Thanks to another thread, I learned that Awanas starts at 3. Yee ha! I need something like that for Tyler!! Two churches here in town offer cubbies. Neither is a church that my husband would allow us to worship at for regular services. So, I'm wondering how much of the host church's beliefs/doctrine get brought into the Awana program? Like, other than differences in leaders' personalities, should there be much difference in the Awana program from one church to another? We aren't currently members of a congregation because of various issues, so, other than our Bible coloring books and baby Bibles here at home (being worked on randomly), the kids aren't getting a whole lot of training, and, soo.....Awana sounds great....as long as Hubby isn't going to be upset...
AWANA has a statement of faith that you can see online at www.awana.org. We have lots of kids that attend our AWANA that do not go to our church (some go to other churches, some don't attend church regularly anywhere). AWANA actually started a younger program last year called Puggles. It is for children as young as 2 (when they are too young for Cubbies). Some churches limit Puggles to AWANA volunteers though or at least require that the parents remain in the building for Bible Study or something....really depends. As a military family, we're attended lots of different AWANA programs since my oldest started as a 3 yr old Cubbie. Even with the different churches, generally, the program and how it's been implemented has been the same. My kids have never had a problem jumping into a new club because they know what to expect. If you are comfortable with AWANAs Stmt of Faith, I think you'll be fine.
Our church doesn't really have time to insert any of our own doctrinal stuff into things. The only place we really can is during the large group times in Sparks and T&T. Our Sparks director does stuff from an AWANA large group book. I do stuff from other sources, but it's usually very generic stuff due to time constraints [e.g. we did a semester on the armor of God one year, and a semester on the fruit of the Spirit]. So, no real doctrinal issue kind of things. Our Cubbies does the Cubbie story and puppet thing that AWANA has set up for the program. They have a craft time and a game time. Their handbook time is just stuff straight from the AWANA handbooks themselves which you will have and will go over with your child weekly. So, I agree with Rhonda that you'll probably find the AWANA programs to be virtually the same in content no matter which church you go with, at least on the Cubbie level. And you can always ask the AWANA director what, if any, church doctrine might come into play.
The church should follow the Awana curriculum. The focus is getting the kids through that -not pushing church doctines. However, Awana material directly corresponds with the doctrine taught by my church. I would think that to be true of all churches that use the Awana program. With Cubbies (I'm a Cubbies director), your child will learn that Jesus loves him (or her!). The Cubbies key verse, for all year is "God loved us and sent His Son," 1 John 4:10. Two other verses focused on all year are the "A" verse- "All have sinned..." Rom. 3:23 and the "C" verse- "while we were sinners, Christ died for us" Rom. 5:8. Those verses are key to the Cubbies program. Each week, your child will learn a verse that teaches him who God is. Handbooks are sent home, and parents are HIGHLY encouraged to work through the leson at home before coming to Cubbies (very few do). You will know what your child is learning, as long as you work with your child. BTW... Awana actually starts at 2 with the Puggles program. Some churches do not implement it though.
We had some concerns about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Having grown up in a Baptist church, I know the offical "Baptist" stand on this. So when it came down for Rachael to learn her verses, etc. about the Holy Spirit, I suggested to Carl he looked at it first. I told him that he needed to see exactly what it said, and if he had a problem with that, he would have to explain WHY, and give verses to back up his beliefs. He said what they said was fine, it just didn't go "far enough". Only other problem we ever had was when our Catholic neighbor started coming. They talked about how "Catholics worship Mary...." Ask any Catholic, and they will tell you that they revere Mary, but don't WORSHIP her. So Rachael's friend never came back (and I can't say I blame her!)
Yikes, I don't remember that anywhere...was it in a lesson someone presented or in an actual book? I'm not as familiar with the TNT and above books but I know that isn't in the Cubbies or Sparks books....and I don't remember reading it in the TNT 1-3 books. My oldest would have pointed it out since we have Catholic relatives. I'm wondering if a leader just put that into a discussion. In the 4-5 different programs we've been a part of, we've never had a problem with anything like that and have kids from different denominations that have attended (both Protestant and Catholic).
I do T&T, Rhonda, and there's nothing in the books about Catholicism. My guess is that one of the leaders must've brought it up on their own. They may also have done it during large group time since you don't have to use an AWANA book for that.
No, it wasn't in the book; sorry to be confusing! It was discussed during "council time". I did say something to them about it, asking them to be a bit more sensitive and telling them that Rachael's friend would no longer be coming because of that. They just shrugged it off.
thanks for all your answers. Does it matter when we start? Do they sort of run with normal school year type "years" or what? Is it going to be confusing to jump in in January? Thanks. Love this board!
It probably would be a bit confusing to jump into the middle; our AWANA program runs with the school year. Of course, the church you're looking at might do things differently. Cubbies has 2 books. Our Cubbies go through the books together, and they do the story lessons in the order of the books. You'd probably have to ask the AWANA director what they would recommend. Oh, and you can also check on the AWANA forums for info; they have a parent section and you could probably also post on the Cubbies board.
Generally speaking, they like Cubbies to start in at the beginning of the year. With the Sparkies and T&T, it doesn't matter so much. People are always joining throughout the year, because it is individual.
We certainly welcome kids any time, but it would be easier on your son to start at the beginning of the year. Like someone else mentioned, Cubbies work through the book together. If you start in the middle of the year, the child will have half a year's work to catch up to the others.
Phillip's b-day is in December. I talked with the Cubby leader about whether or not he could join in January when he turned three back in August, and she was NOT encouraging, but told me to ask her again in January. I figured it didn't matter that much, and didn't plan on it. But then I just ran into her in the hall right before Christmas break, so I did ask her. She told me that the class Phillip would be in was the smallest one, and to try him out when it started up after Christmas. He was use to sitting in Sunday School, so he did very well. And then, at the end of the year, she told me that since he had completed everything since he started, she was going to give him his first book award (!!!). I sure didn't expect that!
