One of the primary reasons my husband and I decided to homeschool was so we could give our children a solid foundation of the Bible. We want them to be grounded in the truth of God’s word before they venture out into the world.
When asked to review products from Bible Study Guide for All Ages, I was excited. My family has been integrating the Intermediate (3rd & 4th grade) and Beginner (3-K)levels into parts of our Bible time for the past several weeks.
What Is Included?
I received several incredible products to review. In the Beginning level, I received two sets of student pages, and a Beginner Time Line. These are meant for younger students, and uses a variety of hands on activities to help students learn about the Bible.
Beginner Student Pages
I received the first 26 lessons of the Beginner (3-K) level. This begins with an overview for the teacher, explaining each section of the text and suggestions for how to use it.
Then, each lesson follows the same basic format. You’ll find:
- A Learn the Basics section, where the teacher shares information from the Beginner Time Line to help students learn basic, key concepts
- A Sing and Remember section, with instructions for reciting books of the Bible, answering questions, and song suggestions
- A Discover the Bible section, which provides the context for each lesson’s Bible story
- A Get Active Section, which helps students retain the information they’ve learned through a fun activity, role playing scenario, or game
- An Apply It! section, which provides a coloring activity, an application verse, Questions about the picture, and more
- A My Bible section. Every four lessons, the “Get Active” section is replaced by this one. It helps students learn more about the Bible as a whole
Here’s a quick peek at one of the “Discover the Bible” pages.
These are typically on the back of each lesson, and meant to be completed before the Apply It! section.
Beginner Time Line
The time line is comprised of 34 8 1/2 X 11 inch colored flash cards printed on thick paper. Each contains a picture, and a question about the picture.
The answer is also on the card. Some have a recommendation for a song to sing to further the student’s understanding.
This product is designed to use orally and visually with students who aren’t yet reading.
Intermediate Student Pages
The Intermediate Student Pages are meant for students in 3-4 grade. Each lesson has:
- A Remember It Section where students color a shape if the sentence is true
- A Memory Workout, where students review the Bible Book Summary Card
- A Guess What…section that shares facts related to the lesson
- A Time Line section
- A Get Active session with a game, activity, or other enjoyable activity to help students retain the information
- A Prayer List for students to write down prayer requests
- A Discover the Bible section, that features the Bible story, questions, and activities for each lesson’s concept.
An Apply It! section to help students apply what they’ve learned
Here’s a picture of a Discover the Bible page for this level:
Large Bible Book Summary Cards
In this set are 66 colored flash cards, printed on thick 8 1/2X 11 inch paper. Each has a clue picture on the front, depicting a key event (or events) from a single book of the Bible. On the back, you’ll find a summary of the book, and questions to ask your students about it.
Here is the front and back of the card for Exodus:
There’s also a card with instructions on a variety of ways to use these cards to help students (and yourself!) learn about the Bible.
Intermediate Level Teacher’s Key
The teacher book contained answers for the intermediate level student pages. It also contained extra information to help teach the lesson. There were additional scripture references and helpful information about the topic.
Finally, it included instructions for using the optional Wall Time Line, which we did not request (no wall space to hang it up where it would be safe from Owen’s hands and mouth.)
How We Used These Products
A couple of times each week, we pulled out the material and went through a lesson. The beginner level and intermediate level align, which was so nice for making this a large group lesson.
When the little guys were learning about Joseph, the older ones were too – just in a more in-depth manner. It meant I didn’t have to teach two completely separate lessons, which I appreciated.
My kids at the intermediate level were able to do a lot more independently, so I was able to spend more time helping the littles with the Beginner.
We have been working on memorizing the books of the Old Testament in order, so we really used the Bible Book Summary Cards a lot. These helped give the kids a visual reminder of what each book was about, so it wasn’t just a random name.
What We Thought of These Products
I really enjoyed the way the lessons were presented, to help students learn about the Bible in order of the books. The supplemental material we received (the summary cards and time line) were well done and helped the kids learn the material.
The activities and reviews weren’t boring or repetitive feeling – the company did a good job of mixing it up and getting the students active.
I also appreciate that this was set up to use your Bible version of choice. The scriptures included are just references, meant for you to pull out your Bible and use. This kept it simple for the kids to not have to read it one way in their Bible and another in the curriculum.
I do feel like the Children’s Song CD was an essential component of the curriculum that was not included in my review materials. Each lesson had a song recommendation, and no lyrics. I had no idea what the song was or how it was supposed to go, so we just skipped that part.
However, the song recommendations were also on the Beginner Time Line cards, so the kids were definitely curious. I’m sure I could Google them to figure it out, but I didn’t take the time to do that.
All in all, my children enjoyed learning more about the Bible. They especially liked playing games with the Bible Book summary cards, and doing the “Get Active” activities.
If you’re looking for a curriculum to help give your kids a great big picture overview of the Bible, I’d recommend the material from Bible Study Guide from All Ages. Just make sure you get the CD to go along with it.
To see what other reviewers thought of these products, and others from Bible Study Guide for All Ages, please click on the banner below.
