How do you do "bible"?

[T'smom]

This is something I want to do better with. I want more of a systematic, methodical, nothing gets left out approach. Right now the kids are little 5 and 2, but although we read bible stories, I want to kick it up a notch. All ideas welcome. Routines, specific books, curricula, anything that would help me do better at systematically teaching this. Both as a subject during the day AND as family devotions.

 

 

[Susan in KY]

I use Foundations. It is free for the PDF download, or you can pay for it in a wire-bound format. I like that it's simple, systematic, has activities and notes, that I can pull a couple times a week from Calvary Chapel curriculum (careful, I linked to the OT, but you can see the NT curriculum by clicking on the linked page.), and that it allows us to really concentrate on a passage together. It gives me a checklist but also the freedom to switch it up: perfect in my book! Because of the Calvary Chapel curriculum links, it can be adapted to older or younger students. We just kick the conversations up a notch and do all the readings for my middle schoolers. They still like the Calvary Chapel word search. :)

[Candid]

Once your children are old enough to read the full Bible (or hear it read) then you need to try to read it with them. What we've done is that my husband reads everynight with them in the Bible. At first it was just him, at first just the story parts of the bible, but now that they are older, they read and we read everything. It's easy enough to be systematic with this. Just think it out. In our case we prioritize reading a gospel for Christmas and Easter, they rest of the year we read different books.

 

During the day I work with them using a variety of materials. We used Sonlight for a while and we used their stuff, but when we switched to Tapestry of Grace, I started using the Sunday School curriculum from: http://childrendesiringgod.org/ What it gave us was a systematic approach to theology an important component that I think gets overlooked.

 

But we used it up so now I find different things.

[creekland]

We never did Bible as a subject. Many kids grow up not liking homework or certain subjects and I didn't want them to throw Bible study in there with it - hence - no grades - no homework - no treating it like a subject with times and summers or any such thing.

 

Instead, we incorporated Bible study and passing on our values to everyday life. When something came up, we discussed it - pros, cons, our views, the world's views, etc. We watched Bible videos (for fun) and discussed them. We read because we wanted to learn stories and history and discussed how they applied to life. My kids are very Bible knowledgeable, but as part of everyday life and because it defines us, not because it was a subject taught in school. They also attend Sunday School for friends and more learning, but usually they are the top students in the class (and have been since elementary age). When we visit places they attend whatever Sunday School that church has too, so there's been plenty of discussion and feedback.

 

God is part of our (adults) everyday - everyhour lives though I wouldn't consider us overly sheltering or super conservative. Our kids grew up with it the same way. We still live in the world, but we know what sets us apart.

[Alyeska]

We pray James 1:5. Then we read whatever I have been studying on my own...that helps give additional thought and clarity.

 

Lately we have been reading through Acts and discussing it verse by verse. I am always amazed by what we learn!

 

I stopped using any type of curricula years ago. We use the KJV and a concordance.

[T'smom]

We never did Bible as a subject. Many kids grow up not liking homework or certain subjects and I didn't want them to throw Bible study in there with it - hence - no grades - no homework - no treating it like a subject with times and summers or any such thing.

 

Instead, we incorporated Bible study and passing on our values to everyday life. When something came up, we discussed it - pros, cons, our views, the world's views, etc. We watched Bible videos (for fun) and discussed them. We read because we wanted to learn stories and history and discussed how they applied to life. My kids are very Bible knowledgeable, but as part of everyday life and because it defines us, not because it was a subject taught in school. They also attend Sunday School for friends and more learning, but usually they are the top students in the class (and have been since elementary age). When we visit places they attend whatever Sunday School that church has too, so there's been plenty of discussion and feedback.

 

God is part of our (adults) everyday - everyhour lives though I wouldn't consider us overly sheltering or super conservative. Our kids grew up with it the same way. We still live in the world, but we know what sets us apart.

 

This is what my parents did for us as well. It worked, we are all very knowledgeable......but I guess I feel like I need to be more intentional about it. I certainly wasn't thinking grades or tests or homework. Just time during the "school day" dedicated to it. (I only have a Ker, we don't do grades/tests/homework or the like for any subject!)

 

Also, I went to a church that was very strong in teaching......I haven't found that again.

[T'smom]

Once your children are old enough to read the full Bible (or hear it read) then you need to try to read it with them. What we've done is that my husband reads everynight with them in the Bible. At first it was just him, at first just the story parts of the bible, but now that they are older, they read and we read everything. It's easy enough to be systematic with this. Just think it out. In our case we prioritize reading a gospel for Christmas and Easter, they rest of the year we read different books.

 

During the day I work with them using a variety of materials. We used Sonlight for a while and we used their stuff, but when we switched to Tapestry of Grace, I started using the Sunday School curriculum from: http://childrendesiringgod.org/ What it gave us was a systematic approach to theology an important component that I think gets overlooked.

 

But we used it up so now I find different things.

 

 

I agree that we need to just be reading the bible....but he's a young Ker and doesn't have much of an attention span or ability to focus.

[VaKim]

I can tell you what I did/do with mine. Like others here, I never used a Bible curriculum of any sort. Starting from the time they were little, but old enough to listen, I read to them from the Vos Bible Story Book. When they were very young, I could only read a few paragraphs at a time ( the Vos has nice "stopping places"), but as they got older, we could do more at a time, as their attention spans lengthened. We just read from the beginning to the end over and over and over. This gives them a sense of the overall story of the Bible, and how it all flows, plus familiarity with it.

 

Once they were reading well, I turned it over to them to read for themselves, over and over, straight through. At the same time, I would read the actual Bible to them daily. I started with the New Testament until they were a bit older, then went back and included the OT. Again, just over and over. We did take time to do a chronological reading a couple years.

 

Then, at about 10-12 years old, depending on the child, I gave them their own copy of the Bible, and they read through it, a chapter a day, from then on. We also have gone to church, listened to sermons, and basically just lived the Christian life along with all this. When they are about 16, I have them go through a systematic theology and many good theology and Christian books, and start using commentaries and such. My girls are very solid on what the Bible says, more so than many adults who have been in church for their whole lives.

[Paintedlady]

When they were younger we read the Vos Story Bible together. Then we started working through both the Old Testament and New Testament with Veritas Press Bible curriculum and Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade for catechism training. It's a very gentle easy introduction to the catechism. We did that over the course of two or three years.

 

Now that they are older we have moved on to The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study, also by Starr Meade.

 

ETA: We don't do any type of grading or test taking, and everything that we do, we sit down and do together. I don't just hand them the curriculum and their Bible and say go complete this and let me know when you're done. It's all done together with discussion.

[Homemama2]

At that age I read from the Golden Children's Bible (beautiful realistic pictures and it includes pretty much every bible story that is appropriate for little kids.) I would also (at night) use Leading Little Ones to God.

 

We had the Beginner's Bible that they would read out loud to me during school time when they were at a 1st/2nd grade reading level.

After that, we moved into reading the actual bible itself using the Penny Gardner lists. Penny Gardner site ( Old Test and New Test ) has lists that exclude things that might not be appropriate for little kids, either because it is too confusing or if it's adult content. By middle school, we use the entire bible.

Kay Arthur also has studies that I like on specific books of the bible.

Apologia has a great "worldview" program that I'm using w/ my 5th and 3rd graders this year.

[birchbark]

:lurk5:

 

Great thread.

[Another Lynn]

At that age I read from the Golden Children's Bible (beautiful realistic pictures and it includes pretty much every bible story that is appropriate for little kids.) I would also (at night) use Leading Little Ones to God.

 

We had the Beginner's Bible that they would read out loud to me during school time when they were at a 1st/2nd grade reading level.

After that, we moved into reading the actual bible itself using the Penny Gardner lists. Penny Gardner site ( Old Test and New Test ) has lists that exclude things that might not be appropriate for little kids, either because it is too confusing or if it's adult content. By middle school, we use the entire bible.

Kay Arthur also has studies that I like on specific books of the bible.

Apologia has a great "worldview" program that I'm using w/ my 5th and 3rd graders this year.

 

:iagree:

 

I was going to use the Penny Gardner list and then ended up in the Golden Children's Bible just to make it easier on me. I have MP's Christian Studies teacher guide just to remind me to ask a few comprehension questions, point out vocabulary words and show a map from time to time, etc. My 5th grader is also reading his Bible on his own. My 8th grader is reading on his own and writing answers to the Greenleaf Guide to the O.T. I have also used LLOtG in the past and liked it.

 

We used more than half of Apologia's Who is God? It's pretty good. It does have some doctrinal slant that may or may not suit depending on your own.

[alisoncooks]

When DD was in K, we did R&S's Bible storybook and coloring book.

Now we're using CLE Bible 1.

(I plan to do CLE through 4th and then switch to R&S for 5th-8th.)

 

At first, I didn't want anything too structured and school-like for our Bible time. But I came to realize that *I* needed something structured to keep me accountable. Sadly, sometimes on busy days Bible would get the shaft if there wasn't a box to be checked....

[T'smom]

When DD was in K, we did R&S's Bible storybook and coloring book.

Now we're using CLE Bible 1.

(I plan to do CLE through 4th and then switch to R&S for 5th-8th.)

 

At first, I didn't want anything too structured and school-like for our Bible time. But I came to realize that *I* needed something structured to keep me accountable. Sadly, sometimes on busy days Bible would get the shaft if there wasn't a box to be checked....

 

That is it exactly! I need the box checking for myself. I feel like we're kind of hit or miss. We have several bible story books and various different things, verses to memorize for awanas and different verses for Sunday school.....it just feels like a mess.

 

Thanks for the thoughts everyone, I'm taking it all in!

[MyLittleWonders]

We do our Bible reading first thing in our school day. We read a story from the children's Bible and we talk about. Usually that brings up something and I pull out one of the regular Bibles to read to them directly from that book/chapter/verse. We also read from a catechism book once a week (I debated for a while doing one for each kid at their grade level, but I ditched that plan and now just read the next grade level after we finish the previous one; it works well as we are all relatively new to the RC church, so they are all young in their faith). We also work in whatever we are memorizing from the Bible (right now that is Psalm 23). And typically there's a saint story thrown in there. In all, we take at least thirty minutes for all of this, including opening prayers, and then we move on. There are no tests or anything though we do discuss and I'll often have them narrate something to keep them focused. But otherwise, this time is only to enrich us all and help set the tone for the rest of the day (which doesn't always work very well but maybe it will one day :lol: ).

[Chelli]

My kids are only in K and 3rd so right now we are working our way through Bible Study Guide for All Ages which we all absolutely LOVE! I even reviewed it on my blog here.

 

Anyway, my plan right now is to go through all of the BSGFAA lessons, then when we start back around I am going to add in some personal study for my oldest (Kay Arthur, Starr Meade, etc) for her to do on her own but still coordinating with what we are studying in BSGFAA. Once she's been through it twice, then I will figure out a plan of attack for the upper grades, but I'm not there yet!

 

This is how we start out our school day since Bible is the most important "subject" around here!

 

At night, dh reads a story from a children's story Bible and then lets each girl ask him one burning Bible/theological question that they have. They have come up with some pretty good ones that have keep him on his toes. Then they pray together.

[EMS83]

We're reading the NIV straight through. One chapter of Old Testament and one section of New Testament every morning over breakfast. I started with Genesis 1, but with NT I started with Luke, then John, then Mark, now Matthew. I'll move on to the epistles after that. The only parts I skip are anything regarding incest or adultery or prostitutes, simply because we haven't covered the reproductive part of marriage yet. We also do a memory verse over 4-8 weeks and are doing a survey of character qualities. Just one a week and I just read its meaning and the associated Bible verse. Nothing complicated.

[alisoncooks]

That is it exactly! I need the box checking for myself. I feel like we're kind of hit or miss. We have several bible story books and various different things, verses to memorize for awanas and different verses for Sunday school.....it just feels like a mess.

 

This (bolded part) is another reason why I picked a multi-year curriculum. I wanted a cohesive, organized PLAN to make sure we covered all the bases. When I tried to throw something together on my own (a little bit of this, a little bit of that), it felt jumbled.

 

Bible Study Guide for All Ages is really neat -- but it wasn't for me. It is not chronological, so the lessons skip around a bit (Joseph, then Jesus, then back to Abraham, etc.) My brain just couldn't handle that. :p

[CandaceC]

For those ages, have you read the Jesus Storybook Bible with them? That is my all time favorite children's bible. We have read it through multiple times...as recently as last semester! I just think the way the stories are presented is so foundational to how I want my kids to learn...

 

I have a few other links I can share but will have to wait til I get on the desktop. :)

[Chelli]

This (bolded part) is another reason why I picked a multi-year curriculum. I wanted a cohesive, organized PLAN to make sure we covered all the bases. When I tried to throw something together on my own (a little bit of this, a little bit of that), it felt jumbled.

 

Bible Study Guide for All Ages is really neat -- but it wasn't for me. It is not chronological, so the lessons skip around a bit (Joseph, then Jesus, then back to Abraham, etc.) My brain just couldn't handle that. :p

 

I just put the lessons in chronological order, but it didn't seem to bother my kids in the least having it jump around so I quit messing with it.

[lllll]

..

[CandaceC]

Here are a few links from my blog of things we have done over the years. one thing that i think is so important is faith traditions surrounding holidays like Easter and Christmas! These are some of my favorite ways to incorporate Scripture into our family/home life.

 

For 3rd grade and up: we recently reviewed this Bible curriculum that i was very please with.

 

A Proverbs Study I did with my kids

 

Here are some things I wrote about memorizing scripture with kids.

 

As for our routine -- we start each morning on the couch, we always talk about prayer requests and pray together. Then, we read from whatever Bible we are reading at the moment - I read one story/chapter daily and that's it, we discuss. Then we go over all our memory verses and poems. We do the verses/poems we are working on currently and then a few older ones each day.

 

I really like memorizing longer passages with my kids too. Last year we memorized James chapter 1 together! woo-hoo!!

 

Here are a few ideas for Lent/Easter (even if you're not catholic) I love doing things in our home to prepare our hearts for Easter!

 

A few of our advent resources for the month of december.

 

**disclosure: please don't let these links lead you to believe we have it all together in our home!! :) Just wanted to point that out...I'm a very messed up mama who needs the grace of God desperately in my parenting. I just happen to really enjoy finding and sharing good ideas on my blog.

[Anne in CA]

When ds was 7 we started reading the Bible for 15 minutes every day until we finished the whole book. It took until he was 81/2, lol. He really has learned a lot by just reading the Bible. My dd's need different curriculum to digest the Bible.

[ladydusk]

We do Bible Memory, memorize Hymns, Catechism for Young Children (plan to add WSC later this year!), and the Apostle's & Nicene Creeds. We use Covenantal Catechism (but not as a catechism, more as a spine and questions. We've also been reading through a devotional called The Heavens by Kevin Harnett. In the evenings with Daddy, we do family worship where we've read children's devotionals (from Susan Hunt and others), story Bibles (including the Jesus Storybook Bible, Vos' Children's Bible, and Starr Meade's The Mighty Acts of God). Right now, we're reading through Discovering Jesus in Genesis and plan to do Exodus when we finish. We will probably start reading through the Bible then.

[sbgrace]

I focus on engagement because if my boys engage they retain and apply I've found. I also looke for materials that aren't coming from a specific denominational/theological influence but are just bible focused instead. I have liked the Karyn Henley materials I've used. We used Jesus Storybook Bible when the boys were younger and the approach is quite sweet to me for the young years. I've felt that the Telling God's Story curriculum has had very good engagment and so retention and, after reading Enns book, Iike focusing on Christ at these ages. That is what we are using now and used last year as well.

[SunnyDays]

This thread is a few weeks old, but it came up in a search of Bible Study curricula. :)

 

 

We used more than half of Apologia's Who is God? It's pretty good. It does have some doctrinal slant that may or may not suit depending on your own.

 

Can you tell me more about the doctrinal emphasis of this series? I've looked at this recently and considered it.

 

 

 

For 3rd grade and up: we recently reviewed this Bible curriculum that i was very please with.

 

 

Thanks for this... I had forgotten that CAP had this! Two questions, if you, or anyone else happen to know:

 

What doctrinal emphasis does this have? And is there a New Testament 2 planned, or are they ending it with the gospels?

[Prairie~Phlox]

Great ideas!

[nerd]

The classic time to read to kids is before bed. You have their 100% attention. Reading a chapter or two of the Bible right before bed is a very effective routine. I have found it beneficial to explain what I am reading as it is read so it is not above their heads. I read it out loud, and then put the harder to understand parts in simpler words.

 

If the goal is one chapter only, that is like a 5 to 10 minute commitment. Once routine is established, it can be expanded gradually to more chapters, or increased time explaining and illustrating. Important thing is to establish a routine.

[Saddlemomma]

My dd is in 4th grade. As a family, after dinner, we sit down together and read 3 chapters of the Bible. I have an app on my Kindle Fire that reads the chapters out loud, and we follow along in our Bibles. During the reading, if there is something my dh or I want to point out, or dd needs help with an explanation (indicated by a raised hand) we pause the reading and discuss the point.

 

After each chapter, we have a time of discussion regarding the chapter that was read. I use a chronological Bible that has a lot of historical and archeological notes that I point out or read between each chapter as well. We have some pretty in-depth, thoughtful discussions during this time and also sprinkle in some apologetics as well.

[Another Lynn]

This thread is a few weeks old, but it came up in a search of Bible Study curricula. :)

 

 

 

Can you tell me more about the doctrinal emphasis of this series? I've looked at this recently and considered it.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this... I had forgotten that CAP had this! Two questions, if you, or anyone else happen to know:

 

What doctrinal emphasis does this have? And is there a New Testament 2 planned, or are they ending it with the gospels?

 

Apologia's Who is God slants slightly towards Arminianism, imho.

 

CAP's Bible study - I haven't used, but did look at samples. It appears to be reformed. I liked the looks of it, except it looked like some days the lessons would be really long vs. other days. I wanted a routine that would follow a more predictable pattern and use of time, I guess.

[SunnyDays]

Thanks, Lynn! I wonder how in depth it goes with the specific theology, as we don't lean strongly either direction. Will have to dig around for more reviews and samples, perhaps!