With Christmas behind us and before lent begins, this is the perfect time for your parish to start thinking about vacation bible school. Obviously the most central point of vacation bible school is to bring religion to kids, so I think it's important to choose a program that agrees with your theology. I taught vacation bible school for 2 years at a Catholic church using protestant materials (or rather, protestant materials that were
called Catholic because they came with a little Catholic add-on), but the truth is there's no need for that anymore- there are many programs now available that are
written by Catholics! Who could better understand Catholicism than actual Catholics? Before recommending programs to you that I knew nothing about, I wanted to see them first hand. I do love for things to be Catholic, but I still expect high quality products from all companies. In other words, if the Catholic programs were junk, I didn't want to recommend that you buy them. So, I contacted several Catholic VBS companies asking for a review copy, and was able to get programs from Cat Chat, Growing With the Saints, and K4J (Kids 4 Jesus). I was not paid anything to write this Catholic VBS review, and had no personal need to own 3 VBS programs, so this is all for you, my wonderful readers! :-)
Growing With the Saints VBS Review- Parade Around the Our Father
This Catholic VBS program arrived in a very organized (and very colorful) binder that was super easy to use and all inclusive! There was no guessing when opening this package- it was super easy to find everything and know exactly what it was for. The circus theme ran flawlessly through their program- from crafts to snack, lesson plans to decorating ideas, this package was all under the big top! The crafts included great tips for the craft leaders, full color pictures of all the completed crafts, lists of supplies (all affordable and available at any craft store), and easy to follow directions. Some of the crafts were designed to go with their circus theme, others were "Catholic Crafts". They also provided full color pictures of all the completed crafts- a major plus in my book! The snack section had 15 circus themed snack ideas, and 14 religious snack ideas! All came with recipes and directions. The music was very professionally done (I know they recently revamped their music and they did a great job!) and the songs were very peppy. Some of the songs were written just for them, and others I recognized as remakes from my local christian radio station. In the music section, they did say "Kids love motions to songs! Incorporate them in you worship time." but I will admit that it would be more convenient if they coordinated the songs with motions for us. They do include some tips for coordinating them yourself. They also have sheet music with lyrics available, and it comes with guitar chords! The music section does include a closing ceremony guide, and recommended songs for each grade level. I loved their big overview page that was included to give you a visual
layout of the week. This program also includes picture books about the
saints, which I thought was a really unique thing to incorporate! From decorating ideas to classroom plans, an optional field day to a "free floating" clip art CD, this package definitely includes everything you need to run a Catholic VBS at your own parish. For more information, visit
Growing With the Saint's site.
K4J VBS Review-
Circus of Stars, Spotlight on The Father
I really couldn't be more impressed with this program. The information in their booklets was overflowing. Not only do they tell you what to do, they really give all the information about
how to do it, and they serve it to you on a platter. This program arrived broken down into booklets- one for each section of volunteers in the program. So a booklet each for the craft volunteer, the skit leader, the snack people, etc. At the beginning of each booklet, there's an introduction to the program and characters as well as an overview of the kid's week so that all the volunteers are on the same page and everyone is informed of the day's events. You can open up the craft book to the page of the day, and it tells you what to say and do with the kids (including magic tricks and other fun tid-bits!) and everything else you need to know for the whole class time. There was tons of information in their booklets including what how to work with different age groups of children, and even quotes from the catechism! (Now tell me you're going to find that in a protestant alternative- I don't think so!) The booklets included pictures of all the completed snacks and crafts, but none of them were in color. Their program also came with a very cute and professionally done CD with great kid music. They have pre-coordinated motions to their songs written out line by line, such as "stomp feet: Left! Right!". The package I reviewed was also circus themed, and well done. (I'm such a fan of themes). The theme they have coming up this Summer is "Win the World for Jesus" and it's about going out to be a missionary in the world. I really think that sounds like a great theme! You can see the
overview of their upcoming program here. Their artwork is well done, and their characters (such as Spark the conscience, and Vice the bad guy) really are adorable. This program also had a lot of "extras" that you can order if you choose such as take home packages to send with each child, and saint trading cards! There was such a wealth of information for each of the volunteers in this program, I couldn't possibly find the time to comb through it all. This program will take all the guess work out of running an authentically Catholic VBS program! Visit the
K4J site for more information.
Cat Chat VBS- Marvelous Mystery, The Mass Comes Alive
This program I reviewed for them had a theme of "The Mass Comes Alive". This theme is meant to "help children understand the Catholic Mass and deepen their love for Jesus in the Eucharist". How awesomely Catholic is that?! I love how easy-to-use their director's guide is for understanding the layout of their program. They also had cute songs that my kids and I have been singing along to, and actually included a DVD showing you how to do the hand motions for the songs! My kids and I loved this! (Can you tell I'm into the hand motions for the songs?) Cat Chat also came with easy-to-handle booklets for each section of the VBS week. In the craft booklet, they had some really cute Catholic based craft ideas. While they did have pictures of all the crafts, none of them were in color. Each booklet comes with an overview of the week, so each volunteer understands the layout of the entire program. Their booklets come with tons of handy checklists of things to prepare, supplies to gather, etc. The cute snack activities that came with the program were above and beyond- lots of great ideas! This program also came with a resource CD ROM with spreadsheets, masters, and more. Cat Chat offers tons of extras such as Saint Cards, and take home parent/child activity sheets. This program was well laid out, and very cute. I love how they say "100% Catholic". I think it's so important to have an authentically Catholic program rather than just squeezing it in. Again, this program included too much information for me to even read through it all. Visit the
Cat Chat site for more information.
Comparison Chart for Catholic VBS
GWTS= Growing With the Saints
K4J= Kids for Jesus
CC= Cat Chat
Music
|
_GWTS_ |
__K4J__ |
__CC___ |
| Professional Quality Music CD |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Choreographed Hand Motions |
no |
yes |
yes |
| Instructional DVD for Motions |
no |
no |
yes |
| Sheet Music |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Guitar Chords |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Lyrics |
yes |
yes |
yes |
Included Program Sections
(K4J and CC had these sections available in booklet form. GWTS
had these divided in a 3 ring binder with loose papers in folders)
These were hard to compare because they were all organized a
little differently, but I did my best.
|
_GWTS_ |
__K4J__ |
__CC___ |
| Music |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Crafts |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Snacks assigned for each day |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Director Guide |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Lesson Plans for different age groups** |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Captain leader book |
no |
yes |
no |
| Games |
yes |
yes,
with pictures |
yes,
with pictures |
| Skits and scripts |
yes,
devoted section |
yes,
devoted section |
yes |
| Faith Leader Booklet |
no |
no |
yes |
**GWTS had their lessons for their age groups broken into
these age groups: Pre-K, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6
K4J's age groups are broken up into these ages:
3-K, 1-4, and 5-8
CC didn't seem to have anything broken into age groups
Crafts
|
_GWTS_ |
__K4J__ |
__CC___ |
| pictures of crafts |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| full colored pictures |
yes |
no |
no |
| needed templates included |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| leader script for class |
no |
yes |
no |
different crafts for
different age groups |
yes |
no |
no |
K4J really goes above and beyond with tips and classroom
instructions, station guidelines, preparing your craft station,
work job charts, etc, but their pictures were small and hard to see.
Extras
|
_GWTS_ |
__K4J__ |
__CC___ |
Optional parent
take-home papers |
yes, activity
and coloring page |
yes, full color
posters and activities |
yes, one b&w
page per day |
| Optional take home items |
yes,
(children's book
on saints) |
yes,
circus toys |
yes,
fun items |
| Optional VBS t-shirts |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Concert DVD |
no |
no |
yes |
| CD Rom clip art |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| All inclusive carrying case |
yes |
no |
no |
The checklist above doesn't include everything from the packages, I just though it would be helpful to view things side-by-side. Also, I dove into the craft section a little deeper than the other sections because crafts are my thing. :-) I certainly hope this was helpful to some of you because it took me
forever to put it all together! ;-)
I want everyone to understand that I was given random copies for review, and these are not the themes of the packages the companies are carrying this year. Check out their individual sites for more information on their current packages and prices. I also know a lot of you told me your parishes write their own programs, and ya'll know I'm all about diy! But... these packages are actually very affordable for the amount of information they come with, so consider the time it takes to execute something as large as a VBS program without pre-written curriculum before you dive in! :-) There are also more Catholic Vacation Bible School programs available than the ones I mentioned here, so feel free to do some more research before committing!
In short- these programs were well written, and professionally executed. There is no need to buy protestant VBS programs when these amazing Catholic companies are providing programs like these! I don't think you will be disappointed in any of the programs mentioned above upon ordering. Keep in mind that supporting Catholic companies further funds them to
improve their materials and grow the ministry. So before ordering your
VBS program this year, consider the available Catholic options!
Please send this link to your parish's DRE to let them know you want your kids to be a part of an authentically Catholic VBS program this year! :-)
*UPDATE*
Due to a high volume of emails, I wanted to lay this all out for you. Growing With the Saints definitely revamped their program since a lot of you tried it in the past. These reviews were very honest, and I do understand what high quality products are. I will admit that the K4J program seemed to include the most information and was very comprehensive, and the Cat Chat program was a close second. Both K4J and Cat Chat were overflowing with bells and whistles. Growing With the Saints was a lot more simple and unembellished, but it definitely included all the necessary parts to run a program and was laid out in a very easy-to-follow manner. I welcome your opinions and personal reviews in the comments section! :-)
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