matt mckee live

Over the next several months I will be doing curriculum reviews on this site. There are tons of curriculum out there for elementary kids and I will try to get around to as many as I can. I am going to start with new ones that came out this fall and work my way back. Here are the 7 areas in which I rate curriculum:

Bible Content:

Age appropriate:

Ease of use for volunteers:

Ease of Prep for staff:

Bells and Whistles (graphics and music):

Parent Information:

Technology needed or provided:

I am rating all of these on a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being needs much improvement and 5 being WOW!

I am biased when it comes to curriculum because I helped create and produce G-Force, the joint curriculum between Fellowship Church and Lifeway. I hope this gives you at least an angle in which I am coming from.

The first curriculum is going be rated is Group's "Living Inside Out". So here goes nothing:

Bible Content: (5) Group is always good at Bible Content. I would say that they are either number 1 or 2 in the nation when it comes to this aspect of curriculum. So you can't go wrong here.

Age appropriate: (3) Seems to shoot on the lower age side even for the older pieces. Activities are experiences but not quite there yet.

Ease of use for volunteers: (3) Compared to other curriculum out right now it is pretty standard. Your great teachers will pick it up easy but your not so great teachers will struggle with the prep.

Ease of Prep for staff: (2) To many things to prepare. Each small group is suppose to be 5 kids and that adds up quick. That also means a lot more volunteers which means a lot more prep for staff.

Bells and Whistles (graphics and music): (3) Graphics are not bad but they are not great. Nothing really cool that catches kids eyes. Music is bland. Typical Group music that is overly kid singing and under-produced. This is one area in which I dislike almost every curriculum on the shelf.

Parent Information: (4) Very good daily activities for the kids and parents in the take home sheets. They look good for parents and give involved parents something to sink their teeth into.

Technology needed or provided: (3) DVD and CD provided. DVD has clips that are also under-produced. Standard Group video that is done on location in Loveland, CO. A little Cheese goes a long way. Some are funny and others are funny and are not suppose to be.

Overall Score out of a possible 35 points is 23.

Summery: This is an above average curriculum for large group/small group presentations but would not use in a Sunday School Format. Your kids will not be WOWed but parents will be satisfied.

I hope this helps. Until next time and on to the next curriculum…

I worked at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX from 2000 until 2005. When I first started we were writing our own curriculum week to week with medium to mild success. We had potential so Lifeway Publishing picked us up and we started G-Force. G-Force is above average but we always had dreams for more. I left Fellowship to come to Cincinnati and after I left Fellowship Church came out with a new curriculum called Elevate. I have used the first 2 installments with my kids here in Cincy. I know the vision of this curriculum because I was still at Fellowship and helped in the dream phase. Knowing all of this now here is my assessment of Elevate.

Curriculum Review of Elevate:

Bible Content: (4) The first series, On the Trail, was great. One story per week that the kids really got into and learned. The second series, Heroes, is okay. There are 3 different Bible stories per week and kids can get them confused.

Age appropriate: (4) Elevate is written in an older and younger version and lends itself to both a 5th grader and a kindergarten. The place it could improve is having more of a focus of relationship building in the older grades. The younger is right on.

Ease of use for volunteers: (5+) This is where the curriculum will blow you away. There is a DVD with every week training on it for volunteers. It goes through every activity for that week and even gives examples of what kids might ask. This is the only curriculum to my knowledge who is doing this and has changed my volunteer’s effectiveness. This is a WOW!

Ease of Prep for staff: (4) This great for staff. They have an every week training video for the large group time that could be shown instead of performed if needed as a backup. I prefer live drama that is above average than recorded drama that is great. They provide almost everything on a CD-Rom for all activities. The place where this curriculum might be hard to prepare for is changing your set or environment every 8 weeks. It is well worth it but can be a challenge.

Bells and Whistles (graphics, music, and sound effects): (5+) Another WOW! They have the best graphics of any curriculum out. There are 2 songs that you get per 8 weeks but they are up-to-date and fun to sing. The eye candy on this is unbelievable and very engaging for the kids. The sound effects are second to none and add to the environment tremendously. The production value is top notch.
Parent Information: (2) There is a half page review for the parents that you can hand out at the end of your service. It goes over the main point, Bible verse and theme of the day. This is the one area that they could really improve on their curriculum. I would love to see some type of media, ie CD, for the parents to listen to in the car or some website that could be interactive for parents and kids to go over what they learned for that week.

Technology needed or provided: (5) 5 DVD’s, CD-Rom, and Sound Effects CD provided with curriculum. You will need a CD player, a DVD player, and a TV or projector.

Overall Score out of a possible 35 points is 31. It got a bonus point for every week training for volunteers and one bonus point for the Bells and Whistles.

Summery: This is a great large group/small group curriculum. The production quality is not matched by any other curriculum, including KidMO and Saddleback. The training is excellent for both volunteers and staff. The graphics are great. The transitions are funny and very appropriate. Elevate could really elevate its product with better parent resources. Right now North Pointe, or should I say The Rethink Group, is leading the way in that area. This is a must check out.

I hope this helps. Until next time and on to the next curriculum…