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Bible Curriculum?


mom of 2 boys
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I'm doing a trial run of "Bible Study Guide For All Ages" with my 5 year old, and while I do like it, I can't say that I love it. The problem is, I can't seem to find many other options. They have illustrated bible stories that are set up almost like a comic book. It will tell you what is going on in a picture, and then tell you "With blue, color baby Jesus" or "With orange, color the angel." At first I thought that this was going to work out well, but we're nearing the end of the first lesson booklet and it's already starting to get old. My son is constantly asking WHY (like why color them this random, solid color) and then just scribbling all over the character. I'm not sure this is the best approach for him. I have heard about one where you draw bible pictures and another where you draw stick figures, and I do not think that anything like that would be a good fit for him. I think he needs something that is a little less creative and a little bit more straight forward. Honestly, I think we were having better luck just reading his children's bible, but he is the kind of kid who enjoys and benefits from work sheets, so Ideally I will be able to find something that has me read a small amount and then do a very basic work sheet to go along with it (15 min total). We use work boxes, and it really works well for him to have something in his drawer to do, and then to be able to put a "done" sign on it afterwards. Also, I am aware that I could probably print random sheets from the internet, but I just cannot see myself keeping up with that idea. I'm lucky if I can remember to tear the next sheet out of a workbook the night before lol. 

 

Any ideas? Thanks! 

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I have a 5 year old and I was also looking for a bible curriculum. But then I started thinking many of the ones out there contain a lot of busy work. My son doesn't like busy work, but he does like things that are interesting and challenging. We decided to simply read from some very good children's bibles. We have a variety of them now as well as a children's devotional. I find he's picking up a lot just from simple read-aloud time.

 

One curriculum I was looking at was Bible Road Trip. I liked that it could be used for multiple ages and seemed to thoroughly go through the Bible.

 

 

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I'm doing a trial run of "Bible Study Guide For All Ages" with my 5 year old, and while I do like it, I can't say that I love it. The problem is, I can't seem to find many other options. They have illustrated bible stories that are set up almost like a comic book. It will tell you what is going on in a picture, and then tell you "With blue, color baby Jesus" or "With orange, color the angel." At first I thought that this was going to work out well, but we're nearing the end of the first lesson booklet and it's already starting to get old. My son is constantly asking WHY (like why color them this random, solid color) and then just scribbling all over the character. I'm not sure this is the best approach for him. I have heard about one where you draw bible pictures and another where you draw stick figures, and I do not think that anything like that would be a good fit for him. I think he needs something that is a little less creative and a little bit more straight forward. Honestly, I think we were having better luck just reading his children's bible, but he is the kind of kid who enjoys and benefits from work sheets, so Ideally I will be able to find something that has me read a small amount and then do a very basic work sheet to go along with it (15 min total). We use work boxes, and it really works well for him to have something in his drawer to do, and then to be able to put a "done" sign on it afterwards. Also, I am aware that I could probably print random sheets from the internet, but I just cannot see myself keeping up with that idea. I'm lucky if I can remember to tear the next sheet out of a workbook the night before lol. 

 

Any ideas? Thanks! 

 

When BSGFAL first came out, it did not have those pages to color. There was the guide itself, and the timeline and its parts. In each lesson there were pictures that the children could draw, but they copied/drew the pictures themselves, and however they did it was however they did it.

 

Do you do the timeline activities? Maybe that would be better than the pictures to color. You read the daily reading and discuss with him (there are still questions for each day, aren't there?), and let him do the timeline activities, and call it good.

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I found at that age, that DD just liked to cuddle up and read specific Bible stories together.  Then we would just discuss them like this....

 

  • "What do you think God meant by a "day" in the Creation story?"
  • "Let's see what "yom" means in ancient Hebrew."  (Look it up together.) "Wow, it has several different meanings."  "Does this change your mind about what God meant by "day"?"  "If so, what do you think now?"
  • "Does Jesus say that we must believe that "yom" means a specific time period in order to be saved?"
  • "No?"  "Then does it really matter what different Christians/non-Christians believe about how old the earth is?"  "No, it doesn't, and we shouldn't argue about it."  "We can never definitively know how old the Earth really is because humans are fallible creatures.  Our technology is fallible, and the way we measure the age of rocks and fossils can alter depending on natural, catastrophic, and unnatural conditions. We can only provide an approximate age range. We all have our own way of thinking about things and interpreting things.  This is called a "bias".  Despite biases, Christians are to love everyone regardless of their biases.  We have to remember that God chose a specific time (ancient times), a specific place (Near East) and a specific people (Israelites) to reveal His Word.  We need to keep that in mind, and try to think like the ancient Israelites thought in order to really see what the Bible says."

Then I would pick out a short verse to reinforce the lesson and have DD make a picture of the days of Creation or some such and write the verse on the picture. The next day I would move on in Genesis and do the same thing again with that lesson--just talk through a specific theme.  DD always enjoyed doing Bible that way and it made it less of a "school" time setting and more of just quality time with Mom.

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Sigh, I just wrote a long post, but lost it!

Here we go Again...

 

My nearly 6 year old and I are really enjoying the Children Desiring God series of books. Right now we are using God's Promises.

 

After each chapter, there are around three activities. For example, the first chapter tells you that God's promises are like gifts. You are asked to write down as many biblical promises as you can (ie God promised Abram a son, God's promised land, John 3:16, etc). You put them in a box and wrap it with wrapping paper. You are encouraged to give it to someone (he chose Dh) and as they unwrap you tell them what you've learned: That good promises are like gifts, that we don't deserve them, but he gives them to us anyway.

 

I can't say enough good things about this series. We already cover the Bible chronologically with Tapestry of Grace, so this series allowed us to cover different theological ideas topically in ways I wouldn't have thought on my own.

 

ETA:

Edited for general typos...

 

Also.... Since we are no longer in Bible times in our TOG studies, I also read aloud daily from one of our children's Bibles. I just don't create a lesson around it.

 

These series of books cover various Bible stories as they are relevant to the lesson.

Eg. God keeps his promises - Talks about Abram and Sarai and His promise of a child, and the nation that is to come from him. God kept his promise!

 

Trusting God's Promises- Talks about Zechariah and his reaction to the promise given to him compared to Abram trusting in God's promise of Genesis 12:1-2. Talks about Hebrews 11. Faith is trusting God will make good on his promises.

 

God's promises for unbelievers- The rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16 to introduce the realities of hell and what the Bible says will happen to those who don't love God. Also discusses Psalm 1:5-6

 

These are all connections I would never make on my own. I'm learning right along with him.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Jacbeaumont
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This http://calvarycurriculum.org/little-ones-curriculum-chronological/ plus reading the corresponding Bible story? I am on the lookout too for my 5 year old. I want something like; Bible story, Bible memory verse plus coloring page. I hope there is something like that out there.

1+1+1=1 has http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingLilRockStars.html ' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'> http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingLilRockStars.html Raising Lil Rockstars, which is exactly what you are describing.

 

 

 

First time adding hyperlink on my phone. Hope that worked!

 

ETA:

Well, unless you are looking for something that has chronological Bible stories...

 

 

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Edited by Jacbeaumont
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I wouldn't use the Rod and Staff reading as just a Bible study either. I mean, you could just have the child read the readers and not do the work. But it is meant to teach reading.

 

BUT they R&S preschool Bible stories and coloring book that is part of the preschool/kindergarten packages are very good. I used those with my kids for Bible time til they were in like 2nd grade. I just read aloud the story and they colored in their books. Each story had a verse to learn and some questions. Some of the coloring sheets were activity sheets, but mostly they were just coloring. It gave them something to do while we read and discussed.

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We have used the Bob Jones Bible series for all of our children.  They really seem to like it.  It's similar to what they get in Sunday School.  (We only buy the student book.  The curriculum is a bit expensive, imo.  We are able to do about 90 percent of the work without the teacher's manual.)

 

Here is a link that includes samples.

 

ETA:  The above link is for kindergarten.  Here is the link for first grade.  This link has more sample pages, including a table of contents to give you an idea of the topics covered.

 

 

Edited by Junie
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I bought BSGFAA beginner pages to use with my pre-K son this year. I was excited about it, but I'm not a fan of it either. We're having much better success reading from a children's Bibles. I also have some little cards for preschoolers with Bible verses on them. We use those for memory work. If you find something that you like, please share! Everything I saw was too simplistic, too expensive, or not age appropriate for a 4 year old. I should mention we also go to BSF once per week, so he learns a lot there, too.

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