In recent years, many catechists are finding themselves involved in teaching over the summer in “Vacation Bible School,” once a phenomenon found fairly exclusively in Protestant circles. Several Catholic versions of VBS exist and other creative DREs have found ways to adapt Protestant VBS to Catholic settings.
I’ve not been involved in VBS although I think its a great idea. The parish where I serve as a catechist has run a very successful VBS for a couple of years…maybe this year I’ll have a chance to sneak a peek although they usually take place when I’m at work.
If you have any experience with VBS in a Catholic setting, I’d love to hear from you.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Ali 04.30.07 at 7:11 am
Thanks for that link! The lady who organizes our VBS cornered me
for a meeting in May. I’m going to see what she has, and bring some of my own suggestions.
Thanks!
Joe 04.30.07 at 7:49 am
Ali, keep in touch about how things proceed!
Mary Kerekes 05.02.07 at 5:17 pm
Last year we used a VBS program called, “Saint Patrick and the Holy Trinity” from the company, Growing with the Saints (growingwiththesaints.com).
This was an excellent Catholic program and the kids had a wonderful time. We plan to use their new program this year, “Various Saints and the Virtues of Faith, Hope and Love”. As religious education coordinator, I oversee the program but have one person who takes the kit and organizes everything-makes the sample crafts, buys whats needed, makes copies of the material for each teacher and places everything in the teacher bins, ready to begin the day. Everyone is extremely happy with this program and I highly recommend this program.
Mary
Joe 05.02.07 at 5:28 pm
Mary, thanks for the feedback and recommendation. I visited the Growing with the Saints website and liked what I saw. Good luck with the new program this summer!