Our church hosts a weekly program called Awana (Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed).
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2: 15
It is an understatement to say that Mr. Smackdown and Sir Honey look forward to Awana night. They are goofy all day long until they step foot into the church ready to learn about God’s word (and play with friends).
I’m glad that they enjoy it so much. But to be honest, sometimes Awana overwhelms me. Maybe I just feel guilty because I struggle to discipline myself to memorize Bible verses.
Which is why I soooooooooooo appreciate my bloggy friend, Jolanthe. She has really helped me organize and prepare for Awana this year. Because of her behind the scenes crafty know-how with a computer, I am able to put Awana tools into my sons’ hands to make them more responsible for memorizing their verses and thus keeping myself on schedule with the new verses. (That was a long sentence.)
Here is what Mr. Smackdown and I did yesterday afternoon in lieu of his filled workboxes.
We printed many of his Awana verses. (Jolanthe has all of the Cubbie verses and Sparks verses ready to print, cut, and even laminate that are saved as pdf’s.)
While I was laminating his picture memory cards, Mr. Smackdown worked on the Awana Bible sentence strips.
I typically lay out his memory verse, and then he searches for the correct words.
(He wanted you to see what he had accomplished.)
I realized that after cutting out SEVERAL sentence strips . . . I needed a way of storing all of these great tools, so that future children could use them (namely Sir Honey, Smiley, and Sweet Pea).
So, we pulled out some library pockets.
Labeled them with the correct verse.
And glued them to a folder for safe storage.
I was pleased with the finished project.
The laminated picture cards with the memory verse are hole-punched and then put on a metal o-ring. These pretty much stay in his workboxes so that we can review them each day. Awana just becomes part of our school day.
Thanks, Jolanthe! (Be sure to grab these free Awana tools that she has graciously provided for all of us unorganized lazy bums and say, “Thanks!”)
How do you “handle” or keep on top of Awana at home?
