Customer Reviews

Instant Games for Children's Ministry

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This book has a lot of ideas for as many or as few kids as you may have. I was expecting the games to tie into a lesson from the Bible, but they don't. So, you can pick any game and just play with the kids to fill in the 5 or 10 minutes you have left over before the parents come. The great part is that there isn't really any clean-up to be done after! The games are broken down by age group or by energy level which made it perfect for me when I was suddenly told that I would have the K-2 group after I had planned for the 4-6 group!

I just picked up this book, because of it's fabulous price on Amazon. When it arrived in the mail, I was a little disappointed at the size. I'm not sure why, but I expected it to be bigger, taller, thicker.. something! Of course, size doesn't really matter. It's what's on the inside that counts (sounds like a great Children's Ministry lesson, doesn't it?)

I started browsing through the pages. The premise of this book is: gather 14 EVERYDAY items and you'll be able to play 101 Children's Ministry games at the drop of a hat. Most of the items were things you could easily have on hand except circular foam disks (where do I find these?) and a color cube (simple instructions are provided right at the beginning of the book for this). Okay, good start.

I read through the first few games and I got so bogged down in the instructions that I just skipped onto the next one. Not a good sign. If I, as an adult, cannot even read the instructions without getting all jumbled, how is a child supposed to actually play the game? Now, maybe I'm just a little dense, but these did not seem like "pick up and go" kind of games. Instead, they seemed a little overly complicated and too ambitious for a bunch of rowdy kids who are in need of some energy-burning activity. Also, the playing time seemed over-estimated. Many games were reported to last 15 minutes or so, but I could imagine kids getting tired of the game in 5 minutes or so.

There were a few winners: Fox and Hounds, Minefield, Pat the Cat, Hocus Pocus Hats, to name a few. However, you have to do a little searching. Certainly this book is worth the price if you're paying 0.01 on Amazon like I did. But full price... I think I'll pass.

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