Barbisms

Clubbers fall in love with their leader. Then they fall in love with their leader’s God.
We are not ministering to the Clubbers in our classrooms today. We are ministering to the teenagers they will become.
Cubbies has a window into the family that Sparks and T&T don’t have, because of the required involvement of the parents because Cubbies don't read. We need to maximize this window while we have it.
Cubbies is about relationships. Relationships with clubbers. Relationships with parents. Relationships among leaders. Relationships between leaders and student leaders. Even the Cubbies book is designed intentionally to fit on two laps.
Rule: The minimum number of colors on a Cubbie's coloring page is their age. If they are 3 years old, they need at least three different colors on their page. 5-year-olds require 5 separate colors. No more scribbling with one black marker and saying, "I'm DONE!" How old are you? You need at least two more colors on that page. Go back and keep coloring until you have at least two more colors on your page.
Rule: The 10-second rule. You can only have about 10 seconds of "down" time before you lose a Cubbie. And when you lose one Cubbie, you've lost them all. Keep an ear out for moments of silence and Fill It! Have your student leaders review a copy of Anytime Games (available on the Teaching Plans Resource CD). Have them pick one of these games and have it at the ready. When a few seconds of silence pass, the student leader should jump in and gather all idle Cubbies to play one of these games, such as Cubbie Bear Says (instead of Simon Says).
Be intentional about how you end each club night. Remember that Cubbies usually ends after bedtime. Parents are trying to get their Cubbies ready for bed. Ending the night with a high-energy activity, like Game Time, returns Cubbies to their parents ramped up. It might be better to slow the evening down at the end of club night with a low-energy activity, like the tracing pages (AppleSeed, HoneyComb) or Activity Page (page 8 of each lesson plan).
Transitions are important to Cubbies. Use a liquid motion bubble timer or hourglass timer to prepare Cubbies that a transition is coming. "Cubbies, it's time to finish up your craft. Game time starts when this timer is finished." Be sure to follow through on your warning as a promise.
Free play (using the church's toys) is never necessary in Cubbies. There are so many activities to do, you hardly have enough time to finish them all. I know it is a good solution at the start of club and at the end of club. Cubbies can slip in and slip out without disrupting an activity. However, think about it from the parents' perspective. If all they see if free play at drop-off, and free-play at pick-up, what do they see their children actually learning? As they are struggling to put their child to bed each week, and they ask themselves it Cubbies is worth it, will they answer with a resounding "Yes!"? If you start club with an Activity Page (page 8 of the lesson plan) or verse Tracing Page (AppleSeed or HoneyComb), parents will see their children doing something Bible-related and educational. This is totally worth the struggle one night a week at bedtime.
Cubbie Bear is a great tool for helping shy kids warm up. Some Cubbies are willing to recite their verses to Cubbie puppet if they are too shy to recite verses to leaders. However, remember that Cubbie Bear is not real, and biblical truth is. Cubbie Bear should never be used to impart biblical truth. Cubbie Bear does not recite Bible verses or tell Bible biographies. He can tell other types of stories but not Bible lessons. Notice, also, that we are deliberate about using words that connote truth, such as biography or lesson rather than story, which implies fiction.