Do you use a Bible curriculum?

[Gamom3]

If so what do you use?

[atozmom]

:bigear: Would love to hear about this as well!

[FloridaLisa]

What about Precepts studies? I've used these in the past (the adult version, not the youth version) with my dc. In fact, our family will be starting the Covenant study in the next few weeks.

HTH,
Lisa

[AuntieM]

Not exactly a curriculum, but a good plan for reading/study: Balancing the Sword. We love it.

[strider]

Many years I have written my own curriculum. Most years what I wrote was similar to Explorer's, and I have gladly used Explorer's with both kids. I also used the Precepts kids' Bible studies one year. Last year I did something different with a group of junior high girls--rather than the usual Q&A I had them mark text, write notes from the text, and generate various things like maps, Bible study questions, character descriptions, commentary reports, outlines, application notes, worship suggestions, etc. They LOVED interacting with the Bible in this way.

Here is a review I wrote of several curricula:

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 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 is a lot like Rod and Staff but not quite as challenging. I also thought Christian Liberty is a decent alternative.

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.

[Julie in MN]

I want my high schoolers reading through the entire Bible, line by line. Anything I add to that is just to keep them thinking about what they've read. I used Greenleaf's guide for my older dd's OT and a simple workbook for her NT (and added plenty more on my own, which is probably why she didn't get to every last prophet or letter, sigh). I know another mom who just had her child write in a notebook about a very few highlights on each book or chapter (most important person, etc.); that worked fine. My youngest will go through the Bible using MFW (and won't get sidetracked as much by me, hopefully!). I have known too many teens & young adults (myself included) who had nice Bibles but hadn't read them, or at least didn't remember what they had read as a child.

The problem I have with any Bible study that just pulls verses from various places or studies "themes" is my own personal experience. I was led very far astray when other folks came along quoting different verses from my verses. I don't want my kids knowing verses; I want them to have a sense of the whole thing, and just *know* when something doesn't sit right, even if they can't come up with a particular verse in instant reply.

If and when they complete the full Bible as a teen (not counting as a child), then I will have them spend time looking at how their lives and the lives of others can reflect what they have read & believed. Again, I know too many teens who leave home and are sidetracked when they hear that Christians are hypocrites. I'm looking at preventive medicine, I guess :)

Julie

[merylvdm]

I focus on Worldview studies with my kids during high school - I want to be sure they know what they believe - and what the people around them believe So I use David Quine's Starting Points. It is excellent and goes through everything very thoroughly. I spread it over all 4 years and intersperse it with the books suggested by Sonlight (eg What if Jesus had never been born by James Kennedy). I also use David Noebel's Understanding the Times Dvd course when they are doing 20th century history as it is goes through all the 'isms' that affect our modern world.

My kids have really enjoyed all this and I believe it has helped prepare them to engage in their world as they leave homeschooling and move on to college.

Meryl

[Sharon in MD]

For the first two years of high school we used Kay Arthur's material called "New Inductive Study Series." We choose one OT and one NT book per year to work through. Then for Jr. and Sr. Year we did David Noble's world view course, with the DVDs from Sumit. It was very good and worth spreading out over two years. I wanted to keep our Bible courses to 1/2 credit per year...roughly 1/2 hour per day.

I feel that the inductive courses from Kay Arthur laid a good foundation in how to read and study his Bible and that the David Noble material was good for the Jr.and Sr. years as he had more maturity to discuss the material.

It would not hurt me to go back through it again myself!

[mom2paul]

We like Balancing the Sword. It doesn't promote any specific denomination or theology, but scripture alone.

[mcconnellboys]

For the past several years, I've been using Memoria Press' Christian Studies. I think they are tagged as being for younger children, but I started with the second book in the series and am now using the third and have not found either to be too young for my middle schooler. They include tons of info and each can actually be used over the course of a couple of years if you're trying to utilize all the resources they include.

[Jenn in CA]

My high schoolers are doing book studies from Jensen's (http://www.amazon.com/Jensens-Survey-Old-Testament-Books/dp/0802443249/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262457816&sr=8-1).

In addition as a family, we've done "read an entire book of the Bible every day for 30 days" and that's been good.