Two Saturday Mornings

Your name and church
Elaine Harris, St Mark’s Battersea Rise

How did you use the Parenting for Faith materials?  
 As a course run over two days

Why did you choose to use the sessions like this?
Our church diary is very full with courses and events and we were already running another parenting course with more of a focus on inviting non-church families. It worked well for us as a group to devote two mornings to the course, instead of finding eight evenings.

What day and time did you choose and how often?
We met on two Saturday mornings, where we watched three videos (including discussion time in small groups and coffee breaks) and set one video as homework. We provided childcare and we all ate breakfast and lunch together.

No, we used it pretty much as it was.    

What went well?
The fact that the attendees could watch the videos to remind themselves of the material was really helpful. While not everyone took advantage of the childcare provision, it was very helpful for those who did bring their children. We had a step-grandfather join us, which was great!

What didn’t go so well?
We didn't have as many attendees as we would have liked, perhaps due to running other parenting courses at the same time or shortly before and after, and perhaps due to the name of the course!

Would you use the material like this again?

Check your AV/wifi and make sure that you have downloaded the videos. Also, when you are advertising the course, it is helpful to make it broader (i.e. those who influence the lives of children) before saying that it is the 'parenting' for faith course. Aunts/uncles, grandparents, step-parents and carers all have an important input into the spiritual lives of children!