Jun. 23, 2008 - Bible Curriculum
I am going to start, or at least try to start, lol, in the next few posts, journaling a little bit about what we have planned for this coming school year. We are basically starting the new school year next week, the first week of July, so we are trying to wrap up and review this week everything we have done so far! I have done a good deal more planning and preparing than I would have otherwise, because of baby coming in September. I really want to not only take time off after baby's arrival, but also not be too stressed about things like school after we do start back in. So, the more I can get ready now, the better!
Anyway, I finally decided what to do for Bible, and we got started on it this morning. I was so excited, and since we finished the Ten Commandments, I figured there was no reason to wait another week to start, right?
Oh, and before I start in talking about what we are going to do, I will say that we will continue to read through the Portuguese Children's Bible first thing in the morning. We are in Acts now, having started last August, I think. When we get all the way through, we will start again!
So, besides that.......
I went to a used curriculum fair a little bit back and found some *fabulous* resources, including our main book, which is going to be the ABC Memory Book, put out by Scripture Memory Fellowship. It comes with a coloring book, and a cassette tape so you can learn the verses to music - my favorite method!! I am making copies of the coloring pages, so they can each have one. My plan is to memorize one verse per week.
In order to facilitate the memorizing, and to review verses we have memorized previously, I finally got around to putting together a Scripture Memory Box, per the method on www.simplycharlottemason.com . Great idea!! I wrote Deut 6:6-7 on the front of the box, about teaching your children these words ALL the time!
In the picture, you also see our Missionary Prayer Box, which contains 3x5 cards with different missionary names and prayer needs on them. We pull one each day to pray for that missionary.
Then at the ICHE convention, I picked up another awesome book - and I *love* the price: $5.95! It is called "Easy Paper Crafts" by Christian Light Publications. It is reproducible, for your family or sunday school or whatever you like, and these are truly easy crafts! Most only require you to make the copy in preparation; children cut, fold, color, etc. A few require a popsicle stick or other simple addition, but nothing too complicated or time consuming. So, I went through this book and chose one craft that would complement each of the Bible verses that we are doing each week with the ABC Memory Book. For example, today we did the "A" verse: "All we like sheep have gone astray", and later in the week we will do the craft from this book: "The Lord is my Shepherd". And then we will have a chance to talk about how badly we gone-astray sheep need a shepherd!
I got each of the children a 3-ring binder (at garage sales!) to keep their Bible verses coloring pages filed in, and any paper crafts that are conducive to storing in a binder. They decorated the covers this morning and were pretty excited about that too!
Since our memory verses are following the alphabet theme, I thought it would be appropriate to follow the same letter in this book: From Arapesh to Zuni: A Book of Bibleless People by Karen Lewis. It is put out by Wycliffe Bible Translators. I got this one at the used curriculum fair, too! We started this today too, with the Arapesh people of Papau New Guinea. I want so badly to instill into my children a large worldview and a heart for the nations, and I hope this will be a step in that direction. We talked about how badly these people need Jesus, and how Jesus taught us to pray for laborers to be sent into the harvest field. We talked about the process of someone moving there to live among them, learning the language, developing a way of writing it, teaching the people to read and write their own language, and then how long it would take to translate the Bible into their own language! We marked Papau New Guinea on our table map and will continue to pray for the Arapesh people throughout this week.
We have had this map on our table for the past several years and I absolutely love having it there! It gives us so many opportunities to talk about geography all the time. We have pictures of missionaries we pray for on it, our Five In a Row story disks, and a few verses. On the top, I have Psalm 113:4 "The Lord is high above all the nations", and on the bottom, from Psalm 2: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession."
So, that is the plan for our Bible curriculum for this year! I'm so excited!
Comments
Jun. 23, 2008 - Hi,
Posted by southmsmomof4
thanks for your kinds words on my blog. We had a blast doing that lapbbok. Now my little one loves searching for all the different beetles we see in our yard. Even the water beetles we catch from time to time in our pool! looks like you have planned a great bible curriculum for your little ones.
Be blessed, Stacy
Jun. 26, 2008 - Map
Posted by Faith
I love the idea of having a map on your table. I am VERY bad with geography. My class in PS consisted of coloring in maps. I know that I didn't put forth the effort to commit things to memory but at that time I also didn't see the relevance in my life. I'm learning little by little now. At church we take turns teaching the children about different countries. Our last country was Cambodia. During our first meeting to discuss Cambodia I asked my friend, "That's in Africa, right." Thankfully the HS mom in her said, "No, not exactly, let me show you on a map."
I love that you are not only teaching your children about places but also about why it is important.
Jul. 5, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by stephanier
I love your ideas on your bible curriculum. It has given me some great ideas to use with my own children. Thank you so much for sharing!
Apr. 14, 2009 - Loved this Map!
Posted by Autumn
I so loved this idea of the Map on the table that we did it too, for all areas of study Bible, Geography, Our Mystery of History, Praying for Our Missionaries and lots more thank you it has been such a wonderful learning tool.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Sheila/670958/
Sheila
