My children’s favorite song to sing on top of their lungs when they were little munchkins:
The B-I-B-L-E
Yes, that’s the book for me
I stand alone on the Word of God
The B-I-B-L-E
Now we don’t just sing about this book, we read it and try to understand it. Our family tends to shy away from pre-written Bible curriculum. We prefer to let the Word of God speak.
When the opportunity to review the Judah Bible Curriculum arose, I decided that it would be a great opportunity despite the ability to understand just what it was about from their website.
After about 4 weeks, here’s what we have discovered:
What is Judah Bible Curriculum (JBC)?
From their website:
- A Principle Approach curriculum for Bible class.
- Develop a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible.
- Build strong, Godly character in your children.
- Study the Bible together.
- Study the hand of God in the lives of individuals and nations.
- For homeschool, Christian school, Sunday school.
- Teach your children living Biblical principles to guide their lives.
- Apply God’s word personally in every area of life.
- The Bible is the textbook.
When my husband and I reviewed the goals of this “curriculum” we were excited. After all, how can you go wrong when the Bible is the textbook?
What is the Principle Approach?
“a philosophy of education whose content and methods are designed to build character in teacher and student capable of sustaining liberty.”
How to Implement
The first thing a parent/teacher needs to do is to listen to the included 8-set audio.
1. Education and Character/Curriculum Overview
2. How God Changes Nations
3. God’s Kingdom: Creation – Flood.
4. God’s Kingdom: Abraham – Malachi
5. God’s Kingdom: Matthew – Revelation
6. Methods: Weekly Themes, Notebooks, Key Sheets, Writing Exercises, Essay Testing
7. God’s Kingdom: Pentecost – Present
8. Studying the Life of Joseph
Many of my fellow crew members said the audios helped. For me, it was not as helpful. I learn better with audio-visual.
Read the manual. This document includes not only the how-to implement but the why-to implement. There are examples of note booking pages that may be used with JBC.
The Scope and Sequence covers the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelations. The Bible is divided into 5 main themes:
- Creation
- The Plan of Redemption Begins
- Kingdom of Israel
- Kingdom of God
- Early Church
These 5 themes are studied from grades K-7 and then again grades 7-12.
To see the entire Scope & Sequence visit http://www.judahbible.com/jbc/scope.htm
Our family implemented this program by studying the Early Church theme. Because this is NOT a lesson planned curriculum, we used the basic guideline of their outline to study the Bible on our own.
Our schedule:
- Monday: Review this week’s theme & memory verse.
- Tuesday-Friday: We assigned bible reading for the day and the Boy completed a one-paragraph narration. Any questions that arose we covered.
My thoughts: The curriculum is really a teacher training program so that the parent/teacher may teach the Bible. I wish I would have known that before. Luckily this was a review, because I would have been disappointed to invest my resources into a program without clear direction for implementation.
The principle behind this program is awesome. This would REALLY be a great fit for a parent who loves to actually “teach” in the traditional sense. I hope that the authors take some of the ideas from the Crew to heart. They could make this a wonderful and usable program.
Things I would suggest:
- Include blank notebook key sheets
- Include a purchase-only member forum for implementation and further questions
- Modernize the presentation of the program. For the cost, it seems rather homemade.
It is a flexible program because there is no interpretation given for the parent to regurgitate to the student. That was a great surprise for us.
Ultimately, I think I will spend the summer really learning and studying this program to see if we can give it a try again in the fall.
If you are looking for a Bible program that you can used with multiple levels and is BIBLE focused, this program may be a great fit for your family.
To purchase this program visit http://www.judahbible.com/.
$69.00, plus 5.00 p&h,
Total $74.00.
Allow 7 days for delivery.
You get:
1) Judah Bible Curriculum K-12 Manual;
2) Elementary Notebook Ideas booklet;
3) Eight-lecture Teacher Training Seminar on CDs.
NEW! For a 40% discount
Purchase Judah Bible Curriculum delivered online:
Total $44.00.
Download e-book and begin today!
You get:
1) Judah Bible Curriculum K-12 Manual, e-book format to download;
2) Elementary Notebook Ideas booklet to view online or download;
3) Eight-lecture Teacher Training Seminar. listen online or download.
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Read what my fellow Crew Members are saying about this curriculum!
Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.
We are constantly ineeurrpttd with dentist/orthodontist appointments, yearly eye exams & physicals, holidays, illnesses, the needs of the childrens’ great-grandparents, field trips, and good weather (something to cherish in the Seattle area, LOL). I refuse to stress about missed days & such in Elementary and Junior High. High school, however, is a different ball of wax. My solution is to outline five and a half days of work each week in a format similar to a college syllabus. If the student does all the work, that’s fantastic. If not, no worries there are usually enough weeks where all the work has been accomplished to make up for missed mornings or even days. So far so good!