Sunday Catechism Program Ideas

  • Thread starter Thread starter Espana156
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
E

Espana156

Guest
Hello all, I’m one of the youth leaders in my parish and we are due to have a meeting this coming thursday and would love your ideas on how to make our youth program more better for the year 13.

The current format goes something like this

1.30pm - 2.30pm, we usually have opening prayers, ice breakers, a talk then announcement(All classes are gathered in the parish hall)

2.30pm - 4pm - All the youths break off to their respective classes for catechism lessons.

4pm - 5pm - Post-Confirmation and youth leaders, training

That is the general format for every sunday, I just want to get some ideas on how to make it more interesting,fun but at the same time nature a great love for Christ and the church among the youths. So please do share any ideas with me please!

If you need any clarifications please don’t hesitate to ask!
Thanks!
 
Holy cannoli, you have kids for 2.5 hours??? And another hour of “training/meetings”??? Every week??? Wow, I hope you understand how unusual that is.

Frankly it seems a little overkill to me.

I think the format is not going to hold attention. Do you really need an entire hour devoted to opening prayer, ice breakers, and a talk? If they are together every week, why ice breakers? Those are for ppl who don’t know each other. Seems like after the first few weeks, these are not necessary. And, nothing bores kids to tears like a long talk.

Try to put more time into their individual classrooms or cut the overall time. I don’t think opening prayer and any talk or activity should be more than 1/2 hour. An hour and a half for religious ed seems like sufficient time to cover the lesson.

What age groups are we talking about? What textbook? What do you do currently to make it fun?
 
Yes. Without a meal, I’d say 90 minutes total, max. With a meal, 2 hours max.
 
Ice breakers is the wrong word, sorry, more like activities relating to the talk, for example if it’s vocation sunday, we would ask a Priest to give them some insights, so the activity would match that.

Yes there is tea-time with food and drinks.

In terms of age groups they are divided into 4 class
Pre-Confirmation 1 = Year 7
Pre-con 2 = year 8
Pre-con 3 = year 9
Confirmation class year 10/11

Those classes are in the hands of the cathechists, a few others and I handle the beginning and the end. Take note I live in a muslim country where learning about Islam is COMPULSORY in schools, there is no such thing as catholic schools. So we only have 1 day with them compare to 5 school days.
 
Espana156 said:
Ice breakers is the wrong word, sorry, more like activities relating to the talk, for example if it’s vocation sunday, we would ask a Priest to give them some insights, so the activity would match that.

Yes there is tea-time with food and drinks.

In terms of age groups they are divided into 4 class
Pre-Confirmation 1 = Year 7
Pre-con 2 = year 8
Pre-con 3 = year 9
Confirmation class year 10/11

Those classes are in the hands of the cathechists, a few others and I handle the beginning and the end. Take note I live in a muslim country where learning about Islam is COMPULSORY in schools, there is no such thing as catholic schools. So we only have 1 day with them compare to 5 school days.
Click to expand...
When I read this my eyes popped out. God Bless you, for your commitment to Catholic youth in such a high risk situation.

I have not worked with middle/high school age group, but a few things that I do with the younger group are: games, crafts, skits &/or music related to a theme.
 
I teach final year Confirmation in South Africa.

I find that the Faith formation courses of the Knights of Columbus are very useful.
The Knights have my sincere thanks, my prayers & my heartfelt appreciation.

Google kofc & check it out.

May the Holy Spirit bless, guide & protect you.

God is good - All the time
 
Hello fellow youth leader!

I must say, I admire you and your team for setting up class like this. I know there can be such a barrier sometimes living in an Islamic country, as I was at one point in one; but it’s people like you that make me want to venture out in the world and share more of God’s love to break those boundaries.

For your Confirmation group. I find they normally love independence as they start to think for themselves. Jeopardy in groups is always a fun thing for us to do. Another tweak catechism game version could be “God is Right” from the actual game show Price is Right; but the questions are of course according to what they’ve learned/are learning and not about prices and costs like the actual game. Note: Try make it harder… some of my students were smart, and the game finished really quickly.

For the younger kids, charades and pictionary tend to work. Even though, sometimes, doodling a stick person with a beard somehow means Jesus to them (I mean come on, everyone knows Jesus wore a robe). 😛 But hey, it works. And at the end of the day, it’s their experience that we’re trying to serve. That experience for them in order to attain the knowledge they should have / be getting.

My brain is a little tired tonight, and for some reason, I can’t think of anything else. When it gets back up, I’ll get back to you.

I hope somehow I helped!!
God bless and more power to you! 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top