My ds7 LOVED his God and Me workbook for his Cub Scouts religious award, so I decided to look into Bible study for him and his older brother -- beyond the Bible reading and prayer we have been doing. I realized I want them to have a good grounding in the core Bible texts, Bible history, and finding their way around the Bible, as well as an overview in terms of God's action and our response, memory work, and some sense of the geographical context as well. My son really liked the personal and family activities in his workbook, as did the whole family, so I hoped for a little of that as well.

Last night I spent a lot of time looking for Bible study curricula for the boys, and wasn't entirely satisfied. This morning on a favorite homeschooling board, an entirely new to me option was suggested, and after some research I really liked what I saw. Bible Study Guide for All Ages is the big winner in my eyes!

The student work pages have Bible text study, map work, timeline work, and memory work. You study the entire Bible over four years if you do two lessons per week, and Old Testament and New Testament are included each year. All ages are synchronized. It's not expensive. The teacher book looks very good, and is for all levels that year. I like it!

Last night, before hearing about Bible Study Guide for All Ages, I looked at...

Explorer Bible Study. Nondenominational Protestant. I wasn't so excited as others on Favorite Homeschooling Board about this. The workbooks are very oriented toward fill in the blanks about the Bible text, with little or no application/exploration, or info on the context.

Voyages. LCMS (conservative Lutheran, Concordia Publishing). Seems interesting, but I didn't find any samples I could look at.

Witness. ELCA (nonconservative Lutheran, Augsburg Fortress). Primary level book seems okay, but the teacher guide is entirely Sunday-school oriented, I didn't like the older elementary level and, well, no thanks.

From Living the Good News, associated with the Episcopal Church, I found some good options to use alongside a Bible study.

- Share the Joy seems application oriented: "teaches the foundations of faith based on the word of God, lived in community and grounded in service to others." I like very much what I saw of the actual children's materials.

- My Episcopal Faith is a quick study of our church history, beliefs, structure, traditions, etc.

- Episcopal Children's Curriculum, though Sunday-school oriented, looks interesting as a whole package to use alongside a Bible study. I'm going to see if our church's children's formation director has copies left from some years ago when they used this.

A completely different aspect is children's spirituality and relationship with God. This looks wonderful:

- The Way of the Child from the United Methodist Church's Upper Room Ministries. "For children ages 6-11 years, The Way of the Child leads children into a deeper relationship with God, instills in children spiritual practices to form lifelong habits, encourages children to respond to God, and provides an experience of vital community." It seems to be based on helping children experience prayer and other spiritual practices that are more commonly considered the realm of adults.

So now I, too, have some options. I'm going to get Bible Study Guide for All Ages, and at least My Episcopal Faith, unless ECC looks really good. Probably also Share the Joy, and The Way of the Child...