I preach for a little country church here in Todd County, which means that when we started homeschooling last year Bible teaching would fall to me. Laura has a degree in Spanish, so she gets to teach her specialty, too.
When we went looking for a Bible teaching plan, I had three goals in mind:
1) Systematic study. We wanted to cover everything in the Bible once by the end fourth grade.
2) Biblical literacy. We wanted the girls to be able to know how the different parts of the Bible fit together.
3) Cost. Homeschooling is expensive enough. Most pre-packaged Bible curricula aren't really made for a class of 2, or for 20 minutes a day.
Mind you, this is just the academic side of Bible. Spiritual formation still takes place in a daily "chapel time," plus what we do otherwise.
On the Biblical Literacy front, I devised a point system. The girls learn lists, Psalms, and memory verses, then get points for reciting them. Each quarter they are expected to have accumulated a certain number of points and are graded accordingly. Points also accrue; each girl is expected to accumulate 500 points by the end of fifth grade.
Goals are as follows:
1st Grade -- 15 points the first nine weeks, 30 by Christmas, 45 by Spring Break, 60 by the end of the year.
2nd Grade -- 80, 100, 120, 140
3rd Grade -- 165, 190, 215, 240
4th Grade -- 270, 300, 330, 360
5th grade -- 395, 430, 465, 500
Lists:
New Testament Books (27 points)
Old Testament Books (39 points)
Ten Commandments (10)
Plagues (10)
Apostles (12)
Tribes (12)
Beatitudes (9)
Fruit of the Spirit (9)
Judges (17)
Days of Creation (7)
Kings of Israel (19)
Kings of Judah (20)
Psalms are credited at one point per verse. So far we've learned Psalm 23 and Psalm 1.
Memory Verses (1 point per verse, with reference)
In addition to the memory work, we have a daily Bible lesson. The curriculum I like best out of what I found is Bible Study Guide for All Ages. It's designed with the small class in mind, and even does well in a room with kids of different ages. We use it at church now for our Wednesday Night class since it only requires us to have one teacher for half a dozen kids ranging in age from 4 to 10. I don't see any denominational bias in it, but I don't know if that's because it doesn't have any or because it caters to my own biases.
The best part is that you can buy it a la carte. You only get what you need instead of having to buy a whole package. A full year of 104 lessons only costs $25 per child. You can get as many or as few peripherals as you like, depending on your budget.
The other 76 days of Bible lessons are review, tests, and memory days. This year we also participated in the Sycamore Bible Bowl in Cookeville, Tennessee. Preparing for that took up 25 or so Bible days, but it was well worth the effort. I'll write more about Bible Bowl in a later post.
Do you do Bible as an academic subject? If so, do you use pre-made material or come up with your own lessons?
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I had forgotten about that resource! We used it years ago when we sponsored a family Sunday school class. Thanks for the reminder. From the looks of the website, they have continued to refine and improve it. In our family we didn't do Bible as a formal academic subject every day, but that didn't stop me from collecting resources and using them here and there. (FYI - I used to review products for Mary Pride's Big Book of Home Learning and Practical Homeschooling magazine. One of the perks was access to a lot of fun stuff!)
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