Bite sized video intros

Your name and church

Gemma Moncada, Children and Families Worker, Church on Berryfields, Aylesbury

How did you use the Parenting for Faith materials?

I have created some short bite sized videos – 10-15 minutes long – to introduce Parenting for Faith to the parents in my church during lockdown.

Why did you choose to use the sessions like this?

Having spoken to some of the parents at my church, a lot of them found the idea of doing an eight week course a bit daunting and felt they would struggle to find the time to do it and some didn’t quite understand what I meant by ‘Parenting for Faith’. So I spent time praying about the best way to introduce the idea to our families in a way in which they would be able to engage with and have time to do so. I had already looked at the article on Sharing the key tools with parents and under fives on the site and this inspired me to create the videos.

What day and time did you choose and how often?

I tried to do the videos in a ‘live way’ so would film at roughly the same time each week (a Monday morning) for six consecutive weeks (I split chat and catch into two sessions like the course does). I would then share the videos on our social media families group immediately after filming, giving parents the chance to watch and respond as and when they had the time to do so. In the description of the video I would then put links to a few relevant videos or articles on the Parenting for Faith website so that if they wanted to find out more they could do so in their own time.

Did you have to adapt the material to make it work for your sessions? If yes, can you tell us what you did?

Each video had a visual representation of the key tool at the start e.g. a cardboard window, a cardboard frame, a tangled web of wool, a mobile phone and a pic of a surfboard (as I don’t own one). I then did a brief intro to the tool and what it is using the visual representation e.g. ‘I love being nosey and looking into people’s windows to see how they live, it is the same for creating windows. Kids are nosey and want to see so let’s let them see a bit of our lives with God’. I then explained things a bit further for example with ‘Unwinding’ I briefly (and I mean briefly) went through the common ‘wrong/unbalanced views of God’. I would then finish with some practical ways or examples of using that tool and set a mini challenge for how to try it out that week.

What went well?

Parents were able to watch the videos as and when they had the time.
Parents were given practical ideas for how to use the tool and help their kids on their journeys.
Individual feedback from parents was positive and parents felt able to adapt the ideas and tools to suit their family circumstances.
It worked as an introduction to Parenting for Faith so that when it then gets mentioned or used within a church service parents understand the tool more and then there is a link between what is done at church and (hopefully) at home.

What didn’t go so well?

Getting feedback from one another about how it was going was harder as there wasn’t really a chance for group discussion – people were given the chance to comment under the posts but rarely did so as this isn’t quite the same as having a group discussion.
Group support was harder to develop due to no group discussion.

Would you use the material like this again?

As an introduction or a reminder as to what Parenting for Faith is definitely, but in future I would then follow each video up with a group chat or video call so people could ask questions and share their own experiences more easily.

Do you have any top tips for others who might want to use the sessions like this?

This way works as an introduction to the tools so keep it short and simple, focussing on the overall key elements of each tool and give practical ideas to try out at home. Sharing your own experiences of using the tools (successes and failures) also helps.

Gemma, has kindly let us share her video from week two. Please use it to inspire your own version rather than just using hers!