Choices and Twaddle

As programmatic pastors (in training, of course), John and I pride ourselves on quality programs that keep a child's attention and speak to their hearts.

As aspiring home educators, we have researched a great deal on learning styles, developmental levels and "cutting through the twaddle" of curriculum material. Twaddle refers to "activities that fatten the teacher's manual but add no educational mass," (Pride, 2004, p 147).

Pride goes on to list her top ten twaddle list which includes anything that is:

• too big (kids don't have to save the planet)


• too long (never grow anything or get a pet for a school project)


• too silly (ie "make up an imaginary animal/planet/alien. Then draw it/write a story about it...")


• too unprepared (every assignment for which the kids have not yet been taught the skills to triumphantly complete the assignment)


• too unrealistic (create a 3d model of the human body out of toilet paper rolls)


• too intrusive (forcing kids to parrot piety or making them reveal personal feelings or embarrassments)


• too incomplete (spelling lists picked at random or an assignment to look up "all the Bible verses on Family")


• too unimportant or trivial (Ask Self: Why am I teaching this? How much of my life and my student's life is worth it?")


• too expensive (if you can't substitute a material you have on hand, it might not be worth it.)


• too time-consuming or too much effort (Do enough, but you can't do everything for your kids)

To this list I add:

• too expendible (any craft project that will be unquestionably thrown away by both student and teacher is not worth creating)


• too entertaining (education is not about entertaining, it is about teaching, challenging and developing young people. Don't be afraid to stretch the kids...they are waiting for it.)
  

My personal goal is to successfully "slash the twaddle" in all curriculum that I use for Salvation Army ministry and for home education. My first attempt at this was the lesson highlighted in this post.

John and I taught this lesson to 19 often-rowdy children two weeks ago and were THRILLED by the results. The group was a large age range: from 3 to 15, and the young adult helper wanted to participate as well.

The lesson is based on information from discipletown.com - How to Make Good Choices. The copyrighted material has been deleted from my personal lesson plan which is attached at the bottom of this post. However, the craft project is an original, and I'm just too proud not to show it off. The insert page and cut out stickers are available upon request: email me.

You should know that we just put all our CDs and DVDs into a CD case, so we had the plastic holders on hand. Magnet strips come with our denomination's Sunday School Material and often sit unused and we thought the dominoes were a worthy purchase.

The idea of using a magnetized CD case to create "lesson summaries" with your kids can be creatively recreated for any number of lesson units. Like the idea? USE IT!

I hope that this inspires readers in three ways: cut the twaddle, create keepable crafts and challenge children with your church programming - don't just entertain them.

Lesson Plan (minus copyrighted details)

Entrance: As Kids enter, music will be playing. After all children are seated, John will pray for snacks and explain rules. Make your behavior expectations clear, and explain that at the end of the lesson we will create a cool CD case. AND anyone who has made good choices will be given a CD of the music you are listening to.

Hook: "Let's Make A Choice: Upgrade Edition" (from Discipletown)
details of game deleted to protect copyright
"The Point: God has given us a lot, and yet the world tries to entice us to trade what we have for what we cannot see by promising to give us more and better things. But, the world's choice is always disappointing. Don't be fooled." -Discipletown.com

Look: "The Power to Choose" - Dominoes
details of activity deleted to protect copyright
Rows of Dominoes are used to illustrate small, medium and large choices - size is based on the consequences that follow.
Ask children to help you list 3 small choices, and 3 medium choices. Then ask each child to think of a big choice they they must make. Write these down on the board for early readers. We will use this later.
Lead the children in prayer, asking for them to be able to make the best choices they can this week.

Book: The 3 A's
Explain that there are three A's that we each get to choose every day.
Read each word, Scripture and ask children to explain them both.
This is directly from discipletown.com, but is the basis of the craft below.
A #1 - Allegiance (show Joshua 24:15 on a poster board
Explain based on discipletown lesson
A #2 - Attitude (show Philippians 2:4-5 on a poster board)
Explain based on discipletown lesson
A #3 - Actions (show Luke 6:31 on a posterboard)
Explain based on discipletown lesson
TRANSITION: Ask Kids to have a good attitude and right actions as they walk quietly back to the table to sit.

Took: CD Case Craft: Lesson Reminder
Show the final craft project and explain the steps to make it. Then hand out the craft bags and assist children step by step.
Before this project, you must superglue dominos onto the CD cases just about the "consequences line" on the square insert. We also put together bags of all the cut out papers, magnets and cases for easy teaching.
Step One: Take out the paper square and help children fill in the blanks with glue on stickers
::My Big Decision (kids will fill in the big decision they listed before prayer time on a glue on sticker). Adult can help if necessary.
::A #1 Allegiance
::A #2 Attitude
::A #3 Actions
Step Two: Children will color in the word that they need to work on most (of the 3 A's). (in sample picture, ATTITUDE is highlighted)
Step Three: Based on the word that the child has chosen, help child select the correct "scripture cutout" and have them paste the scripture in the box provided.
Step Four: Have child color their paper and insert it into the case.
Step Five: If the child has made good choices, reward him or her with a CD of your church's praise and worship music to put into his or her case.

Resources:

Pride, M., (2004). Mary Pride's complete guide to getting started in homeschooling. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishing

Discipletown.com

"Hook, Book, Look, Took" format is from
Tolbert, L., (2000). Teaching like Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing.