Christianity Cove–Teen and ‘Tween Bible Study / Sunday School Curriculum Review

Christianity Cove is known for being one of the leading web-based resources for Sunday School lessons as well as other Bible resources. We have been using two of their .pdf Bible Study resources: Freedom Ride, “a 12-week collection of Sunday School / Youth Group lessons for high schoolers” which is 83-pages long; and ‘Tween a Rock and a Hard Place, “lesson blueprints for the 12 most critical (& uncomfortable) subjects for tweens,” which is 165-pages long. **For these books, High Schoolers are students in grades 9-12, or ages 13-19, and tweens are kids aged 9-12.** Having six children whose ages only span ten years guarantees I have teens and tweens in my house for a long, long time.  As a matter of fact, I have had kids fitting into both age groups for the past 14 years, and I still have 6 years to go! 
     As a minister’s wife, I have had the privilege of teaching Sunday School / Bible Study classes across every age bracket.  By far, my favorite ages with which to work are the middle school – high school kids.  Our youth group begins with sixth grade, so most students are around 10 (definitely in the 9-12 year old range qualifying them as ‘tweens’) when they enter the youth group.  We have an unusual demographic in our large youth group in that around 90% of our youth are homeschoolers, including my own children.  Because of this, there are times when tough subjects such as conformity, peer pressure, gossip, modest dress, and abstinence must be addressed from a biblical perspective both in the home and local church.  I have been very impressed with both the content and the layout of the lessons in both of these products.  Along with ‘Tween a Rock and a Hard Place, I received a short .pdf book for Sunday School teachers and parents entitled “Tween Prep.”  This 17-page booklet is full of sound and logical advice about why we need to interact with tweens and how to do that effectively. 
     Our family is in the habit of a nightly family devotion time and our kids have their own personal Bible study times during the day.  Once I got a feel for how both books were laid out, I decided to incorporate one lesson every 2-3 days, spending about 20 minutes doing activities and discussion that were relevant to our family. I also selected some scripture passages and activities that the kids could do during their personal Bible Study times to keep each lesson at the forefront of their thinking and to reinforce concepts. We have used lessons from both Freedom Ride and Tween a Rock and a Hard Place.  Keep in mind that both of these books were originally designed for group study, so, in order to use it in a family setting you will need to be selective in the activities that you complete.  I read through a lesson, select activities and discussion questions to complete, and assemble any needed supplies before each lesson.  The lessons in both books are laid out in a very teacher-friendly format.  They are so easy to follow and there is very little in the way of outside materials needed (when there are outside materials needed they are common household items or items that are easy to attain).  We have been able to complete 6 lessons in each book.  Some of the topics we have covered from ‘Tween a Rock and a Hard Place
, are “Jesus is a Guy, not a Rule Book,” “Listening to Jesus,” and “God’s Voice or My Imagination.”  Some of the lessons we have covered in Freedom Ride include:  “How to Talk With God,” “How to Hear God,” and “Following God’s Leading.”  Notice how these lessons relate to one another!  I have been able to keep my tween and teens on common topics while utilizing stories, examples, discussion questions, and activities that were on their specific age levels.  It is not always easy to adapt this type of curriculum to a family setting; but, when it is a high quality curriculum like these two books, it is well worth the effort to fit the curriculum to your family. 
     For future publications, I would love to see Christianity Cove adapt these resources slightly by including suggestions about how to use them in a family setting as well as a class setting.  I think adding a chart in the introductory materials to show how the teen material (Freedom Ride) and the tween material (Tween a Rock and a Hard Place) can be used simultaneously with varied aged children would be awesome!
     Both ‘Tween a Rock and a Hard Place and Freedom Ride are available as immediate download from the Christianity Cove website for $29.
     Christianity Cove publishes a slew of other products, many of which have been reviewed by other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  To read their reviews, click on the banner below.