Fill out the Contact Form here. I will respond quickly through email, and I am willing to provide you with further assistance on the phone. I want this to work for your setting and will help you in any way I can.

I can do that via Zoom at a mutually agreed-upon time for an additional charge of $125 for a two-hour window, including Q&A. 

I have in the past. This is a possibility. Contact me to discuss if it’s the best option for your needs.

Google Drive allows you to take TCS lessons and easily tailor them to your setting and distribute them to your team.

For example, you can delete or change any liturgy or song suggestions and insert your own. You can add notes for your team. The lessons become working documents that fit the exact needs of your setting. If you’re new to Google Drive, it can feel a bit intimidating, but it’s not difficult to learn. There are tutorials on YouTube, but better than that, find a savvy person to help and you will have a very easy go of it.

It is a big change. You do it by slowly introducing how things are different. There are set-up docs and a video to help you with this, but the key is modeling and having the children follow your example. Gather your class outside the classroom first. Tell them a bit about your new setting. Have them come in one at a time to the circle. Welcome them and begin with something familiar, like a song they know. Then, while they are seated walk around the room and point out what has changed. Allow them to practice, one at a time, walking quietly around the room. Show them how to choose work and where to do it and how to return it to the shelf. These steps are time-consuming, but once learned, the children can “own” and care for this space quite well. 

On the first day, include some liturgy and singing and a Bible story. After the wondering segment. Show the children how they can take turns, take the story from the shelf, and practice it on their own, and how the pieces are to be returned to the box or basket. Some classes have rugs for this or marked-off spaces with tape. This helps other children to walk around the story box being used and encourages the child doing the work to keep it in one place. 

At first, children will need help re-telling the story to themselves. The lead teacher or helper who knows the story should sit nearby and assist if needed. Remember, this is the child’s work, and the teacher should be careful not to talk too much.

Instead of talking about praying, praising, or worshiping God, this class prays, praises, and worships God. TCS believes that children learn through experience, and they form their faith in God relationally before they construct it cognitively. By welcoming children into a space designed for this, teachers can model these facets of worship. We are designed to worship. We are designed for stories. Much of this comes easily for children.

The objects and stories in TCS come from the Bible and from ideas God gave me for illustrating concepts like sin, death, and salvation. However, the truth that children can be worshipers in a classroom came through my years as a Montessori teacher. I studied Montessori education at a certified school in St. Louis, Missouri. After that, I was an intern and then a teacher for seven years. I saw that children were hungry for order, for challenging work, and when given a lesson, could teach themselves (practice it) over and over until they were successful. Montessori education involves reading, science, mathematics, and cultural activities, to name a few. In the school in which I worked, all subjects were secular. 

However, I learned of a Hebrew scholar in Rome, Sophia Cavaletti,  who studied under Maria Montessori and created Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic Sunday School program in which children were prepared for Mass. The Catholic worship service features the Eucharist. I was intrigued. I observed some of these classes in which children draped a small altar in the color that matched the liturgical calendar for that day. The room centered on the story of the Good Shepherd, but other stories were available on the shelf. Pictures and scripture booklets were part of Jesus’ infancy and passion week stories. 

Later, I learned that an Episcopal priest, Jerome Berryman, traveled to Italy to study under Cavelleti. Together with Sonya Stewart, they created Godly Play. I was able to meet Berryman, watch him teach, and see the materials he used. As someone who cares deeply about children’s spirituality, I was enthralled by both approaches. No longer were children being quizzed about the facts of a Bible story. They were choosing to retell these stories, using the beautiful boxes that contained God’s stories. 

The more I studied Godly Play, I believed that it gave too much “theological” agency to children. The spiritual truths of some of the stories felt “up for grabs” to me. I loved the worshipful atmosphere and the richness of telling a story in a prepared way without notes. Still, I did not believe that children would necessarily conclude some of the key tenets of evangelical faith. The fact that we are born with a desire to sin, that we all need a Savior, or that Jesus is the only Savior God has given to the world were not explicit. 

Much later, I met Robin Barfield, Ph.D., from the UK, who wrote his dissertation comparing the theology and pedagogy of Godly Play with Evangelicalism. His work showed what I had concluded, which encouraged me tremendously.

The traditional model in which the teacher holds the knowledge and passes it on to the students has been used in our schools for decades, even centuries, depending on which country you’re talking about. 

I grew up with this model in school and church. We continue to use this model in churches, but it’s wise to consider its weaknesses, particularly in the context of what we are teaching. We are not teaching algebra. We are teaching the stories of God. We are not doing this by ourselves. We are doing this in partnership with the Holy Spirit. All the Bible knowledge in the world will not change someone’s heart. God’s Spirit must transform us. What if you were in a room in which your heart could respond to God’s love and mercy because there was time given to contemplate God’s acts of love? 

I like to think of my classes as a mini-retreat. We step out of the world into the world of God’s true book. We listen to his stories, which are told well with simple, attractive objects. The children can re-experience these during reflection time when they can recreate the story. They have time to reflect and create art that they make, not that the teacher prescribes. 

As the Center for Faith and Children says, “The kingdom of God is here. Its citizens are tired of coloring sheets.” What does that mean? Coloring sheets, word searches, and prescribed crafts are all about consuming time. They do not enhance learning. They certainly do not form faith. 

As disciplers of children, we seek to introduce children to God through his stories in Scripture. We desire them to know, love, and follow him all the days of their lives. This comes from not only hearing God’s stories but remembering, understanding, applying, evaluating, analyzing, and creating - the higher tasks on Bloom’s Taxonomy. This is a lifelong endeavor for each of us. TCS allows the door to open wide for young children to engage God’s Words as deeply as possible. 

Most Sunday School curriculum scores poorly on higher-level skills. Most are removed from the text of Scripture. TCS is diligent about using and showing exactly where in the Bible the Call to Worship and story are from. Thus, TCS imparts beginning Bible navigational skills for pre- and budding readers.