With a planning personality, I love State of the _______ (fill in the blank) Addresses. I get to hear the “where we are” and “where we are going.” It puts me in the know. As I am making changes to the ABC Jesus Loves Me website, I thought it might help if you knew the path I am starting to travel.
With that said, I give to you the State of ABC Jesus Loves Me Address.
In the three and half years since ABCJLM has been published on the web a lot has happened. We started with a few loyal friends and have developed into a community and hundreds of hits a day. God has taken the website to places I never knew existed. I am thrilled to be part of the journey and excited for what the future holds.
As the site has grown, I have seen the need for additions and changes. Recently, one of the biggest additions was the 2 Year Curriculum released this summer. Several have been requesting more curriculum. Well, the 5 Year Curriculum is about half way done and will be released by Fall 2012. This curriculum will be for those children who are more advanced and have an “early” birthday which makes them an older one in Kindergarten.
In developing the 2 Year Curriculum, I realized how helpful it was to have an all-inclusive curriculum. When purchasing the Curriculum in Book Form and the 2 Year Workbook, there is very little outside gathering and printing that needs to be done. Unlike the 2 Year Curriculum, the 3 and 4 Year Curriculum contain many ideas from outside sources for the Bible and Character Traits.
So, I am working on switching the 3 and 4 Year Curriculum over so that they contain almost exclusively ABCJLM ideas. The Preschool Workbook will then be divided into two workbooks and contain all of the worksheets needed to do the 3 and 4 Year Curriculum. All of the outside ideas will be taken off the curriculum and moved to “Extra Ideas” categories.
You may notice that this process has already started. Under the Bible Craft and Activities link is a list of Bible stories. Each Bible story contains a list of ideas from ABCJLM and outside links. This will be a go-to place to find ideas to teach Bible stories to all ages. I am also working to include pictures of all the crafts.
It used to be that ideas were remotely placed in the Lesson Plans. I have started joining ideas into one place. These can all be found under the “Extra Ideas” category as well. You will find ideas for teaching colors, shapes, sorting, helping a child learn their phone number, and much more.
Objectives are being added for the Bibles stories on each Lesson Plan. The crafts that I am creating will further emphasize the objective. I am also working with a company to write preschool Bible stories to use with the Betty Lukens Flannelgraph that will further focus on the objective. This is something that I am super excited about.
All of this is still a work in progress. Since these are large goals, none of this will be finished soon. I hope to have the majority of it finished by Fall 2012 but that is a lofty goal as a lot of work will be required to accomplish these things.
With that said, you might be asking, “What does this mean for me?”
Good question.
While using the curriculum, if you would like to see more ideas or need another strategy to teach your little ones, be sure to check the “Extra Ideas” category. Almost daily the ideas should increase!
If you have a child using the 4 Year Curriculum this year, come back next fall to implement the 5 Year Curriculum. Or, if your church, preschool, daycare, or other group has a 5 Year group of kids, a curriculum will be available for them next fall.
So many of you have expresses how your really appreciate the ability to have the curriculum together and printed off. By next fall, almost all of the curriculum will be available in print leaving you more time to spend teaching and playing with your kiddos.
Most importantly, if you have a new idea to teach any of the concepts or a picture of a craft or activity you did, please let me know. When you take the time to tell others, others take the time to share their ideas. It is a win-win situation for all! Recently, I saw this demonstrated in the Tactile Letter and Number ideas. My one idea has now grown into five ideas on how to a create a needed material for learning!
The ABCJLM Forum is a great place to start discussion. An easy place to share your ideas and ask for ideas from other.
Last but certainly not least, please pray for me. Pray for my family as God is using us to create this website to spread the Gospel. I am simply a messenger asking God to help me hear Him clearly.
Well, I think that sums it up. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. If you like the ideas I am working towards, please let me know. If you think I need to rethink something, I want to hear it! Can’t wait to read your thoughts!!!
