I am not a huge reviewer but I have gotten a few tweets/requests asking about the Big curriculium. So I thought I would give you a quick run down now that I have had a few days to dig in.
What I love!
1. Production quality is excellent.
2. Love the value reinforcement of Worship, Prayer and The Word.
3. Love the indepth, adaptible small group stuff.
4. Love the topics they cover. They do an excellent lesson on communion like I have never seen in a kids curriculum. We are going to time that lesson with easter this year.
5. Love the fact that they custumize all elements to fit your individual needs.
6. Love they give you the skellaton of the Bible story to add the meat and presentation to that fits your kiddos.
What could make it better.
1. Small group and Bible story in optional Word format for even further custimization. Also offer it in PDF to get the cool look that they offer.
2. Perhaps .mp4 versions of all video elements so that they can be shown through propresentor instead of DVD player
3. One thing that Elevate does that I love is they give a video example for every small group element. If Hills added this that would be huge.
4. More stuff to connect with the parents. I think this is one area that most Curriculum falls short. All of them do a hand out but that rarely makes it home. A creative way to engage parents and kids would be huge.
Overall love it. I really love the theme of evangelism. I think kids need to understand the basic elements of thier faith and then have practicle ways to share it. Can’t wait till we start doing it. Dave, Julia and their team hit it out of the park again. I love Hillsong’s passion for the greater church. I love how they think beyond their beautiful corner of the world. Cheers Hillsong! You guys rock.
Almost all your “make it better” things apply to every curriculum series in existence. Why not offer it in Word format or editable PDF files? And the day I can get away from playing things in my DVD player will be a great day!
Thanks for the review.
I orderd the “Big” curriculum on Monday. I am excited about it. We use a lot of multimedia curriculum so it will be fun to compare how this measures up to the others.
I haven’t checked them out, but to comment on JC’s comment:
252 does offer editable word docs of the curriculum. Oh, and they also offer .mov files of the videos. Unfortunately, the video stuff doesn’t come with the curriculum and has to be bought in addition. But, those are two things that 252 does that others don’t.
Thanks for the feedback! You can be sure that future curric’s will have every point here considered!
Here is one cool thing re: point 4. The ‘Tell The World’ DVD has three episodes on it that correspond to the the three months of curriculum. Families can watch the DVD at home and get an overview of what the kids will be learning at Church!