Some What’s and Why’s: A Little More Praise Factory Philosophy
1. WHAT: Systematic Theology
All three curriculums teach sixteen, theological themes, introduced as sixteen “Big Questions and Answers”– one for each theological theme.
WHY: to provide a broad understanding of biblical truth
God created us to know Him. Children, like the rest of us, long to understand about who God is, His plans for this world, our lives, and the wonderful things of the world to come. Systematic theology is simply biblical truth organized into helpful themes that take into consideration the whole counsel of Scripture, not just a verse here or there. It is a great way to help them (and us!) learn what God has revealed about these important topics.
2. WHAT: Surprising Amounts of Repetition
Most curriculums take the take the one-new-concept-every-lesson approach, but the Praise Factory curriculums repeat truths and even Bible stories for multiple lessons.
- Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids–for the youngest children– provides five lessons on the same Bible truth, Bible verse and Bible story.
- Deep Down Detectives –for older preschoolers and early elementary--provides three lessons on the same Bible truth, verse and story.
- Praise Factory Investigators (PFI)–for elementary age children– provides three lessons on the same Bible truth and verse, though it uses a different story for each of the three lessons.
WHY: to promote understanding and memory of biblical truth
While it might sound boring to revisit the same Bible truth, verse and story, we have found that repetition allows children to actually understand and remember the truths we are teaching them.The extensive number of activities offered with each lesson provides the variety needed to keep the learning fresh over multiple lessons.
3. WHAT: Rich Reinforcement through Conduit of Truth Activities
A conduit of truth activity is one that uses the enjoyable-ness of the activity to fill the children with the important truths of your lesson.
WHY: to make class time activities as rich in biblical truth as they are fun
There are many ways to help children enjoy their time in class, but not all activities reinforce what we most want the children to understand and remember.Choosing and using activities that are “conduits of truth” help achieve this very important goal. All the activities used in the Praise Factory curriculums–crafts, games, music, even snacks– have been designed to be conduits of truth that will reinforce the important concepts of each lesson, not just fill class time.
4. WHAT: The Same Theological Themes, But Different Depth within Each Curriculum
While all three of the curriculums cover all sixteen Big Questions and Answers Theology Themes, they vary in the amount of time and depth they spend on each one.
- Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids covers the 16 theological themes simply as sixteen, single-concept truths. (16 Bible truths presented, 16 Bible stories presented–1 per Bible truth, 5 reinforcing lessons per Bible truth.)
- Deep Down Detectives covers the same 16 theological themes but now as units with multiple Bible truth (sub-concepts), that expand and build upon the Big Question basics the children learned in Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids (69 Bible truths, 69 Bible stories presented–1 per Bible truth. 3 reinforcing lessons per Bible truth.)
- Praise Factory Investigators (PFI) covers the same 16 theological themes also as units, but now in even greater depth. (104 Bible Truths, with three stories for each: one Old Testament, one New Testament and one Missionary/Church history story for each.)
WHY: to take advantage of the increasing capacity children have to grasp biblical truth as they grow.
While it certainly would make for easier shop-keeping to have everyone spend the same amount of time on each Big Question, Praise Factory has opted to focus on maximizing what children of different ages can learn, and how much reinforcement they need to master what they are learning. We call this approach a Spiral of Truth, that returns to reinforce the same truths while also expanding ever-more broadly with each circuit.