I’ve come across this really awesome band for kids called The Lads. They are from New Zealand and have a great sound. There is a movement in Children’s and Family music to make music more culturally relevant and this is a great thing! On their site, you can download several of their songs. Just look for the brown box with the orange arrow at the top of their site. I can’t link you straight to them because the site is flash based.
A ministry called Faith Inkubators has a unique game site called FaithInk Games. They are pretty cool and a great resource to have on ministry computers or to share with parents.
Christianaudio.com provides a free book download per month. They are usually pretty good. Check them out and grow your walk!
This blog post is going to be a little different. I have found a website with various “game show controls” for games like Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck, Family Feud, and others. These are downloadable applications which you can customize to fit your needs. You could use them for review games in a kids class, for fun games at a retreat or camp, or with your volunteers at an appreciation event.
I’m not giving the link yet, though. In order to get the link posted, I have to see 10 comments about the picture above. Just jot a quick comment about what you sarcastically like the best about that pic. I’ll get the ball rolling:
“I like the energy, however, I’m wondering if I am pushing the limits by showing adult “midriff” on a Children’s Ministry site!”
Give me 10 comments, I’ll give you the link!
Congrats, you did it, here’s the link:
This week, I am starting a series of blog posts, something I have never done before. This first series of mine is called “21 Days to a ‘Freed Up’ Ministry.” The point of the series is to highlight 9 incredible free resources for your ministry (3 posts a week x 3 weeks=9 posts over 21 days, get it?). Basically, I see these as “must haves” for your ministry. Some may be new, and some may be a re-hash of an old post. My goal is to bring you as many new things as I can.
This series will get very specific. Whereas most of my posts will point you to a general website where you can get a number of things for free, these posts will point to specific mostly downloadable resources.
The first out of this world resource that I reccomend you do not do without is Brain Drain from Five AM Productions. If you do any type of game in your ministry, this nifty little program will be beneficial in helping you keep tabs on team scores.
Today’s post comes from a post by Tony Kumner at Ministry To Children.
Tony came across some great free MP3 Bible stories told by a grandmother who wanted to record the Bible for her grandchildren. You can check out Tony’s post here. From his post you can read his take on the MP3’s as well as follow the link to download them.
I’ve listened to a few of them and they are pretty cool. They would be great for car rides. I plan on putting them on a CD and letting my preschool daughters listen to them for quiet times and on trips. There are no copyright issues here, you are free to copy and distribute to parents and kids as you would like.
Bass Pro Shops is doing free family activities on Saturdays during the summer. Not everyone has the luxury of having a Bass Pro Shops in their area, but if you live in a metropolitan area, you are likely to be near one. Activities include laser shooting, archery clinics, outdoor crafts and a s’mores cookout!
It seems that with our economy, there are a lot of businesses offering free items to get people into their stores to buy from them. This is no doubt a plan of Bass Pro Shops. I recently posted about free kids movies at theaters all around the country as well.These types of things are great to pass on to your families in newsletters or weekly announcement emails.
If you know of any other opportunities for free kids or family activities throughout the summer, drop a comment and let us know!
I try to stay on schedule with posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but I came across this forum post on Kidology, and just could not resist the urge to pass it on. I actually saw the link to it on the Kidology Facebook Fan Page. I don’t know why I did not think to throw this up on the blog because my wife has been doing this with my two girls for 3 years now! What I’m talking about is free kids movies throughout the summer!
Nancy Keith posted a nice list of free and VERY cheap movie deals with Cinemas around the country. I have not checked all of them, but I looked at the one in my area (Regal) and it is legit. Obviously, given the nature of this blog, I can only with good conscience endorse the no-cost ones! You could advertise this to your families as a summer activity or arrange for kids within your ministry to meet up at the theaters for a ministry fun day. Here’s the list:
Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival
Cinemark $1 Summer Movie Clubhouse
Clearview Cinemas Free Summer Movies
Kerasotes Theaters Free Summer Movies
Cobb Theaters Free Summer Kids Shows
Marcus Theaters $3 Kids Rule Summer Film Festival
Rave Motion Pictures Free Family Film Festival
Dickonson Theaters Summer Vacation Family Movies
Harkins Theaters Summer Movie Fun
Bow-Tie Cinemas Free Summer Kids Film Series
Classic Cinemas $1 Wednesday Morning Movie Series
Cornerstone University Radio has a great resource out there for you to pass along to families. It is a place where a good deal of Christian radio progamming for kids comes together. This is a quote from their site:
We’ve gathered the best in children’s Christian programming and put it in one place so you can easily find safe, entertaining, and enriching content just for kids! Our alliance of broadcasters and partners work hard to make HisKids.net a place you and your child want to be.
Kids can listen to shows like “Down Gilead Lane” and “Paws and Tales” on demand. Or you can stream the His Kids Radio station. If you contact them, they will set up a custom logo of your church on a special site of theirs. You can provide a link in your own website to the His Kids Radio site with your logo on it. You can see an example of mine here. This is all free, however, they do offer a paid service where you can stream your sermons, podcasts and trainings if you would like. This particular aspect of their service is charged by how large your church is.
Yes, every kid in America (well, pretty much) can bowl 2 free games throughout the entire summer. I’m not sure how they are doing it, but KidsBowlFree has made arrangements with a slew of bowling lanes for kids to bowl free.
I’ve announced this to parents in my ministry as a fun family activity. Been wondering what kind of fun stuff to do with kids in your church during the summer? You may want to get kids signed up for it in your ministry and take weekly bowling outings to provide children in your ministry with a regular summer church kids fellowship.
Here’s how it works (from the website):
- All of the participating bowling centers are listed at http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/all_centers.php.
- Select a bowling center near you.
- Register directly on the bowling center page (The registration is valid only at the bowling center where you register and cannot be used at any other bowling center unless otherwise noted.)
As with most free stuff, there is an opportunity to spend money. Families can pay about $24 for a summer long family pass. It’s actually a pretty good deal. they offer this because the free bowling is available only for children.
All participants do have to pay for shoe rental, but if you really want to get into it and be involved as a bowler past the summer, you can find kids bowling shoes for less than $25. After about 12 times bowling, you would have paid for them.
