We were recently given the opportunity to review a curriculum that has the potential to really help our children dig deep into the Bible. "God's Great Covenant: New Testament--The Gospels is published by Classical Academic Press ($26.95) and is written for 4th grade and up. The book is divided into 4 units:
Unit 2: Jesus, God's Servant, Has Come...To Proclaim the Good News
Unit 3: Jesus, the Messiah, Has Come...To Teach About God's Kingdom
Unit 4: Jesus, the Son of God, Has Come...To Conquer Sin and Death
There are a total of 36 chapters. Each chapter consists of a Memory Page, Story Time, Review Worksheets, At the end of each unit there is a "Memory Passage Worksheet" that helps to review all the Scripture Memory from the unit, as well as a Devotional Guide. My kids favorite section of the book is also at the end of each unit: "Simon's World". Simon is a young boy who lived at the time of Jesus. It gives a great understand of what day-to-day life was like for people at that time.
The chapters are VERY in depth and very challenging for my 5th grader. All three kiddos enjoyed listening to the stories and they all learned from them. Paul was the only one I required anything from in the way of worksheets and memory work. The memory work was pretty tough with Bible verses, a chart full of information, as well as a prophecy fulfilled.
I really like that this is so much more than just Bible stories. This curriculum shows students how the Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament. It brings the Bible to life for them and helps them see relationships between things that aren't typically pulled out at this level. And, it does it in a way that clicks with this age group. Now, all that said, please know that this is an intense program. There is a LOT of information in this 350 page book. This is not a book you can hand your 4th grader and have him work on it. It is teacher-intense! I would think that you wouldn't be able to have a student do this curriculum independently until about 7th or 8th grade. We love that it has so much information, and especially the maps that help us "see" where things are happening. We also loved the "Memory Page" at the beginning of each chapter it gives an overview of what we would be learning in the chapter as well as a quick reference for what we were memorizing that week.
You can take a look at the complete Table of Contents and a sample of the curriculum to see if this is something that would work for your student.
We also received the audio file ($9.95) of all the chapters. My kids would much prefer me to read to them more than any audio book, so that didn't work well for them. It also didn't work well for us because I had to stop and explain things along the way or they would have questions so would need to stop which is more difficult with an an audio format.
The teacher's edition ($29.95) was included in our review as well. It is the same as the student text but with a place for personal notes as well as many, many additional notes to add to the curriculum. The student book is so full of information we did not get in to the additionally information in the teacher's edition. I can see how those notes would be helpful if the curriculum were being used with an older student.
We have only used this for about 4 weeks, and have already learned a great deal. I will continue with this curriculum when we pick school back up in late summer. I am excited about all the information and all the possibilities of things to dive in to, learn, and explore. I can really see this curriculum lasting us way more then a year, because there is so much wonderful information packed into it. Obviously, as is, it is too much for my two younger ones. I still hope to have them listen in on the story time and pick up as much as they can.
There are two other books in this line of curriculum that cover the Old Testament. You can see those choices as well as bundled packages here.
Take a look at what other Crew members thought at the Homeschool Crew Blog
Disclosure: I was given a copy of the product to review in exchange for an honest review. There was no other compensation given for this review. All opinions are my own, honest opinion.
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