The Prodigal Son is an interactive CD for children and youth designed to teach into memory one of Jesus' most important stories. Through the Prodigal Son CD your students will learn Jesus' wonderful message about the character and forgiveness of God, ...and our own need to be forgiven ..and to forgive.

Prodigal Son features our unique, multiple intelligence informed lesson plan design -with material unfolding in front of your students just like it would in a traditional classroom lesson --but with far more attractiveness and multimedia fun. The CD requires little preparation to use, -just a friendly teacher to facilitate discussion.

The Prodigal Son CD retells the Luke 15 scripture with narrated verses, animation, music (The Ballad of the Prodigal Son), accompanied by video of the story, and hosted by Bildad the Bible Explorer -our slightly eccentric animated teacher to create a unique and intriguing onscreen Bible study unlike anything ever produced before. Click here to pull-up a graphic from our ground-breaking Luke 15 interactive study page.

Prodigal Son features interactive multimedia study notes that grab kids' attention. More than just text to read, our Prodigal Son study notes launch animation and flash presentations that explore the meanings and background of the story, including:

• "what's this about a fatted calf?"
• "what's with the pigs in the story?"
• "why did the father give his son an inheritance?"
• "what is this 'dissolute living' Luke writes about?"
• "what does this story tell me about salvation? about God and me?"
• and over a dozen more multimedia study note presentation that beg discussion.

Each study note includes a question the teacher can run with.

Click here to pop-up a screenshot of the Luke 15 section of the CD

After the multimedia Bible study...
Prodigal Son offers students a fun & thought provoking music video shot on a real farm with a real farm father and son. The music video is titled The Ballad of the Prodigal Son. We've packed it with great images for discussion. Your kids will want to listen and view it several times, --each time pushing the story and its meanings deeper into their memories. The music video features cameo appearances by Sloppy, Waller and Root --the Prodigal Pigs.
Listen to a short audio clip of the song
View scenes from the music video here

Other "Channels" on Bildad's SonTV include... a few other of Jesus' teachings about God's forgiveness and a music clip from Christian rock artist Steve Lindsley's song "Native Son." These other channels are perfect for deeper learning with older students, or for extending the use of the CD over several lessons.

After digging into the story and enjoying the multimedia ... students finish the lesson with an onscreen life-applying letter writing activity. Here students take the role of the various characters in the story to express their feelings from their point of view. These can be printed and then discussed.

At the end of the CD, your students are rewarded with
the Prodigal Fun Game.

Bildad the Bible Explorer, the animated and slightly eccentric onscreen teacher first seen in our Good Sam CD, reappears to guide students and create discussion. Your teachers are prompted by the program's content and Bildad to reflect on content.

Prodigal Son features the voice of professional storyteller and singer Barry Weaver as the verse narrator and Balladeer for the music video.

High Speed Modem Users... SEE a functional SHOCKWAVE VERSION of the LETTERS PAGE at this website! (405 kb download and must have shockwave player (freely available from http://www.macromedia.com) It all works except the sounds and the print features.

Why create a CD just about the Prodigal Son? We think it is one of the most important stories in the Bible. Prodigal Son examines both the first and second half of the Great Commandment which Jesus says sums up all the law and the prophets. Prodigal Son tell us what we can expect from God when we return home to God. The Prodigal Son also tells us how we are to treat others.

System Requirements: Prodigal Son will run on both Windows 95/98/ME/XP/Vista, and Power Mac/iMac system 7.6 and higher. MINIMUM: 233 mhz, 32 megs RAM or higher, with 4 mb of ram on the video/graphic card. As with all our multimedia software --the multimedia will run more smoothly on computers with higher system specs. We recommend 266mhz or higher, 64 mb of Ram and 8 mb of videoram for this program.

Age Range: 6 to 18 years --with the main content quite suitable for even younger children ages 4-6. We've aimed the bulk of the content at older children and younger youth, but the heavy use of narrated content, multimedia and humor will definitely appeal to the younger crowd as well as old.

A Few Reviews...

I think the program is great. The "HUH" study notes are especially good for explaining and helping to understand the text. -- Jane Henderson, Chalmers United, St. Mary's Ontario

You've done it again Neil, ...Prodigal CD was a hit with the kids and teachers, ...and I can't get that song out of my head. Can we buy the sheet music? My teachers said "more software like this PLEASE." - John Vink, Chicago Alliance Church

Dear Neil, I have a complaint. After class I had to kick three children out of my class -they wanted to go back over the CD. Never had that problem before. Stop making the Word of God so attractive. ;-) Betsy Van Meder, Orlando

We received it just in time for our granddaughter's birthday. She couldn't wait to play it and couldn't stop when she started. It is wonderful to have such uplifting software that is so very fun for the children. - Bill and Marjorie Petersen, Cleveland

For those familiar with Good Sam the Samaritan CD....

Prodigal Son is the second CD featuring Bildad the Bible Explorer. Good Sam the Samaritan was the first. While having a strong visual resemblance to our Good Sam the Samaritan CD, --Prodigal Son is tighter in scope, options, and length than Good Sam the Samaritan and fits more easily in a one lab lesson time slot. Prodigal Son goes a step further in our evolving concept of onscreen interactive Bible study.