Through my 11+ years of homeschooling, I’ve used a variety of Bible curriculum. From dot-to-dot worksheets with a Bible story in the very early days to just reading verse-by-verse, I have used quite a few methods to teach my children the Bible and the doctrine of our Christian Faith.
Even when we had terribly difficult homeschool seasons (severe morning sickness, rebellious children, etc.), our anchor was our morning Bible time and prayer.
For the past 3 years, my children and I used Christian Studies from Memoria Press to learn and review basic Bible knowledge that is important for every Christian to know.
Even though we have completed all three books in this series, we are going to start over with Book 1 again this school year. I’ll explain why below!
Since I enjoy seeing how other families use homeschool curricula, I thought it would be helpful for me to outline our family’s method for using Christian Studies from Memoria Press.
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We have our Bible time as soon as we all get to the school room, and it takes around 30 minutes or so each day. Even if we can’t have our regular Bible time for some reason (an out-of-the-house appointment, etc), we always stand in the school room and pray.
I try and start our school day by 8:15, but I have a few stragglers that want to sleep in.
➡You can see all of my other homeschool curriculum posts here. You’ll find our yearly curriculum choices along with specific reviews for spelling, English grammar, Latin, and more.
Christian Studies I-III from Memoria Press Overview
Christian Studies contains three books, and each book is designed to be covered over the course of a school year. There are 25 lessons total in each book with a review lesson after every 5 lessons, to make 30 total weeks.
Each lesson is to be completed over the course of a week.
The study uses The Golden Children’s Bible and the questions and picture study are designed for that Bible.
Once you complete the three books, your children will have a broad understanding of the main events of the Bible. The 3 books go in the following sequence:
Christian Studies I: All Major Bible Stories up to the Entry into Canaan
Christian Studies II: The Rise and Fall of Israel and The Period of the Prophets
Christian Studies III: All Major New Testament Stories
Since you can pick up your Bible and start reading in any spot, you can certainly work through the three books in any order you so choose.
The Christian Studies books are designed to be used with The Golden Children’s Bible. Golden Children’s books are classics and our family has loved them for years. I was delighted to find a curriculum that used The Golden Children’s Bible as a supplement!
While we are not a KJV family (we mostly use ESV), The Golden Children’s Bible is a paraphrase of the KJV. So you and your children will read words such as ‘kine’ or ‘kinsmen’ or ‘firmament.’ This is okay with me and even desired. These lesser known vocabulary words only broaden our frames of reference.
What is an example of a Christian Studies lesson?
When I am evaluating whether a curriculum will work for our family, I like to see what an actual week’s worth of work looks like. I’ll walk us through the way our family uses Christian Studies each week, so you can judge for your own family.
Note: Keep in mind there are many ways to use a curriculum. This is just how our family does it. Take what works for you and leave the rest! Also note that this is how the week should go, not necessarily how it does go. Life does happen that throws off my plans sometimes. 🙂
This sample week focuses on Lesson 14 in Christian Studies Book I.
Lesson 14 in Christian Studies I is on God calling Moses and the Miraculous Signs the Lord showed Moses. It covers Exodus 2-4, and covers pages 102-105 in The Golden Children’s Bible.
I’m going to tell you what I do each day during our Bible time, but please note that I have five children, ages 4 to 16. If I had only littles, my approach would be a bit different.
Over the weekend (usually Sunday evening) – I read through the Scripture in my Bible and glance over the lesson for the week
Monday:
— Review Drill Questions from back of book
— Review Days of Creation in the correct order; Choose 1 memorized verse to recall and recite
— Review the Facts to Know
— Read the Bible verse (Exodus 3:13-14) and talk about the questions related to it. Start committing it to memory. Memory verse due by Friday.
— Read pages 102-103 in The Golden Children’s Bible. (If the selection is shorter like this one is, I sometimes read the whole selection two days in a row, rather than split it up.)
Tuesday:
— Review Unit 1 Drill Questions from Book 2
— Review Facts to Know and Memory Verse (Exodus 3:13-14)
— Review pages read yesterday in The Golden Children’s Bible; I have one of my children repeat the bullet points of events
— Finish reading the section – pages 104-105.
Wednesday:
— Review Unit I Drill Questions in Book 3
— Review Facts to Know and Memory Verse; practice reciting the verse
— Review all of this section, pages 102-105 in The Golden Children’s Bible
— Read aloud from the Bible the extra readings for this Lesson: Genesis 15:13-14, Genesis 28:13, and Acts 7:20-36; Discuss how those relate to the focal passage from this week; I assign one passage per child
— Answer Questions #1-5 from the workbook orally
— Look up the Geography sections (Midian and Mt. Horeb) on our classroom maps
Thursday:
— Review Unit 1 Drill Questions in Book 1
— Review Facts to Know and Memory Verse; practice reciting it
— Review the section read in The Golden Children’s Bible this week; one or two of my children narrate the talking points
— Finish reading aloud the extra readings for this Lesson: 1 Corinthians 1:25, 26-27 and John 8:58; I assign one passage per child but everyone has to follow along in their own Bibles
— Review the Geography on the classroom map
— Answer Questions #6-7 in the Student Guide and review the answers for #1-5
Friday:
— Review Unit 2 Drill Questions from Book 2
— Solid review of the week’s passage, Facts to Know, and Bible Verse; everyone recites the Bible verse from memory
— Answer Question #1 in workbook in writing – it’s the test question
Christian Studies Student Guide and Tests
Each of my children have a Student Guide (workbook) so they can follow along with the Lesson each week. We don’t use these every day, however. They also use the Student Guide for the Review Lesson, which occurs after every 5 lessons.
We use the Review Lesson as a true review and work through all of the activities in the Guide orally, while they fill in their answers with a pencil on their own time.
I have mentioned a few times that I do test my children in Christian Studies, but only count grades for 6th grade and lower. In 7th grade and up in our house, there is a separate Bible study for olders, and their Bible grades are taken from that subject. I listed what we’re using this year at the bottom of this post.
The tests are written on a 3rd-6th grade level, so they’re very easy for my olders. I grade them, we identify trouble spots with memorization, and make sure we add those in the next few weeks.
The reason I do it this way: I want my children to have a solid understanding of the events of the Bible from a historical, chronological, and spiritual perspective.
Of course this type of learning doesn’t translate over to heart change, as that is only done through the Holy Spirit. My job as their mother, teacher, and mentor is to ensure their foundational knowledge of God’s Word and then let the Holy Spirit change their hearts as needed.
My Children’s required work with Christian Studies
Since my children are of various ages and stages, their requirements in Christian Studies varies.
My Junior Kindergartner – My little man is required to sit with us each day during Bible time. He can have his cars out if he’s not too noisy, but he has to be listening. He also is required to answer all of the questions that are listed in the Teacher’s Guide about the illustrations in The Golden Children’s Bible. He loves this part!
My 5th grader – My 5th grader will be required to answer all of the questions in her Student Guide in written sentences. She’s very good at writing sentences, and since we will go over the answers orally several times, this will be an easy assignment for her. She’s also required to take the tests, which she gets a grade.
My 4 older children are all required to memorize the weekly Bible verse and read the week’s lesson from the actual text in their Bibles on their own time.
Miscellaneous Comments about Our Bible Study
Here are a few miscellaneous notes, in no particular order, regarding our own homeschool Bible study.
→ Once my kiddos are in 7th grade, they continue to participate in our morning Bible study time, but they also do their own thing.
This year, my 11th grader will take a Memoria Press online class on Dante’s The Divine Comedy. This will be plenty of extra Bible study for him.
My 9th grader and I are working through The Acts of the Apostles (a study on the book of Acts) during the 1st semester, and The Wars of the Jews during the 2nd semester.
My 7th grader will work though Christian Studies IV, which is a 30,000-ft. overview of the Bible as it goes book by book.
→ If I have portrayed morning Bible time to seem all Sunshine and Roses, know that is not the case! While some days and weeks go really well, we certainly have mornings around here where everyone is a Grumpus. Such is life.
→ We have a family devotional time in the evening every night after supper. We usually discuss the Verse of the Day from the Bible app or read a few verses from a book of the Bible each night. We discuss prayer needs and then pray. Pretty simple.
Our family time in the evening has looked very different through the years. This is the current version with the ages and stages of our children.
Do you have questions about our Bible time or using Christian Studies with your own kiddos? Just leave a comment!
➡️ Browse through all of the homeschool curriculum posts here at Mama’s Learning Corner.
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I teach JK and we uses this curriculum for our lower grades. For Jk it uses a different Bible. My kids have a Bible story and a verse to learn each week. Also it incorporate the book big feeling little people.
Hey Melissa, I never used a preschool curriculum with my older four, but I bought Memoria Press’ Junior Kindergarten set to use with my 4 year old this school year. It uses the Story Bible, which I LOVE. It also included the Big Feelings Little People book you mentioned, and I’m looking so forward to using it. 🙂
I’m sure you have fun teaching the JK program – it has great ideas!!
xo, Lauren
Thank you so much for this post – this curriculum looks amazing and like something that the kids and I would really enjoy! We use the KJV & I was searching last night for a children’s KJV for my youngest – perfect timing 🙂
We’ve been working on “Bible Prophecy for Kids 1-7,” by Kay Arthur & Janna Arndt. My kids are at 7th and 9th grade level. The curriculum uses NASB, but we always cross-reference with KJV. It also teaches kids the inductive method – kids mark up the Bible passages in the back of their workbook and come to a conclusion abt what the scripture says after doing that. It’s designed to be a 5 week curriculum and has quizzes and a few games, but we’ve been going very slowly to really understand what we’re learning.
Take care,
Kelly
Hey Kelly – Oh YAY! That is good timing!
We did a James study from Kay Arthur and it was great!! Glad it was such a good fit for your kiddos, too.
xo, Lauren
I really enjoy your posts, and they are so helpful! We now have five little ones 9 and under. We have always used Abeka Bible, but I’d like something that we can all use together. This sounds like it could work! Thank you!
Emily