A Few Thoughts About Student Papers

In my post, "The Dollars and Cents of Vacation Bible School" I mentioned I do not typically purchase student papers . . . this goes for VBS and for Sunday School. It isn't because I don't see value in the content covered in these papers, but rather because far too often these papers never make it home, and from my work with churches where budget considerations have a big impact on the resources they are able to utilize, there are better ways to spend limited dollars and cents. I do believe student papers can be a very good buy IF they make it home and IF parents utilize them to continue the discussion at home with their children. Often student papers have ideas and activities for families to think and talk about during the week and papers for older children typically include a read through the Bible schedule. We want our families to do devotions and continue the learning at home so IF these student papers get home they can often be an excellent resource for families. The big dilemma is how to get the papers home and then how to encourage parents to utilize them.


Maybe rather than provide student papers, publishers could include discussion questions in the teacher's material and weekly prayer cards for children to record their classmates prayer requests. In addition, publishers could provide a weekly, monthly or quarterly flyer for parents covering the Scripture and topics their children will be learning with some discussion questions and application activities. If these were given to parents and the parents were encouraged to make use of them I believe churches would find them an excellent resource and worthy of their limited dollars and cents!


Just a few thoughts . . . if you have found a way to get student papers home and used by families, I'd love to hear from you!