Our family has been working our way through the Intermediate (3rd & 4th grade) and Advanced (5th & 6th grade) and, so far, I am impressed.
Homeschool Bible Lessons with Something for Everyone
The Bible Study Guide For All Ages is a multi-faceted resource that aims to take folks of all ages through the entire Bible at the same time over the course of four years. The program helps you learn the "big picture" of the story of the Bible while also sharpening your knowledge of Bible details. It also challenges you to think about how to apply Bible teaching to your own life.The full course has 416 lessons offered at levels for ages 3-K, grades 1-2, grades 3-4, grades 5-6, teens, and adults. Each level has its own student pages, but the lessons in all levels study the same Scripture at the same time. That way, your whole family can study the Bible together - with each person using age-appropriate student pages - and, when a child outgrows one level, the child can simply move onto the next lesson in the next level. This makes the program fabulous for multi-age families!
The program also offers components besides the student pages, including CD's, Bible Book Summary Cards, Wall Maps and a Time Line and more. That means, there is something for everyone - auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learners of all ages!
Further, the program can be used no matter what Christian denomination you are, for as the creator of the program says:
"We are sometimes asked if we are owned or controlled by a particular denomination or if we teach various church doctrines. We work independently of any church group or denomination and make no attempt to teach our opinion about issues of debate. Our goal is to present the Bible and the Bible alone. We believe that it is through the prayerful study of God’s word that people come to a true and lasting faith."
So far, I have seen this to be true - the program seems to stick to the Bible alone. (My children and I did note that it does not contain anything for deuterocanonical books - the Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch- which are a part of our Catholic Bible.
Easy to Tailor to Your Family's Needs
For this review, we received:
- a set of the Large Bible Book Summary Cards: full page, glossy card stock cards that have full-color illustrations on one side and questions and answers on the other to help you get the big picture of the Bible. (These were my favorite part of the program!)
- Intermediate Student Pages through Lesson 26: These are legal paper sized black-and-white student pages that are bound quite loosely (for easy tear-out, I suppose.) They include Bible drills, review games, timeline and map drills, application activities and more and are written so a child can guide themselves through the pages or work with a parent or teacher on them. You can view samples of them here.
- Advanced Student Pages through Lesson 26: These are similar to the intermediate pages, but, of course, are a little more challenging. They include interactive, illustrated Bible study, Bible and memory drills, timeline, maps, application activities, and more. You can view sample pages of these, too.
- an Advanced Teacher Key through lesson 26: These are a companion to the Student Pages and provide additional teaching aids such as definitions of Bible words, background information, instructions for placing labels in the Unlabeled Wall Maps and Time Lines, etc. The Student Pages may be used with or without this key. To decide if you'd find it helpful, you can view sample pages.
- a Wall Map & Time Line Label Book: This small 3-ring binder contains keys to where labels go as well as all the labels needed for the first 104 lessons. The labels are in full color and made of sturdy glossy cardstock. You cut them out yourself and attach them to the Wall Maps and Time Line using adhesive putty.
- Wall Map & Time Line: These are blank maps and timelines that help you see where Bible events took place and how all the stories of the Bible fit together over time. The size of the Time Line is 76" x 25". The sizes of the three maps are 38" x 25", 19" x 25" and 19" x 25". (This is what drew me into the program. I have been wanting to focus more on time lines and mapping and these make doing so handy!)
Of course, then, the first thing we did when starting to use all this was put up our Time Line and Wall Maps and begin cutting out the labels. I, personally, do not love having to keep track of lots of little pieces, but my daughter enjoys cutting, placing labels, etc. and said, "The Time Line is my favorite part of the program!"
Then, we sat down together with the Student Pages, Summary Cards, and our Bibles and began with Lesson 1. My children were a little confused at first because I had them at two different levels and so their pages were different. Then, once they realized we had different level Student Pages, my youngest wanted to try the Advanced level. I let him, but, he quickly decided the Intermediate Level was for him, and stated, "The whole Intermediate Level because it is easier and I like the activities!"
My oldest son liked the Advanced Level best and said, "I liked that I could move ahead with it, and, then, do something else while you guys caught up." And, yes, this is what happened - proving the Student Pages can be used independently and do not require the Teacher Key.
Due to the nuero-diversity of my children and our life schedule, we tend to do particular family lessons for only 15-20 minutes in a sitting, and my oldest tends to get distracted easily. So, he either spent time going ahead of his siblings and I a bit or racing through a portion of the program and then reading or writing his own stuff until we were ready to move onto group use of the Wall Maps, Time Line, and Summary. This worked for us.
The fact that the curriculum is written with two pages per lesson, but many small sub-lesson bits worked, too. In 15-20 minutes, we could not, of course, get through an entire lesson, but, because of the way the program is written, we could easily find a logical breaking point, and, then, pick right back up with lessons the next time we sat down together.
As a family, we found the Bible Study Guide For All Ages easy to adapt to our schedules, learning styles, and needs and will definitely be using it in rotation with our other faith studies as time continues. This means it might take us far more than a 1/4 year to complete the Quarter 1 materials we have, but, that's okay with us. We are relaxed and eclectic. For those that are more structured, using the materials 2-3 times a week for longer than 15-20 minutes at a sitting, you could certainly work through 1/4 of the Bible in a year, and the full Bible over four years.
We can recommend Bible Study Guide For All Ages for those who wish to combine Bible geography, history(time line) and Bible studies (but will add the caveat for fellow Catholics that not all the books of the Bible are included and, also, we have yet to see what every lesson is like, so would recommend families work together so that if the odd theology question comes up, it can be dealt with right away. I do not foresee this happening since so far we've found the program truly does just stick to the Word, not interpretations of it. However, I would feel remiss not mentioning to fellow Catholics that I have not yet read every lesson and, therefore, cannot speak to the entire 4-year program. I like what I have done so far!)
Then, we sat down together with the Student Pages, Summary Cards, and our Bibles and began with Lesson 1. My children were a little confused at first because I had them at two different levels and so their pages were different. Then, once they realized we had different level Student Pages, my youngest wanted to try the Advanced level. I let him, but, he quickly decided the Intermediate Level was for him, and stated, "The whole Intermediate Level because it is easier and I like the activities!"
My oldest son liked the Advanced Level best and said, "I liked that I could move ahead with it, and, then, do something else while you guys caught up." And, yes, this is what happened - proving the Student Pages can be used independently and do not require the Teacher Key.
Due to the nuero-diversity of my children and our life schedule, we tend to do particular family lessons for only 15-20 minutes in a sitting, and my oldest tends to get distracted easily. So, he either spent time going ahead of his siblings and I a bit or racing through a portion of the program and then reading or writing his own stuff until we were ready to move onto group use of the Wall Maps, Time Line, and Summary. This worked for us.
The fact that the curriculum is written with two pages per lesson, but many small sub-lesson bits worked, too. In 15-20 minutes, we could not, of course, get through an entire lesson, but, because of the way the program is written, we could easily find a logical breaking point, and, then, pick right back up with lessons the next time we sat down together.
As a family, we found the Bible Study Guide For All Ages easy to adapt to our schedules, learning styles, and needs and will definitely be using it in rotation with our other faith studies as time continues. This means it might take us far more than a 1/4 year to complete the Quarter 1 materials we have, but, that's okay with us. We are relaxed and eclectic. For those that are more structured, using the materials 2-3 times a week for longer than 15-20 minutes at a sitting, you could certainly work through 1/4 of the Bible in a year, and the full Bible over four years.
We can recommend Bible Study Guide For All Ages for those who wish to combine Bible geography, history(time line) and Bible studies (but will add the caveat for fellow Catholics that not all the books of the Bible are included and, also, we have yet to see what every lesson is like, so would recommend families work together so that if the odd theology question comes up, it can be dealt with right away. I do not foresee this happening since so far we've found the program truly does just stick to the Word, not interpretations of it. However, I would feel remiss not mentioning to fellow Catholics that I have not yet read every lesson and, therefore, cannot speak to the entire 4-year program. I like what I have done so far!)
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Want different points of view? Seventy Homeschool Review Crew families tested out different levels of the Bible Study Guide For All Ages.
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