Our parish is going to order a supply of bags for home kits, and expect the bags to last 3+ years. Without labeling or numbering the bags, is there any way to easly track who returns the bags at the individual sessions? We plan to have double the amout of bags as needed for the registered families. We will hand out a filled bag at the end of each session. Does anybody have an idea of the percentage of bags that will return at the sessions? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
We are taking a new direction on home kits this year. Last year we handed out a take-home envelope at every session, and we found a few of them left behind after each session. This year we made up 3-ring binders for each family. We will have some materials in the binder for the first session, and add to it with activities from each session plus home-going material for each family to work on. The responsibility lies on each family to have everything that is needed in their notebook, and to remember to take it home AND bring it back each time. At the end of the GOF year, it is our goal for each family to have a nice prayer notebook made and kept by them.
We have been using the large zip-lock bags found at any local large grocery store. We often will decorate them with stickers . We are doing Prayer this year and in our first take home kit we gave each family a three ring folder. Now at each of our sessions we will give prayer forms with the holes already punched so the families and adults can put them in the folder for future use.
We use colored bags purchased from ULine Shipping Supply Specialists (uline.com). We use a different color for each session and attach a tag with family name on it. This way we know who didn't come and needs makeup material. We've used their merchandise bags ($22 for 500) and their Die Cut Handle bags ($59 for 500). We also code our bags by learning groups for each participant in that household to determine what materials are appropriate for each bag.
Our home kits always include information for the whole family including resources for those who want to explore the theme deeper, saints of the season, family devotions, etc. We try to keep contents user friendly and try not to overload them so as to be overwhelming. To ensure that the kits not only are taken home but, more importantly, opened and used once they get home, we always include a fun family devotion. These involve a family prayer, discussion or activity and are very often edible. Examples: Bag of pretzels with a Lenten prayer, candycorn packets with a color coded prayer to the Holy Trinity, seeds and directions to plant a Mary Garden, etc. After 4 years we have been very creative! Let me know if you'd like more ideas.
I would like more ideas for the home kits. This is our first year doing this type of RE and we ae very excited to make it work. Send me ALL your activities.