Royal Rangers Bible Timeline

The Bible merit is one of three required merits for Adventure Rangers.  We’ve spent the better part of a year reading the Bible and working on a timeline of biblical events and persons.  The requirements state:

Create a biblical timeline from Genesis to Revelation. Use any of a variety of methods to create
this timeline, only be sure it is big and colorful. Make sure to include the following:

a. People

• Adam • Samuel• Noah • Saul• Job • David• Abraham • Solomon• Joseph • Jeremiah
• Moses • Elijah• Joshua • Daniel• Gideon • Jesus• Ruth • Stephen• Esther • Paul

b. Events

• Creation                                             • Rebuilding of the Temple
• The Flood                                           • Intertestamental Period
• Joseph’s Exile to Egypt                    • Birth of Christ
• The Exodus                                        • Jesus’ Earthly Ministry
• The Time of the Judges                    • Crucifixion and
• The Rule of the Kings                               Resurrection
• The Building of the Temple               • Pentecost
• The Kingdom Divides                        • Paul’s Conversion
• The Time of the Prophets                  • Paul’s Three Missionary
• Israel’s Exile                                           Journeys
• Judah’s Exile                                      • Sacking of Jerusalem
• Return from Exile                                     by Titus
• John’s Exile to Patmos

c. Chronology of Each Book of the Bible

Here was our take on the project…

We used a foldable pattern board as the base (definitely fits the “big” requirement as it’s 3 ft. by 6 ft.). The idea isn’t original to me—Mystery of History uses the same thing only we used a landscape arrangement instead of portrait.  Originally Schinickelfritz wanted to strips of poster board tom make the actual timeline, but it got complicated and didn’t look very nice after folding and unfolding the board several times.  We flipped the board over and used the grid as a guide to paint in the lines (this also help with placing figures later).

We divided the line into four rows and could place baseball card sized figures both above and below the lines.  The scale was 100 years for 8 inches with the bottom row being 10 years for 8 inches.  The lightning figures in the top top represent a break in the time line for events that occurred before the flood that we don’t really have a good estimate of when they occurred.  Since we had to add so many judges and prophets and kings we didn’t use pictures for them, but wrote their names and dates on symbols of scales, scrolls and crowns respectively.

Review: Prasso Ministries

Since we began homeschooling eight years ago, we’ve always started our day with Bible study.  It represents the place God should have in our lives and let’s face it…sometimes we can really use the prayer as we start the day.  This fall my Schnickelfritz will officially become a teenager (gulp), so this summer I’ve been checking out a Bible study for this age range published by Prasso Ministries.  The thirteen week curriculum consists of two spiral-bound books the Teen Prasso Teacher's Manual and Homework Manual.  To be clear, I used the Bible study myself, not my son.  I worked in the Homework Manual during my quiet time and read the message & story from the Teacher’s Manual once a week.

Teen Prasso is designed to be used in a group setting.  There are 13 weeks (or one quarter) of group lessons and the teen will have 12 weeks of homework assignment to complete (no homework after the last lesson).  These are essential as they will be discussed at the next group session.

The Homework Manual (it says Student Journal on the cover) breaks down the weekly material into 5 regular days and a sixth day to rethink everything covered for the week.   Each teen will need their own copy of the Manual.  Most days consist of reading and rewriting scripture verses before writing out what you gathered from the text (usually answering  “What did you learn?).   There are occasions to check boxes, like a list of over 40 choices of ways in which you seek relief from bad circumstances.  I would say the Homework Manual is meant to keep private, so the teen will answer honestly (how many will mark that they turn to anorexia or cutting if they think that mom or a Bible Study leader is going to browse through their book?).  Each week does end with the questions that will be brought up at group discussion so the teen can prepare answers.

The Teacher’s Manual provides most of the material needed for a weekly group study.  There is an ongoing story about two teenaged hikers and their dealing with a past family tragedy as well as  current dangers.  Then there’s the Message portion—what I’d call the lecture or lesson.    Each week also includes an outline with some additional material the teacher will also need to prepare (e.g. verses to look up and read, questions to ask, preparations to make for next week).  Each group lesson alternates back and forth between sections of the story and the message. 

My Opinion:

Let’s start with the group lessons from the Teacher’s Manual.  The hiker story is absolutely engaging—I even read ahead to finish it before the review was over.  The Bible teaching is sound and speaks to teens on their level.  Reading it on my own, I preferred to read all the sections of the story and then all the sections of the message rather than alternate.  I suppose this old brain needs continuity to stay focused. On the other hand, I know my son would be wondering in his head about what would happen next when we got back to the hikers and probably would miss most of the lesson if he heard this in a group situation.

I had no problems with writing out the Bible verses daily.  It’s one thing to read the verse, but the act of putting it in your own handwriting really makes you slow down and ponder the words, whether you mean to or not.  My son, on the other hand has dysgraphia,  and would find all the writing very frustrating. 

Because Teen Prasso is really designed to be done with group discussions, we won’t be using it for our Bible study this fall.  If I were leading a Sunday School class or Bible study, I’d sure keep this Teen Bible curriculum in mind.  I think it could work with young adults as well as teens.

 

Review: The Forbidden Book

I mentioned last week that God was putting a lot of opportunities to the more about the Bible itself in our path lately.  We’re still studying who wrote it and how certain books were chosen for inclusion in both Sunday services and Schnickelfritz’s Bible merit.  Now we’ve got a another review product by New Liberty Videos with the Bible as its subject.  The title of the DVD, The Forbidden Book, might lead you to believe it has something to do with the Bible being taken out of public schools, but it in fact has to do with preserving the Bible throughout that era known as the Dark Ages.  According to the video, by 400 AD the Bible had been translated into 500 languages.  A century later it was only available in one – Latin, unreadable by the common man.

The majority of the video deals with the men that sacrificed (sometimes literally) their lives to see that God’s word was once again able to be read in the common tongue—mainly Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Luther although others are mentioned.    This obviously leads up to The Reformation and the separation of the church into the Catholic and Protestant denominations.  The video very seldom used the word “Catholic.”  Instead it substitutes “established church” but it does mention several Popes and the idea that communion becomes the actual partaking of the body and blood of Christ so its very clear who the narrator is talking about.

 I’ll be frank and say I come from a Protestant upbringing, but even I felt the narration comes down extremely hard on the Catholic church.  The video claims that the Latin texts were purposefully corrupted for the church’s benefit,  that the Pope’s ordered the Crusades just to conquer and claim Jewish wealth for the building of cathedrals, and the Pope himself called Christ a “profitable fable.”  With claims like these, I think it only fair to include source documents for proof, either as an insert in the DVD case or files that could be accessed on the computer but there is nothing.

I watched the video with my  son and it could not keep his attention, for which I am thankful.  In a documentary about translating the Bible into the common tongue there is no need to bring up the fees for indulgences of “ravishing a virgin” or “a priest keeping a mistress” nor a need to state that at one point the church employed 100,000 prostitutes.  And while martyrdom does apply to the topic, the discussion and images (mostly hand drawings, but some painted works of art) of how these saints were killed might be scary to younger viewers.  New Liberty claims their videos are for all ages, but you might want to screen them first if your kids aren’t ready for such content. 

The DVD retails for $19.95 and is almost an hour long.  I do give kudos to New Liberty for including closed captioning for the hearing impaired (many educational DVD don’t do so).  The documentary is actually produced twice on the DVD—once without captions followed by one with them.  Sometimes the captions take up the majority of the screen, making it difficult to see the picture behind them though.

TOS Review: Bible Study Guide for all Ages

I let my son select the order for all our subject in school except one.  Bible study is first every day to remind us who should be first in our lives (and it doesn’t hurt that we pray for our schoolwork and getting along as part of the lesson).  I was very pleased to have the chance to try the  Bible Study Guide For All Ages .   As Schnickelfritz is now a 5th grader, we’d be using the Advanced Student Pages (5th-6th grade).  We also received a set of   Bible Book Summary Cards which can be used with all ages.        

The Advanced Student Pages ($5.95) come in a landscape oriented, legal size format.  The pages are loosely glued in so I’m assuming Mom keeps the booklet and removes the pages for the kids as needed.  Each lesson covers the front and back sides of one page.  There are 26 lessons in a book, representing one quarter.   There are 16 books, all priced the same, so a complete study of the Bible would take four years (doing 2 1/2  lessons per week or one page per day).

 

This Sample is the front side of the lesson.  The studies alternate between timeline and mapping activities.  The Remember It section is a refresher of all the prior lessons.  I don’t know if the Get Active suggestions are the same for all the levels since I just have one child but it would make sense for the kids to do the activities together since they will be covering the same topics each day (just with different student pages).  There were several activities that called for more than the two people we had available.

The back side of the lesson is always in cartoon format.  My son would fill in blanks, draw pictures, choose the correct dialogue, etc.  He loved the very visual format (and frankly it didn’t seem to him like he had to write much – always a good thing).  The lessons jump around in the Bible.  We started with Joseph, but then jumped to Daniel, and then the life of Christ.  You would need to stick with the lessons for all four years to cover the entire Bible.

Occasionally the lessons would ask us to learn the Bible Book Summary Cards ($24.95 for all 66).   These 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock pages have colorful clip art on one side to remind us of the book’s key points.  The back side has a narrative summary and questions to check retention.  The cards are not required but highly recommended.

Here is the one for Luke.

You can see some of the key points are the genealogy is begun with Adam and  Luke is one of the Gospels (signified by the center clip art).   At first I thought I’d used these cards as a game –guess the book from the picture.  I’ll be the first to admit there were a lot I couldn’t identify (like the minor prophets and Paul’s letters).  Better to study each picture and read the back summaries first.  You may be able to play the game with books you’ve already studied and just want to review.

My son did like the very visual nature of the lesson pages and he was able to do the work on his own.  He was definitely covering a lot of Bible facts – placing events on the timeline, finding cities on the maps, memorizing Jacob’s 12 sons,  learning the divisions of the New Testament books, etc.  My only concern was that the lessons were heavy on facts and light on critical thinking and apologetics.   For example, lesson 21 covers the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke.  The requirements ask what man begins the genealogy for both gospels, asks you to circle the king in both pictures, find the names of the 4 women mentioned in a word search, and put names in chronological order. But the genealogies can be a real sticking point for non-believers.  Many people question why the names don’t match up or even use this as their proof that the Bible contains errors.  There is no mention of this controversy or the fact that the genealogy in Matthew is recording Joseph’s family tree and Luke covers Mary’s. 

 I think we will continue to use the Bible Book Summary Cards, but will go with something meatier for our family study.

 

Review: God's Great Covenant (OT2)

Last spring Schnickelfritz and I had a wonderful time using a Classical Academic Press New Testament study to read through the events of Holy Week on the days of the week they would have happened (You can read about it here). This year,  I was thrilled to have another opportunity to use one of their Bible Studies.  I requested and received the second Old Testament course covering 1 Samuel to Malachi since this was the most neglected part of my own Bible study.  The course is designed for students from 3rd-6th grades, but I think older kids and even adults can learn from this, especially if they incorporate the side notes in the teacher's manual.  Our God's Great Covenant: Old Testament Book 2 package consisted of three items...

The God's Great Covenant, Old Testament Book 2: STUDENT BOOK ($22.95) softback, 298 pp

The thirty-two chapter/lessons are organized into five units. Each unit begins with an overview and introduction to the theme by Tobias, a fictional character who works as a scribe in the king's palace.

Unit I: The Early Kingdom...The God Who Anoints
Unit II: The Glorious Kingdom...The God Who Blesses
Unit III: The Divided Kingdom...The God Who Reigns
Unit IV: The Remnant Kingdom...The God Who Judges
Unit V: The Exiled Nation...The God Who Restores

The chapters begin with a memory page covering the  theme, memory verse, key facts, etc.  The top will also list which books and chapters of the Bible from which the lesson story is drawn and which chapters are to be read aloud.   Next comes Story Time--but that title is a bit deceiving because it's not always a story.  For example, Chapter 23 is called God's Voices of Judgement to the Nations and the 3 page story time summarizes  Habakkuk 1-3, Zephaniah 1-3, Nahum 1-3, and Obadiah 1.  Another lesson explains the types of poetry in the book of Psalms.  Each lesson ends with Review Worksheets, using T/F and fill in the blank questions to go over the memory verse, key facts and story facts.

In the back of the book, you'll find Chapter Quizzes, a Glossary, Appendices, and Maps.

The God's Great Covenant, Old Testament Book 2:  TEACHER'S EDITION ($24.95) softback, 298 pp.

It shouldn't be surprising that the Teacher's Edition has the same number of pages as the Student book.  This landscape formatted book has a reduced copy of the student manual on each page.  The remaining space is filled with notes providing further insight into the text.  Pages of the Worksheet reviews have the answers filled in.




Page taken from Teacher's Edition Sample (available online)


The God's Great Covenant, Old Testament Book 2: AUDIO FILES ($9.95) MP3 format

This downloadable product has separate files for story time portion of each chapter.  They can be burned to a CD, loaded to a music player, I even put the audio on my Kindle.  It can be a great resource for students too young to read to themselves when Mom is working on other things.  For this particular volume, it's also handy to hear the pronunciation of names because none of these kings and prophets are called "Joe."  You can find an audio sample on the web page linked above.

The Teacher's edition has no helps as far as scheduling lessons but I found a suggested five-day lesson plan on the Classic Academic Press Website. 

The 20 minute time frame didn't work for us, especially on the days when we were supposed to read from the Bible.  The lesson on Esther assigns us ten chapters to read!  Not only does that take more than 20 minutes but it exceeds my son's attention span.   Instead I developed my own schedule...some lessons we finished in a week and some took longer.

• The night before a new lesson I would read the notes in the Teacher's Edition, marking those I wanted to be sure and share with my son. 
• Day One Schnickelfritz would read the story out loud. For him, this was the fun part of each lesson. It fits his reading level and the "action" of the story moves at a good pace.  I sat nearby with the Teacher's Edition so I could help him with pronunciation of names and bring up the interesting facts I'd marked in my notes.
• Day Two Schnickelfritz would tell me what he remembered about the story and we would go over the Memory Page and Key facts. 
• Day Three through .... We would read one or two chapters of the assigned Read to Me scripture passages and continue this for as many days as needed. 
• We moved on to the review worksheets when the scripture reading was done.  This was an open book review so Fritz could refer to the Student book and the Bible as he needed.
• I didn't make Fritz take the quiz.  Christianity is more about our relationship with Christ than about the facts we memorize.  I was more interested in having discussions about what we were reading/learning and how we could apply it to our lives. I could tell from our conversations what he comprehended. 

I felt that the pace of this study went much faster than the New Testament one we did last year but that only makes sense.  The new testament had 36 lessons covering only the four Gospels.  This had 32 lessons covering more than half the Bible.  But I'm at a different place in Bible study than my son so this overview was probably enough introduction to the Psalms, Proverbs, divided kingdom, major and minor prophets.     Along these lines, there are some real gems in the Appendices that shouldn't be missed: How to use the Psalms, How to understand the Proverbs,  and a timeline chart of the Kings and Prophets for Judah and Israel.  There is a glossary with succinct descriptions of each person as well,  I only wish they had included a pronunication guide for all their names.

Before I end this review, I'm sure there are some parents wondering how some rather sensitive issues are handled in the lessons--David & Bathsheba and Amnon & Tamar for example.  My son is still an innocent in that area and while it's in the Bible, I'm not ready for a discussion on adultery or incest.  The Story Time mentions that  David "wanted to love [Bathsheba] as only a husband should...What David wanted was against God's law, but he didn't turn away from his own desires." Amnon, on the other hand  "fell in love with his own half-sister, Tamar.  Instead of loving her properly, Amnon sinned against her and hurt her badly."



 I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

 

Review: God's Great Covenant

Two years ago my son volunteered to run sound for children's church on Sunday mornings.  Part of the agreement in being accepted for the privilege/responsibility was to commit to a daily Bible study.  We were both excited by the opportunity to review Classical Academic Press' Bible course for kids--God's Great Covenant.

Our text says New Testament 1: The Gospels on the cover which leads me to think at least one more volume is in the works (there are already two Old Testament volumes in their catalog).  We received paperbacks of the student and teacher's editions and a download of the student text audio files.
The complete student text actually appears miniaturized in the teacher's book--the surround space is used for notes and space for note-taking.  Pages showing student worksheets have the answers filled in.



Teacher's Edition

 The one thing the teacher's edition does not provide is any guidance in how to present the material to the student, which put me slightly out of my comfort zone.  I decided to spend a week going through all the aspects of the introduction and then jump to the chapters covering Palm Sunday through the Resurrection.

Can I just say how much the introduction helped me?  It shouldn't be skipped.  Each section helped explain a different aspect of the setting of the Gospels:

• Historical & Political
• Chronological events of Christ's life & ministry
• Geographical
• Religious
• Daily Life

I've been a Christian for 40 years and no one has ever explained to me how we went from priests and prophets in the Old Testament to Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes in the New.  When Jesus was born, King Herod was on the throne in Jerusalem but by the time he was a man there was a Roman procurator in charge.  How did that happen?  (Answer: Herod the Great's kingdom was divided between his three sons.  The one in charge of Palestine caused so much trouble he was banished to Gaul by the Roman emperor who then appointed procurators to oversee the region).

Each of the 36 Chapter/lessons follows the same format.  Page one lists the Theme, Scripture referenced, Memory Passage, Key Facts, and Prophecy Fulfilled.  Next is Story Time--events from the life of Christ written as a narrative compiled from all the gospels.  There are usually two pages of Review Worksheets with fill-in the blank and multiple choice questions.

The lessons have been organized into four units.  After 8 lessons in the format described above the 9th lesson has a brief review and then several more detailed worksheets, including a place to write out the memory passages and what they mean.  Then comes Simon's World--insight into daily living as told by a fictional young boy living in a fictional town in Galilee. 

With 36 lessons, God's Great Covenant could certainly be a year long Bible Study--although I don't think there's enough material to make it a daily study.  There's no syllabus or calendar however so you can cover the lessons as quickly as you desire.  I wanted to get through the events of Holy Week so I actually read the Story Times for all those lessons on the day they would have occurred.  I usually read from the Teacher's edition so I could check the notes and see if there was any information I wanted to add.  Then  Fritz answered the review questions orally.  We didn't go into the depth available by also reading the Key Facts or the Bible passages.   

Schnickelfritz always enjoyed the lessons that included maps and I was particularly pleased that he was able to do well on the review questions (sometimes I wonder how well he pays attention when I'm reading aloud).  In the event that I couldn't read the stories myself I was able to download the MP3 audio files to my Kindle and Fritz could listen to them on his own.  The course is written for students in fourth grade and up, but you could certainly include younger students by reading aloud or letting them use the audio files. 

The prices for God's Great Covenant are:

• Student's Text  $26.95
• Teacher's Edition $29.95
• Audio Files Download $9.95

Or you can save about 15% and get all three bundled for $56.95.  There are samples of all the products available at the Classical Academic Press website.   You can read what other Homeschool Crew members thought about God's Great Covenant by clicking here.

Disclaimer:  I received free copies of the products described above for the purposes of completing this review.  I received no other compensation for my honest opinions.