Kingsway Church Ministries have produced a Children’s Ministry Teaching Programme under the title of Kidzone.
From the start of 2000, the old D.C. Cooke Bible-In-Life materials and the Feast materials are replaced by the KidZone materials. The books are not dated but units will be produced to cover the whole year. Teachers guides, activities sheets, craft resources, plus a CD will be available. The four-week sample pack does not contain the activity sheets, but they can be sent for. The materials are bright and colourful, covering under-3s, 3-5s, 5-9s and 9-13s plus, though the activity sheets have sub-divisions within the age groups. There is also a family Zone all-age worship guidebook.
From the samples, it is a little difficult to assess the worth of this new syllabus. It does seem, though, that the themes are a little unconnected, particularly in the younger age groups, and very much child-centred. For example, 3-5s Session 1, ‘What's God Like?’, has the focus on ‘Jesus grew and learned about God’. The memory verse is Luke 2.52 and the children are exhorted to grow in wisdom too, but it is not explained what wisdom is. Some of the activities do not seem to follow from the main theme. It seems, too, that it would be possible for all of the ages under 5 to have no more direct contact with the Bible than the odd verse or two with Bible stories being retold. They try hard to apply the lessons without perhaps laying sufficient foundations.
