We’ve been using our new First Look and 252Basics curriculum for about a month now and I can say that I love it! It is great to use – I love the digital format for it. I am able to open the files and modify the material to fit the format of how we’re using it. They both give plenty of variety and activities that we’re having enough material for both small group hour and large group time with another smaller group break out for 252basics. I have gotten good feedback from my volunteers on how First Look repeats the same simple point each week. The kids are remembering it! That’s the best! You can tell they are truly learning what we’re teaching. With 252Basics, we switched from KIDMO and the kids are responding well to “live” teaching vs. DVD-based.
If you have any suggestions on getting the kids to use their God Time books and Refrigerator Notes, I’d appreciate it! I am looking forward to going to Orange Conference to talk to others who use it and to learn more. I am loving the model of Family Ministry and know that the “church” needs to move more in that direction. I’ll post more about that later!
I’m consider using the 252 Basics curriculum. We currently use Promiseland. I’m just wondering if you find that 252 Basics is strong Biblically. Their virtues kind of seem like the character traits that the public schools like to talk about. Is it more morality based or Biblically based??? I’m not that familiar with 252, but I’d like to know your opinion! Thanks!
Hi, I just started as a Family Pastor and am currently looking into new curriculum choices. I though perhaps I could pick your brain a little. I love everything I see about 252 Basics and First Look, but the sample curriculum I’ve seen seems pretty heavy on adult drama. Do you find that to be true? Do you have adults who do the acting every week?
I have used First Look for a while and have just started 252 last month. I am also loving it! I went to the orange conference this past May and loved it, I learned so much, I know you will too enjoy it. Maybe we will run into each other. Great site!
I switched our preschool to First Look this past summer and our volunteers loved it. In September 2007 we switched our elementary kids to Basic 252 and really are having good results. We were using Promiseland which is amazing but too labor intensive for a church of our size. Basic 252 was much less expensive and very easy to adapt. Our Youth also switched to ReThink’s XP3. All 3 groups are designed to work together to “keep the end in mind.” They (Rethink) starts with the premise of what do we want our 18 year olds to be like and then they work backward.
Hey guys….just wanted to pitch in on this conversation. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing you at Orange in just a month and a half!
One quick note for Dawn about the character traits being a reflection of the traits the kids learn in school…here’s a little-known fact. The same people that create 252 also contribute to a secular curriculum called “Core Essentials” that is sponsored and distributed to schools by Chick-Fil-A. It’s on the same virtue schedule as the 252 curriculum, so that’s why the character traits seem so similar! That way kids are learning about the same ideas in school, church, and most importantly in the home!
Casey – another quick thought about the adult drama that you see in the sample online. I know that if you’re not super familiar with the curriculum, it can seem a little confusing when you begin researching it. Remember that 252 is broken up into two programs: Childrens Curriculum (for your small group/large group programming) and the Family Production (a separate program that targets parents and kids together in the same room). The FP element is definitely heavy on actors and drama because of the nature of the program. Most churches don’t begin with this program, but they add it in later and have great results.
Hope that this helps you guys! Sounds like you’re having great results with these resources…we would love to hear some of the specific stories sometime!
I’ve never blogged before, but only stumbled upon this inquiry while doing a little research on the KidStuf and 252 Basics Program(s).
Our church has implemented both programs for almost 3 years. I feel strongly that the success of the program is based upon who you talk to and HOW it is implemented (with a strong volunteer base). If you talk to our Children’s Ministry Director and Early Childhood Director, the programs are “wonderful.” If you observe like we did, we see a room of about 40-60 kids all ranging from ages 4-12 and only about 9 sets of parents. Seem effective?
As parents of a pre-schooler, we find the program implemented at our church to be developmentally inappropriate. The drama, humor, and content do little to nurture the basic needs of a pre-schooler. The songs are too fast paced, and we just observe a gathering of youngsters who know hand motions and dancing but struggle to keep up with the pace and meaning of the lyrics.
Although my research is in its early stages, I don’t find too many that find flaws with these programs. We see the program ideal for grades 3-6, but not for a 4-year old.
Again, it may be part of the “implementation” at our church, but we are disappointed that the programs are moral and virtue driven yet very little connection to BIBLICAL based truth. For example, in a segment called “The Good Book Look” the actors/actresses had a Bible with them on stage, yet never opened it up, never quoted a reference. They simply paraphrased and really never discussed the context of the selected verse(s).
We have a very disappointing experience. I’d be interested to hear if others have experienced such…we would welcome the opinions of others so that we may convince our church leaders to listen to the scores of parents (that attend our church) who would prefer a more traditional option that is age-level appropriate.
Hi – I was wondering if anybody has ideas or knows of any websites with 252 Basics craft ideas for Kindergarten-1st grade age group.