We’ve finished! Last week we wrapped up our final book of the New Testament Overview Bible Study! Even though it may have taken us 4 months longer than I had originally planned, we have finally completed a study of the entire Bible with stick figure drawings. (And just in case this gives the false impression that we finished it in a short period of time, let me emphasize the fact that we started the first Old Testament Overview Study three years ago.)
About four years ago, I stumbled upon Grapevine Studies approximately one month after an eye surgery on both eyes, when I still couldn’t read for longer than a few minutes at a time. A single phrase caught my attention…
A Bible curriculum that is easy to prepare and effective to teach.
That’s what I was looking for during this fairly difficult time in my life as a homeschooling mother, and thus began our journey through the Bible using stick figure drawing to memorize persons, scriptures, and events.
Over the past four years we’ve explored the Old & New Testament Overview Studies, along with an Old Testament Catechism and a study of the Biblical Feasts and Holy Days (which we paired with a Biblical Calendar). Overall, the experience has been fantastic. The teacher manuals are very easy to use, and the studies have required very little preparation on my part. We’ve recited memory verses, labeled Bible maps, and practiced our elements of shape as we’ve learned to express Biblical truths in conjunction with historical events.
These studies have opened up deeper discussion of the scriptures at times when simply reading through the Bible together has not. We’ve learned about the kings of Israel & Judah, the cycle of apostasy, the set-up of the tabernacle, and the Biblical feasts and purposes of the sacrifices. We’ve even tackled an overview of the book of Revelation. And now our family has a special keepsake of our children’s personal work as we’ve studied through the Bible together. It’s been quite a journey!
Now let me backtrack and touch on the New Testament Overview we just completed…
New Testament Overview: What It Is
Written for ages 3 through adult, the four parts of the New Testament Overview comprise a chronological Bible study that helps to solidify our understanding of each major section of the New Testament as follows:
- The Birth of John to Jesus’ Ministry, which provides connections between Jesus’s life and how he relates to us as our high priest
- Jesus’ Ministry to His Trials, which includes a study of Jesus’ miracles (calming the sea, feeding the multitudes, healing the sick & demon-possessed, and raising the dead), his entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, and his political and religious trials
- The Cross to the Upper Room, covering the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, Jesus the Messiah (fulfilled prophecies), the Holy Spirit, the early church, persecution of the early church, and Saul.
- Acts to Revelation, covering Paul, the Letters to the Churches, The Gospel in Stick Figures, Sharing the Gospel, Revelation, The Second Coming of Jesus, Hell, and Heaven.
Students use the elements of shape (OiLS) to make drawings that represent various events within the Bible. Each book (or part) starts with a Timeline Overview…
…followed by 10 lessons that delve deeper into the main events recorded in that portion of the New Testament, with one review midway through the book and a final review at the end of the study. This provides a total of 13 weekly lessons or about 45 daily lessons for each of the 4 parts of the New Testament Overview Study.
A typical weekly lesson includes a timeline and memory verse review from past lessons, a storyboard (two lesson pages of new drawings) for a portion of scripture, and discussion questions.
At the end of each lesson students write the memory verse on the Student Drawing Page where they also draw their favorite part of that lesson, and they are prompted to create a timeline card for that lesson.
A lesson usually takes us two to three days to complete, spending about 20 minutes per day on average. (It may take a full week to complete a lesson if you are incorporating all elements of a Middle School study.)
While our oldest (age 12) has been working in the Elementary book this year,
two of our children opt for the traceable version of the Early Elementary Level books,
but they often build their own images into the scene…
It can be quite interesting how they embellish illustrations. It helps to clarify misconceptions or reveal enlightening thoughts about passages of Scriptures we’ve studied.
Although there exists room for creativity, the Teacher’s Manual includes all the details and drawings for each event or topic for parents like myself who may need some extra guidance.
Grapevine Studies has been such a great way for our family to study scriptures together!
Why do we like Grapevine Studies? Ten Reasons.
- We’re practicing our basic drawing skills (elements of shape; OiLs) as we learn to express Biblical truths and historical events with drawing.
- The teacher manual is very easy to use and even shows me how to make the stick figures. It requires very little preparation on my part. It’s pray-and-open-and-go.
- It has opened up deeper discussion of the scriptures at times when simply reading through the Bible together has not. For example, we talked in greater detail about the different trials of Jesus and even had discussions about demons and unclean spirits (not something I would normally focus on, but something the boys had quite a few questions about). As has been the case with all of the Grapevine studies we have completed, discussions arose about topics that I’ve never really talked much about with my children.
- At the conclusion of the first Old Testament Study (Creation to Jacob), our children were able to draw the first part of the Old Testament timeline independently and recite over ten memory verses and important facts from the Bible (with similar results for the other studies). And I love that we are able to connect our Bible study to our memorized timeline! Not only that, these studies have helped us to understand the non-chronological organization of the Books of the Bible. (This reason is specifically related to the Old Testament Studies we have completed.)
- It’s organized chronologically and incorporates scripture memorization. Plus, we are remembering more than if we just read the passage together as a family.
- Young children are able to participate because Grapevine Studies offers traceable versions!
- For Elementary Level books, as we work through the lessons, we periodically flip to the back to label maps that correlates to what we’re studying. Stephen, our personal family geographer, absolutely loves this feature!
- Though you can purchase e-books for a specific age group, there are also multi-level books available for some of the titles. And multi-level is great for a one-room schoolhouse like ours!
- This study uses a classical approach for learning the Bible: repetition and review (grammar), discussion of the material (dialectic), and the student’s picture (rhetoric). (Our children, however, are mainly sticking to the grammar and dialectic arts right now as they draw whatever I draw on the board…) Starting with the Middle School level, students in learn to use Bible tools such as a topical Bible reference, a concordance, and a Bible dictionary.
- Our finished products are special keepsakes of their personal work. And it’s not just questions and answers in a workbook – it’s (to a certain degree) their interpretation of the scriptures and what actually happened. And that also makes it easy to identify and clear up any misconceptions they might have!
The studies we’ve completed are as follows… (Click on any of the links below for an inside look into each study.)
Old Testament Studies:
Old Testament Overview
Old Testament Catechism Study
New Testament Studies:
New Testament Overview
The Resurrection
The Birth of Jesus
Calendar & Biblical Feasts:
Biblical Calendar
Biblical Feasts & Holy Days
You can check out the different studies available on the Grapevine Sample Page.
We received this product in exchange for a review. These are our honest-to-goodness, bona fide opinions about this product. Please refer to my disclosure policy for more details!