My kids have used products by Bible Study Guide for All Ages both at home and at church before, so my 5th grader and I were happy to move up and review the Advanced (5th & 6th Grade) level and the big Wall Maps and Timeline Set!
WHAT IS IT?:
This time, we’re moving up to the Advanced Level (5th & 6th Grade) since my 10-year old son, Holden, just entered 5th grade. We received both the Advanced Student Pages and the Advanced Teacher Key, plus the giant Wall Maps and Timeline Set with the corresponding Label Book, in addition to the Bible Book Summary Cards. Because we’ve used this in the past, we also already own the Children’s Songs CD Set.
While it’s no
t required to have all of the accessories, it is recommended. It does aid in the learning by providing visual aids to assist with grasping the order of events and songs for auditory learners to assist with memorization. I know my kids have enjoyed having the “extras,” and it helps me keep it all straight, too!
If you keep a pace of teaching 2 lessons per week year-round or 3 lessons per week for the school year, then this program will last you a full 4 years. Each time you complete a book, you move on to the next set of lessons. As a child gets older, it’s easy to pick up where they left off with the next lesson number while just moving one level up. The lesson content is the same across the levels. The level of input from the student just increases with each level, such as moving from circling multiple choice answers to filling in the blanks to open-ended questions.
The pages are printed on legal-sized paper, and each lesson takes up one sheet of paper on the front and back. (Please note that most of my photographs show a comb-bound letter-sized book with laminated covers. This is because the book I received for review started with a lesson number beyond the scope of the Label Book I received. So in order to fully demonstrate the use of the labels for the timeline and wall maps, I actually had my son complete lessons from the previous book, which I had already purchased in downloadable format. That’s why it looks smaller and has a different cover).
OUR EXPERIENCE:
We were already planning to use Bible Study Guide for All Ages for our new school year, so when the review came up, it seemed only natural to write one! We’ve come and gone from this program a few times over the years. We used it at home for a while when my older kids were younger and still in homeschool. We also chose to use it at church in order to teach bible study classes for a while. We had one class with mixed ages, so my husband used the level that is a teacher’s guide written for all ages! That worked well. So we have a fair amount of experience with these products already and were really looking forward to getting back to it this school year.
Getting started is very simple. The student pages provide you with one sheet per lesson. We are using it at a pace of two lessons per week during this school year, so for us, this program can actually stretch out longer than four years in total if we choose to keep it going. One side of the paper provides new lesson material based on stated scripture passages, while the other side provides a summative review of past lesson material.
After you present the scriptures to the student, there is a series of questions that ask the student to fill in or mark something in the illustrations to the right of the questions. The illustrations provide clever drawings that do a great job of summarizing the events in the passages. Each question and corresponding illustration activity breaks down another verse or verses from the stated scripture passages. The activities might involve circling something, crossing out something that doesn’t belong, labeling, filling in the blanks, matching, or explaining why something happened. This is a wonderful way to make sure the child understands what’s happening in the scripture, broken down a verse at a time.
On the review side, questions might involve true and false, matching, filling in the blanks, and other answer forms. There’s also memorization practice, an interesting fact, either a timeline or map activity on the paper itself, small group activities, and questions that help the student apply scripture to their daily lives. I really liked the “Apply It” section, because it always asks Holden to state what God is saying to him for his life by using the word “I” or “me” in his answer. This was a good way to spark discussion between us on how scripture actually applies to his own personal life.
The teacher pages are a handy thing to have when you are short on time or are stumped by something. They provide complete answers to the student pages and are actually a reprint of the full student pages with the answers filled in and marked on the pages. In addition, they give instructions for placement of the labels on the big wall maps and timeline. This is instrumental if you are using those items, because it’s broken out by lesson so you can quickly prep for that activity before the lesson. In the Label Book, there is a guide for placement of all of the pictures and labels, but it’s obviously easier to have it laid out for you in the margin of the teacher pages.
The Label Book contains answer keys for the timeline and wall maps in addition to the cardstock images and labels that you will cut out and put in the appropriate places. Some labels will need to be removed at times so it doesn’t get too “busy-looking,” so I found it’s a good idea to apply them with simple poster tack. This allows you to remove and reapply the labels as necessary. There’s also a section of labels that need to be applied before you begin the first lesson, and there’s a simple illustration in the book for how to place those on the timeline.
There are 3 wall maps in the set, but in the ten lessons that we completed during the review period, we only used maps 2 and 3, so those are the only ones we have mounted on the wall at this time. Just know that there is a third map, as well. When using the timeline and wall maps, you’ll need to have sufficient wall space available. You’ll see in the photos that they take up considerable space, so you’ll want to verify you have room to mount them before purchasing. Even if you don’t use them, though, the student pages have small versions of the maps and timelines printed on them, so your student will still have the opportunity to look at and study them.
The Bible Book Summary Cards provide a simple summary of what each book of the bible is about and who wrote it. It also has a handful of questions and answers to verify the student remembers this information. Many of the review sections in the lessons will ask the student to review certain summary cards for the lesson.
We continue to enjoy these lessons just as we have in the past. Holden is 10 years old and seems to be at a good age to understand more of the meaning behind the scriptures than maybe he did in the past. When he was younger, these lessons were good for teaching the basic bible stories so that the events and characters became familiar to him. Now he’s old enough to use these lessons to see how scripture is meaningful and applicable to his own life. These lessons have sparked some good discussions between us, and I know he’s noticing more details than he has in the past.
Overall, we really like this program, and I love the built-in review. Holden has ADHD, so sometimes his recollection skills are lacking, and I’ve found the review activities are a great way to keep the material fresher in his mind. The variety of pencil activities ensures no two lessons are exactly the same.
This was our first experience with the big wall maps and timeline. At first, I thought they took up too much wall space to continue using them, but now that we have a fair amount of labels on them, I can see how they are really useful to strengthen understanding of how events fit together and where events took place.
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