The Vision

Sparklers is Canterbury Vineyard’s kids group for around 1-3 year olds.  We seek to create an environment every Sunday morning where children, parents and leaders can encounter God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We aim for the children to know that God loves them, that He is always there for them and that they have access to Him.  We seek for the whole Church to understand that children can access and know God completely for themselves.  We believe that children matter in Church and to God so we are aware of and look after their physical, emotional and social well-being and development as well as their spiritual well-being and development.

The Team

The current co-ordinators for Sparklers are:

Helen Watson

Please feel free to contact the co-ordinators if you have any interest in or questions about Sparklers

Sparklers is committed to providing 2 volunteers each week for an average of 4-6 children and then 1 more volunteer for each additional 1-3 children.

Responsibilities for Sparklers team members are to commit to pray for the Sparklers ministry and kids work at Canterbury Vineyard in general.  To pray for, love and serve the children, parents and team.  Each team member will take it in turn to plan the craft activities for the children based on the current theme and agreed outline for Sparklers.

All team members are required to apply to be on team by contacting the Sparklers co-ordinators and completing a CRB check in line with our child protection policy.

The Children

Parents who wish for their child to join Sparklers should fill in a registration form which can be found on the Canterbury Vineyard website or ask one of the leaders for a form and return to a team leader.

The Parents

Parents are welcome to stay with their children during Sparklers sessions or feel free to leave their children and collect them at the end of the session.  Sparklers starts in the Upper Room after the first set of worship and continues until the end of the preach when we ask that parents collect and sign-out their children

The Outline

We aim to follow what we feel God is calling us to look at in these sessions and to link in where possible with what the rest of the Church is covering as our theme.

General Outline:

10.20: Weekly volunteers meet Sparklers co-ordinator in Upper Room to discuss weekly plan, help set-up, pray and get their Sparklers T-shirt

End of worship set: Volunteers wait in Upper Room to welcome children and parents, parents sign-in their children and children receive their badges

Things to do:

1.      Toys/Games (10/15 mins)- lego, playdough, trains, drawing, puzzles etc

2.     Craft Activity (10-15mins)- organised each week by volunteers

3.     Interactive Prayer- ongoing interactive ideas to encourage children and parents to pray together

4.     Worship (10 mins)- singing, dancing, musical bumps/statues

5.     Snack and story (10 mins)- children get a biscuit and cup of squash, read a story

6.     Toys (10-15 mins)- lego, playdough, trains, drawing, puzzles etc

End of preach- Parents collect and sign-out children

The Resources

It would be great to have as many games and toys, old or new, craft material, books etc being brought to Vineyard.