Hi,I am Family Pastor at our church and I am just starting to use your FaithWeaver curriculum. There is one feature I wish it had that I think would be easy to implement.
A monthly take home packet that could be purchased by the parents of the families for a small price. This packet could have weekday Bible stories for the parents to go over with there children and even a a CD that could be played in the car that would reiterate the message learned that week.
This would allow the parents to truly delve in deep with there kids throughout the week. Currently, I think the "Driving Home the Point" taken home for the parents is sparse and could use some serious 21st century appeal.
Lastly, FaithWeaver curriculum would really be as perfect as you can get with this cutting edge "Family Time" type addtion and also one other thing...I love how FaithWeaver goes through the Bible and touches on many different subjects, however, if FaithWeaver could summarize to one particular/grand subject or theme each month I believe it would help kids and parents retain so much more because they could point back to a common theme all throughout the month that would help them remember and tie everything together.
In FaithWeaver curriculum most of your weeks throughout any given month are heading in the same general direction, such as, teaching about Hope, or Love, and of course all the lessons ultimately point toward Christ, but I think you get what I mean. Unifying the weeks in a month under a common umbrella theme for that month makes more sense to me when it comes to helping sink in the message.
For now I have combined your FaithWeaver curriculum with 252Basics "Family Times" take home packs. I am going through your monthly outlay of curriculum and trying to read into the best possible summation of a principal or virtue for that month, then I am correlating that with whatever "Family Times" has to offer. For example, my planning for January 2008 has led me to tie in Trust as the common virtue throughout the month of January. I'm using the "Family Times" August '07 Virtue on Trust to send home with my parents and reiturating how Trust, is "Putting your confidence in someone you can depend on". This is the punch line phrase to and will be tied into all the different stories in the Bible and about Jesus during our Family First Service, where the whole family learns together.
February; I'm considering using "Service" as the common theme; March, possibly "Love"; April, "Joy"; May, "Uniqueness"; June, "Compassion"; July,"Faith"; August, "Hope".
Obviously I am limited to using only the virtues or themes that 252 Basics/Family Times has created and that is why I wish you guys would create your own Theme each month with an awesome Family Times pack like they have which parents could use at home, in their car, at meals, before bed, etc. Until then, I will continue to match up the two curriculums to create a "hybrid super curriculum!
God Bless you guys and thank you for the quality that you have put into your already awesome lessons. These are just my personal suggestions, they would make my life a lot easier. LOL! But I think they could make sense for everyone else too! Let me know what you think...
In Christ,
Shawn O'Connor