Evangelizing Kids

[YEARNING4TRUTH]

I currently co-teach a group of 5th and 6th graders in my former home parish, and I’d really want to help them understand what it means to have a personal relationship with our Lord, for I believe that it will solve a lot of the issues that come up with trying to teach them about the faith. What are some of the things that helped you gals & guys to accomplish this?

 

[angell1]

keep it simple, many people who i konow or have heard of leaving the church always say that they didn’t know that God loved them when they were younger. make sure that they know that. also, maybe try and come up with some activities for them to do relating to the subject. like writing a story about who God is to them in their life for example. sorry, i’m not really an expert

 

[pianistclare]

Testimonies from older folks. Kids love stories, like the stories of the saints as well.
The “real life” scenarios are something they can identify with. Textbooks and quotations are great when you are older and can chew on them a bit…but kids want to know what happened to whom, when, and how it turned out.
The lives of Father Damien, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Katherine Drexel, Mother Teresa…all this feed their imagination as they can imagine the circumstances and the ways by which they perfected their love for God.
Try these…kids are a joy to teach. God bless you for desiring to do the best job for them and their parents.

 

[kkollwitz]

I teach 6th grade catechism with a personal-witness/ Scriptural/ New Evangelization worldview. You can have a free look at the first chapter of my book on that subject at the link below.

 

[Barricade]

My advice is to try and engage these kids in a simple manner, but not underestimate their level of curiosity or understanding. In my CCD experience we were often told about the lives or experiences of certain saints and while that is well and good, I think sometimes, in the limited amount of time you have with these kids, that Jesus really needs to be cemented more so than He was at least in my experience. In knowing and loving Jesus, wanting to learn more about the lives the saints will flow naturally from that and hopefully inspire greater devotion.

Speaking from the perspective of someone who was once a 5th and 6th grade boy in CCD, I would have loved to hear more about the side of Jesus that we saw when He chased the money changers out of the temple. Yes Jesus preached love in His ministry on earth, but He was strong and resolute as well. It’s typical for young boys especially, to admire and look up to super heroes, not just super heroes, but people that stand for something, that are strong, and showing this side of Jesus, would I think resonate with young boys in particular and instill a lasting connection to Jesus in the midst of a secular culture that so often paints Jesus as being a type of hippie that is “okay” with everything, even things we profess to be sinful.