl and I are going as counselors to AWANA camp this summer, she had to get through the program so she could go, too. That's the ONLY reason she's doing it now.
I'm unclear because you just made a general statement about it and didn't give any detail. I'm not knocking you for not liking it. I don't care for other programs that churches offer. I am just curious as to WHY you don't. If you really don't like it, I just wanted to know the reasons.
Well, I'm sorry, but I don't think my reasons are your business. I'll share them with the OP in a private message if she'd like, but that's it.
Wow. No need to get snarky! It was a question that I was genuinely curious about because I have never met anyone who expressed they didn't like it before. I don't know why you are getting defensive.
I'm sorry if I've come across defensive. I'm not at all. Nor am I trying to be snarky. I simply wanted to be clear that I don't plan to share my reasons with anyone other than the OP in private messages.
Well, I'll share that it was just too stressful for us. It may have been the church, idk, but it was super time consuming and became a chore. My boys would literally cry when I brought out the books. I believe very much in scripture memorization, but there needs to be more explanation than AWANA gives, IMO. That being said: I know dozens of kids who LOVE AWANA and it works well for their family. I don't think the program is bad, it was bad for us. It's also very expensive. Many churches do scholarships or sell used vests, but the church we were at did not. We began attending our church just as they ditched the AWANA program (for the same reasons we ended up quitting at the other church). The majority of parents there did not want to continue the program, so it's at least somewhat common for people to dislike it.
