4 Things Disney Prioritizes that KidMin Leaders Should Too

My family and I recently spent a week at the beach and decided to make a 1-day trip to Disney World while we were there. So we packed up all the snacks and diapers and spent a day at Magic Kingdom with our 1.5-year-old. It was a blast! While we were riding Dumbo, waving to Winnie the Pooh, and eating Dole whip, I noticed a few of Disney's priorities that are good reminders for children's ministry leaders too:  Prioritize kids. This one seems obvious, but it's a good reminder. Disney World prioritizes kids, especially in kid-specific areas of the parks and around kid-specific rides. There are designated stroller parking zones throughout the park to make it easy for families to leave their belongings in a safe place while riding. These stroller parking zones take up space and may be inconvenient to maintain, but they enhance the guest experience...

September Holidays For Fun Social Media Posts

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Use this list to make fun and engaging posts for your children's ministry social media accounts in September! Remember, you want your social media to be more than just a bulletin board. Ask questions relating to some of the holidays: For National Wildlife Day, ask your families what wild animal they would be! Encourage them to tag a friend: For Grandparents' Day, encourage them to tag the grandparents in their lives in an encouraging post![/vc_column_text][vc_btn title="Download a printable version of the September Holidays Here!" align="center" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fdeeperkidmin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F08%2FDKM-September-Holidays-List-Freebie.pdf|target:_blank"][vc_column_text] September 2021 Holidays: 4 - National Wildlife Day 6 - National Read a Book Day 6 - Labor Day 11 -...

The Biggest Social Media Mistake KidMin Leaders Make

There's one mistake I often see ministry leaders make when it comes to their ministry social media accounts: They use social media as a digital bulletin board. If your social media accounts are just posts of reminders or upcoming events, you are missing out on a great opportunity to connect with your people. Instead of using your social media as an announcement monologue, change your posting approach to foster conversation and engagement instead. Use the 80/20 rule - let 80% of what you post be about your people, not you, so about things that serve, inspire, engage, encourage, or equip your parents and families, rather than asking them to attend something or go somewhere. Then 20% of your posts can be service times, event invites, and other reminders. One way to help with this ratio is to remember 6 social media content buckets: ...

Family Survey Printable

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One of the best ways to grow a flourishing family ministry is to connect with families in your church - to understand their needs and get to know them. That's why this week's freebie is a family survey printable you can share with your families to learn more about them and their preferences![/vc_column_text][vc_btn title="Download the Family Survey Here" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fdeeperkidmin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F08%2FDKM-Family-Survey.pdf|target:_blank"][vc_column_text]If you're looking for a bigger list of feedback and survey questions or want to create your own from scratch, download our free feedback questions list here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_single_image image="57668" img_size="full" alignment="center" onclick="custom_link"...

5 Ways to Make Parents Ignore Your Parent Resource Center

I've seen a lot of posts in children's ministry groups lately about parent resource centers and how to provide a place for parents to pick up devotionals, books, ideas, and more. Parent Resource Centers (or corners or stations or walls or whatever you want to call it) are a great idea and an excellent way to partner with parents and equip them to be the primary disciplers of their kids. But if you stock these hubs with the wrong kind of resources, they can sit dormant and go unused. If you want to make your families ignore your parent resources, do these 5 things... Make resources (and finding them) complicated. Our brains are hard-wired to choose the path of least resistance, and busy parents are no different. If your at-home devotionals and resources are too complicated and difficult to understand or pull off, parents may pick up a copy the...

4 Classroom Management Tips For Your Volunteers

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Classroom Management will make or break your volunteers' experience teaching and your kids' experience learning. Share these simple and quick best practices for classroom management with your volunteers to help them serve and lead well. Sharing simple strategies and techniques like these with your team helps them enjoy leading/serving in your ministry (which means they'll stick around longer) and helps kids enjoy learning about Jesus (always a win).[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title="Download a Printable Version Here!" align="center" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fdeeperkidmin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F07%2FDKM-Classroom-Management-Tips-Tricks-for-Volunteers.pdf|target:_blank"][vc_column_text] Be early. Be prepared - The first one to arrive is the one in charge. Be sure that you are the first one in the...

Top 5 Reasons Volunteer Training is Important

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As you gear up for your annual fall volunteer training, it's important to remember why you do it! It keeps volunteers in-the-know. Your annual training is the best place to connect with your volunteers and communicate updated policies, new expectations, and to make sure they're prepared to serve your kids. It keeps your volunteers and your kids safe. By making sure that everyone is on the same page with policies and procedures, you can better prevent any safety issues.  You can celebrate what God has done this year and look forward to what He has in store next. When your whole team dreams and prays together, big things happen in little lives! Volunteers can make connections with other volunteers. This helps remind them that they're not alone in ministering to kids, and it puts faces to names they...

Separate the Beans: Back-to-School Object Lesson

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Use this hands-on object lesson to show kids that we can’t separate our spiritual lives from our school lives (or any other part of our lives). It's a great object lesson for your back-to-school season, and it encourages kids to think about including God in their everyday lives.[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title="Download a Printable Version Here!" align="center" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fdeeperkidmin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F07%2FDKM-Separate-the-Beans-Back-to-School-Object-Lesson.pdf|target:_blank"][vc_column_text]Supplies: Two bowls, two different colors of beans, two different colors of sand (or salt and pepper), some powdered drink mix (or a packet of Kool-Aid, or Splenda), a Cup of water, a spoon Details: Set out two bowls with different colored beans in each bowl (you can also do this...

6 Promotion Sunday Themes

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Promotion Sunday is one of my favorite days of the whole year! It always has such a great energy as kids are excited to move up into a new class. We host ours right before school starts, so there's the added excitement of the back-to-school season too! I like to make the morning extra special and something out of the ordinary to celebrate all of the new beginnings. Whether you're adding a fun theme to your already-planned curriculum or making the whole morning all about Promotion Sunday, here are a few fun Promotion Sunday themes! Promotion Sundaes - I've always wanted to host a giant ice cream party on Promotion Sunday and make special ice cream sundaes with the kids! Peel some bananas, scoop some ice cream, and drizzle some chocolate syrup for a tasty celebration. Then hand out "Here's the Scoop"...