Bible is one subject that I have struggled with the last couple of years. That is really sad to say. I struggled not because I didn’t think it was important or wasn’t willing to make time for it. I struggled to find a curriculum that would be interesting for young kids but not just cutesy pictures of bunnies hopping into Noah’s Ark. I struggled to find something that wasn’t too advanced for young kids. All I have done in years past was a little devotional book for kids where we spent maybe five minutes reading the Bible verse, story (more of a “did you know” rather than a true Bible story), and saying a prayer. We didn’t even crack open a Bible.
Something had to change this year.
As coincidence would have it (ha!), right at the time I began to look for Bible curriculum, I saw on one of homeschool Facebook pages I read someone had posted the very question I had. I read through everyone’s comments and narrowed my choices down to three.
I ultimately decided on a new (as in still being written) program called Bible Road Trip. I chose it partly because the curriculum was free (though you do have to supplement with a few books and I purchased binders/tab dividers for notebooking). The main reasons were that it aligned perfectly with the classical model and we actually read through the entire Bible. It still amazes me to think that I’m going to read through the entire Bible with my kids.
The author of this curriculum, Danika Cooley, has outdone herself in researching, designing the curriculum, finding the right books and DVDs to go along with it, and creating notebooking pages.
Here’s the program in a nutshell.
On the Bible Road Trip, you will read through the Bible over the course of three years. Year One is all Old Testament – the Books of Law and History. Year Two is still all Old Testament – the Books of Poetry and Prophecy. Year Three is all New Testament. After year three, you start again with Year One but this time your child will be older and will be delving deeper into the Bible and increasing their understanding of the Bible year after year.
So Sunshine, who is a kindergartener this year, will have read through the Bible four times by the time finishes high school at age 18. That’s incredible! I’m considerably older than 18 and I honestly have not read through the entire Bible. I’m looking forward to this journey as well!
So what do you DO on the Bible Road Trip?
Well because I have a kindergartener and lower grammar stage, I combine those two stages. I read stories from the recommended (for preschool/kindergarten) Bible story book but will also read the text from my Bible as suggested for the Lower Grammar stage students. We memorize the pre/k weekly Bible verse since it’s just one verse per week. The Lower Grammar stage looks to be 2-3 verses per week and I’m not sure Ladybug is up to that yet. But we’ll get there. Everything else is primarily from the Lower Grammar curriculum. Sunshine has those same notebooking pages in her binder and she just does what she’s able to do. Mostly she doodles on the sides because she doesn’t write much yet but if she sees Ladybug writing something, she wants to try. There are crafts to do, maps to look at, questions to discuss, and people to pray for. There are also recommended DVDs but I haven’t purchased them yet (and the wait list for them at the library is really long which I guess should be considered a good thing – just not for me).
At this point I should admit that we are in year one, week two of the curriculum. But we absolutely love the books, notebooks, and overall approach the author has taken. The girls actually like to do Bible and that makes me so very happy and proud.
Thank you so much Ms. Cooley!
Life of a Plain Jane 