Go! Curriculum Review
Go! is a new player in the kids curriculum scene. (Go! will release fully this August.) They have what looks like a great mix of what you would expect from a “Large Group/Small Group” curriculum and fresh ideas. Here is how they describe themselves.
GO! lessons, you’ll probably notice that every section of the lesson is designed to help kids engage with God through their minds, hearts or hands. Some sections are designed to help kids learn
about God and His Word. Some sections are designed to help kids experience, reflect on and respond to the love and grace of their Savior. And some sections are designed to equip kids to live their faith in the real world. A well-rounded approach to children’s spiritual formation should have elements of each of these. One of the wonderful things about the GO! curriculum is that it can so easily be adapted to fit the needs and time restraints of your ministry. As you make additions or substructions, though, be sure to keep in mind the balanced approach that’s inherent in the lessons and important in the spiritual development of the kids in your ministry.
Love the idea of heart, mind and active engagement of kids.
What I liked –
Devotions – Devotions for your leaders to help them grow and connect personally to what they are going to teach either in small group or large group.
Leader training built-in – This was probably my favorite fresh idea. Building in training that helps your small group leaders gains skills and large group leaders be better communicators in genius. I love it.
Flexibility – The flexibility in the format and the style allow for you to change things up to match the service length and church type. For instance the response ideas are in large group where we would probably do them but I know churches that do them as part of small groups, cut and paste and you are done.
Tackle topics not always covered in Kidmin curriculum – Looking over their scope and sequence they cover a variety of topics not covered by many kidmin curriculum companies. Baptism, The Trinity, and End Times all things kids should learn and need to understand in order for deep faith to take root.
The list of supplies you need is so straightforward – practically the supply list separated out for each activity is simple but brilliant. It saves so much time not having to read through the small group activities looking for supplies hoping you don’t miss something.
Creative ideas to make the story better – I like the scrip they supply for the bible story tellers complete with cues for the sound person. The creative ideas are a great launching point for more creative ideas even if we don’t use what they supplied.
Game ideas – They had more than one idea for games each week. The games are totally doable even with a larger number of kids.
What could be better –
Video content to help with multi-site – One of the realities of multi-site kids ministry is you need video as many of our sites don’t have live story tellers. With out video that would add a lot more work as we would have to create that weekly.
The themes – I’m not a big fan of some of the themes but that’s more of a personal thing. I’ve never been a monthly theme person so I would probably leave that out. If you like that, well you are in luck they have it all for you.
Overall impressions –
Overall I really like what David Rausch and his team have put together. From the lessons I reviewed it’s definitely a very fun, bible focused curriculum. I like the fresh ideas and the new ideas they bring to both
Large and small group times. Another thing that is very impressive is their pricing policy. The suggest you pay 1199.00 but if that is more than your budget allows you can pay what you can afford. Very cool, such a blessing for smaller churches. The flying unicorn of curriculum development is an equally fun equally theologically deep curriculum. It’s elusive but from what I have seen Go! comes close.
If you are looking for a new curriculum Go! is definitely worth a look. Samples available now the full curriculum will be available in August. Check them out on the web at http://mooblio.org
For readers of my blog if you download a sample of David’s curriculum today April 21st 2015 email me and let me know and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook on how to choose the right curriculum for you and your church.