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What are my Religious Ed Options


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Hello

I am quite new to homeschooling and would like to add a religious studies aspect to our current curriculum.

 

I have an 8 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

 

We currently use

 

Right Start Math

Story of the World 1

Spelling

First language lessons

 

We are Methodists..

 

I would like either a curriculum or a guide on how to begin religious studies with the children. Something gentle, easy, fun and nothing too "evangeltitical" Something that would go well with Story of the World would be ideal.

 

We want to raise our children with morals and values, but with respect for other world views and beliefs. We have no problems with exploring other religions etc and do not hold the view that our world view/religious view is the "right one".. it's just the right one for us.. if that makes sense

 

Please, this is not a debate.. but if you can offer some suggestions on where I can start looking, I'd appreciate it very much.

 

thanks!

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I think that most religious groups (and denominations) in the U.S. have a national-level education committee, organization, resource group, or something called along those lines. These groups often publish religious teaching materials consonant with the particular religion's beliefs. The materials may be presented as "Sunday School" materials, but often they can be adapted for home use.

 

Maybe you could start by asking the Sunday School coordinator for your congregation.

 

You also can select whichever of the available children's Bibles appeal to you, and read it daily with your children. If Methodists have a structured prayer tradition -- (Many Christian groups have practices of morning/evening prayers.) -- you could begin teaching your children the basic prayers of your faith group.

 

In my own family, we postponed teaching details about Christian groups different from our own, until our children had internalized the minimum basics of our own faith's beliefs. This gave them the necessary "foundation for comparisons" needed, as well as gave us [parents] time to raise them free from any bigotry against members of other religions, Christian or non-Christian.

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I think maybe you may like one of the traditional homeschool courses for Bible such as,

Abeka,

BJU

Christian Liberty press

or something along those lines.

 

I also think checking into your own methodist church's sunday school curricula might help as a guide.

 

I understand what your asking for. Im Catholic and for that reason we go with Catholic publishers for Religious Ed. I also like the traditional.

 

BTW..I grew up Methodist.:)

I remember loving the traditional services...In fact very similar to the structure of Mass. I was a child then...so maybe I dont remember exactly...but my first Mass reminded me of it quite a bit.

 

hope you find what you need.

Blessings,

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I can't remember their curriculum namebut Rose is using it, so you can check her blog. ( dragons in the flowerbed)

We were UUs for 20 years and thier religious education is very broad so you can look at it and add your personal beliefs without having to " undo" anyone else's particular take.

 

At our church 9 not UU) we use the Acess Bible. It has historical background included.

 

for the Jakata Tales, I love

" Once I was a Monkey"

 

~Christine in AL

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I can't remember their curriculum namebut Rose is using it, so you can check her blog. ( dragons in the flowerbed)

We were UUs for 20 years and thier religious education is very broad so you can look at it and add your personal beliefs without having to " undo" anyone else's particular take.

 

 

You can browse through many different UU RE programs and other resources by going to uuabookstore.org. Timeless Themes is the Bible stories program I'm teaching this year. (We're Pagans.)

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I'm also a United Methodist, and up until now I haven't done much at home in this area (probably not nearly as much as I should). My kids and I read through A Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos one year, and we've done various daily devotionals - our favorite was probably Sword Fighting by Karyn Henley. I also let them read the Bible or a story Bible during services when they got too old to go to children's church but weren't quite old enough to follow the sermon. They still have this option if they choose.

 

Next year, however, I plan to have my kids work through Memoria Press's Christian Studies program. My dc are on the upper end of the age range for that program, but I want to really cement their Bible knowledge, and this seems like a good way to do that.

 

If it helps, I wavered between Christian Studies and Explorer's Bible Study, which also looked appealing and I believe offers levels that would work with your younger children. :)

 

SBP

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Here's a review I wrote some time ago. I still stand by these recommendations:

 

When I evaluate a Bible curriculum, I look for what percentage of questions require the student to answer from the Bible text itself (I shoot for 2/3--most studies unfortunately only hit 50% or less), how factual versus opinion-based any notes are and to what degree there is denominational bias.

 

I also look for how much a good inductive process is reflected in the study--there should be factual observations, an opportunity to summarize the main point of the passage in one concise statement, and finally, application to real life.

 

I also think that younger children do well with circling the right answer, puzzles, and drawing in response to the text. However, as your child reaches fourth and fifth grades, their Bible study should include more short answer and independent work. (SWB's SOTW reflects this same progression--SOTW 1 has a lot of coloring and multiple choice on tests, whereas SOTW 4 has more short answer and not so many coloring pages.)

 

I have not found one single Bible curriculum or study anywhere, ever, that asks for a one-sentence summary of the main point of the passage. I highly advocate adding this feature in to whatever Bible study you use or teach, in any setting. A good way to do this with kids is to ask a question like, "What did you learn about God in this passage?" or "What do you think is the very most important lesson in this passage?" Keep it to one short sentence--there may be many subpoints that are good to know, but it is very valuable to be able to distinguish the main, most important point.

 

My number one pick would have to be the Explorer's Bible study, which is available at http://www.explorerbiblestudy.org. Many thanks to Jessica at Trivium Academy for recommending it. I was impressed. It has a good amount of factual observation questions, is very Bible-text focused but still includes some cultural/geographical/historical notes here and there, and has a small proportion of application questions in each unit. Information is presented from an evangelical perspective but seems more factual than opinionated. For those who may be familiar with Bible Study Fellowship or Community Bible Study, this curriculum follows the same pattern. Each unit is also laid out into five days of homework--a decently challenging but not overwhelming amount. Another key feature of this curriculum is the fact that there are corresponding adult studies as well. For a logic stage student either their older elementary OR high school study would be appropriate depending upon reading fluency and maturity.

 

I also, by the way, recommend both BSF and CBS children's programs. I evaluated both. I think the CBS program has slightly more challenging homework, but also really like the way older children and teens are led to do homiletics at the BSF meetings. (Homiletics is a process of generating an outline of the passage with a final, summary statement.) I recommend either program without reservation in addition to the Explorer's curriculum.

 

I also have used and liked Kay Arthur's Bible study series for children. My own dd has used several books in this series successfully this year. However, I would steer away from *How to Study the Bible* as it is unnecessarily wordy and proved to be quite challenging for the 4th-5th grade girls I taught. The material is not hard--the presentation of it in this book was terribly convoluted, though. If you choose to do that book, take two weeks per unit and plan on really holding your child's hand through it. The other books in the series are much easier and quite doable, though--we have been satisfied with several others in the series. These books have five or seven days of homework per unit, include both factual questions and marking things directly in biblical text, and some application.

 

After that, I consider Rod and Staff to be a decent alternative. There is a solid amount of factual questions and some good information on history/geography/culture. However, there is virtually no application, and no summary statement opportunity (none of those I reviewed include this). And, even at the older grades there is virtually no short answer--format is still multiple choice and simpler responses. There is more denominational bias in the notes but can be overcome by careful Bible study. This curriculum would be acceptable even if it's not my favorite.

 

Christian Light was a lot like Rod and Staff but not quite as challenging. I also thought Christian Liberty was middle-range--not the greatest, but not terrible either.

 

I was really NOT impressed in the least with either Abeka or AlphaOmega and would not recommend those at all. They were simplistic, passive, lacked depth and do not require much from the student at any age.

 

One final thought--for high school I would gravitate towards the Explorer's adult series or towards NavPress study guides. I also think teens should be generating their own inductive notes (observation-interpretation statement--application) rather than passively responding to a Bible study guide.

 

There may well be other wonderful resources out there. This is just what I have reviewed. I'd be happy to answer any further questions.

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Great review strider, thanks! I was just going to put that we used the Chritian Liberty Press Bible series when my boys were young. They loved those books! It has questions, fill in the blanks, and puzzles and things that really kept their interest. They learned Bible texts and were always excited to tell daddy about what they'd learned that day! They aren't colorful and flowery, but were something that snagged their attention and kept their interest level high! For that reason (and that they don't cost much!) I loved them! :D

 

Just thought I'd give a personal experience for interest's sake.

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Great review strider, thanks! I was just going to put that we used the Chritian Liberty Press Bible series when my boys were young. They loved those books! It has questions, fill in the blanks, and puzzles and things that really kept their interest. They learned Bible texts and were always excited to tell daddy about what they'd learned that day! They aren't colorful and flowery, but were something that snagged their attention and kept their interest level high! For that reason (and that they don't cost much!) I loved them! :D

 

Just thought I'd give a personal experience for interest's sake.

 

:iagree: We're just finishing up CLP OT study with dd7 and it has been great.

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