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LDS religious curriculum - scripture, not everything else


MeaganS
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Is there an LDS scriptures curriculum? I mean, I guess I could just use the sunday school manuals, but I'm looking for more tailored. If there isn't, what do you do to incorporate your beliefs into your teaching?

 

For the record, I plan on homeschooling for mostly secular reasons (academics, primarily), but I would like to take advantage of the unique position homeschoolers have in being able to teach their children religion along with other subjects. Religion as a way of life, etc. However, I'm not looking for an LDS curriculum for every subject, just the scriptures.

 

Also, I know my kids are still young, I'm just wondering if such a thing exists. :001_smile:

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There used to be the old "grey box" that had 2 main manuals: Teaching the Scripture Readers and Teaching the Topics and Themes. The dist ctr used to carry it, but discontinued it maybe 10 years ago. You might find someone who has it though. But i think they may have moved the manuals to digital format that you could get on a CDROM. Thats probably more for a 4 or 5th at the youngest though.

 

There is a site out there that has tons of LDS material called School of Abraham. The storied scriptures are particularly good -- basically Penny Gardner, years ago, went through the OT and NT and listed off excerpts to make it easier to start younger children in the real scriptures (rather than readers or watered down versions). You'll also find it there for the Book of Mormon. At one point I know they even had a toddler version on the site there where it had really short scripture passage readings coordinating with a hands on activity and such; there was a whole year long schedule, week by week. I don't have time to find direct links right now, but it was on that School of Abraham site.

 

There's also a curriculum called The Iron Rod which was a unit study approach centered around a scripture passage each week -- but that did incorporate academic areas as well because, well, it was a unit study.

 

I can write more later about others if you're interested.

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Is there an LDS scriptures curriculum? I mean, I guess I could just use the sunday school manuals, but I'm looking for more tailored. If there isn't, what do you do to incorporate your beliefs into your teaching?

 

For the record, I plan on homeschooling for mostly secular reasons (academics, primarily), but I would like to take advantage of the unique position homeschoolers have in being able to teach their children religion along with other subjects. Religion as a way of life, etc. However, I'm not looking for an LDS curriculum for every subject, just the scriptures.

 

Also, I know my kids are still young, I'm just wondering if such a thing exists. :001_smile:

 

http://www.bookofmormondiscovery.com/homeschool.html

 

These are decent. My older two use them.

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:bigear:

 

We are using the Gospel Principles manual first to get a good foundation before we go on to other things. It just drives me crazy to think of teaching things out of order, so I want to start with what happened before, "In the beginning..." We'll also probably use Preach My Gospel at some point, I don't know when. My son is five and the way they learn things in Primary is kinda by subject, I want chronological. After that I have all the Study Guides for each SW, we'll just use those.

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In addition to the storied scriptures, School of Abraham has a curriculum using the Gospel Principal manual(the older edition). It incorporates primary songs, memory verses, and activities from the Friend(available online). I used it when my kids were younger and we all loved it.

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Thank you so much for posting this thread and the responses, too. We finished our book of Bible stories a few weeks ago, and I wasn't sure what to do next. We picked up the Book of Mormon reader, again, but I wanted something more/different.

 

I ordered the Discover the Latter-day Prophets last night. I can't wait to start tomorrow. I think it will be perfect for our school "devotional" time. I also ordered Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families. I think we'll do this as a family during our scripture study time at night.

 

Thanks everyone.

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I have heard good things about The Old Testament for Latter-day Saint Families: Illustrated King James Version with Helps for Children. There a similar New Testament version. The author used to be in my ward, and I would read anything he wrote. Great teacher.

 

We are also using a book called Boys Who Became Prophets along with the Living Scripture videos about the modern prophets.

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Another resource is: http://www.polarstarstudies.com/

 

I use her Real Mom's Guide to Homeschooling with the Book of Mormon and love it! It is a 36-week guide to teaching the Book of Mormon. She also has Latter-day Prophets and American History guides, if you are interested in those.

 

I know the page says it will work with all ages, but in your experience, how is it for young ones? I have Discover the Scriptures, but my kids are a bit young for it. I'd love something that is not so much workbook-based. My oldest will be 5 in May. So really I'd love to gear it toward her and my son (nearly 3.5) will tag along.

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I know the page says it will work with all ages, but in your experience, how is it for young ones? I have Discover the Scriptures, but my kids are a bit young for it. I'd love something that is not so much workbook-based. My oldest will be 5 in May. So really I'd love to gear it toward her and my son (nearly 3.5) will tag along.

With kids that young you could try using the Nursery manual. You'd be repeating the lessons quiet a bit, but at that age repetition is what they need. :)

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With kids that young you could try using the Nursery manual. You'd be repeating the lessons quiet a bit, but at that age repetition is what they need. :)

 

We did a run of the Nursery manual, but my older two get fairly bored. Lately we've been doing the sharing time lessons the week before, but I can see my son's eyes start to glaze over in sharing time when they start to repeat the same thing we talked about all the week before. :lol:

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In addition to the storied scriptures, School of Abraham has a curriculum using the Gospel Principal manual(the older edition). It incorporates primary songs, memory verses, and activities from the Friend(available online). I used it when my kids were younger and we all loved it.

I just got done copy/pasting the whole thing so I can print it out and "bind" it (in one of those thick paper folders with the metal brads) to use next year.

 

Although it may have planted the seeds for my wanting an iPad so that I don't have to print off all of the archived Friend articles. :lol:

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The gospel principles curriculum on School of Abraham is AWESOME! Just looked at it tonight. I love that manual. It puts the principle parts of the gospel in such simple terms. I've been trying to figure out a way to use it with my kids. Lately we've been using it for copywork. Thanks for this link!

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The gospel principles curriculum on School of Abraham is AWESOME! Just looked at it tonight. I love that manual. It puts the principle parts of the gospel in such simple terms. I've been trying to figure out a way to use it with my kids. Lately we've been using it for copywork. Thanks for this link!

Oooooh, I could always use a new source of copy work! :lol:

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So many great ideas, I'm excited to check them all out! I used the School of Abraham stuff years ago but haven't checked it out for awhile. I've also used the Discover the Scriptures stuff and like it, but I need something for my olders. I'm going to look into all these other suggestions. Great thread!

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Oooooh, I could always use a new source of copy work! :lol:

 

Have you seen the LDSCopywork Yahoo group? She sends out a quote, usually from General Conference, 5x a week. They're too long for my kids, but there's also a link there for copywork examples for younger students that I use with my 6yo. We also use the Primary themes for each week and month for copywork.

 

I've actually thought about pulling quotes myself from General Conference this time around to use for the next 6 months. We could discuss a talk in FHE and then use it for copywork for the rest of the week!

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Since your kids are little, I'd start with the Nursery Manual. I also use the Scripture Readers put out by the church--Just scripture stories with about six pictures on a page--this familiarizes the kids with the stories from the scriptures. We rotate our way through Book of Mormon Stories, Church History Stories, Old Testament, and New Testament.

 

Reading something each day from The Friend helps, too. It seems we can't finish one before the next one arrives. They love to color the pictures and try the activities there.

 

For older kids, use the New Era or even the Ensign. Preach My Gospel is an excellent resource. My teenagers read their way through various biographies of the prophets. My little ones actually loved Boys Who Became Prophets. The old Shining Moments, Vol. 1 and 2, by Lucille C. Reading are a favorite here, as well.

 

As your kids grow, work through the Faith in God books for 8-11 year olds, then of course Personal Progress and Duty to God.

 

If you want to add an LDS perspective through literature to your history studies, try On Wings of Faith by Bruce Babbit (I think). This is the aftermath of WWII in Europe as Ezra Taft Benson toured to offer help to those in need. In the Eye of the Storm (or The Other Side of Heaven) by John Groberg offers a look into the culture of the Polynesian Islands through the eyes of a young missionary.

 

Some people really like historical fiction by Gerald Lund. N.C. Allen wrote a similar series on the Civil War, and Dean Hughes wrote some about WWI and WWII. Other similar series exist on the Revolutionary War, though I don't remember the titles, now.

 

The Family Home Evening Resource Manual is an excellent place to find doctrine with helps for teaching young children.

 

Gospel Picture kits offers an opportunity to just use the pictures and scriptures to tell stories.

 

The list goes on and on. Honestly, though extra curriculum is nice, I think the church puts out more resources than we can possibly cover adequately. I haven't even mentioned that teaching straight from the Proclamation on the Family or doctrines found in The Living Christ (is that what is is called? From the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve--similar to the Proclamation on the Family). Conference Reports are great sources, as well.

 

I know a lot of this is for older kids, but little ones still benefit from you teaching the materials in words they can understand.

 

Best Wishes!

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I was just thinking that once the kids get old enough (my oldest is 12, so I'm thinking of the future...) that you could get copies of the Seminary manuals and try to incorporate what they are working on. You'd just have to plan that ahead for being in the right part of history if you are using a 4 yr history plan.

 

Jenna

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I was just thinking that once the kids get old enough (my oldest is 12, so I'm thinking of the future...) that you could get copies of the Seminary manuals and try to incorporate what they are working on. You'd just have to plan that ahead for being in the right part of history if you are using a 4 yr history plan.

 

Jenna

This reminds me, this is exactly what a friend of mine does with her 11 year old.

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