"Principle Approach refers to a philosophy of education whose content and methods are designed to build character in teacher and student capable of sustaining liberty."
I had never heard of this approach until I heard of the "Judah Bible Curriculum". Judah Bible believes, as do we, that Bible should be the centerpiece of education. It is the most important subject taught in the day. It should also be taught throughout the entire curriculum and not just as a part of the school day. It should become part of our every discussion. My desire is for my children to know and understand the Bible and be able to relate it to all areas of life. I don't want them to just know the simple Bible stories, I want them to know the truths behind them and how they apply in our life today.
Judah Bible Curriculum has many of the same goals as Steve and I do for our homeschool. When we received this for review I was quite overwhelmed with the volume of information we received. We received 8 lectures/Teacher Training Seminars to listen to, a K-12 Notebooking Ideas Journal, and a Teacher's manual via ebook. The lectures are the most important part to get you started. They share with you how to teach the Bible using the Principle Approach. You are also given a username and password to access more information online.
The idea for the Judah Bible Curriculum is for you and your child(ren) to study the Bible together and to pull out the "key ideas" and make a "key ideas sheet" for each theme you study. You can take a look at the Scope and Sequence to see which themes are studied and when. The idea is to study the entire Bible every year and to go more and more in depth as your children get older. It is definitely designed to work well with multiple ages at once, which is perfect for the homeschool family. It is a wonderful program, and I think it will work great for many parents.
For me, it works more like a guide than a curriculum. When I think of curriculum I am thinking everything I need is there, and there is not a lot of extra work on my part. Judah Bible suggests you create a notebook with all the information you are learning and for your child to do the same. However, the only thing that is provided are the "key idea sheets". These sheets are wonderful and we really enjoyed working on them together. However, I need more to make this more engaging for my younger children. I found coloring sheets and crossword puzzles online to go with each theme that we were studying. No, it's not difficult to find these things online, but it would be really nice if they were included in the material, to make it a more complete "curriculum". I also created some comprehension type questions to make sure my 5 and 6 year old were understanding what we were talking about. My 10 year old and I enjoyed the "key idea sheets" and Paul was able to pull more out then I thought he would be able to. Pulling out the key ideas of each passage truly helps the student to think about what the Bible is saying. It helps them to reach the ultimate goal of using the Bible in everything they do and in building the character I desire for my children!
So, in conclusion. The Judah Bible Curriculum gives you alot of great information on how to study the Bible both on your own and with your children. It does not, however, offer much in the way of materials to do this with. You will need to create or find the extra stuff on your own. I love the idea of creating a notebook as we work through studying the Bible. We have done this in History and the kids have really enjoyed looking back over what they have learned. I don't know why I never thought about doing that for Bible.
You can purchase all of the above mentioned as a download for $44 or you can order a hard copy for $74 (including shipping).
Please take a look at what other Crew Members had to say at the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog
Disclosure: I received the above product as a free download for the purpose of an honest review. All opinions stated above are my own, honest opinion and there was no other compensation given for this review.
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