Hi, Home School Solutions Friends!

I attended the state convention for home schoolers in Iowa last weekend (the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators or NICHE), and I really had to exercise the spiritual discipline of restrained spending! As always, the curriculum hall was never-ending, and there were so many great resources to peruse.

I'll comment in the coming week about some of my favorite finds. Please feel free to comment with your favorites as well.

I'm most excited about the resources I found that I'm going to use in the coming two years with my own kiddos, ages 3 and 5, for Bible instruction and character training.

This year I'm going to use products from Doorposts. You can view their product catalog at www.doorposts.net.

For Bible study, we're going to use their book called The Mighty Acts of God (only $5.50!) which is a guide to simple Bible drama times and celebrations. I have a budding drama queen on my hands, and I know that both my kids will LOVE dressing up to re-enact the stories. I'm also going to use a set they sell called Toys for the King's Children. This set includes patterns to make a Moses and Jonah doll (Grandma will help, I hope), Bible times paper dolls and a reproducible Days of Creation sequence puzzle ($6 for the set).

For character training, I'm using the Doorpost's full-color,
8 1/2 x 11, pre-laminated charts along with The Brother Offended Checklist booklet. The four charts and booklet cost around $20 as a kit. For those of you who took my Motivation 101 class in January, these scripture-based charts complement the techniques I recommend. (Lora, I think these are what you emailed me about?! Thanks for the tip! It's such a time saver to buy these rather than to create my own!)

One chart is called the Blessing Chart, for tracking positive behaviors; one is called the If/Then Chart, for maintaining consistency with disciplinary actions; one is called the Go To The Ant Chart, based on Proverbs 6:6 to assist in evaluating lazy or avoiding behaviors; and the last is called the Brother Offended Checklist, a step-by-step guide to aid kids in solving conflicts before "tattling."

My goal for our Bible study is to help my children really KNOW the stories of God at work to the point that they can retell them with biblical accuracy. I also want them to be trained to make behavior choices based on a biblical model. As we did last year, we will focus on memorizing and reviewing scripture verses to aid in character development.

Of course, they will be involved with church programs, too, but I firmly believe it's my and my husband's job to be their primary spiritual teachers. I want to be prayerfully deliberate as I develop a personalized "scope and sequence" for our family's spiritual development.

Check back soon to find out what I recommend for Bible at the "next level!"

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

The Bible study teaching book I mentioned in the last post is called Bible Lessons for Young Readers, and was published by Standard Publishing in the 1990's, I think. As far as I can tell, it, and the other book on the life of Christ that was similar, is out of print.

However, I did find something that looked similar by Standard. It's called the Route 52 curriculum. It features 8 reproducible teaching books that cover the Bible in a year each year from age 4 to age 12.
If you could use them for more than one child, or swap with a friend, they're still more economical than purchasing a Bible curriculum from a home school publisher.

Another option is simply to allow your child to participate in an AWANAs program, or similar program, at your church, and use that curriculum as a spring board throughout the week.

If you have other Bible teaching resources you like, I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

Q: I've looked at some "pre-packaged" elementary Bible curriculums, and they seem a little expensive. Do you have any good economical suggestions?

A: Absolutely! And thanks for waiting patiently for my response! Here are a few of my favorites:

1. International Children's Bible Handbook by Lawrence Richards, Word Publishing; This is a great, comprehensive survey of the Old and New Testaments for children, complete with hands-on activities at the end of each unit. This book is perfect for upper elementary students, and would easily take one school year to study.

2. I really like the kids' inductive Bible stories from Kay Arthur. You can choose from a long list of choices at her website,
www.precept.org. I recommend these for upper elementary or middle school students.

3. One really great, and FREE resource is available from Child Evangelism Fellowship. They will send an age-appropriate 2-color Bible lesson in the mail to your child (every kid loves to get his own mail!) each week. When your child completes and mails back his lesson, the Mailbox Club will return it complete with encouraging comments and stickers! Children receive a certificate after completing each set of lessons. My kids love being in the Mailbox Club! Visit www.wonderzone.com to sign up.

4. When I taught at a Christian school, we used a reproducible Bible lesson series that I loved! One book included reproducible easy-readers to accompany each lesson. The books were full of fun, hands-on activities. I haven't been able to track the set down, but when I do, I'll post the details. If this rings a bell with you, please post a message and remind me about the titles of these books.

5. One of the best things older students can do is to listen to and read the entire Bible aloud in a year. Talk about a cheap curriculum! All you need is a readable Bible translation (For example, the NIV is written at a 5th-7th grade level; KJV is written at a high school level.) One option is to use a Bible that tells the story of God's people in chronological order. You could easily find a checklist to mark off scriptures that are read; it's also a great idea to ask your child to journal after each reading.

6. Here are a few websites that might help, too.

www.focusonyourchild.
This is the Focus on the Family website for parents; a link is provided on the right. There are a lot of great resources and links available.

www.calvarychapel.org/children/site
This site offers a comprehensive set of free printable Old Testament and New Testament stories and activites for both primary and intermediate students.

www.akidsheart.com
This site features lots of cutesy Bible stuff, plus online puzzles and games.

http://gardenofpraise.com
This site features lots of help for teachers in all curriculum areas, including interactive on-line Bible lessons and printables. If you haven't checked out this site, plan to spend some time browsing!

www.lifeway.com
This is the Lifeway Christian Resources site of the Southern Baptist Convention. This site offers a home school help section, Bible curriculum, and a copy of the Holman Standard Bible online.

Happy Home Schooling!
Mrs. Sherry