Hi everyone! Welcome to day 2 of my curriculum forum discussions! Today we’re going to talk about how we study the Bible.
Bible is an important part of our homeschool, and for whatever reason it was always one of the hardest for me to find. But since finding the Grapevine Studies we’ve really been loving our Bible time. These studies work really well for teaching multiple levels and my kids are really enjoying doing them as well, so I plan to continue with these next year.
I recommend getting the multiple level student workbook and Teacher’s Manual. You really can’t do these lessons without the TM and then of course you need the student workbooks as well. The TM has the lessons as well as sample drawings for those of us who are artistically challenged! And really these are so flexible they can be done with kiddos as young as Kindergarten I’d say. For preschooler’s they’ve also just released traceable versions as well! We will be using that shortly to help include the Teeny Tot in our lessons and I can’t wait to try them out!
Pros:
- Great visual walk through the Bible.
- Works great with multiple levels.
Cons:
- Can be expensive to purchase multiple workbooks for each student.
- Don’t have a lot of books released yet.
Another addition we’re making next year are the Kay Arthur Bible studies for kids. I think they’re great for teaching independent study skills to older kiddos. I’m going to be using them with Turbo who will be in 4th grade and Strawberry Shortcake who will be in 5th grade next year. I wouldn’t recommend starting these much sooner than 4th or 5th grade though.
Each book includes directions as well as instructions for the students to complete as they go through the study so they are basically self contained. Students will be writing inside these books however, so you’ll need to purchase one per student.
Some more great Bible resources:
- Calvary Curriculum (Free online curriculum)
- Answers for Kids Bible Curriculum
- What’s in the Bible DVDs
- Nest Family Bible DVD Series
Pros:
- Great for independent study
- Good way to teach younger students about inductive Bible study.
Cons:
- Students write in books, so you have to purchase new books for each study.
So, now comes the fun part!
What are your favorite Bible curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.
Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!
It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!
And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.
Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards BIBLE, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.
Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.
We love jw.org. It has a ton of FREE bible studies for toddlers, children, and teens.
We are LOVING jw.org too!! Caleb and Sophia are great!!
jw.org is the official website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Please note that they believe that Jesus is not God, but only an angel (Michael the archangel), and that the Holy Spirit is not God, but only an “active force”. They are considered by many (and I believe rightly so) to be a cult. I will forever be thankful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for bringing me out of that group.
Yes, JW.ORG is the official website for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And there you will find information regarding their beliefs. Jesus is more than just an angel, he is the son of God. There are more than 8 mil witnesses and an additional 9 mil students. Far from a cult in my opinion. The website is very helpful for us, especially the resources for family bible study.
As the Bible calls Jesus the “son of God”, JW’s do, in fact, admit that Jesus is the son of God. However, the New World Translation Bible produced by the Watchtower Society has changed and or removed most of the references to Jesus being God and deny the rest (such as when Thomas calls Him ‘My Lord and my God!’, and Rom.10:9 which is clearly a reference to Jesus yet they insert the name Jehovah instead…)
Unfortunately, many members are not aware that the organization teaches that Jesus is only mediator for the “little flock” of 144,000 who, according to the society, are the only ones who will go to heaven. When this is brought up, many deny this teaching because they are unaware, or they dismiss it as “old light” (which is what the society calls it when they want to change their doctrines or someone brings up an unpopular teaching in their older literature).
I have recently done research regarding the origins of the society and I would urge others interested to do the same. Also, they admittedly preach a different gospel. (Yes, this is admitted in one of their publications–watchtower, I *think*.)
Just some things for readers to be aware of before checking out their materials to teach your children.
FYI:
The reference to the watchtower society teaching that the gospel they preach is a different gospel than that of Christians is found here: The Watchtower 5/1/81, p.17
It says: “They are not one and the same kind.”
For Jesus not being mediator of the “great crowd” they say: “Likewise, the Greater Moses, Jesus Christ, is not the Mediator between Jehovah God and all mankind. He is the Mediator between his heavenly Father, Jehovah God, and the nation of spiritual Israel, which is limited to only 144,000 members.” Worldwide Security Under the “Prince of Peace” (1986) pp.10-11
Please with all do respect. Get your facts straight. I respect your views but, don’t appreciate the lack of accurate information about us you are distributing. Jesus is our savior and Lord. We know that. Nevertheless, we recognized that he himself expressed that all honor should go to his father. Additionally, we are avid bible readers and students …if you study the bible more you will realize we are doing our best to present bible truths as Jesus intended them to, not as people want them to be. There are various translations of the bible out that lack accuracy in certain areas a little research into how and why these translations are not correct will help you fix your misconceptions.
I just bought The Action Bible for my 7 year old son. I think he will really like it. It is a bible illustrated comic book style. We also have some Child’s Bible History books that we have used.
Oh my gosh, I just went to Amazon and looked at the Action bible. You can preview some of the pages as well as the table of contents etc, and when I saw the drawings I just got chills down my spine! My seven year old is going to love it!
Do you just go through the Action Bible or are you using something else as a study guide. I would like to get this for my daughter for her birthday in 2 weeks, and I just didn’t know if I needed additional resources for this coming school year. Thanks in advance.
We just started using Grapevine and my girls (5 & 7) love it. I also like The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vas.
We just started going through the New City Catechism app on the iPad. It’s awesome and can be done as a family. The questions have both shorter responses for the kids to learn and longer ones for the adults. There are supporting Bible verses and commentary for each question, too.
We use the Bible lesson workbooks from Christian Light Publications. They are super affordable and we love the thrill of completing another workbook and moving to the next. There are no quizzes or tests, just wonderful stories with an accompanying activity.
We use the Christian Light ones too and love them. I think they are very comprehensive and affordable.
I can honestly say that the Bible workbooks are my favorite part of our homeschool day!
Thinking about trying this out! Christine and Liz, do you find that the teacher’s manual is really necessary? Or would it be just fine to use the workbooks?
I love GRAPEVINE! My son is a true artist at heart so this allow us to learn more about God and we can draw! We also use Bible Truths with BJU. He loves the colorful worksheets and I love how in-depth it is. We use Grapevine for fun, light lesson but it is not very in depth. That is my only con towards it.
I love this series idea, Erica! I read the art post very closely because I have not been able to decide which one to get. Thank you!
Bible Study Guide for All Ages! We love this curriculum. Here are the reasons I love it:
1. All of my children can participate because even though each child has a sheet on their level, they are all learning the same lesson.
2. It covers the Bible thoroughly. It’s not like a lot of curriculums that only focus on the application or feel good-ism. They are really learning about what is in the Bible which is great for helping to ensure they don’t get sucked in by the many false teachers out there.
3. It covers not only the scripture/Bible story for the lesson, but also covers Bible maps so they can see where the events took place and a timeline so they can place when it happened in relation to everything else.
4. There is a “get active” section each day that is like a hands on section that helps to introduce and cement the lesson to be learned. They are always so simple but so effective in providing something memorable to refer back to.
5. There is an “apply it” section where they are to take the big idea/lesson and apply it to a situation that they would be familiar with.
6. There are 2 CDs with songs, a wall timeline (which we didn’t get because the ones on the worksheets have been sufficient), and Bible book summary cards that help teach your child how to summarize each book of the Bible.
7. It takes about 45 min for us to do one lesson. Sometimes we do it all in one day and sometimes we split it into two days, but either way isn’t too long.
8. Each lesson contains a short review of previous lessons so material isn’t forgotten and there is a short section that contains a vocabulary word or something that needs to be explained.
Really, it’s such a thorough and fun curriculum.
I can’t wait for the next curriculum post! Yay!
Lou…what a great review. 45 minutes for Bible seems like a long time for me. Don’t get me wrong, I see value in that but I am not sure how to fit it all in. Also, I have a Kindergartener and 2nd grader. Do you envision that the lessons could be completed together? Do they just work off of different worksheets?
Thank you.
Sometimes, 45 min is too long (for me on days when we have somewhere to be and have to squeeze all subjects in before we leave) and that’s why we do half a lesson. But I guess I should also mention that the reason it takes us that long is because we get into some great discussions almost every day that take up time. Each lesson is designed to be split into two days but as the commenter below me said, my kids love it and most of the time want to do whole lessons on one day. The time really does fly by so it doesnt feel like long at all. They most definitely can work together because they have different levels of worksheets that correspond completely: 3 yrs.-K, 1st-2nd (this first level is for non readers and the second level is for beginning readers up through a second grade level but can TOTALLY be used for nonreaders, too), 3rd-4th, and 5th-6th. My boys are 4 and 6. Both do the 1st-2nd level and have no problems at all completing them. This is the only subject they don’t wander away from. Hahaha! My daughter is about to be 9 and does the 3rd-4th level. Again, absolutely no problems and after my part of the lesson is over for her, she pretty much does her sheet independently and finishes before I finish with the boys. Truly, this Bible resource is amazing. You can download a sample from their site and give it a try. The sample is the same lesson for every single level. For your children’s ages I would go with the 1st-2nd grade level for both of them. I am telling you, your children will start to learn the Bible inside and out. It just occurred to me that I sound like a paid advertiser. Hahaha! I’m not, though. I just really like it a lot and most importantly so do my kids. Hope this is helpful!
You might want to check out goingthroughthebible.com. It has a weekly Bible story that is divided into five daily lessons that last between 3-5 minutes. If you follow it for five years you will have gone through the whole Bible. You can also listen to a chapter of the Bible read to you each day. It can be listened to as a family in the morning or after dinner. The lessons and Bible readings are all free and if you would like to download printables that go with each days lesson, you can become a member for only $5/month.
We use Bible study guide for all ages with my kindergartener and she LOVES it!! It takes us about 30 minutes, but it’s time well spent and goes by really fast!!
I have a 4 and 5 yr old… One is a beginning reader and the other is not reading yet. Which level would you recommend? I would like them to be doing the same thing so I don’t have to purchase two separate levels:) thank you!
We use the Bible Study Guide for All Ages also and love it! My 7 year old son has learned so much more about the bible this year and has retained it. Bible is his favorite subject and he can’t wait to do it each day. We’ll be continuing with Bible Study Guide next school year.
Lou – I know this was from a long time ago, however, I am researching Bible curricula now and came across your post. The Bible Study guide for all ages looks awesome but I’m a bit intimidated by the idea of 413 lessons. That seems overwhelming. Like we would be doing the same one for the next 5 years or so? What are your thoughts?
Amy, that’s my question EXACTLY. Looking forward to feedback!!
We did Bible Study Guide for All Ages last year and loved it and will continue. We actually nixed the student pages… I have three boys, grades 5, 6 and 8 and they didn’t enjoy the worksheets. So, I purchased the teacher edition and I teach the lesson every day. I love that it teaches the bible very thoroughly and it has cyclical review questions every day. So, every day, we flip back to various lessons and answer questions–hello, long term memory! It has simple games in the TE as well and my younger boys liked those. We do the games, review, Bible reading, daily questions and maps. It may not be the most exciting, colorful curriculum out there, but we have excellent discussion every day and the boys are learning and interested. That’s what’s important.
PS. My younger two draw pictures of what I’m reading on their whiteboards to keep them occupied. They love it and it actually helps them focus.
It has 4 different years of curriculum that covers the entire bible–so yes, you would be doing the same curriculum for 4 years if you stayed on track. We are finishing up year one and I look forward to the next three. It’s so thorough, I don’t anticipate needing to go back over lessons in detail like this ever again.
We started using Bible Study Guide For All Ages this year and we love it! Both of my girls-4&6- are using the beginner level. My 6 year old could’ve started with the Primary level, but I really wanted to build her foundation a bit before we moved up. I was a little hesitant at first with how many lessons there are, but we’re moving through them quickly. We do one lesson a day even on the weekends. i love the review section because it further emphasizes what we learned in previous lessons. My girls are understanding the stories and the meaning behind them. The timeline cards are cute, but I wish I would’ve ordered the primary timeline instead. I like that it’s an actual timeline to stick dates and events on. Overall we really like this curriculum and will continue to use it.
i love this series idea too! For Bible I have used the Explorer’s Bible Study Beginnings II the last couple of years. It takes about 20 minutes each day to do with my kids. There is one on OT stories and one on the Life of Jesus. They work well with the 1-4 range for kids. Next year I am going to used Apologia Who is God text for a weekly family lesson and have the kiddos do a personal devotional other days. I was thinking at the Kay Arthur series as well but will probably wait for grades 4 and 5.
This is so helpful. I used Grapevine last year for my 1st Grader but found that I had to do a lot of connecting of the dots and because I was fairly new to homeschooling, it was more time consuming than I had wanted. So, this year, I am trying Positive Action for Christ Bible Curriculum. They have courses for each grade and it comes with a very colorful and cute workbook (let’s face it…that is important to a 1st grader – or at least it is to mine) and a teacher’s manual. I haven’t used it yet but know some that have and others that have used it in their Christian school. I am excited to try it. It is a bit costly (you have to purchase the workbook and teacher’s guide and combined, could be around $35) but I am hopeful it will be fun and informative to use! Here is a link at Rainbow Resources: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=13&category=1470
We just started using Grapevine and we love it! I have a 8th, 6th, 4th and K (with Down Syndrome) and they all get to participate. It’s too simple for my 8th grader, but she likes the drawing and it helps her to remember more details of the stories. She also helps my Kindergartner when she needs it. I like that there are timeline reviews and review questions after each lesson. We are going to try combining the Old Testament curriculum with our Mystery of History curriculum next year. Hopefully, it works out well!
i have a soon to be three year old with Down syndrome. I would love to connect with you.
My youngest (only 18 mos now) has Ds also but still planning on homeschooling (at this point in time) . . . may need to connect with you in the future also! 🙂