The right age in the right room
Right age Right room
If we mix the children who are too young with those that are older their point of learning no longer comes from you but from those that they look up to.
Obviously you have worked out that I am passionate about teaching and reaching children between the ages of three to six with the Word of God. However, having worked with many different groups and a few different churches experience shows me it is vital that the right age group are in the right room. Hence the very name of this site three to six!
How it can go so very wrong is when the young are mixed with the older children at a far too early stage. I have been involved in places that were keen to put all “school-age children” in the same room. Well, school starts for most children at around age 5 and ends at age 18. Now, I know that by age 13 to 15 years some Sunday morning teaching has moved into “Youth Club” but that still leaves children aged 5 to 12 in the same room on a Sunday morning. Think of the differences between your little Johnny at the tender age of just 5 and exactly what Johnny says and does age 12, they are worlds apart. Do you want a 12 year old influencing your child?
What happens if we mix the children who are too young with those that are older is that their point of learning no longer comes from you but from those that they look up to - the older kids! Instead of taking in the lesson, they are keen to learn the latest “slang word” or “trend”, let alone the fact that today most 10 to 12-year-olds are consumed by their phone, little Johnny is soon going to come out asking for the latest technology when all you did was send him into Sunday School.
Zero to six is a no no
At the other end of the spectrum, we have the “lets put all the young ones together” idea, usually an idea from someone who has no understanding that a three to six-year-old can learn about God, retain songs and create a fantastic craft. That is, as long as they aren’t put off by two-year-olds that want to grab the felt-tip pen and put it in their mouth. Younger children, ie. up until the age of 2 should be in a caring learning and creche’ scenario where a felt-tip pen doesn’t see the light of day!
Its not a child minding service
I have had the experience of a helper being dropped with a two-year-old who slept in her arms for the whole one and half hour session. Always reminding those that make the “age rule in the rooms that Sunday school is not a creche” or a babysitting service is a good policy.
Three to six is an age group that allows little ones to look up to children 2-3 years older than themselves, to learn correct behaviour and good habits from them. Getting the right age in the right room is essential for good biblial foundations to be laid. Also, when does the 5/6 year old ever be the “older one”, the one that knows all the answers, the one that can help and show the younger ones. The one to offer up good habits to copy. Well it that child certainly doesn’t ever get to enjoy those benefits if they are shipped off to the next Sunday School Group where they immediately become the small one, the youngest, the little one.
Experience has shown me that well thought out groups that are the following age groups are a winning formula -
0-1 - creche/mother and baby room
1-2 - parent or volunteer run gentle learning and playing with activities
3-6/7 - First Sunday School Class/Group
6/7-9 - Second Sunday School Class/Group
9-13 - Third Sunday School/Group
13 upwards Youth and Beyond
I once had somebody tell me that a policy of when the children move from one room to another at a certain age was “black and white” and happened because it had always happened that way - to this I say, there are many “enemies of the truth” one of them is the “myth of opinion without any thought applied.”
Treating each child as an individual is the only way to go in a caring organisation, and how much more caring a place could you find than that of a church? You may have six-year-olds that are ready to rush out of your room with a skip and hop, others may feel daunted by the fact they have to leave and join the older children. There should be no hard and fast rules but instead, guidelines that you work around according to which child you are dealing with. I once had a mother ask if her six-year-old daughter could stay with my group/room as her younger sibling was just about to come and join our room. In any other educational environment that would not be possible, of course, it is possible in a caring, loving church environment.
Since writing this article, I have had this issue come up again and again in various churches that I have helped in. The idea of shipping a child off aged 6 into a room with 12 year olds because …… “they are all school age”, is a reocurring theme. Tell me when does a 6 year old learn subjects sat next to a 12 year old at school? That’s right, never! Most schools I have experience off don’t even let the children mix in the playground at those ages. The child may well have started school at age 6, and what a lot of places want to do is, just when the child is experiencing one of the biggest changes in their lives of “starting big school”, they want to throw them into a brand new class where there are experienced “school kids” aged 7-12. For goodness sake let the 6 year old have one place in life where they are the eldest in the room and the little one!
I have also had my thinking (which comes from a place of experience and love) thrown back at me as to “how is the 6 or even 7 year old influencing the 3 year old?” well my answer to that is “very well thank you”. The influence of a 6/7 year old on a 3/4 year old is usually in most cases, only ever a “good influence”. This is where they are learning how to sit and copy what the 6 year old is doing, this is where they look across and watch the 6/7 year old pray with eyes shut and hands clasped and what do they do - they copy behaviour. With any good leader/teacher any behaviour that is displayed from a 6/7 year old that isnt desirable for 3/4 year olds to copy its about coming along side that child and explaining how they are teaching the little ones. Most children I know revel in this and it brings about their caring, naturing side.
Every child should feel comfortable and confident in the room/group that they are in, happy children want to join in and learn. Making sure they are in the right environment to do that is paramount.
