Our church’s Awana program started up for this school year this past Wednesday. It is Micah’s first year to be in the program. He is a Cubbie, which is the preschool Awana program for 3- & 4-year-olds. We have been serving in Awana for several years, so I was really excited to finally have my own child old enough to be in it. I think my excitement rubbed off on Micah because he was pretty excited for his first night of Cubbies. Even Caleb was running around saying “Awana!” and “Cubbies!” before we left home. They provide child-care for younger children of leaders. We have always worked with the older kids though (K-6th grades), so we didn’t really know how Cubbies worked exactly.
It has been fun to get Micah’s new Cubbies handbook and start looking through at all he is going to be learning. He loves his Cubbies book too and wants to read all the stories in it about Cubbie Bear and his friends. He doesn’t want to read the Bible stories and verses though, so we’re going to have to work on that. Each week the Cubbies work on one “Bear Hug” section which includes a little story with Cubbie Bear and his friends, a Bible story to look up and read, a little discussion or activity related to the Bible story, and a Bible verse to memorize. The kids are supposed to work on it at home and then they recite the verse at Club Wednesday night to earn a sticker for their book. After every few “Bear Hugs” they complete, they earn a patch to put on their uniform vest.
At Club meetings they have lots of fun. I’m not sure exactly how the whole schedule goes, but I know they have a Bible story, recite their verses, sing songs, do crafts, play games, and have a snack. They are divided into teams of 3 or so kids per leader. Micah is on the red team. He doesn’t really know the other two kids on his team, but I’m sure he will soon. He does know several other kids there, though. I think he’s going to love going to Cubbies this year.