I have to admit, Bible STUDY is something that keeps falling by the wayside in our homeschool. We do a lot of Bible READING, and our children know the basics of all the common Bible STORIES. And of course we focus a LOT of time on Character-Building as heart-issues come up. But I do wish I was taking more time to discuss the application of the lessons of those stories - more than a quick explanation in the midst of our reading.
This past month we've been given the opportunity to use and review Positive Action for Christ's 3rd Grade Bible curriculum - "Growing With God". At first glance, it looked to me like a standard Sunday School Curriculum. (Our children don't go to Sunday School, and there are several reasons for that, but we won't get into that now.) But I was pleased to see it was so much DEEPER than the Sunday School Curriculums I've experienced.
OK, first things first.
The curriculum is comprised of:
- A Teacher's Manual ($33.95 for a print copy, $19.95 on CD Rom)- in Black/White, gives guidelines for teaching each section, quizzes you can use with your students (if you desire), answers to the worksheets in the student workbook, stories to help apply the principles, and more.
- A Student Workbook ($12.95 each, or $10.95 if you order 5 or more) - in full color, worksheets for each lesson to help with comprehension and application (how they can do things differently to better align with God's ways.)
- A CD of hymns and songs. ($9.95, or $2 on cassette tape). This was not included in the packet we were sent. I'm undecided on whether it would add a lot of benefit in our particular case. I am working to help my children learn the songs and hymns we sing at our church, since they can't often see the screen to read along because of taller people standing in front of them! At this point, I think that's a better use of our music time.
The study is laid out into 35 weeks, to accommodate an entire school year. (Wish I'd had it back in August... I hate starting "year-long" things mid-school-year!) The Teacher's Manual intro has guidelines you can use to break down the lessons to accommodate a 5, 4 or even 3-day school week (perfect for those families with outside activities or classes on some days.)
Each week has an accompanying Bible memory verse. While it doesn't actually apply directly to what they are learning, I have to admit I kind of like the format - they are building verses one on top of another to memorize entire passages, rather than disconnected verses out of context. For instance, the first 9 weeks, the children are memorizing the Beatitudes, about 2 verses a week, with 2 review weeks (Matt 5:1-6 & Matt 5:7-12), then on week 9 they throw it all twelve verses together.
There are 5 units:
Unit One: The Bible - Our Manual for Spiritual Growth
Unit Two: The Life Of Abraham
Unit Three: The Life of Jacob
Unit Four: The Life of Joseph
Unit Five: The Life of Daniel
And the focus is obviously on application. Rather than just retell the stories, PAC breaks each lesson into sections (in the teacher's manual):
Vocabulary - so we know for sure they understand what they are reading/hearing
Target Truths - driving home what the scriptures are teaching us
Teaching Strategy- a script, of sorts, for teaching the week's principles.
Character Trait Activities - helping them learn a positive trait, what it looks like, and what the opposite of that looks like!
A modern-times story - an example of the character trait in action
How about you? - self-evaluation regarding that trait and ideas for application.
Quiz - Optional, to be copied from the teacher's manual, as they are not in the student book.
My overall impression was really positive. Although some of the worksheets were fill-in-the blanks, dot-to-dots and crossword puzzle busy work, my children enjoy them, and there were also a lot of opportunities to think about how the Bible, the lessons and the character traits apply to their own lives. We're looking forward to continuing on with this study (all 4 students are doing it simultaneously, so I'll be ordering a few more of the student books. A page that PAC included with our packet gives suggestions on using the study with a single grade level, multiple grade levels, family devotions or with co-ops or church groups ) and if we see good "fruit", moving on to the next level next year. PAC offers a curriculum for each grade level, K-6, but they are independent of each other, so we'll just move forward instead of working at several levels or going back to pick up what we've missed.
See what other crew members had to say about the other grade levels by visiting the TOS Crew Blog.
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
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