Sunday Software’s Prodigal Son software is an interactive retelling of one of Jesus’ most important stories. Students learn Jesus’ wonderful message about the character and forgiveness of God, …and our own need to be forgiven ..and to forgive.
The Prodigal Son software has four learning areas:
1. Luke 15 -the story narrated and animated with interactive notes.
2. SonTV has 3 channels:
Channel 1: The story retold in a wonderful music video.
Channel 2: Explore the very similar Jesus parables of “The Workers in the Vineyard” ( Matthew 20) and “The Two Sons in the Vineyard” (Matthew 21)
Channel 3: Discussion Questions for digging deeper.
3. Letters –a life-application/reflection activity where students practice the language of apology and forgiveness.
4. Prodigal Fun –a bouncy pig game!
More about how this program teaches the story…
The Prodigal Son retells the Luke 15 story word for word. Not only do your students hear and read the story, they see it unfold on the screen through a unique video retelling of the story set on a modern day farm and featuring a real father and son. The program is hosted by your onscreen teacher Bildad the Bible Explorer.
The Prodigal Son story text includes clickable multimedia Bible study notes. Bildad comes alive to explain the selected concept. His “projector” shows a kid-friendly animation of the concept and includes a question the teacher and kids can run with.
View this video montage of Prodigal Son in action.
It features scenes and song from the program’s music video “Ballad of the Prodigal Son”
On the story pages of the program students listen, see, and click to learn more…
Interactive Study Notes include:
- “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?”
- “why did his father give him the ring off his finger?”
- “what does this story tell me about salvation? about God and me?”
- and over a dozen more multimedia study note presentation that beg discussion.
At the HEART of this Prodigal Son is a series of compelling video clips showing a modern-day father and son on their farm. These video clips illustrate Bildad’s narrated text, and are then recombined into a music video in the SON TV portion of the program. This music video’s lyrics retell the story with a catchy tune that’s been a kid-favorite ever since this program’s release. Lyrics and chords are found in the Teacher’s Guide.
Following SonTV is a life application/reflection activity we call “letters”. Toggle open the “more graphics” below to see a screenshot.
About the Letters Reflection Activity
and more Prodigal Son graphics and descriptions
After digging into the story and enjoying the multimedia … students finish the lesson with an onscreen life-applying letter writing activity. Here students can PICK the role of one of the characters and express their feelings from their point of view. Teachers can prompt the characters to ‘tell us how you feel” and “tell us why you have changed”. These can be printed and then discussed.
The Bouncy Pig Game! The blocks they must break through are labeled with Prodigal Problems.
Shot on location on a real family farm with a real farm family.
Channel 3 in Son TV presents a series of discussion questions.
Minimum: 1 ghz, 2 mb ram
Windows 8/10 users, see our Windows tweaks.
Be sure to read our tech note about how to make this program fill more of your computer screen.
Teacher’s Guide and Outline to Prodigal Son (includes lyrics to the music video)
View/Print a Lesson Plan for Prodigal Son software
Tech Tips for Prodigal Son
- Increase the size of the Prodigal Son window on your screen in Windows 8 or 10 by right-clicking any blank area on your Desktop, clicking Display Properties, and moving the SCALING (zooming) 125% or 150%.
- Own a CD of the program?
We recommend you improve the performance of Prodigal Son by performing a COMPLETE INSTALL of the CD’s contents to a folder on your harddrive, instead of running it from the CD as the program was originally engineered. Create your own “Prodigal” folder in c:\Program Files (x86) and drag all the files from the CD into it. Right click “start.exe” and select “Send to Desktop as a Shortcut” to create a Desktop shortcut to the program. Store the CD for safekeeping.The downloadable version comes with an installer that will fully install the program to your hard drive.
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 program 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, Alliance Church, Chicago
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 Hts OH