Well, I know that kids will be kids, but I just don't think it will be as likely for some kid to bellow "HOLY CRAP" at my son if there's only 12 in the room. Seems like to me you get too many kids in a room, you can't monitor them well enough.
They've done Awanas at our church and liked it just fine, but I want them to do something "missions" focused and have for a while. But they're not going to learn anything in a crowd that big. Honestly, I bet there's 3-500 kids there for Awanas...it's a madhouse.
So this smaller group will be better, I think...and the focus is
purely on missions.