(long) Just some suggestions for next year's book.....

[MommyRat]

This is my 8th Gospel Light VBS. I know there are many more on here who have been doing it longer and it would be great to hear from them too. I did crafts for 5 years and have directed or codirected the past 3 years. We are in the process of choosing our crafts for this year and I must say, it's a little frustrating. The front cover of the craft book says it "uses economical and easy-to-find supplies." I have to disagree with that in regards to our setup. I know everyone's is different, but I really wish there were more crafts that worked for both smaller and larger groups. We are planning for 200 this year in grades K-6th. We have 30 minutes for our craft center. Here's some of my observations:

(*Note: Please don't take me as "that person who is never happy with anything"! I truely love VBS and just want to help make it better for all of us, big groups, middle size groups, or small ones!

-multiple crafts this year were big. Like the carousel horse, the dancing dolls, the friend flag. When you have 150-200 of these floating around during the day, they take up quite a bit of space.

-many crafts use materials that are expensive when you look at a large scale. One example is the comfort pillow. The fleece alone would be about $3 per pillow. The light sticks craft would be around $1 each just for the glow stick.

-we went to centers last year, so our kids have to carry their crafts with them part of time until they can get back to their group's spot in the sanctuary. Now, with that in mind, think about the yummy feeder sticks, asteroid launcher, or picture rock. They're either messy or easy to tear up.

-given the time estimates that are given for some of the crafts, there is no way the glue that is holding these crafts together could be set enough. Unfortunately, this is something I had to learn from experience the first year I did crafts. Even when the kids had classrooms to return to and leave their crafts, they sometimes didn't make it back to the classroom before the teachers were having to put them back together.

-now, take the above time restraints and think paint! :eek:

So, take these above issues and remove all the crafts from the book that pertain to them. When you remove that many crafts from the 45 available, it doesn't leave you with many options. I realize there is no perfect book for everyone, but I have dealt with these same problems every year. In SonCounty Fair, one of my favorite themes, the tic-tac-toe craft called for strawberry baskets. I called every farm supply company I could get a number for but none of them carried these baskets anymore. All growers have gone to the clam-shell packages. I made due without them, but it is just another example of a craft that didn't seem thought through before hand.

Now, with that all said, we still love GL and as you see, we are still buying the kit each year. And I really love having the forum to share outside ideas for crafts and other subjects. It has been a lifesaver! I really look forward to trying to guess next year's theme this summer and all the other festivities that go along with us hardcore VBS-ers that work on it year-round! (Hello, my name is LeAnne...and I'm a VBS-addict!:D ) I hope my "rant" can help others and bring more kids to Christ through all our great programs!

[flutist14_99]

"given the time estimates that are given for some of the crafts, there is no way the glue that is holding these crafts together could be set enough. Unfortunately, this is something I had to learn from experience the first year I did crafts. Even when the kids had classrooms to return to and leave their crafts, they sometimes didn't make it back to the classroom before the teachers were having to put them back together."

Just an idea but what we do to solve this create a space for the children to leave their crafts at in the craft room. Granted you have to choose a huge room for crafts, but at least then you have some way of managing this problem.
We have also found that some of the crafts can be put together a little more than the book has them put together in the beginning and still be fun to finish for the kids.
Using this idea, we usually always stretch two larger crafts over two days we smaller ones or simplified ones for fill-in.
Now to clarify this, we have a smaller VBS. I'm only planning for about 50-60 kids this year and that's ambitious but, I think we'll make it. So some of this may not work but, maybe it's adaptable for a larger church?

[Melanie]

Hey MommyRat - I am very blessed that I don't have to do a whole lot with my crafts as I have a wonderful lady in my church who takes care of that for me. However, my mother has been the Bible School Director at her church for over 20 years now, so I've picked up a few handy ideas throughout the years.

Regarding time to dry and carrying the crafts around- I've found this problem with all VBS literature. Glue just takes a while to set up. We also use an activity center format. What I do is put up tables alongside the wall for each class with plastic tablecloths and the kids put their craft their to dry (make sure that every craft has the child's name and grade on it - not too hard to do usually, if necessary make "I belong to" tags that you can tie to each craft). Now, I can hear you saying but I don't have room for all those tables. That can be a challenge in many churches. Find ways to double up storage. For example, the tables that I use as my drying tables either have supplies stored below them or an additional drying area (I use short tables, benches, etc under neath the tables to get multiple drying surfaces).

I definitely would not recommend that the kids carry their crafts with them - that's just asking for a disaster when someone's craft accidentally gets destroyed! At my church we have a short closing assembly. The older kids (1st - 6th grade) are released from assembly one class at a time to go back to the craft room and pick up their crafts (with craft workers there to supervise). For the little kids, our teachers and craftworkers work together to bring out a big box for each class with all the kids' take-home stuff gathered together. That way during our missions and singing in the closing assembly, there is no paper rattling or crafts being played with, etc. This system has worked very well in the two churches I have directed in (150 - 180 kids).

Regarding price - my craft director every year posts some sort of a themed cutout on the wall listing a craft supply needed, the quantity, where to purchase it, and the price. The cutouts are numbered and people sign up for the cutout they took off the wall and purchase that supply for us and bring it back. Each cutout usually costs under $10 so that way most people in the church can participate. I usually spend under $200 on craft supplies because so many of our supplies are donated.

We also have craft work days for a couple of saturdays in the months leading up to VBS. If we need things copied, cut out, stapled together, etc. several ladies in our church will come up and help with that so that our craft director doesn't end up doing it all herself.

Hope these ideas help!!!

[TrinityJen]

I was just talking to my craft director about this today. We also hate when a craft must be reassembled, and as a parent those are the first to get tossed. I like to have a nice magnet or picture frame. Things that are small and I might keep at least a little bit. My preschooler was still using the place mat she made until Christmas. Now that I have laminating supplies for ledger paper.....hmmm....

We had 100 kids last VBS. We are luck enough to have a large craft room w/ shelves to store projects. (They used to be cubbies and coat holders from when we had a preschool, but we turned them on there side and they are shelves.) Then during the last hour of VBS the 'craft helpers' take the crafts to the classrooms on trays. This is vary time consuming for them.

OR - the class takes a detour from craft - to their final room to drop off crafts on a table - then to their next class. Then you hope the other classes don't mess with them.

Anyway MommyRat I feel the same way.

[kimbak]

Our VBS usually has around 80 kids, so its not quite as large, but this is always an issue. I'm with you Jen, I like when there is something managable that actually gets used and not just thrown away right away.
We don't have a huge craft room, but we just have the kids leave their crafts ont the floor against a wall and during our short closing assembly I make an announcement that as they leave they need to stop by the craft room and pick up their craft. This works pretty well for us, usually all the crafts make it home.
Its very difficult to find crafts that are nice looking that can be dry and complete in 20 minutes.

[houseparent]

I don't like glue or paint and that makes a huge difference in the crafts that we do. I also see the crafts in the book in the same way that I see recipes, they are only a suggestion. Using the book as a suggestion I am able to adapt the craft to a more economical and easy craft.

I think the crafts we are doing this year are going to be:

1: the Souvenir bag http://forums.gospellight.com/showthread.php?t=1929 (http://forums.gospellight.com/showthread.php?t=1929) I will have to use glue with this one only because I can't afford a more expensive bag, but this is the only craft that will have any type of a drying time.

2: The Friends Banner from page #37, except I will use pre-cut fun-foam pennants and peel&stick fun-foam stickers and markers

3: Rocket-Ride Wind Chime from page 63, except I plan to drill holes in the edges of the cd's as well as two holes near the center to avoid having to wrap everything in wire. It will just be a matter of threading the wire through the holes and twisting them off. I don't figure it will take more than 15 minutes to predrill all the cd's I will need. I can use electrical tape to hold them together and drill 10 at a time using my drill press. Rather than having to collect them, I am sure I can find blank ones at a clearance store for pennies a piece, the only other real expense would be the jingle bells and they are cheap.

4: Light stick necklace on page 65. I found several sources online that sell them for much less than 50 cents each, I will print the words on small clear return address labels using my laser printer, and I already have tons of beads and cord left over from previous VBS's

5:The Sonworld Photo Album http://forums.gospellight.com/showthread.php?t=2027 (http://forums.gospellight.com/showthread.php?t=2027) craft I created using an inexpensive wedding album from OT. Using preprinted card stock all the kids have to do is color and cut out. I plan to include pictures from the week, but the craft could easily be created for under 55 cents.

I haven't sat down and crunched numbers but I think all my crafts for the whole week are less that $6 per kid and most of them are crafts they will keep for a long time. I know kids from our VBS last year that still have some of the crafts they did.

[TrinityJen]

Thanks for your list of crafts Houseparent! I will be sure to pass the ideas along to my craft lady.

[jruckman]

My craft director (my hero!) is planning for more 2-day and even a 3-day craft for the 5th and 6th graders because she hears from the kids and parents that they like projects which are "keepers" rather than some trinkety-thing they threw together in 25 minutes with stickers and markers and then promptly throw away. I know in past years the older kids have really enjoyed projects like the dye-resist (white crayons on white fabric then dye the whole thing) bandanas that we did with Kingdom of the Son. I guess for us it has been more of a challenge to put together "keeper" projects for the shorter attention-span kids in the younger grades.
Janet

[MommyRat]

Thanks for all the input guys! Our budget for crafts is $600 total. So that comes out to about $3 a child for the week. It's true a big challenge we have is space. I like the ideas but unfortunately I can't really find a way to implement any of them for us. :( The craft room is larger, probably 60x30 feet, but we also have to accommodate up to 30 kids in there at once. That makes for a lot of tables and workspace! Also, we can't do multiple day crafts or crafts that have to dry overnight. We have an attendence wave, for lack of a better term, where Monday will be average, Tuesday is a spike, Wednesday is normally the highest attendence, then Thursday and Friday begin to drop off. Lots of people go out of town that weekend or kids have friends spend the night early in the week, etc. So we have kids that only come for 2-3 days sometimes. This year our kids will be dismissed from closing ceremonies into rooms by grade for their parents to pick them up. (Don't get me started about the nightmare of dismissal last year!) I thought about having them leave the crafts in those rooms but most of the rooms are doing double duty during the day. (Like first grade will be dismissed to the room the music center was held in) That makes is almost impossible for them to drop those crafts off without interrupting or getting 2 groups mixed up in one room.

Don't get me wrong, I totally take these as ideas from the craft book and redesign them for our needs. I am just hoping these suggestions we give will help them understand the needs of different programs better and maybe give a better variety to choose from.

Here are our crafts for the week:

Craft Center 1 - (K-2nd grade)
SonWorld Checkers
Burger Journal
Care-for-Me Pups
Forgiveness First-Aid (using little boxes I saved from my husband's work when they made a huge order of wireless antennas intead of the film canisters)
Sand Art Cross Necklaces (found these a few weeks ago on OT for like $3.95 for 36!)


Craft Center 2 - (3rd-6th grade)
Rocket-Ride Wind Chimes
Choices Game (gotta love how cheap this is and our kids love something they can play with afterwards!)
Forgiveness First-Aid
Beady Buddy
Foam Picture Frame (we're just making our own with 1/2 sheets of foam and foam stickers; I'll probably make some stickers with the logo on them & the year)

We've taken all these and changed things up to make them more or less complex and cheaper.

We used to have people donate supplies, but it got to the point we weren't able to get everyone to buy exactly what we want (wouldn't the cheap one work just as well????:rolleyes:) and it seemed we were asking for a lot of stuff for VBS, summer programs, etc. all within a short period of time. So it was decided a few years ago to up the budget some and let it all come out of the budget. I got a "raise" this year to a $3200 total budget. It always sounds like a lot when I start, but I manage to spend every single penny! :D