Once you’ve done the hard work of evaluating, comparing, researching, and choosing a new children’s ministry curriculum … then it’s time for the fun part—implementing the new curriculum! Always begin with prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide you and your team as you begin the journey.
These six steps will help your children’s ministry transition smoothly and seamlessly to the new curriculum.
- Carefully review and learn the new curriculum.
- Prepare your team.
- Communicate with parents.
- Prepare your children’s ministry space.
- Introduce the curriculum.
- Evaluate and adjust.
Always begin with prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide you and your team as you begin the journey.
How to Transition Children’s Ministry Curriculum
1. Carefully review and learn the curriculum and web portal.
Begin by creating your online account for the Wonder Ink web portal. This is where you will be able to access all of the materials. Once you log in, the opening page includes tons of helpful information: A guided tour of the website, tutorial videos, a scope and sequence, an FAQ section, and a “What’s New” tab (which contains updates and new releases!).
Review the scope and sequence, the core values, and philosophy of the curriculum. Consider your church calendar and determine the date you will begin using the curriculum. The calendar on the web portal comes pre-populated with the lessons on the dates we recommend using them (but it’s editable, so you can move them around as needed).
Check out the tutorial videos to learn how to add staff, volunteers, and parents to the Wonder Ink portal. There’s also a video with the Wonder Ink philosophy (the Welcome to Wonder video).
Wonder Academy offers short videos to help you get started with Wonder Ink. You’ll learn things like how to customize lessons, how to add new items to a lesson, how to use the lesson resource libraries, how to export lessons, how to present media, how to use the calendar, and more! Read the lessons and practice editing (if you plan to do that), as well locating and using the resource libraries. The Wonder Ink Facebook page also has some great videos to show how to use the web portal.
2. Prepare your team.
Meet with your children’s ministry leaders and key volunteers to discuss the new curriculum. You can plan a volunteer meeting to introduce them to the curriculum and show them how to use the portal. Prepare lessons ahead of time for them to look at. Get their feedback and help them understand how it will fit into your children’s ministry.
You can use the “Welcome to Wonder Volunteer Letter” in the Additional Resources section of the web portal to introduce your volunteers to Wonder Ink. You can also use the Wonder Ink Philosophy document and the slideshow to introduce them to Wonder Ink. Encourage your volunteers to create their own usernames and accounts for the web portal (if you choose to do so).
Ensure that you provide plenty of notice and training for your volunteers and teachers to help them learn about and prepare to use the curriculum. Familiarize them with lessons, activities, and multimedia components. Ensure that everyone understands their roles in implementing the curriculum and feels confident in their responsibilities.
3. Communicate with parents.
Let parents know about the new curriculum and its values and philosophy. This can be done via email, newsletters, or a special meeting (or all of those!). The “Welcome to Wonder Family Letter” in the Additional Resources section is available to send to parents. You can also invite parents to create an account for the parent portal and show them how to use it.
Offer parents an overview of what their kids will learn over the coming weeks or months. You can give parents a few sample activities to engage with at home using the Wonder@Home page.
4. Prepare the children’s ministry space.
Set up and organize classrooms and spaces according to the needs of the curriculum, if different from your old curriculum. You may need to purchase new supplies or decorations that better align with Wonder Ink. Ensure that your computers, TVs, and multimedia presentation equipment is set up and that you know how it works for Wonder Ink.
Wonder Academy has videos with tutorials about technology and presenting Wonder Ink.
Create visual cues to help your church and children’s ministry understand and align with the Wonder Ink values. Consider creating posters, charts, or other visual aids that will help reinforce key teaching points for children. The Additional Resources section includes stand-up banner images that can be printed if you choose to order stand-up banners with the core values. You can also print posters or order wall-hangings.
5. Introduce the curriculum.
You may choose to do a gradual introduction and begin with a test run, with only a small group of kids and volunteers, to iron out any kinks before you fully roll it out. You may want to add in a few elements from Wonder Ink to your regular children’s ministry services while teachers are learning and adjusting to the lessons, format, and activities. You can bridge the gap by keeping familiar elements from the old curriculum to ease the transition for kids and volunteers.
As you prepare to launch, choose the series you will start with, and check out the series overview, series scope and sequence, series parent and volunteer communication letters, and series promo and overview videos. Each series also provides a master supply list so you can quickly see what you’ll need for that series.
6. Evaluate and adjust.
Gathering feedback and evaluating is an important part of implementing a new curriculum. After a few weeks, get feedback from your volunteers, parents, and the kids. What’s working well? What could be improved? Be flexible and willing to make adjustments. Every church and group of children is different, so be prepared to edit and customize the curriculum to better meet your church’s needs.
Observe the classes (in all ages!) regularly to assess how the new curriculum is being received by kids and volunteers.
Don’t forget to celebrate the wins and successes and share the stories! Acknowledge milestones and successes, whether it’s a really engaging lesson or a spiritual breakthrough or milestone for a child.
Wonder Ink’s 3-year, 52-week children’s ministry curriculum offers kids space to fully find their place in God’s Big Story. Children discover they are Known by God, Loved by Jesus, and Led by the Holy Spirit.
