This is a continuation of part 1of Teaching to Various Ages.  If you didn’t read part 1, check it out here.

Separating the kids will require you to split up some of your workers and will require you to have an extra room. If you are lacking an extra room or the workers, the other thing you can do is preach up and not down. What do I mean by this? When you teach your lesson shoot for the older audience. Something that I’ve been seeing, even in the church, is that kids are being forced to grow up faster. Kids are being exposed to things at much younger ages than they used to. This is just a subtle example, but have you noticed some of the adult humor that is being played in kids movies?

MTV has probably been one of the biggest influencers to my generation and each upcoming generation. Parents allow their kids to be exposed to things they shouldn’t such as “R” rated movies and other things. I remember being in first grade and my mom’s boyfriend would smoke marijuana in our living room with his friends. He would even give us beer to drink. My point is this: there are kids in Power House who are being exposed to a lot more than what I was when I was a kid. “Feel out” your site, but in my opinion, most of the younger kids will be able to relate to what you are saying.

For the sake of the younger kids, continue to use props and be very repetitive. Last week at Power House I taught on praising God all the time. The example in our lesson was Paul and Silas. Personally, I think praising God is a foreign concept to many of our Power House kids. They don’t seem to grasp what praising God actually is. The concept of being thankful is easier for them to grasp, so while I taught I constantly repeated “God wants you to be thankful all the time!”, “We need to give God Praise all the time!”, and “We have a lot to be Thankful for!” Using a prop, I began talking about my life growing up how there were times when we didn’t have money for Christmas presents. I remember twice having a box full of presents being dropped off on our front porch. The presents may not have been what I exactly wanted, but I had a reason to be thankful. I had a reason to praise God; at least I had presents for Christmas! I had a reason to tell God how awesome he was for supplying me a Christmas present. I told the kids more about my life growing up. I was vague with some parts so I didn’t have to go in detail for the younger kids. The older kids could just fill in the blanks.

I then showed the kids pictures I had from mission trips. I showed them the huts that people lived in and how they washed their clothes and took baths in the creek. I reiterated the point that we have a lot to be thankful for. Even the poorest of poor in America can get food, clothing, and shelter if they need it, but in other countries the poor just have to fend for themselves. By using props, being repetitious, and teaching up I would guess that nearly every person there would be able to leave that place with a good idea of what the lesson was about.

Here’s a quick recap:

When teaching to a wide range of ages, there are two things you can do to ensure that each child is being taught on their level.

1.Separate the age groups if possible
2.Teach up but continue to use props and be repetitive