is there anything that breaks down the Bible into cycles a la WTM?

[Penelope]

As I go through the Vos Story Bible in conjunction with readings from the OT, I keep thinking about this. Right now DS is getting a survey of the Bible in story form. I am guessing at the rate we do this, with occasional picture books and activities about the Jewish holidays, it will take about 2 years to get through the Bible. I was thinking, wouldn't it be great to have a multi-aged curriculum that would go through the Bible chronologically, in cycles, with accompanying books, commentary, and perhaps, activities?

 

Is ther anything like this? I know that TOG has Bible integrated with year 1 history, but what do you do in the other 3 years? And I don't necessarily want to discuss the Bible only as history, either. I am thinking of a guide that would go through and advance the study as progressively higher levels, but that could be done as a family the way TOG does for history.

[Julie in MN]

Well, My Father's World uses the Old Testament as a spine for the ancients. And then it uses the New Testament as a spine through the study of Rome. And then it picks up with Story of the World 2 as a spine through the rest of history. Bible study continues with more in-depth look at certain books, such as the book of James.

 

Those are not the only spines in MFW, but they're the ones you mention.

 

Now, this is for grades 2-8. Before that, a Bible reader & Bible truths (Proverbs) are used. After that (in high school), the entire Bible is read thru.

 

Is that what you are looking for?

Edited November 8, 2008 by Julie in MN

[kbpaulie]

Is ther anything like this? I know that TOG has Bible integrated with year 1 history, but what do you do in the other 3 years? And I don't necessarily want to discuss the Bible only as history, either. I am thinking of a guide that would go through and advance the study as progressively higher levels, but that could be done as a family the way TOG does for history.

 

Have you looked into Mystery of History? The origianl plan was 5 volumes, this has been changed to 4...

 

Karena

[SkiMom]

Have you looked at Veritas Press?

[FO4UR]

The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament is chronological. It ends with Nehemiah though, but then you could go through a harmony of the gospels type study.

[MIch elle]

http://www.rodandstaff.info/samples/bible/

[Crimson Wife]

What about Simply Charlotte Mason? http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/scmguide/history-modules-overview/

[Penelope]

Thank you!

 

I will look into what you all have posted. I am familiar with MFW and do like a lot of things about it; however, I should have mentioned I am using SOTW for history (first grade currently) and maybe TOG in a few years.

So I want a program that goes through the Bible separately from history.

 

I'm happy to hear any other suggestions, too.

[eve]

We used Greenleaf OT Guide, along with their other guides (egypt, greece, and rome) for Ancient history. The guides also suggest some books and resources to be used along with them.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

For K to 8th, I use Our Spiritual Heritage. http://ourspiritualheritage.com/ Each 26-lesson theme is a chronological survey of the Bible. Timeline, stories, characters, maps, Bible study and activity pages, prayers and hymns...

 

It is from a Church of Christ perspective, but I believe it is very, very easy to adapt to any particular Christian perspective. I look over each lesson and make any changes that I find necessary. If someone wanted to use it without the scripted lessons, they wouldn't need to edit anything, because the children study the Bible itself.

 

I use the K-3 for my younger children, and K-6 for children up to 8th grade. When I taught it in a church setting, the material was so advanced that I used K-3 for those 6th graders. It was written by a homeschool mom, so her idea of age-appropriate is the same as mine :) homeschoolers can be a little ahead sometimes.

 

My mother has taught this curriculum to adults who never got to study the Bible this way. She always has classes going.

 

The maps are very similar to SOTW maps. At least as detailed. The chronological eras are:

 

Before the World Began

First Fathers

Moses

Joshua and Judges

Kings

Homesick Heroes

Home Again Heroes

Jesus Christ, God's great plan

On Christ I Build My Life

 

For each theme, you take one Bible story at a time. There will be related passages from elsewhere in the Bible, too.

 

1. You learn about people, and make "WHO" cards (CD available to print these). You write down facts about each person for a game that is ongoing throughout the theme. For example, your WHO card for Abraham has his picture, and on the back (or another card) your facts might be, "Father of Isaac," or whatever you learned about Abraham that week.

 

2. You learn WHEN the event happened. There is an illustrated card for this, which the children place in the proper era.

 

3. You always are reviewing the big story, using the eras listed above. Under each Era card, you have cards that tell the books of the Bible where the stories of that era are found, and who are the key players in those books.

 

4. You study the lesson. Older children read it out of the Bible, younger children hear the scripted lesson or read it out of Egermeiers or Vos. There are worksheets for underlining passages, matching, etc.

 

5. You put the places studied on the map. The children get a SOTW-like map to fill out each week. I like to put up a WHERE wall, with larger maps.

 

6. There are faith-building activities. For example, the first theme is "God Is Wise" and you use the animal kingdom to show God's wisdom. This was a huge hit both in our strict religious homeschool AND in our outreach-style Bible class at church where the kids knew almost no Bible to begin with.

 

7. Kids have weekly exposure to Psalms and hymns.

 

8. Everything is on a card that the kids can handle themselves. Each week the children practice putting up all the cards on the WHEN wall. They play the game with the WHO cards. They are personally familiar with maps of WHERE Bible events happened. I have seen pastors with their jaws dropped as first graders tell the whole story of the Bible, keeping their place with the cards.

 

I would use this with high school students by adding outlining or summaries, having them use the Holman Bible atlas along with it, maybe Matthew Henry commentaries, and teaching them to look for types, parallels, additional prophecies, etc. as we go. I'd have them using concordances and Bible dictionaries, too, and practice teaching the lessons themselves.

 

I think that is all I want to say about Our Spiritual Heritage Bible curriculum. LOL

Edited November 8, 2008 by Dulcimeramy

[scrappyhappymama]

We use OSH as well for home Bible studies. The only thing I can add to the excellent summary below is that I think it is very reasonably priced as well. Ok, one more thing, lol. We really enjoy the various themes. It adds interest to the Bible for little ones I think, being ablt to see how a main idea runs throughout the Bible, like 'God is Wise' or demonstrating how bread is used in a physical and symbolic sense throughout the Bible. There is so much figurative language in the Bible and references within itself that learning a big picture viewpoint early on it really helpful.

 

 

For K to 8th, I use Our Spiritual Heritage. http://ourspiritualheritage.com/ Each 26-lesson theme is a chronological survey of the Bible. Timeline, stories, characters, maps, Bible study and activity pages, prayers and hymns...

 

It is from a Church of Christ perspective, but I believe it is very, very easy to adapt to any particular Christian perspective. I look over each lesson and make any changes that I find necessary. If someone wanted to use it without the scripted lessons, they wouldn't need to edit anything, because the children study the Bible itself.

 

I use the K-3 for my younger children, and K-6 for children up to 8th grade. When I taught it in a church setting, the material was so advanced that I used K-3 for those 6th graders. It was written by a homeschool mom, so her idea of age-appropriate is the same as mine :) homeschoolers can be a little ahead sometimes.

 

My mother has taught this curriculum to adults who never got to study the Bible this way. She always has classes going.

 

The maps are very similar to SOTW maps. At least as detailed. The chronological eras are:

 

Before the World Began

First Fathers

Moses

Joshua and Judges

Kings

Homesick Heroes

Home Again Heroes

Jesus Christ, God's great plan

On Christ I Build My Life

 

For each theme, you take one Bible story at a time. There will be related passages from elsewhere in the Bible, too.

 

1. You learn about people, and make "WHO" cards (CD available to print these). You write down facts about each person for a game that is ongoing throughout the theme. For example, your WHO card for Abraham has his picture, and on the back (or another card) your facts might be, "Father of Isaac," or whatever you learned about Abraham that week.

 

2. You learn WHEN the event happened. There is an illustrated card for this, which the children place in the proper era.

 

3. You always are reviewing the big story, using the eras listed above. Under each Era card, you have cards that tell the books of the Bible where the stories of that era are found, and who are the key players in those books.

 

4. You study the lesson. Older children read it out of the Bible, younger children hear the scripted lesson or read it out of Egermeiers or Vos. There are worksheets for underlining passages, matching, etc.

 

5. You put the places studied on the map. The children get a SOTW-like map to fill out each week. I like to put up a WHERE wall, with larger maps.

 

6. There are faith-building activities. For example, the first theme is "God Is Wise" and you use the animal kingdom to show God's wisdom. This was a huge hit both in our strict religious homeschool AND in our outreach-style Bible class at church where the kids knew almost no Bible to begin with.

 

7. Kids have weekly exposure to Psalms and hymns.

 

8. Everything is on a card that the kids can handle themselves. Each week the children practice putting up all the cards on the WHEN wall. They play the game with the WHO cards. They are personally familiar with maps of WHERE Bible events happened. I have seen pastors with their jaws dropped as first graders tell the whole story of the Bible, keeping their place with the cards.

 

I would use this with high school students by adding outlining or summaries, having them use the Holman Bible atlas along with it, maybe Matthew Henry commentaries, and teaching them to look for types, parallels, additional prophecies, etc. as we go. I'd have them using concordances and Bible dictionaries, too, and practice teaching the lessons themselves.

 

I think that is all I want to say about Our Spiritual Heritage Bible curriculum. LOL

[beansprouts]

What about this?

[Lizzie in Ma]

I was impressed from day one and continue to use it. It is a thorough walk through of the entire Bible if you go through all 4 years. I wouldn't hesitate to start it a bit younger or older either.