Bible Study Guide for All Ages

We recently had the privilege of reviewing the Beginner (3-K) and Intermediate (3rd & 4th grade) levels of the Bible Study Guide for All Ages.  Both the Beginner and Intermediate levels came with a set of 8.5×11 timeline or summary cards that corresponded to the lessons.  The Intermediate level also included a Teacher’s Key.

In unit 1, you begin with the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors.  This story is broken down and told over the first 14 lessons and covers Genesis 35-50.  At the beginning of each lesson, we would sit down together and read the required scriptures.  After that I would help Olivia, my 5 year old, do the related page in her book while the my 2nd and 4th graders worked on theirs.  
There are several elements to each lesson to help teach the scripture story, while also showing the children how they can apply the lessons to their own lives.  
In the beginner level, on the front page is: Learn the Basics, which tells you which Time Line number to use; Sing and Remember, which has review questions and the corresponding song on their Children’s Songs CD set if you have it (we did not); Get Active, which presents some real life scenarios that relate to the Bible story; and Apply It!, which asks questions about the coloring picture and also relates to the lesson being learned.  
The back page has questions and activities specific to the story.  It was broken down into sections, with each section having a picture that corresponded to a verse or part of the story and something to do with that picture, such as coloring Joseph’s coat or coloring the faces of his brothers red and his blue.  I found the instructions to be easy for my daughter to follow and they helped her to remember details from the story.  It was also short enough that her attention didn’t wane.
For the Intermediate Guide, the front page contained: Remember It?, which had a short activity to help recall the previous lesson; Memory Workout, which tells which Summary Card to use and gives the corresponding song from the CD; Guess What, which contains facts or tidbits relating to the story; Time Line or Map, which had them place different events or people on the time line or map; Get Active, which had different types of activities to apply the lesson; Apply It!, which gave real life scenarios and asked how the children would respond; and Prayer List.

The back was laid out in the same fashion as the Beginner Guide, with more age appropriate activities, such as word scrambles and fill in the blank.

Some of the Get Active activities my kids really enjoyed.  In one of the early lessons, there was an activity with yarn to demonstrate the effects of lying.  They had so much fun with this that they kept recruiting people to do it with them.  You know it’s a good lesson when they continue to incorporate it throughout their day.

For the Time Line and Summary Cards, we did not have space to put them up on our wall, so I placed them in a notebook with sheet protectors.  This worked well and my Kindergartner really liked it because she enjoyed flipping through to look at the pictures.

The Beginner Time Line cards are one sided.  However, the Summary cards are double-sided.  The front contains the picture and the back a summary and questions.

The rest of Unit 1 covers the stories of Daniel and the life of Jesus from birth to youth.  I like that it covers a variety of stories from the Bible, as opposed to just going chronologically, especially since this means that they cover parts of the life of Christ sooner than they would otherwise.
For those who use a different version of the Bible than NIV and might be curious about how it works with a different version, we did not have any problems.  We use the KJV and would read the scripture passage out of our Bibles.  The Discover the Bible section on the back was then like having those passages paraphrased.  There was one incident where there was a word difference that my daughter picked up on–our version used the word butler and theirs cupbearer–and I just explained that they were just different words to describe the same job the prisoner had.  Overall, it didn’t really make a difference.
I really loved this program.  I was able to sit down with my Kinder, 2nd and 4th graders and have us all study the same story in the Bible, but have worksheets that were geared toward their level and understanding to help reinforce the material.  The lessons were a good length and stuck to scripture.  
The Bible Study Guide for All Ages also makes large unlabeled wall maps and time lines, if you have the space.  We did not, but some other reviewers did, so make sure you check out the other reviews.

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