Apparently, a lot of churches did Pandamania, and my church was one of them.
I agree with all those people who think that this year's Chadder sucks. I was a TA (Teacher's Assistant) at my church, and all my kids were like "I hate Chadder!" and "It's so boring!"
And to add to that, my mom was the leader for Chadder. And she was reading off the script.
Personally, the best one was Power Lab. (anybody done that one?) But I think that Chadder is the worst part of VBS.

Haha, my church is doing Panda Mania, too. (They did the ones from that program for a couple years: the western one, Power Lab... I forget last year's. I remember there was a dolphin and a monkey, though. )

Aaaagh I agree that this year's Chaddar is just wierd. Does Chaddar actually say, "I'll go text such and such!" (My sister says he sounds like Gomer Pyle... ) Last or two years ago, it wasn't really that bad, but this year it's just like whaaat? My mom is doing preschool theatre, so she does Chaddar. (so be nice, he's a family friend. )*kind of likes Chaddar as an individual chipmunk, although she has never seen the vidoes in full while paying attention* They only do Chaddar for the Preschoolers at my church, which is very fitting. I thought that the one they had two or so years ago was pretty nice for kids that age. (Although a lot of little kids got scared by that one.)

I really miss is the VBS songs we used to have, (Son Harvest, anyone? The Fruit of the Spirits song is engraved in my mind forever!) these ones mainly consist of preteens being "cool", and the only teenager is the one "rocking out" on the electric guitar... dancing around singing songs that have already been written... I don't know, I just miss the real original songs and the nonexistant vidoes, but the music leader taught them to us.

This year in VBS, I'll be doing Registration and Chow. Looking forward to both.

VBS at our church is pretty big. I have really fond memories of going to VBS, being separated by duct tape according to age group and now it's grown to almost 400 kids. I hope more families will be touched and influenced to visit our church more often.

I noticed the "cool" factor in the music vidoes in past years. The kids, especially the 9-12 age group, seemed to see through it and be a little disgusted. This year with the "Hometown Nazareth" theme the music was a little less mainstream and had a lot of movements. They were silly but in a good way. I think original songs with hand motions with certain words are the best way to go.

Well, my church is doing a VBS program called Summer Seaquest this week. Probably no one has heard of it, but here is a bit about it.

http://www.vbsreachout.com/vbs/d/build.asp?page=Home

They do the same program once every four years. I've done this program twice before.... we study the story of Jonah, and get visits from characters featured in the story.

I just got back from helping with VBS (assistant with the toddlers ) and this is the second year in a row they schedualed it during Shark Week. Since I stay at my grandma's that week for it and she has no cable I missed most of it. I jokingly complained to my pastor XD No harm intended (though I would appreciate the end of July).

Actually my Pastor's son was in our class and he showed me his Narnia pop-up book, which was adorable!!! It had a page for each book (and they even got Bree's color right.)

We had the "Old West" theme this year, and most of my friends did the skit. I might do it next year if they let me, I miss the skits. But I have other volunteer experience in child care so I think they like having me in the rooms. (Or maybe I could try crafts... I like crafts).

Today was the last day of VBS for my church. It's really sad because this might be my last one before I head to college. I've been going to VBS ever since I was in like first grade. We did Pandamania and it was really great. I did games and on the last day we always have a surprise. Instead of a water slide like we usually do, we had a blow up bouncy obstacle course thingy and I got to run it. I was a lot of fun!
My summer camp is awesome!!! I love it so much. Everyone who goes plans their summer around it. I made a ton of new friends, played great games, and got closer to God, since it was a Christian camp. I really miss the camp people. My friends at home just seem inferior to my camp friends.