God's Great Covenant (NT): A Review

This month I'm reviewing a bible course for children from Classical Academic Press entitled "God's Great Covenant:  New Testament".  This course is laid out in 36 lessons grouped in 4 units.  Perfect for a one year study of the New Testament and the person of Christ.  Each lesson is well researched and well-written, beginning with a theme.  For example, in Week 26, the theme is "The Messiah's way of salvation is accepted by some and rejected by others".  There are several scriptures supporting the theme that are to be read together.  Then there is a specific verse to be memorized.  Key facts are stated for the student to study (always in the chart form--easily distinguished).

For the following day, there is a Storytime Worksheet. 

Then a Review Worksheet with fill in the blank activities assesses the students comprehension of the material. 

The student workbook is printed with large font so it is very easy to read.  It is consumable. The teacher's edition is a replica of the student's book, but includes LOTS of notes in the margin for expanding upon the lessons, as well as blank line space for adding notes.  There are often references to other sources for additional information.

This bible course could easily be done in a 36-week school year, three days per week.  The lessons are of quality--not a lot of fluff (word searches and unscrambling, which I despise).  Just good information presented, analyzed and discussed with the mind and heart and a good, sound assessment at the end of each week.

Classic Academic Press sells this product for $26.95 for the student edition.  The teacher's edition is $29.95 and includes all of the answers to the activities.  Two different products dealing with the Old Testament are also available. 

**Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of this product, including the Teacher's Edition, in order to provide an honest review.  No other compensation was provided.

See what the other reviewers had to say about this product here.

The World's Greatest Stories: The Prophets

Here at the Smith home, we are currently digging the latest product to come our way from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew.  It is The World's Greatest Stories, a collection of audio CDs (or cassettes) depicting your choice of King James Version or New International Version (NIV) stories from the Bible.  Let's face it, the Bible has lots of drama!  Arks and Furnaces and Sibling Rivalry....the list goes on.  But sometimes children tune out during parts that lack action or the performance of miracles.  In this series, the very talented voice actor George W. Sarris, works his genius and tells the stories word-for-word, but in such a mesmerizing way that you are pulled into the story.  There is never a dull moment with his voice inflections and dramatic music accompaniment. 

Talk about a great way to get the wonderful words of the Bible into the minds of your children.  I have put these onto my children's iPods for them to listen to at bedtime.  You could also listen to them on long trips (homeschoolers sometimes become "carschoolers" due to hectic schedules with field trips, lessons, etc.) or you could listen as a family while relaxing at home.  Each volume is about 1 hour, but could easily be broken down into one story per day for an entire school week's worth of Bible History.

Our family got the chance to review Volume One:  The Prophets, which include the stories of the Blazing Furnace, The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Elijah and the Prophets of Baal, and the Prophecy of Jonah. 

Other volumes include:

The Life of Christ

Beginnings

Joshua and Esther

Joseph and his brothers

Defeating Giants

All of these CDs or cassettes are priced very reasonably at $7.95.  Visit their website at http://www.worldsgreateststories.com/  to order or to find out more.  Or click here to hear an audio clip of all of the volumes that they offer. 

**Disclaimer:  I was provided with a free copy of Volume One:  Prophets in exchange for an honest review.

Click this link to see what the Homeschool Crew reviewers thought of The World's Greatest Stories series!

The Patriarchs--an original film by the Smith Brothers!

We spent several weeks learning the Bible stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.  The boys love toying around with their amateur film-making ideas, so they made stick puppets for an original film entitled, "The Patriarchs!".  I firmly believe this project cemented these Bible stories in their little brains forever.  They had me narrate while they played all the parts, made the scenery, edited the film (we used Microsoft Movie Maker) and did the casting (our guinea pigs play the parts of Esau and the camel).  Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/IronHobo0124?feature=mhum

Projects for Creation Studies

This was our first unit for Year One in Tapestry of Grace.  My children are both considered "Upper Gramar Level" according to their grade-levels (3rd and 5th), so your children may have different reading lists.  However, all ages study the same topics at the same time.  The literature selections for this unit were really beautiful.  "The True Story of Noah's Ark" by Tom Dooley was a wonderfully-crafted selection, read by the author on the included audio CD, complete with sound effects and music.  It really started our year off right.  You can view the book here.  After we read this, we went outside and, in the middle of the street, started seeing for ourselves how large Noah's Ark really was, based on the measurements in the Bible.  Of course, we had to do some clever conversions from cubits to feet. This link will help you with the math.  Since most tape measures only go so far, the kids had to do even more math to get the right measurements!  If your kids have always pictured Noah's Ark being a cute little boat with smiling cartoon animals hanging off the sides, wait until you see this book and do this project!  Wow!

Backtracking a bit....when you study about the days of Creation, a fun ways for the kids to memorize what happened on each day is to make a flip book.  We used 11x17 paper.  In fact, buy a whole pack of this paper at the beginning of the year, as it comes in handy for making foldable projects of all kinds, especially vocabulary.  Anyway, take 4 of these sheets and stagger them about 1 inch from the one behind it like so:



Then flip it over and fold it so the other tabs line up making an eight-tabbed book. 

The large "cover-tab" will be for the title and student name.  The others can be labeled Day 1, Day 2 and so forth.  Don't forget to leave a tiny bit of room to punch a few holes.  You can weave yarn, ribbon or twine through the holes to bind the book together.  The kids got creative and illustrated the insides with cotton ball clouds, rhinestone stars and octopus stickers.