The teaching outline includes activities listed under headlines such as ‘think’, ‘listen’, ‘talk’, ‘do’, ‘learn’ and ‘pray’. Each session ends with two printable worksheets, one for those aged 3 to 4, and another for those aged 5 and 6. However I didn’t always feel that they were linked well with the teaching point and more could have been done to make the programme tighter than merely putting a Bible verse somewhere on the page. Nonetheless, the children I used it with loved the Pens characters. They enjoyed the daily devotions that I photocopied each week far more than the activities in the accompanying teaching outline.
One practical issue is the price. I have 18 children in my group and each book lasts for four weeks. For this resource to be fully functional, each child needs to have this at home. At £4 a book, the outlay would be significant. Having said this, the week after I first used the resource, two children came to our group and said that they had bought the devotional and were using it at home, so perhaps parents could help shoulder the cost.
Pens may not always be to everyone’s taste, but it has proven to be both engaging for the children, and accessible to some parents in my group, and therefore is worth a look. However, without the daily devotional to back up the teaching outline, the programme could fall flat. For this to work, it’s all or nothing.
Vikki Shacklady is chaplain at The Deanery High School, Wigan
