Back to the Main Abraham CD Description Page
| Most of our CDs like Abraham & Sarah
get used in churches over a wide age-range. Optimally, most of
our software is EASIEST to use with 3rd through 8th grade because they
can quickly understand a program's interface, will read text on the
screen, and do well following the teacher's instructions. But many of us
also have preschoolers and early readers to whom we "STRETCH" our
software down to in order to make good use our software budgets. When
designing software, we try to keep that in mind. And we put a lot of
age-appropriate tips in our program outlines that you can print from
this site. See Abe's Outline
From a design point of view, we believe it's better to make a CD that appeals slightly more to the older kids, because the younger kids aren't as discriminating and don't mind your help or adjustments. And because you'll be re-using CDs again over the next few years, it's good to have CDs they can grow into. Saves your budget too! I have both preschoolers and Middle Schoolers coming into my lab. So I've become something of an expert at stretching our software. By the way... I have devoted an entire chapter to this subject in my book about "stretching" down to preschoolers and up to teens. (It has a lot of good tips and the book is spiral bound so you can copy those pages and give them to your teachers.)
My co-lab leader Jim (pictured) and I
had been using Abraham & Sarah with our older age groups with great
success that month. When it was our preschoolers' week in the lab, Jim
and I wondered whether or not the "Near Sacrifice of Isaac" was too much
for them. Having used it with 1st and 2nd graders already, we decided to
give it a try with our preschoolers (ready to pull the plug at the first
sign of distress!). The preschoolers were totally fine with it. We
explained it at their level, and they watched the story animation and
music video intently. In fact, they wanted to see it twice. The kids
clicked the lyrics discussion activity and Jim and I read the content
off the screen -adding age appropriate adjustments on the fly.
Afterwards, we led a rousing version of the classic "Father Abraham"
song (right arm, left arm, spin around....). The key to using any
software with younger children is you have to be right there with them,
Older Elementary and Teens do great with every portion of the Abraham & Sarah CD. It's one of the few CDs in our catalog that doesn't have content older teens would consider beneath them. Music videos appeal to children and teens. We usually view them twice: once for the visuals, once for the lyrics. The "Insane Fanatasy" video and activity is especially "ripe" for discussion with kids 4th grade and up. When we taught with Abraham & Sarah CD, we gave the youth TWO weeks in the lab to use the CD. The younger children only took one week. This was our second time using the CD in four years, so some of the teens vaguely remembered it. In a few years when the stories roll around again, we'll reintroduce it to our former preschoolers now in their mid-elementary years. These are stories which deserve to be re-taught. And that's why we devoted an entire CD to them. If you'd like to discuss your classroom use of Abraham & Sarah CD, email me at neil@sundaysoftware.com You'll also find that our Abe Outline and Teaching Tips have a lot of good helps in them. <>< Neil MacQueen Sunday Software
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of Isaac Older Students |
  Looking over the Main Control Console in the Scriptorium toward the scene from the CD's "Near Sacrifice of Isaac" lesson. |
of the Middle East of Faith History |
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(it's over two minutes long and 3.4mb in size) |
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Here's
a picture of the preschool Sunday School class from my church using
Abraham & Sarah CD. 
ready
to explain things and read things. And you have to know what to skip.
For example, we didn't use the "Insane Fanatasy" music video and
exercise with younger children. It's mainly on the CD for older students
and teens.