Hi There, Overall, FW has been an amazing blessing and I wholly love the curriculum for a variety of reasons. One big one is that it has brought an overall unity to our ministry like nothing else has. Because we are studying the same topics, it's very easy for us to share ideas not only curriculum-related, but also in our personal lives. We also know that families are benefitting as I've heard many testimonies of multi-age kids sharing what they learned from class. This of course is a dream for parents who can reinforce the same concept at home.
In addition, teachers have teamed up and really taken ownership of their classrooms and students as a result of changing to this curriculum (and as opposed to the large group/small group model which we have been, generally, unsuccessfully using for the last three years). The kids have way more time with their teachers and classmates and relationship is the name of the game!
I also love the whole REAL philosophy of learning. As a former teacher, myself, I whole heartedly agree that the lessons need to be relational, experiential, applicable and learner-based. And I believe that the curriculum does a wonderful job, overall, of making each lesson REAL.
Truly, overall, the curriculum is and has been a blessing. My one change would be, and it may or may not seem like a big deal to some, but I'll try to explain.
Having been a middle school teacher for six years and a children's ministry director for four, I've been exposed to a lot of curricula. I know that a curriculum doesn't exist in which you don't need to make at least some modifications. And having had to do this for so long, I'm very comfortable with it. Its easy for me to rework something and adapt it to fit my style and message.
However, many of my teachers are having a very difficult time with it, mainly in the area of the discussion questions and transitions. I have to agree with them (mainly the pre-k/k and preschool curricula) that the lessons are over the kids heads. And often the "discussion" questions (or questions to help kids process) are way too complex for 3-6 year olds to get. Kids that age are incredibly concrete thinkers so to try and get them to talk about living water or Jesus being life to us just doesn't fly. We watered down the latter to "Jesus make us happy." Even a concept like "Jesus gives us hope" is a tough one to explain to a 3 year old. They haven't had enough life yet to understand that we even need hope. We ended up comparing it to hoping for nice things for Christmas or a birthday. Maybe someone has some suggestions that we could have done otherwise.
The teachers in those areas have also found the activity pages to be over the kids heads and usually end up doing something entirely different than what the lesson has called for. I think that if the "discussion questions" in each segment were more directed, more literal, and less open ended, my teachers would have an easier time with this.
Who knows? It might just be all part of the transition process, and change is hard for some, etc. But everyone has a very positive attitude and they're all working hard to make every lesson count. I guess, in a nutshell, I would just hope that the next round of Faithweaver would be a bit more simplified in the area of questions, concepts and activities for the little ones than it currently is.
All the same, we generally love it and have been blessed in countless ways! So, on behalf of my gang, I thank you deeply for all the work that went in to putting this together. I can't even begin to imagine how long it and how many people it took to create this curriculum. Thanks a bunch!
Audrey
Children's Director Christian Hill Community Church West Warwick RI