At the Kids 4 Truth Ministry here in Kansas City, Missouri, we just presented our year-end awards last night. This past year of clubs we were able to present more year-end awards then ever before. We found, however, that either the children were getting either the silver or gold year-end pin, or nothing at all. Very few recieved the bronze pin. We decided to incorperate a few new things in order to help bridge that gap between the over achievers and those who are not earning many awards at all. 

The first thing we did was to create a goal sheet for the children. We discussed this with them during small group time and encouraged them to set a reasonable goal that they could attain. It helped that they had just seen awards presented. Workers were encouraged to put a star beside the goal that they believed the child could reach, and that sheet was sent home for parents to make the final decision with their children of what their goals will be for Kids 4 Truth this year. We also encouraged the children by letting them know that there will be a special award presented to those children who meet their year-end goal.

The second new addition to this year's club time is the incorperation of more focused group study. Now, almost every small group will be focused group study. We will place those children who work well on their own or have a lot of parental help with Kids 4 Truth in indvididual study groups. During the focused group time, the group leader will go over the book material with their small groups in detail as they read the passages together, discuss the questions, and fill in the blanks to their units. The leader goes over the Memorize It sections with their small groups and helps them work on the memory work as a group leaving time at the end of group to listen to those who are ready to recite. Each focused small group has at least two leaders so that everyone who is ready to recite will have someone to listen to them. We are also encouraging children to recite their work before club time to workers if possible, in order to get through more during club time. This works especially well for children and workers who's parent's or spouses are in choir practice during that time.

We are excited to see how this new approach will work in our club. We have already been using a similar concept in the Developer's level which has worked well. Our goal is that the teachers would really be able to get a better feel for the understanding, progress, and ability of each child so that they can encourage learning and spiritual growth in every way possible.