Rebecca in VA...I have a question about R&S Bible History

[Melissa in CA]

I cannot seem to find a R&S bible history curriculum in my R&S 2008 catalog. Could you give me the title names of the books you use?

Also, do you use three years worth of workbooks per child per one TOG year1? If so, isn't that an incredible amount of work to complete? I recall reading something about completing 20 pages a week.

Anyhow, I would appreciate the info! :D

[Rebecca in VA]

Amazingly, it does work out to be around 20 pages. Sometimes there's a little more work, sometimes there's less. Some weeks there are no Bible assignments at all, because we're studying another culture.

The three workbooks are entitled "God Chooses a Family," "God's Chosen Family as a Nation," and "God Visits His Chosen Family." You can see descriptions of the material at www.rodstaff.com. I don't know if there are any websites that show samples.

Right now the plan is for us to use all three workbooks this year. However, the seventh-grade workbook will be optional. The material in it is fantastic, but it is more difficult than the fifth- and sixth-grade workbooks, and I'm afraid it will be a bit much for one or two of the students.

So far no one has complained about the workload. In fact, one day I teasingly told the students that they should rejoice because there would be no Bible assignments for the coming week. They told me they didn't mind doing the Bible assignments because they were interesting!

Here are the assignments for Unit Three (I happen to have the syllabus handy because I just sent it out):

Week 19: God's Chosen Family as a Nation, pp. 26-31, 35-38 (Solomon's Wisdom, Wealth & Wicked Wives; What Did People Wear?)

Week 20: God's Chosen Family as a Nation, pp. 41-64 (The Northern Tribes Rebel; The Course of the Kingdom of Israel; God's Judgment Foretold on the House of Ahab; Elijah's Ministry and Miracles)

Week 21: God's Chosen Family as a Nation, pp. 68-70, 73-93 (The Israelite Family; Elisha and The Sons of the Prophets; Elisha Brings God's Message to Israel; God's Judgment on the House of Ahab; The Collapse of Israel)

Week 22: God's Chosen Family as a Nation, pp. 103-128 (optional), 132-134 (optional), 137-155 (required) (required lessons are: The Last Kings of Judah; Jeremiah--the Strong, Weeping Prophet; Daniel--Faithful Away from Home)

Week 23: God's Chosen Family as a Nation, pp. 156-161, 171-183 (The Jews in Babylon and Persia; The Jews Return Home; Esther--The Jewish Queen)

Week 24: No Bible assignment

Week 25: No Bible assignment

Week 26: No Bible assignment

Week 27: God's Chosen Family as a Nation, pp. 184-196 (The Last Prophets; Between the Old and New Testaments)

You'll definitely need the teacher's book for each workbook in order to check answers. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have other questions!

[Rebecca in VA]

I don't assign any of the review pages. That would just be too much. However, the review pages from the teacher's book make a great resource for conducting oral reviews!

[Rebecca in VA]

It's www.rodandstaff.info

You'll want to click on "Bible" under Subjects. There are about 10 pages per grade for you to look at. If you click the small picture of a page, it will enlarge and you can easily read the material.

[Melissa in CA]

Thank you so much Rebecca!! I really appreciate your efforts in helping me figure this out.

I remember looking through my R&S sample books before and thinking the bible looked well done, but that was several years ago, and as I mentioned on the old board, I just recently throw them out.:mad: I will head over to the samples you found for me and have a "look-see" :D

One more thing...do you still assign the TOG bible reading assignments as well as the R&S work? Also, is it difficult to schedule...meaning does it mesh well with TOG's weekly topics.

Thanks!

Blessings,
Melissa

[Rebecca in VA]

I've never had any trouble doing the scheduling. The fifth-grade book was extremely easy to schedule with Units One and Two, and I anticipate the seventh-grade book will be perfect for bringing Christ and the Romans together during Unit Four.

I did have to start Year 1 at Creation (Week 4) rather than Egypt (Week 1) in order to make things work out. However, that's an option that TOG provides anyway, so clearly Marcia anticipates that some people will want to do that. Working chronologically was great for us, because we spent a lot of time discussing the Flood and how Noah's descendants dispersed and founded the nations.

I don't ask the students to do Bible reading beyond what is expected for the Rod & Staff workbooks. But since the workbooks are asking for approximately the same thing that the TOG TM asks for, it all works out.

Even if you only used *one* of the workbooks during TOG Year 1, your student would learn a tremendous amount. The trouble would be which workbook to choose -- they're all valuable! (I'm guessing the sixth-grade workbook, which covers Judah and Israel and their descent into captivity. This is complicated material that is covered thoroughly in the workbooks.)

I'm very desirous for my students to learn the history of the Israelites thoroughly. That is where we're putting our greatest emphasis. We're not neglecting the other cultures -- not at all -- but I'm making sure we come out of Year 1 with a very, very clear knowledge of Bible history. These students will be ninth-graders when they get back to Year 1, and they'll be so busy analyzing literature and writing papers then that they may not have time to give to learning Bible history from scratch. So we're doing that now, along with studying Jewish feast days, the Hebrew alphabet, visiting the synagogue, etc.

[Donna A.]

I'm very desirous for my students to learn the history of the Israelites thoroughly. That is where we're putting our greatest emphasis. We're not neglecting the other cultures -- not at all -- but I'm making sure we come out of Year 1 with a very, very clear knowledge of Bible history. These students will be ninth-graders when they get back to Year 1, and they'll be so busy analyzing literature and writing papers then that they may not have time to give to learning Bible history from scratch. So we're doing that now, along with studying Jewish feast days, the Hebrew alphabet, visiting the synagogue, etc.

Just FYI, My Father's World Ancient History & Lit for 9th grade will do exactly this. The student will read through the entire Old Testament, and analyze classical literature in light of biblical context. The program includes Bible, history and literature. Here's a link:

http://www.mfwbooks.com/highschool.html