Willow Creek Association - PromiselandOnline

Q. How many years of Promiseland Curriculum for Preschoolers has been published?

A. Promiseland recently released "In The Beginning"

52 weeks of Curriculum for Children Ages 3-5

Q. How many years of Promiseland Curriculum for Kind-Grade 5 has been published?

A. Promiseland has published Kind-Grade 5 Fall, Winter, and Spring curriculum for SIX ministry years.

"God's Story... Genesis _ Revelation" (Year A) was distributed and implemented in 2000/2001, was released again in 2002/2003 and 2004/2005 ... and will again be available for 2006/2007.

"Doing Life With God In The Picture (Year B) was distributed and implemented in 2001/2002, was again available for 2003/2004 and 2005/2006 and will again be available for 2007/2008.

We have published "God's Story ..." and "Doing Life ..." for each of 3 age levels.

Kindergarten/Grade 1 (5 and 6 years old)
Grade 2/Grade 3 (7 and 8 years old)
Grade 4/Grade 5 (9 and 10 years old)

Each "Year" includes 3 thirteen-week kits.
A total of 18 kits have been produced for use during the ministry year.
All of the children experience Year A and Year B before moving to the next level.
(Some experience Year A while in Kindergarten, some Year B ... but all children experience Year A and Year B in the Kind/Grade 1 program before moving on)

The Promiseland Ministry has utilized this unique large group/small group ministry model for over 10 years and has seen the benefit of re-using the materials every two years ... large group props, activity station supplies, etc can be used over and over.

"Live the Adventure" is a Promiseland Curriculum that offers 10 weeks of material for Kind - Grade 5 combined.

"Metamorphosis" and "Camp Iwilligoway" are Promiseland Curriculum CD-Rom kits that also offer 10 weeks of material for Kind-Grade 5.

"Flipt" is a Promiseland Curriculum DVD kit that provides 10 weeks of material for Kind - Grade 5 .

Q. Can Promiseland Curriculum be used for traditional Childrens Church a Midweek program?

A. The Promiseland Curriculum is designed for a ministry that is structured to have a Large Group teaching time where the Bible story is creatively presented and is followed by kids being divided into small groups of 10 or less where they participate in an activity to relevantly apply the Bible truth and also receive shepherding from an adult leader.
Promiseland Curriculum can be used in many settings including, Sunday School, Childrens Church, and Midweek programs as long as the structure is in place to support this model.

Q. If I buy the kit, will I have to buy additional items?

A. The kit provides 3 Small Group Leader’s Guidebooks.

If you have more than 3 Small Groups, you would need to
order additional guidebooks. (1 per small group)
Music CDs are sold separately.
Activity Station reproducibles are included in the Director’s Notebook.
Any other activities for Activity Stations would need to be purchased.
Each church willl need to decide on the specific choices offered
for Activity Stations.

A. Three Small Group Leader's Guidebooks are included in the kit.

One Small Group is recommended for every 10 children.

Thus, the kit serves 30 children.
As the ministry grows, the only additional curriculum
investment would be in Small Group Leader Guidebooks.

Q. Is everything reproducible?

A. Only three things are reproducible:

Loose leaf training materials in the Director's Notebook
Scripts for the Large Group teaching
Any pages for the children

Q. If each Promiseland Curriculum kit provides 3 Small Group Leader Guidebooks,
can we make additional copies of these if we need extras?

A. Currently, the Small Group Leader Guidebooks are NOT reproducible
for several reasons.

The use of Small Groups and the idea of intentionally shepherding children is new to many churches and individuals. Each Small Group Leader Guidebook provides assistance with understanding the role of a shepherd, lesson overviews, and tips for facilitating a small group.

Keeping the book intact and distributing it to each leader helps to assure that complete information is being distributed to everyone. We're hoping this helps lay the foundational value of shepherding you are hoping to build on.

There is also an economic factor. When manufacturing a product, the higher the "print run", the less each book costs.

As the Promiseland Curriculum project was launched we had a deep desire to keep the cost down and yet provide curriculum kits that would include all that was needed to implement the lessons. This is quite a challenge!

If we made everything reproducible, we would have to raise the price of every kit to a point where it would be cost-prohibitive for some churches.

We truly believe that Promiseland curriculum can be an effective ministry tool in large and small church environments and are seeking to allow for an equitable "cost per child". And ... when you compare the cost of the additional Small Group Leader Guidebooks with the paper, copy machine, and time costs associated with "making copies", it is probably more cost-effective to order additional, intact, colorfully presented Small Group Leader Guidebooks.

Q. How can more Small Group Leader Guidebooks be ordered?

A. Additional Small Group Leader Guidebooks can be ordered by calling the WCA Customer Service Center at 1-800-570-9812

Q. Can each of the kits be purchased at any time?

A. Our desire is to support churches while they are using the materials. We will do this through training at the Promiseland Conference and Regional Events and through activity on the Promiseland web site -- PromiselandOnline.com.

To be most effective in our support, it is important to have churches "on the same page" with their use of the materials. Also, from a financial stewardship perspective, it would be very costly to inventory all age levels of each quarter of curriculum.
So ...

Fall kits can be purchased until the end of November.
Winter kits can be purchased until the end of February.
Spring kits can be purchased until the end of May.
Curriculum subscribers can purchase extra components
for each kit beyond these dates while supplies last.

Q. If my ministry is too small to offer three grade levels of curriculum, which ONE grade level
should I purchase for Kindergarten - Grade 5?

A. If you seem to have an equal number of older and younger children, Grade 2/3 would probably work best because the programming is less complex that Grade 4/5.
Most of the Grade 2/3 large group programs can be done with one up-front presenter.

The Grade 2/3 Curriculum would be at the mid-point of age-appropriateness and relevancy, so there would only need to be some adjustments made during small group time for the non-reading younger ones and to allow for the more advanced critical thinking of the older children. If there is a disproportionate number of younger children, Kind/Grade 1 might be best because there would be less work involved in adapting the Small Group materials for non-readers etc, however, the older children in the group should be carefully observed to make sure they are provided with challenging and relevant small group material. The Grade 4/5 curriculum is an excellent choice for this age group, however, it is usually recommended for churches who are implementing more than one age level.

There are many churches who have begun to introduce the Promiseland ministry model by combining Kind - Grade 5 and then adapting "up" and "down" as described. This approach is most successful when a long-range plan is in place that allows for more age levels of curriculum to be introduced over time.

One possible plan might be:

	Promiseland Kind/Grade 1 Curriculum	Promiseland Grade 2/3 Curriculum	Promiseland Grade 4/5 Curriculum
2006/2007		Kids in Kind-Grade 5
2007/2008		*Kids in Kind-Grade 5
2008/2009	Kids in Kind-Grade 3		Kids in Grade 4/5
2009/2010	Kids in Kind-Grade 3		Kids in Grade 4/5
2010/2011	Kids in Kind/Grade 1	Kids in Grade 2/3	Kids in Grade 4/5
2011/2012	Kids in Kind/Grade 1	Kids in Grade 2/3	Kids in Grade 4/5

A. The plan is to make minor changes when the program is recycled every two years.

Q. What type of preschool curriculum is used in Pomiseland?

A. Currently, our Early Childhood team develops material that is a combination of original and adapted curriculum.
We are aware of the desire for a Promiseland Preschool Curriculum resource. When future publishing endeavors are discussed, preschool curriculum is always "on the table", however we do not have any firm plans or release dates at this time.

Go to 2001 Promiseland Conference Breakout Sessions for the Early Childhood audio tapes and handouts from last year's conference.

A. It has not been decided IF preschool curriculum will be published. The K/1 Curriculum is developmentally appropriate for 5-6 year-olds and the life application activities are relevant for those kids. If the K/1 Curriculum were used for 3 year-olds, the Large Group and Small Group activites would need to be adapted to accomodate the shorter attention span and different developmental level of a 3 year old. Adapting this material might not be the best way to serve preschoolers. It might be better to add the large group/small group paradigm to a curriculum written for preschoolers.

A. The Director's Notebook suggests two options for staffing the ministry in order to build the ministry and effectively use the curriculum.

Besides the Leadership Team described in the Director's Notebook, the curriculum would call for:

Weekend Teams:

Small Group Leaders:1 for every 10 kids

Large Group Teachers
(K/1):1-2 Large Group Teachers
(2/3):1-2 (two lessons are storyteller dramas requiring 5 people) Large Group Teachers
(4/5):1-4 (the methods used in Grades 4/5 are more varied and require more individuals)

Pre-weekend Teams:
Administrative/Helps people to copy reproducibles and put together the bins for the Small Group Leaders
Helps people to set up the Activity Stations and teaching area if needed

Q. How much time is involved in putting together a weekend’s lesson?

A. The lesson is put together with a team of people, each person contributing to a portion of the lesson.
The time involved will depend somewhat on the size of the ministry.

Here are some suggestions for using time effectively:

Meet as a team on a regular basis and plan for lessons 3-4 weeks in advance.
What items are needed for the lesson?
Do we need additional people?
Do we need to rehearse anything?
D do we need to make anything, etc.?

Recruit a team of volunteers who can come together during the week to put together the materials for the Small Group Leaders.

The list of these items and any reproducibles are included in the Administrator's Guidebook.
(1-2 hours a week)

Recruit a team of volunteers who will come early and set up Activity Stations and any teaching area needs.
(1-2 hours a week)

Q. We want to use motions/actions with the Promiseland Music.
Do you have any music videos available to help us with this?

A. You are right ... motions seem to help kids benefit the most from Promiseland music. Try getting a group of older kids together to help create and then teach the motions during the large group program. Our experience has been that what works best is what's "cool" and what's cool is generally what they create and engage in.

Q. We don’t have the ability to have sound, lighting, and other tech features. Can we still use the curriculum?

A. The curriculum has been edited so that tech features will enhance the presentation of the lessons, but are not necessary. If something is essential to the presentation of the lesson, it has been included in the kit (i.e. Radio Drama Sound Effects CD for three weeks of Grades 4/5)