Jenny in GA Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 After further discussion of the Sunday School situation in our church, we've decided that no real religious training is going to happen unless we do it all ourselves. So ... I'm trying to pick a good curriculum. My kids are in fifth, third, and kindergarten. It is the third grader I am mostly concerned with, as at least the fifth grader is going through Confirmation class. (Although I'm even concerned that those are not terribly beefy -- for example, I was told that for the next month they will spend all classtime watching the movie The Ten Commandments.) Anyway, I see a Concordia (Lutheran) curriculum called One in Christ. It looks pretty decent, but I am a little unsure what components to get, because it looks like it was designed to be a classroom set of materials. Has anyone used this? If so, could you clue me in? Also, if you've used it, do you work on it weekly, or daily, or what? And should I, say, get a fourth grade book and have both the fifth and third grader do it together? Any other suggestions for curriculum, whether they are specifically Lutheran or not? Also, do you usually do Bible study as a family, or does each kids have their own separate curriculum? I should add that we used to do Community Bible Study (CBS) for years and liked that format. We decided to drop out when the class got moved to an hour away from our house, and figured Sunday School would be sufficient. Well, Sunday School recently changed and is teaching next to nothing, so that's why I'm suddenly researching this for the first time. Thanks for any suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaissance Mom Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I teach confirmation at our Lutheran church to 7th and 8th graders. Perhaps it is difficult to get decent confirmation materials for such young students -- 5th grade is the youngest I've heard for a confirmation class. In any event, I have never been very impressed by most Lutheran confirmation material UNTIL our church discovered the re:form curriculum by Augsburg Fortress. But, it is geared toward church classes so would be pricey for a family. To actually answer your questions, each of our kids do their own devotions in the morning. I took them to the local Christian bookstore to pick out their own devotionals. For actual Bible study, we do mini-units all together. We just read Scripture and chat about it. I tend to like to go thematically -- let's read about grace for a week or two, then let's read about gratitude for another week or two, etc. But I've never found any packaged curriculum that really does much for us. Much of it is just busy work, IMHO. We decided to just immerse ourselves in the Word and then talk about it. Simple. Nice. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest elizabelle Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I am in the same situation as you, but also struggling to find a church with substance, let alone a sunday school. I am Lutheran as well and my children are 3 and 6 years old. I find that cph has a lot of good resources for teaching your children at home. I haven't looked into a full curriculum from them, but I do have other books. There are lots of children specific material that we use. Sing the faith is the small Catechism set to music, which is great for memorization. We have several of their children's Bibles, but the one I am really impressed with is the Story Bible. It has great illustrations and points everything to Christ, which is the most important thing. Those are just some of the things I've bought and loved. I promise I don't work for cph! As far as scripture memorization, I just choose verses for them to memorize. Sorry this is such a random reply, but I hope it helps!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I'm Episcopalian, but that's fairly close to Lutheran...:D I used Positive Action for Christ in 4th grade and really liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWOB Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 What flavor of Lutheran are you? We attend an LCMS church, so my opinions are coming from that perspective. We are very lucky. Our church has a pretty good SS program. I am a SS teacher and the board of education chairperson, so I get to make sure my kids are learning stuff. Our kids start confirmation in 5th grade as well. For 5th and 6th grade, they usually do a topical study for the first half of the year and focus on the small catechism the second half. Our pastor teaches the older kids. From what I hear, it's pretty hard core. Anyway. Does your church give our My First Catechism in 1st and 100 Bible Stories in 3rd? I have used both of those with my dc. You can find them at the cph site. That's basically what we do, along with just reading the Bible together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 My sister has sent me numerous materials over the years from the Lutheran Aid Society, including a set that covered all the seasons of the church year (w/ audio tapes and colorful books), and numerous devotionals. She also sent us a book covering Advent that came with colorful, punch-out ornaments. There was a devotional for each day and then you hung the corresponding ornament on the tree. I believe she received all these items free of charge from the church, but I'm not sure how you go about ordering those. When my children were elementary age, we used a variety of such things as these for our studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2jjka Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 WELS/Northwestern Publishing has Christ Light bible curriculum. It's very good (but not cheap) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annlaura Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Have you seen this? http://clclutheran.org/godshand.htm Free, Lutheran, and very extensive. There's a thread about it somewhere here. Also, the Lutheran Brotherhood, now Thrivent, used to be very generous with materials. Not sure if Thrivent is now. You might try to contact them and see if they have anything for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Blessings Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 We have used 100 Bible Stories and we liked it. There is a student guide to match it. Also, for the K aged, The Children's Garden of Verses is nice. Also has a student guide. There is a My First Catechism that might work for your older kids. Again, a student guide is available. All available through Concordia Publishing House. I have seen The Story Bible and it looks nice, but I have never used it. Have you seen My First Hymnal? It is awesome and even has some liturgical settings for family worship. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnificent_baby Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I picked this up at Goodwill last week. It's published by CPH. It looks like a great study for older primary/jr. high. I thought it was a Bible at first glance, but it is Bible stories with several questions after each passage. Looks like you can order teacher guide and workbooks as well. I have only briefly flipped through it, but it looks very well written. http://www.cph.org/p-431-a-bible-history-student-book.aspx?SearchTerm=history%20bible Another idea is the One Year Bible. It is broken down to one OT reading, one NT, one Proverb and one Psalm each day, though (I think) they are in sequence. It is so refreshingly simple to sit down, read the Bible without any other guides to fumble around. My 2nd grader and I take turns reading aloud. We do not get to it everyday, but that is okay, hopefully we will have the entire Bible read in just under 2 years. Though I have read many passages throughout my life, I have never read the Bible in sequence. I am learning so much. http://www.amazon.com/One-Year-Bible-NIV/dp/0842324518 HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in GA Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 We have used 100 Bible Stories and we liked it. There is a student guide to match it. Also, for the K aged, The Children's Garden of Verses is nice. Also has a student guide. There is a My First Catechism that might work for your older kids. Again, a student guide is available. All available through Concordia Publishing House. Thanks! 100 Bible Stories looks promising. For those of you who have used it, do you recommend/"need" the activity guide? BTW, we are Missouri Synod Lutheran. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Bumping this for you Jenny...hoping to hear more from others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I am LCMS, too, and attended Lutheran schools for 9 years, so I know how good their parochial school materials are. I used Voyages from CPH to homeschool my daughter, from 3rd or 4th grade through 8th. She also attended Sunday school and confirmation classes. The Sunday school was good but mostly things that she already knew. The confirmation classes were outstanding--our pastor is really good at that. The curriculum you mention is newish, and I have not seen it. Voyages does not focus as much on the Small Catechism. But it's very meaty--it sends kids all over the Bible, and teaches applications as well as Bible stories and Lutheran doctrine. I imagine that the new program is also excellent, but in our church I would not consider it because the kids cover the catechism 3-4 times in confirmation classes and I would not want to duplicate that. That is why although I purchased some of the homestudy catechetical materials, I stuck with Voyages instead of using them. I loved the Concordia Self-Study NIV Bible because it had great, conservative notes and essays on the whole Bible as well as each individual book. I used it to intersperse SOTW1 with Bible history for the first year and a half that I homeschooled. This was a very rich way to study both. I found that since I had been reading the Bible to DD since she was 4 or 5, the Voyages 1st and 2nd grade materials were too elementary for her--but they are good just the same. I had an only child, so I never had to worry about which levels to use, but the parochial materials would 'work' about plus or minus one grade relative to the grade that they are written for. For Voyages, I used the student book, teacher's book, and memory book. I also got a giant print Bible for DD, and we had catechisms and hymnals around that I also used. (I love hymns, so I just tend to sing them a lot, at home and in the car.) I was able to get good deals on these most of the time. CPH has an 800 number, and if you call them they will give you a 10% discount for anything you are going to use for homeschooling. And they have a warehouse that is not online, and I got a lot of essentially brand new stuff from them for deep discounts because some school had returned it unused but they couldn't sell it as 'new'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Blessings Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I didn't use the 100 Bible Stories guide. We read the stories, asked the three questions at the bottom, and moved on. But I considered using it. I may still. I have used the Children's Garden of Verses (Bible verses) and the activity guide. It is ok, but not meaty enough for most of your kids. I have a friend who is using the first catechism with her 8 yr. old girls. She seems to like it. I'm part of the LCMS, too. Nice to "meet" you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Have you seen this? http://clclutheran.org/godshand.htm Free, Lutheran, and very extensive. There's a thread about it somewhere here. Also, the Lutheran Brotherhood, now Thrivent, used to be very generous with materials. Not sure if Thrivent is now. You might try to contact them and see if they have anything for you. The CLC one is really good. Pax Domini has a great one, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Thanks!100 Bible Stories looks promising. For those of you who have used it, do you recommend/"need" the activity guide? BTW, we are Missouri Synod Lutheran. The guide is great if you have a workbooky kind of kid. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Blessings Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Have you seen this? http://clclutheran.org/godshand.htm Free, Lutheran, and very extensive. There's a thread about it somewhere here. Also, the Lutheran Brotherhood, now Thrivent, used to be very generous with materials. Not sure if Thrivent is now. You might try to contact them and see if they have anything for you. I just looked at the CLC website and it IS very good. The only thing I would caution is that you should go up a level or two. It seems a bit, for the lack of a better word, "dumbed down" or "easy" for kids who have a decent knowledge of scripture. It's also free- and I like that!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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