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 are using Simply Charlotte Mason’s curriculum for the second year. It’s simple and cheap. We basically just have assigned bible reading and then discuss. It allows us to not worry that doctrines we don’t agree with might sneak their way in.
LOVING these forums! Thank you! Something that would help is if the appropriate ages were included with curriculum recommendations. 🙂
Thank you for this post! I am looking for a good Bible curriculum!
My family has been enjoying our Hands On Bible. It includes activities, prayers, and questions to ask the kids.
We were using the Beginning with God series for my Kindergartener but we completed the 4 book series. It was great, had questions to ask to get your child thinking. Activities and crafts. So we now switched to Grapevine and have been doing the program for 2 weeks. We both enjoy it, but does anyone find it a bit short? Or am I not doing something? We go over the memory verse, discuss a bit. Draw our picture, discuss a bit more and then pray. Does anyone do more? It’s just such a change from the last bible study, that I was just curious.
We have used bible studies from Queen Homeschool with my daughter and those have been wonderful.
This year we are using Draw to Learn: Life of Jesus from Notgrass. My daughter loves it since she gets to draw her bible lesson everyday! We also did the Psalm 37 study together from the Doorpost blog last month and thoroughly enjoyed that! http://www.doorposts.com/blog/2013/03/01/31-days-in-psalm-37-for-busy-busy-mamas-day-1-theme/
Next year we plan on using Bible Study Guide For All Ages for our bible curriculum!
I think finding Bible Studies for the younger elementary grades is hard. I’ve tried a few things and it seems like just reading Bible stories and then discussing them works best. Also, my kids have their own Bible reading time where they read on their own.
My 3rd grader did do a study by Kaye Freeman, Choosing Humility. There is a series of them. She enjoyed it. Then I got her one of Kay Arthur’s… and it’s too challenging. She’s not ready for it yet. So I think your recommendation of 4th-5th grade for those is about right.
We use GrapeVine, too, and love that we can use it with our 4th grader, Kindergartener, and toddler at the same time. The lessons are simple and quick, takes us about 15 minutes all together and my kids love drawing the stick figures! My oldest also does indepent reading in his children’s Bible and he discusses with me the things he has learned, what they mean to him, and how the relate to his life.
We’re going to start the Apologia series. We’ll begin with Who Is God? in the fall. I saw these at the convention in Greenville, SC, and I really liked the look of this. It has an optional coloring book or journal as well. We also always have a daily devotional book. There are so many targeted for all age groups.
We love this series…it really helps everyone understand why we believe what we believe. My husband and I also have learned so much which has benefitted our children! Love love love this! His is not about learning Bible stories it goes deeper than that and really helps children learn a biblical worldview.
I attend Bible Study Fellowship with my two older sons. It has a four-fold approach: study questions, discussion group, lecture, follow-up notes. There are preschool programs as well. You get a weekly lesson, with daily scripture and questions. Once a week you meet with other participants and the kids have their own discussion groups (by age) facilitated by teaching leaders while the parent attends his/her own discussion group, followed by a lecture. It is a great, dig into the Word bible study. It meets during the school year, so we will probably do the Action Bible Devotional during the summer. I cannot say enough good things about BSF. Highly recommend.
I also meant to say that it is an international program so there may be a group meeting near you. You can go to http://www.bsfinternational.org to find out.
I LOVE BSF! I am training to be a GL right now. One of the things that helped me choose my curriculum (and to decide for sure to homeschool) was that My Father’s Wordl has has Bible study integrated into teh curriculum. It’s not just a workbook or survey of stories. In BSF we’ll be sttudying the book of Matthew next year, and MFW’s Exploring Countries and Cultures is a study of the book of Matthew with a missionary focus. You study world geography, the peoples, cultures, ecosystems, etc. of a particular country and MFW adds in real Christian missionary biographies. I can’t wait to learn along with my kids since I didn’t grow up as a Bible-believing Christian.
I too have served as a GL and it was life-changing. The encouragement from other GL’s and experiencing God’s provision for me while serving as a GL (being a leader not naturally in my comfort zone) gave me the confidence to make the decision to homeschool. Learning to daily depend on Him to do the thing He’s called me to was a big lesson for me. Blessings as you begin to serve in this way Yvonne.
I’m glad someone said BSF! We just started BSF this year, and are going to continue next year with the study of Matthew. I have loved it for myself, but love it even more that my kids (5,3 and 2 yrs old) have also been able to go and have awesome Bible study themselves! Was planning to count this as our Bible curriculum for homeschool as well. I love what you said about MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures. We have used Sonlight this year and I’ve been thinking about switching to MFW for next year. Oh how I wish my 5 yr old could do that curriculum while we study Matthew! That sounds awesome! But I don’t think she’ll be old enough? She will only be 6 in Sept. so I was thinking the 1st grade curriculum, but the ECC tie-in to Matthew sounds awesome!