Home : About Walk With Me

Frequently Asked Questions

Below you will find the most frequently asked questions. A great resource that will answer these questions (plus many more) in greater detail is our Coordinator’s Handbook (click here to order).

1. What makes Walk With Me unique?
2. How is Walk With Me organized?
3. What materials does Walk With Me provide at each level?
4. How will I know what to order?
5. How do I know that Walk With Me will work in my church?
6. What about music?
7. What about memory work?
8. What about the holiday lessons?
9. What are the summer units like?
10. Why did you organize Walk With Me in four-week units?
11. CanWalk With Me be used as a workshop rotation curriculum?
12. How did you come up with the Walk With Me approach?
13. Will Walk With Me work with community kids who don’t have much biblical knowledge?
14. How does Walk With Me use the gifts of people in my congregation?
15. How does Walk With Me involve families?
16. What type of theology influenced the development of Walk With Me?
17. How does the cost of Walk With Me compare to other curricula?
18. What's all this about units?
19. What's the benefit of ordering by unit?

1. What makes Walk With Me unique?

The values of a curriculum and how those values are achieved are what make a curriculum unique. Walk With Me has seven major values:

• Biblical and Reformed—children receive a strong biblical foundation.
• Grows Faith—sessions are designed to encourage leaders and children to live out their faith.
• Easy-to-use—a curriculum that is flexible, easy to prepare, and has lots of tips.
• Kid-friendly—activities that will appeal to different learning styles. (Click here for a description of the different learning styles.)
• Fun—the gospel is good news so it should be fun!
• Celebrates diversity—children learn the value of a diverse world.
• Builds community—children learn to care for others, encourage each other, learn together.

Click here for a more detailed description of the Walk With Me values.

2. How is Walk With Me organized?

We decided to regroup levels at the lower end of the curriculum in a way that respects their age level characteristics and skill levels. A one-year preschool curriculum is followed by the Kindergarten-Grade 1 level (no reading expected or required), and then the Grades 2-3 and 4-5 levels. The top level of the curriculum is lopsided too! We grouped grades 6-8 together because that’s what many day schools do. Middle school is a growing concept—one that respects learning levels and age-level characteristics—that we wanted to recognize in the church. But we’ve included lots of tips to help leaders adapt these sessions so that they fit kids in grade 6 as well as challenge kids in grade 8.

For more on the Scope and Sequence, please click here.

3. What materials does Walk With Me provide at each level?

Preschool

Everything the leader needs to teach this level of the curriculum comes in a box that contains Old and New Testament stories, Christmas and Easter stories, patterns, action rhymes, songs, a CD, posters, and a complete set of children’s take-home cards.

You should also order a set of children’s take-home cards for each child in your group.

• Download sample

Kindergarten-Grade 1

Each of the two years of the curriculum at this level is divided into nine four-session units. For each unit you will need the following:

• Leader’s guide. This bright, colorful guide comes with leader’s resources (stapled in the middle), complete session plans for four weeks, music, and reproducible handouts. Order one guide for each leader at this level.
• CD. You’ll need one CD for each year at this level. On the CD you’ll find all the music for the year, along with some stories, games, and other resources. Order a CD for each leader at this level.
• Children’s resources. For each unit, children will get four colorful take-home papers and two pages of stickers. These resources will help involve families in the learning and growing that goes on in church. Order one set for each child.

• Download sample

Grades 2-3

At this level, variety becomes important. So you’ll find lots of different formats for the children’s resources and lots of options and tips in the leader’s resources.

For each unit (nine four-session units in each of the two years), you’ll need the following:

• Leader’s guide. This bright, colorful guide comes with leader’s resources (stapled in the middle), complete session plans for four weeks, music, and reproducible handouts. Order one guide for each leader at this level.
• CD. You’ll need one CD for each year at this level. On the CD you’ll find all the music for the year, along with stories, raps, poems, and other resources. Order a CD for each leader at this level.
• Children’s resources come in many unique formats designed especially for individual units. Each unit has one of the following interesting formats:
  • Posters
  • Comic books
  • Take-home papers
  • Trivia or game cards
  • Magazines
  • And more.

Order one set of children’s resources for each child.

• Download sample

Grades 4-5

At this level the resources are again varied. They’re also a bit more challenging than those in the previous level. You’ll find a lot of emphasis on learning from other cultures and other peoples, on seeing God’s story though different eyes. For each unit (nine four-session units in each of the two years), you’ll need the following:

• Leader’s guide. This bright, colorful guide comes with leader’s resources (stapled in the middle), complete session plans for four weeks, music, and reproducible handouts. Order one guide for each leader at this level.
• CD. You’ll need one CD for each year at this level. On the CD you’ll find all the music for the year, along with stories, raps, poems, and other resources. Order a CD for each leader at this level.
• Children’s resources come in many unique formats designed especially for individual units. Each unit has one of the following interesting formats:
  • Posters
  • Comic books
  • Take-home papers
  • Rrivia or game cards
  • Broadsheets
  • Magazines
  • And more.

Order one set of children’s resources for each child.

• Download sample

Grades 6-8

This level includes three years of curriculum for a total of twenty-seven units! We’ve added even more take-home formats at this level to keep the group interested and looking forward to your sessions. Although we don’t include leader resources or a CD for this level, you’ll find that the leader’s guide for each unit is packed with reproducible pages and lots of fun and challenging activities for young teens.

• Leader’s guide. This bright, colorful guide contains complete session plans for four weeks and a variety of helpful reproducible handouts. Order one guide for each leader at this level.
• Student Resources. Young teens will stay interested and motivated by the wide variety of resources we offer at this level. In each unit you’ll find one of the following interesting formats:
  • Broadsheets
  • Handouts
  • Magazines
  • Take-home papers
  • Devotional book (Be sure to order one devotional book for each student for year 2 of the middle school curriculum!)
  • Prayer journals
  • And more.

Order one set of resources for each young teen in your group.

• Download sample

4. How will I know what to order?

Walk With Me is a very flexible curriculum. Use one of these three ways to order:

Standing order: The most convenient option for many churches. Simply let us know each summer how many students and teachers you have at each grade level, and we will automatically ship the standard fall, winter, and spring quarters throughout the year. Quantities can be changed at any time, and any unused materials can be returned. Click here to place your order.

Order by quarter (three units): If the number of students in your program varies greatly throughout the year, or if you wish to substitute quarters, you may wish to order every quarter individually. Click here to place your order.

Order by unit: Although there is a discount if you order by predetermined quarters, you have the option of ordering by unit. This approach allows you to choose the topics that you wish to focus on. It’s also useful if your church program does not meet for three whole quarters. If you only need a few weeks’ worth of materials at the end of your year, you can order only one or two more units to finish out the year. Click here to place your order.

Note: No matter which approach you take to ordering, you’ll need to order the CDs and the Christmas, Easter, and summer units separately.

If you’d like some advice on creating a plan that will work well for your church, feel free to contact an editor or customer service representative.

Click here for contact information.

5. How do I know Walk With Me will work in my church?

Every church is different. So how can one curriculum fit all?

No curriculum can fit every situation, but we’ve focused on making Walk With Me a curriculum you can mold, adapt, or reshape to fit your specific situation. The following features help create the flexibility you are looking for:

• You can order just the right number of units to fit your church school year. No more half-quarters sitting wasted in the closet. Click here to see scope & sequence.
• Each unit is designed to provide activities for all kinds of children. Click here for more information on the multiple intelligences and learning styles.
• Authors, writers, and reviewers from a wide range of cultures and races, from urban, rural, and suburban settings have been involved in creating this curriculum. So the sessions reflect the many faces of Christ’s church.
• We’ve included additional activities so leaders can either extend the session or shorten it.
• We’ve included options so that leaders can choose the activities that best fit the children in their group.
• In addition, there are tips to help leaders adapt the session for large churches, small churches, and those in between.
• We’ve suggested ways to include a wide variety of adults and others in your weekly sessions. Challenge all members of the congregation to use their gifts in your children’s ministry.
• We’ve often included a worship option for churches who like to make worship part of their Sunday school program.
• We’ve included memory work in two versions: the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version. And we’ve built it into the options in each unit so that churches who don’t include memory work in their program can easily leave it out of the session.
• There are time-saving tips if you need to shorten a lesson and overtime suggestions if you have more time.

Click here to walk through a lesson.

6. What about music?

We’ve included music (and often motions) in the back of each leader’s guide. And the corresponding CDs include musical renditions from a wide variety of performers. Since each performer does their own interpretation of the song, there may occasionally be some variance between how the song is written and how it's performed on the CD. We think you'll enjoy both the variety and the quality of music in Walk With Me.

We will also be developing a songbook called Sing With Me that includes many of the songs in Walk With Me plus other well-loved children’s favorites. Stay tuned for more details about that project.

Our goal was to choose a range of age-appropriate songs including traditional songs, Scripture songs, contemporary worship songs, songs from various cultures, as well as some hymns, carols, and refrains. We think you’ll find the variety pleasing and worship-filled. You’ll find that the CDs are a great tool for teaching songs to children (they’ll enjoy singing along with the children on the CD and learning the words from them). Once they know the words, the beat will continue helping them get into the music. Many of the songs are catchy, easy, and fun, so kids will learn them easily.

For more information about the songs and music used in Walk With Me, click here.

*We decided not to include a CD for grades 6-8 because kids at this level often don't like singing in Sunday school. Instead, we've included other activities that incorporate music into the lessons. For example, one exercise asks students to bring some of their Christian rock music to class, to listen to and discuss.

7. What about memory work?

Walk With Me includes a complete memory work plan, designed to help the children you teach learn and remember key passages of Scripture. Often a passage that is introduced at an early level is built on in later levels. Click here for the memory work chart.

• We’ve included memory work in two versions, NIV and NRSV. For each unit, the leader photocopies the memory work (in either of these versions) from the reproducible pages at the back of the guide and gives each child a copy to take home.
• Because we believe it’s so important for children to learn key passages from the Bible, the verses in a given unit may not always tie in neatly to the themes of the session. In the long run, we think children will remember these passages better than a random pile of texts dished out one per week.
• Because not all churches include memory work as an integral part of their program, we have usually included memory work games and other teaching activities related to memory work in the options and Overtime steps of the sessions

8. What about the holiday lessons?

We’ve also provided special units for Christmas (two sessions), Easter (two sessions.) In these units, all the kids in your church school—from preschool through middle school—will be focusing on the same story. Each Christmas or Easter book includes the following elements:

• complete plans for two weeks of Sunday school classes
• two dramas
• a large selection of craft and activity possibilities
• a CD of all the music in the unit
• session plans for both a large group session and small group sessions (Kindergarten-grade 3 and grades 4-8)
• ideas and helps for using the dramas, music, and crafts (The dramas are designed to be performed for the kids by middle school or high school students, or by a church drama team. Or you may decide to perform them for your whole congregation and/or community.)

Each week all the children in your church school will be hearing and responding to the same Scripture story.

9. What are the summer units like?

For each year of the curriculum, we offer two five-session units that provide many creative ideas and options for all kinds of summer programs—from Sunday school to VBS to kids’ clubs to . . . well, you get the idea. Each summer book includes:

• complete plans for five sessions (easily used in a one-week VBS program!)
• five large group session plans (often involving drama) for presenting the story to all the children together
• a CD that contains all the music used in the unit
• five session plans for small groups (Kindergarten-grade 3 and grades 4-8) that reinforce the story through crafts and other activities
• a large selection of craft and activity possibilities
• ideas and helps for using the dramas, music, and crafts to present a special service or program for your congregation and/or community

Note: There are no children’s resources for the summer weeks. Everything you need comes in one book!

Order one book for each of your leaders.

10. Why did you organize Walk With Me in four-week units?

We chose this format because it seemed to best fit the needs of today’s children and churches:

• The smaller units make it easier for you to design a curriculum that fits the exact number of weeks that you plan to meet.
• The smaller units work better with kids who can’t come every Sunday. Since each unit is organized around a theme that comes back for four Sundays, kids who miss a week or two still learn the common theme and feel part of the group.
• The smaller units allow us to provide more variety for the children. We’ve provided a number of different types of children’s resources to keep older children interested and motivated.
• The smaller units allow for the possibility of having teachers commit to teaching a unit at a time—instead of a quarter or a year.

11. Can Walk With Me be used as a workshop rotation curriculum?

Many people like the idea of workshop rotation. But most churches don’t have the volunteers, equipment, budget or space to implement this approach. And many churches are reluctant to toss out all of the good stuff they get with their current Sunday school program—like a new story each week, greater biblical literacy, and more. Walk With Me is a perfect alternative, providing many of the benefits of workshop rotation while keeping the best components of your current Sunday school program.

Click here for a chart comparing Walk With Me to workshop rotation and a traditional Sunday School approach.

12. How did you come up with the Walk With Me approach?

Walk With Me wasn’t dreamed up in an office somewhere. To make sure this curriculum would work with real leaders and real children we

• asked superintendents and teachers what works in the classroom and what they would like to see in a new, up-to-date Sunday school curriculum.
• asked educators what today’s kids are like and how they would design a Sunday school curriculum to reach those kids.
• Field-tested the Walk With Me curriculum in 25 churches to make sure it works—and works well!

13. Will Walk With Me work with community kids who don’t have much biblical knowledge?

Sure. We’ve been careful when writing and editing Walk With Me not to assume too much knowledge of the Bible. You’ll frequently find tips for adapting the sessions for kids with little Bible background and for including these kids in your session. Community building is one of the values of Walk With Me. We encourage leaders to stretch that community beyond the church family to include other children and teens in your area. And we equip leaders to make Sunday school a safe place to be for all of God’s children.

14. How does Walk With Me use the gifts of people in my congregation?

Each unit of Walk with Me suggests ways of involving a variety of adults and teens in your program. You can use the gifts of others who are able to

• lead singing
• act in drama
• collect supplies
• prepare and serve treats
• help children with crafts
• organize a supply closet
• serve as substitute teachers
• videotape or photograph children and events
• greet children

15. How does Walk With Me involve families?

Because we think it’s so important for families to support and enrich the learning that begins each Sunday, we’ve included the following features in Walk With Me:

• Family Session. At the beginning of each Sunday School year, we encourage you to have a special session for parents and guardians of the children in your program. You’ll find a complete plan for leading this session in the Coordinator’s Handbook.
• Family letters. The Coordinator’s Handbook also includes a letter to adapt and send to families at the beginning of the year. And in each leader’s guide you’ll find sample letters that teachers can send to the children’s home to invite their support and acquaint them with the content of each four-week unit.
• Family Volunteers. Even the best teacher isn’t good at everything! Because God has given us each unique gifts, using other adult volunteers to enrich the learning in each group will benefit both adults and children.
• Children’s take-home resources. What better way to tell the family about the content of your weekly sessions than through take-home papers and other resources? For each unit children will have something to take home—something that will give parents and other members of the family an understanding of the stories and truths the child learned in a unit.

16. What type of theology influenced the development of Walk With Me?

The theology taught in the ecumenical Christian creeds (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian) and in the confessions and doctrinal standards of the Reformed/Presbyterian churches. Click here to read more about our philosophy.

17. How does the cost of Walk With Me compare to other curricula?

Walk With Me's prices are very competitive with LiFE and Bible Way, not to mention that it's more affordable than much of the competition. For example, for 60 kids and 9 teachers over 3 quarters the cost would be:

Walk With Me $2,076
(includes Christmas and Easter units--40 lessons total)

LiFE and Bible Way $2,055
Our main competitor $2,239

18. What's all this about units?

Walk With Me's core curriculum (Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters) is grouped into 4-lesson units that are perfect for team teaching or for customizing the scope and sequence to fit your church. Then there are separate Christmas, Easter and Summer units available that bring the total to 50 lessons for the year (see breakdown below).

36 lessons in the core curriculum (9 units of 4 lessons each)

2 lessons in the optional Christmas unit

2 lessons in the optional Easter unit

10 lessons in the optional Summer curriculum (2 units of 5 lessons each)

Total: 50 lessons

At the Preschool level there are 40 lessons for the year--20 Old Testament, 16 New Testament, 2 Christmas, and 2 Easter--all packaged in one convenient resource box.

19. What's the benefit of ordering by unit?

Overall, placing a standing order or ordering by quarter costs less than ordering by unit. But you save money ordering by unit if you aren't going to use an entire quarter. For example, if you only need 32 lessons, you can order 2 full quarters and 2 extra units instead of ordering three full quarters and wasting some of the lessons that you don't use.