After a thorough butt-kicking from The Orange Conference and conversations about youth, students, and children’s ministry, it started getting me thinking more about how we engage children and the younger generation online.
What has occurred, though, is a deeper appreciation for the simple and obvious, especially from a communication perspective.
We simply do far too good of a job making online hard. I’m guilty of this as much as the next. I think the K.I.S.S. principle needs to be taken seriously.
So, I looked for a little inspiration, and John Piper never lets down. He lays out “7 Ideas for Teaching Toddlers God’s Word” as such and I’m going to add a “web-spin” in terms of how some of his strategies may loosely apply to the online.
My commentary on John’s points in italics.
1. Have an open Bible on your lap during story time. This reinforces where the story comes from—God’s word.
Having scripture as a part of your web strategy is probably a good thing. Not necessarily deep theology, but just an implicit (doesn’t have to be explicit) kick back towards the Word of God, our inspiration and source.
2. Use short sentences and few words. Too many words overwhelm young minds.
Keep it simple in the online space, add features and functionality as necessary, too many words can overwhelm RSS readers.
3. Be animated in your facial expressions and tone of voice. This will help keep children engaged.
Media works. Video, audio, images. Those are great. Use them (and use them better and more wisely).
4. Incorporate movement into the story and singing. Children this age need to move their bodies. Movement helps them learn and remember what you’re teaching them.
The narrative is everything. Read a post here and here about that I wrote a little while back.
5. Create routines during the story/circle times by using songs, finger plays, etc.
Scheduling works. I blogged about this a few times too. We are creatures of habit, even in the online space.
6. Use repetition to cement biblical concepts in children’s hearts and minds.
Yes. Apparently this works well in the blogging space too.
7. Keep it short and sweet. A story time of 5-10 minutes is the maximum children this age can attend to and sit for.
With the amount of data out there to consume, you need to keep it short and sweet. Maximum impact folks!
So, are you keeping it simple? Are you being obvious?
Brian Alexander says
You Tell me. I think I could be a little shorter in my posts.
Mikes says
i was once a Sunday School teach and truly enough, it should be short otherwise you'll be catching children running around the place.
I appreciate how flexible you are. God Bless!
human3rror says
i'm trying… improvement is everywhere!