Whether in your home or in your church, and regardless of the frequency, length, or season of your meetings, KidsCore can work for you! Here’s a step-by-step process for one approach to building your own curriculum:
1 Recruit your leaders
KidsCore is designed to work in many settings with varied resources. If your church is limited in the areas of musicians or devotion leaders, or if you’re a parent at home who doesn’t feel particularly qualified to teach musical principles, we are confident you’ll find enough material in each song packet to have a meaningful and helpful curriculum. Use all that you can, and skip what makes you uncomfortable.
2 Determine your season length
Your season might coincide with a school semester, a calendar year, or a special season like a camp or Vacation Bible School. Within that season, plan how often you’ll meet (some meet once a month; others meet every week). We call each of these meetings a “session.”
3 Complete your season calendar
Consider any sessions you will not meet as usual (due to holidays or special events) and any special events for which you’ll need to plan (such as parties or group rehearsals). Make a calendar for your season, accounting for each session you’ll need. Click here for an example of a completed KidsCore season calendar.
4 Select songs from the KidsCore catalogue to fill all of your sessions.
Each of our song packets contains 3-5 sessions and provides enough unique content for each session indicated. Select enough songs from our catalogue to fulfill your needed sessions, as determined by the steps above. You may decide to combine two sessions into one or stretch a session into two to accommodate your schedule. As you select songs, balance liveliness and difficulty according to your needs as you plan an engaging season for the children.
5 Determine the schedule for each session
A session could be anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes. Determine how you’ll use the various elements of a KidsCore song packet (singing, devotions, musical principles, activities, etc.) within the allotted time for each of your sessions. Focus on one song per session but plan to sing others as well! Keep in mind any age-specific divisions and leadership coverage. Click here for some sample session schedules. As you plan your schedule, consider rotating your age groups or your leaders to make the most of their unique needs and gifting.