From Chris Brown in Ohio:

This is a fantastic program and is very flexible. Did you get the Director Guide - very useful. (Check it out at http://store.grouppublishing.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=46306&section=10867) We don't do a lot of decorating - our rooms are used throughout the week for other classes/ activities and my staff & I don't have time to decorate and clean up every week. We are fortunate enough to have dinner for our congregation before our Wednesday night's programs. We start at 6:30 (half hour before adults) and end at 8:00 (same as the adults - as long as the preacher doesn't get long winded). Starting at 6:30 allows the parents to have chat time, and the kids can start a program versus running about. We use the opening + 3 stations + Circle of Friends time (we don't do the closing). If you don't have that amount of time or you have more, see the Director Guide for guidance on how many stations to offer. Welcome to Friends! Chris Brown Loveland Christian Church, OH

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And more tips from Scott in Scotland:

Hi! Greetings from Scotland, UK!

We have now been using FW Friends elementary in our Sunday School for almost 2 years now and have found it to be a great success!

Obviously, because we are using it for Sunday School instead of a midweek programme, we have had to work on adapting it, which wasnt too hard.  Because of time constraints, we originally used everything except the Music & Memory Station.  However, we recently also stopped using Surprise station also, as we found that the leaders were having to rush through Opening celebration in order to have time for all the rest of the stations, plus we wanted to include a sit down bible story as part of the opening celebration that would fit in with the theme.

We also print out memory verses to give out to the kids for them to learn for the next week (these are on the back cover of the station books under "key verse") and also cut out and give them their coupon from the back of their journals as a weekly task.

We also have had to do quite a bit of adapting from American cultural and food differences as well, which has sometimes been challenging, but we have made it!  Also, because we use FW Friends for Sunday School, and because FW Friends isnt available during the summer, we found we had to come up with our own "FW Friends" during the summer period, which was a lot of work for myself putting it all together, but this is the second time now and I am managing - its all worth it!

The best advice is to look at it all, see what you can practically do, and have monthly meetings with your FW Friends staff to get feedback, and its from that feedback that you can see what can be changed, altered or improved upon, and from there you can adapt.

Hope this helps

Blessings

Scott Morrison, Peterhead, Scotland

You have a couple of options. You can have the last group doing Snack-It Cafe deliver snacks to the first group in whatever 'centre' they are in. Or you can have the first group stop by and pick up their snacks on the way to journaling time.

Does that help?

Let us know if you have other questions, or if we can be of service in any other way. God bless you and your ministry!

Deb Bernard

Curriculum Senior Marketing Manager

Any advice appreciated! 

Joanna Tabler

The majority of churches who use FW Friends, use it in a single larger room with stations/centers located in designated areas of the room.  If you have a really large group, then separate rooms probably work a little better.  You definitely get a lot of excitement and energy going on when you are in a single room and it's a blast to watch the all the kids together interacting within the stations/centers.

Hope that helps!

Bob C

Group Curriculum Specialist