Goals of Children's Education

Glendale provides Christian education for our children that:

* ensures their familiarity with the Bible and its importance in the life of the church and the individual Christian;
* encourages them toward baptism and a committed life of Christian discipleship;
* allows them to grow in Christ in a supportive community which recognizes the stages of faith development;
* leads to freedom to question and seek answers in the context of their growing commitment to Christ;
* leads to protection from coercion or manipulation in matters related to faith and ministry;
* makes them sensitive to the numerous ministry needs and opportunities around them;
* introduces them, by adult example and common experience, to the important role of worship, Christian education, and service in the life of the church.

Sunday School

Babies, Toddlers & Preschoolers

Babies: Martha Jo Berry and Frenchie Fortenberry are our nursery teachers. The curriculum for the babies is to be cuddled and engaged by teachers, who also serve as loving caregivers. Our infant nursery is located on the main floor, first classroom on the left beyond the library.

3’s and 4’s:Selena Carpenter is our Preschool teacher. The 3 and 4 year -olds use Seasons of the Spirit curriculum published by Logos Productions. The Preschoolers meet on the main floor in the second room on the left.

This year, Glendale continues the Workshop Rotation Model, or WoRM for short. Here’s a brief description of this model of doing Sunday School. Teach major Bible stories and concepts through kid-friendly multimedia workshops: an Art workshop, Drama, Music, Games, Puppets, Storytelling, Computers, and any other educational media you can get your hands on. Teach the same Bible story in all of the workshops for four or five weeks rotating the kids to a different workshop each week. The same teacher is in each workshop for all three or four weeks -teaching the same lesson week after week (with some age appropriate adjustments) to each new class coming in.

Here's why it works: The WoRM concentrates on the major stories of the Bible over and over again. The model's philosophy recognizes that kids not only love repetition, but they need it to develop a lasting memory and understanding of content. The multi-intelligences (creative methods) approach in the model isn't a fad or merely kid-friendly, it is calculated to take advantage of our student's God-given thirst for multi-modal learning. (excerpt from www.rotation.org)

Eileen Campbell-Reed and Julie Coulter are the coordinator for all of the elementary Sunday school teaching. Each age group has a shepherd. This person stays with the class as they move through all the different workshops. The shepherd is the consistent face the kids can count on from week-to-week.

Our Shepherds are:
Kindergarten and 1st grade: Khette Cox/Bev Feinstein
2nd & 3rd Grade: MATrotter
4th,5th, & 6th Grade: Steve Digby

One wonderful part of WoRM is that many of the adults in our church who typically would not be involved in children’s Sunday School can rotate through and teach a workshop for a month or two.

Wednesday Evening Activities

School Year- Families eat together from 5:45 to 6:30. Elementary children can participate in a monthly rotation of activities: First and third weeks missions studies will be led by Lori-Jene Brazier. On the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, Matthew Eubanks will lead the children.

Summer- During the summer a variety of activities are planned for the children – some with the youth and adults, and some by themselves. Some of the activities include a church-wide scavenger hunt, picnics at the lake, and a water activities night featuring a huge water slide down the hill in front of the church.