I have found that the best way for me to start the day with my children is with daily devotions. It sets the tone for the day, and helps keep the daily stresses of our life in proper perspective. During the school year, our time consists of the daily lessons the girls receive from their Sunday school at church, and Awana memory work.
Summer is a time when we're more relaxed, and we read from various devotionals. The kids are approaching an age where they are able to work a little more independently, so they will do the lessons separately, and either before or after that, we'll do some of the reading together.
This past month was pretty nice, because we were able to try out and review the Intermediate Study Pages and Bible Book Summary Cards by Bible Study Guide For All Ages .
First, a little information about this resource.
This is a Bible curriculum that will go through the entire Bible in 416 lessons. There is work in the New and Old Testaments, and timelines and maps for visual aids. It is meant to teach the Bible in "big picture" terms, and the goal is for students to learn how to apply biblical truths to their lives. A feature that I really like is that it can be added into your studies at any time, as there is no specific start time.
You may also be interested to hear that this is not written from any specific denominational view. It is simply taken from Scripture. The company has included a mission statement of what they believe about Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and I agree wholeheartedly. They present the Bible, and that's it.
And yet another important bit to share. The lessons are not laid out with Genesis first, and then through each subsequent book in the Bible. They use both Testaments throughout the year. There are some good reasons for this. You get to the life of Christ faster, learn some fundamentals of the Bible as a whole, and, it helps not to get discouraged when you get to certain parts of the Old Testament. I know that last one has often had me losing steam in my Bible reading once I hit Leviticus. Just speaking for myself, I have had more success and interest since I 've been reading from both parts of the Bible this year. So, I think that is a great way to approach these lessons.
Are you ready to get started? Alright, let's do this! Each individual packet includes 26 lessons. You could really just flip to the first lesson, and it would be no problem figuring out how to work through the lesson. But, you don't have to do this, because there are "Quick Teacher Instructions" on the inside of the first page of the packet.
Here you'll find the materials each student needs, and the list is minimal. A bible, crayons, the student pages, Bible Summary cards, and a few optional materials- timeline, maps, song CD.
Then you have 8 different sections to complete the lesson. (It's not going to hurt though if you need to forgo parts of it depending on your pace and needs.)
*Remember It ? - This is a review section for all of the previous work
*Memory Workout - A part of the lesson with drills of different sorts to learn general and important
Biblical facts.
*Guess What. . . - Definitions, vocabulary, history
*Discover the Bible - Reading the Bible, follow along with illustrations, Q and A about the text.
*Time Line - This is considered an important part of the Bible guide, helping students understand the
storyline of the Bible.
*Maps - self explanatory, I think.
*Get Active - A fun activity to take a worksheet break while extending the lesson a bit.
*Apply It! - Students read some text, and then compare it to a similar, modern story, and provide the
ending. They then answer questions to apply the lesson to their life.
I want to take a little time to talk about the Bible Book Summary Cards . These are not what you might picture when hearing the word "cards", because they are about 8 x 11 . There are 66 colorfully illustrated cards to represent each book of the Bible. The front has a picture to correspond with the truths/themes of the book. The back provides a little history of the book, and the events included. Then there are questions to go over with the students about the material.
I love the size of these cards, because they make it easier to go through the lessons with 2 kids. No one is crawling over the other in an effort to see. And the illustrations are really. . .hmm, cute doesn't seem to be the right word, but they are! Very inviting, I just like these a lot!
Okay, so that's the basics of the curriculum. Now, how did we fare with it? Well, 2 thumbs up! What a great Bible program. We have not been unhappy with what we had previously been using, but now to have used this, I see what we've been missing. We've been using this 5 days a week, for the weekdays, and I'm happy to see the enthusiasm of my daughters. This has found a way to blow away the possible stuffiness and dryness of so many others. I really can't say that there is anything that we have not liked about it. The colorful pictures pique the interest of my girls, as do the illustrations within the lessons themselves. Something about a visual aid just helps in retention. And then the extra activities that include drawing, coloring, fill in the blanks, they all just keep it fresh. I'm going to be adding the other lesson packets, and the timelines too.
Time for you to head over to the website, and check out what they have.
Bible Study Guide For All Ages
Intermediate Student Pages - $5.95 per packet (Each packet contains 26 lessons)
Bible Book Summary Cards - $24.95 for all 66 books of the Bible
Ages: Grades 3-4
The Crew reviewed several levels from this company. Click to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew.
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