A Bible curriculum that is easy to prepare and effective to teach. That’s what I was looking for as I resumed teaching our children about a month after eye surgery.
Our long-term goal for this semester was to complete an in-depth study of the Book of Acts because… I really need it. (No matter how many times I read Acts, I still don’t remember even half of it! And it fits in nicely with the Byzantine Empire, too. )
The original plan was to pick up our PictureSmart Bible (which we love!!) and our Journeys of Paul Markable Map and take off on our journey. But I wasn’t ready. I was still recovering and desperately needed a Bible curriculum that was easy to prepare and effective to teach. And teaching Acts would take some mental power for me. Besides, I really wanted to place the Acts of the Apostles in context – to study a simple, broad overview of the New Testament – especially for Levi, since he is just now getting to where he understands and remembers Bible study.
Enter Grapevine Studies.
I had heard of Grapevine Studies previously via The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (by the way, the current digital issue and digital back issues of TOS are free!) and actually already had a Grapevine Studies New Testament Timeline overview from one of the previous TOS freebies. While we waited for the writers/designers of Grapevine Studies to finish making a traceable version of The Resurrection Study (for Levi), I pulled out the teacher guide for the New Testament Timeline study. The boys made a timeline of the New Testament using homemade booklets…
…and if you’re aware of our obsession with timelines, then you’ll know we all enjoyed this! (I really enjoyed it as the teacher because it was so easy to use.)
The Resurrection Study
Grapevine Studies “Stick Figuring through the Bible” lessons are written for ages 3 through adult. The Resurrection Study starts with a Timeline Overview, followed by 9 lessons that delve deeper into the events surrounding the Resurrection, and closes with a Final Review at the end of the study. Each lesson includes:
A timeline overview and memory verse review…
a storyboard (two lesson pages of drawings) for a portion of scripture, along with discussion questions…
and a “my favorite part” student drawing page with memory verse copywork/recitation.
Each day we spend about 15 minutes reading, drawing, and discussing the scriptures, so each lesson (Review, Storyboard & “My Favorite Part”) takes our family about 3 to 4 days to complete. At the end of the study is a final review that includes all of the discussion questions and a timeline overview.
The things I love about it:
- We are discussing the events in the Bible (in some cases even more than we did with the PictureSmart Bible)!
- We are remembering more than if we just read the passage together as a family.
- Levi is able to participate because they have a traceable version for younger children! (After seeing his pictures of random circles for the free-hand New Testament Timeline we created… well, let’s just say I’m glad there’s a traceable version for him.)
- It’s chronological and includes the accounts from each Gospel.
- As we work through the lessons, we periodically flip to the back to label a map that correlates to what we’re studying. Very, very cool. (I’m really wishing they had an Acts of the Apostles study right about now!)
- It includes scripture memorization that fits into the Resurrection timeline we’re drawing.
- 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 stage right now as they draw whatever I draw on the board…)
- Though you can purchase e-books for a specific age group, we are using the multi-level program. And multi-level is great for our one-room schoolhouse!
- The teacher manual is very easy to use and even shows me how to make the stick figures. (Hey, at least we’re practicing OiLs.)
- Our finished products are special keepsakes. It’s THEIR 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!
It’s such fun to see how they’ve decided to draw out each portion of the scripture that we study…
Flash forward about a year. When we followed up our Resurrection study last year with a study of Acts (which was not Grapevine Studies), Levi kept asking when we were going to draw Jesus again. And with that, we decided to embark on a study of the Old Testament this year using the books available from Grapevine Studies. (We are currently finishing up Old Testament Part 3. In fact, if you’re curious about what’s included in the Old Testament Studies, check out our other Grapevine Studies Reviews!)
Would you like to try Grapevine for free?
You can also check out the different studies available on the Grapevine Sample Page. If you’re not sure what you might want to try, you can download samples for each level here.
For a list of free Bible study resources, visit our post on Bible Resources and Character Study.