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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Dec 18 2009 at 8:29am | IP Logged
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I was wondering if others could share how they incorporate Bible stories and scripture reading in their home/homeschool.
In the What's working for you thread, Books mentions that she has liked using this program:
Bookswithtea wrote:
| Bible Study Guide for all Ages. We got bogged down for awhile (not the program's fault), but it is easy to use, a great way to do bible study, and easy to add in a Catholic perspective (and if you only buy the manual, you can avoid the cartoonish graphics). If there was a great Catholic alternative, I'd do it. Until someone writes one, this one is worth the $30 investment for a year's worth of bible study in a non consumable format. |
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I responded:
CrunchyMom wrote:
Something I've been contemplating, and I think I might work on during Christmas to start during Ordinary Time, is going through the missal and pulling out the child friendly Bible stories (basically, what I can find in our children's Bible) and verses that go along with the liturgical year. We try to make it to daily mass a few times a week, and it makes sense to me to read the Bible alongside the Church. Some weeks would be heavier than others, depending on what scripture was being read. Also, memory verses and (eventually) copywork could come from that week's readings.
I've wanted to include more Bible stories and scripture reading in our home, but I feel paralyzed at where to start since I didn't want the stories to feel random and isolated, but I also didn't want to start an "arbitrary" program that required my following a curriculum independent of the liturgy I was also seeking to follow.
Anyway, long and off-topic. Just thought I'd throw that out there, that a "Catholic" alternative to me would have scripture study coinciding with the mass readings. |
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And she replied:
Bookswithtea wrote:
| I thought about this for a long time before deciding to try the Bible Study Guide. I think that studying the bible along with the Church is a beautiful way to learn. But I also really like the method of going through a book at a time and reading it from beginning to end. I can see the value in both ways, so I'm looking for opportunities from both methods. |
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So, what have you found to be the best way to study scripture in your home?
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Marcia
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Several years ago I had read a book about Lectio Divina. I had done with with hubby several times and realized it was exactly what is done in the Atrium with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Now what's picked to be used in an atrium is what has appealed to the deepest level to kids...and there are always materials that go with it....so Lectio in it's form is very much mental only.....
that being said I thought I would try it with my kids around the breakfast table. It's also a chance for them to work on their narration and dictation if they want.
Here's how we do it. Someone collects all our Bibles off the shelf and puts them at our seats. Currently with a 10yo, 7yo, 5 yo and 2 yo. I read the OT passage, 7yo reads the psalm ad 10yo reads the gospel. Often we stop between each reading and narrate what we heard and talk for 1-2 minutes about it. I try to pre-read it to know what is coming. Then we go to the next passage. During the gospel the 5yo and 7yo can narrate by drawing a picture if they wish. Or I use it as part of their workboxes for them to remember what the gospel was and draw a picture with a word or two....sometimes a sentence for the 7yo.
We tend to do this 3 days a week. We got to Mass or Adoration the other days. I hope that when they are all older that we can have a more in depth Bible study, but this works for us right now.
I also host a Bible study in my home each week and they come and go and listen during the 1.5 hours.
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Marcia
Mom to six and wife to one
Homeschooling 10th, 7th, 5th, 2nd, PreK and a toddler in tow.
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Mackfam
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I'm so glad you started a new thread because I've been following along with this discussion in the *What's Working* thread and finding it very interesting.
I see great benefit and value in both approaches. Both foster a sense of connection. I've never read through scripture along with the liturgical year before in an intentional way incorporating pertinent Bible stories, memory gems, copywork. This is very appealing to me.
What is lovely about home education is that there is time to approach the stories and narratives of Scripture from a number of angles over the years.
We spent 2 separate years approaching the stories of the Bible from a historical approach - reading along historically, placing the happenings recorded in the Bible on a timeline to offer a sense of perspective along with our place in time. We each found this gave us a sense of our Old and New Testament family, and since I built our reading around Covenant History, linking each significant happening with the 5 Covenants God made with man, our studies were permeated with a sense of almost Advent-like hope. We literally read and waited with the Chosen People until we got to the Fullness of Time. It was a wonderful way to awaken in the children so many ideas - how all time points to that great Mystery of the Incarnation, how the Old Testament is the key to understanding and points to the New, how God reveals Himself slowly and gently throughout time, lessons in obedience and disobedience...and God's faithful presence in spite of all. Anyway, it was wonderful to read through this way because there was a sense of connection to everything.
Having said that, I think there would also be a great sense of connection in reading through the Scriptures liturgically, alongside Holy Mother Church. I really enjoy this idea! You've inspired me, Lindsay! I think I'd like to consider this further and invest some time planning to incorporate this idea as part of our Religion focus next year.
I particularly love the idea of finding memory gems in these readings, as well as copywork and for us dictations. Consider as well allowing this to inspire some picture study using sources of art from Biblical Art.
Initially, I see how this could become a part of our afternoon liturgical teas. These would be very simple teas and would fit so naturally side by side with our other liturgical teas. I'd welcome any other ideas you have on this. Thank you for the inspiration!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Bookswithtea
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My approach in the past has been to read the books in order through childhood and junior high (using progressively more advanced bible story collections), and then switch over to the liturgical readings for high school. I think the readings make more sense after a child is familiar with the overview. Jen, did you use something based on Jeff Cavin's program? I hear wonderful things about it.
One of my frustrations with some Catholic children's programs is that they often hit only the moments that are meditated on in the rosary and the stations, plus creation and the fall. That leaves a lot of gaps. 
Using the Bible Study Guide is new for us as an alternative to the story bible method. It takes 4 yrs to get through on a normal homeschool pace, and it requires mom, which makes it harder to keep up with than just assigning a story a day from the Vos bible, or whatever. I am really impressed, so far. I should say we aren't halfway through the first volume yet, so its possible there are aspects to it that are denominational (not Catholic). Caroline (Stellamaris) has more experience with them and may have some light to shed on this aspect???
But so far, I've not seen anything like that. Its easy and my 10 and 12 yr olds are following along without any problems. We do some of the quick memory tricks suggested, which they like. One of them is a series of cards with line drawn pictures like a star, a sheep, a dove, a tent, etc. Each of them are given 1 minute to recall a story in the bible from the picture. We are also memorizing the NT book names. There are review questions from previous lessons that only take a few minutes. It helps to retain the narrative. I sometimes skip a few here and there. There are often application scriptures from the NT on simple virtues that can be learned from the OT story. I like these applications a lot. I think it would be very easy to add in little things from the liturgical year with a simple resource like Magnificat or Word Among Us, but I'm not there yet.  Its hard enough for me to stay on top of it with lots of littlies in the house.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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CrunchyMom
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Books, I have done Jeff Cavins' program, and it is excellent. I went to Sunday School my entire life and knew all the Bible stories and doing his study was amazing in making it all the pieces fall into place!
I guess I was "figuring" the opposite of what you expressed in that I was thinking liturgy when younger and adding on a more in depth study (like the Bible Timeline series) as they get older. I was thinking that creating a knowledge of the individual stories and characters could be done by following the liturgical calendar. Ime, it seems I'm pretty sure that, in 3 years, one would have covered the entire narrative of the Old and New Testament, and while it might not all be in historical order, it wouldn't leave any "gaps" per se.
Of course, following the liturgical year also would not preclude using a Timeline to help visualize the stories in their historical context.
(OT: My boys are just getting old enough where their questions exhibit confusion over time and space. They don't read yet, but would a time line still be useful for visualization even if they can't quite understand what the numbers mean?)
Just pondering what you are saying (from experience, of which I have little!) and brainstorming a bit. The baby is finally asleep after the phone ringing twice while nursing him down at the computer, so, I'll have to leave my thoughts hanging for now!
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Bookswithtea
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I imagine it could be done either way. It may just be a personal thing, what makes sense to your way of thinking?
My current plan is to continue with the bible stories model for those too young for Bible Study Guide, then do BSG for 4 yrs before high school, and then liturgical readings (maybe Cavin's studies as well?) in high school. I think it becomes hard to juggle at some point, because I also want to include church history, apologetics, moral and social issues, etc. And of course, there are the studies of the saints, too. There's only so many years, kwim? Lately I've been shifting saint studies and church history to my "social studies" column to make more room.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Mackfam
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Jen, did you use something based on Jeff Cavin's program? |
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Yes and no. I really enjoyed an older version of Jeff Cavin's program...it's quite different from what is offered now I think though. This was around 1995-ish, I think, that I watched it initially. It fostered so many amazing connections for me - I was profoundly influenced. Then, there's a lot of salvation history (ala Scott Hahn) influence in my plans. You could say that Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins layed a lot of the foundation for my thoughts on ancient and salvation history, but the way we read through Bible history and history itself is really something I did on my own...certainly I was influenced by a happy blend of many of these thoughts. That's not to say that there's anything terribly original about what I did, just that I didn't follow a particular program. For example, I like reading through chronologically (ala Jeff Cavins) but I also came up with some unique lessons and reading to emphasize the different covenants God made with man (ala Scott Hahn) which illustrate how God reveals Himself slowly to man, a little more with each new Covenant, until He reveals Himself in the fullness of time, at the moment of the Incarnation. Don't envision great worksheets or outlines, much of this is through dialogue and conversation and some handwork that we did.
When I was a much younger homeschooling mom, I just read the Bible stories. I wasn't sure how to offer anything with a connection that made the story meaningful, so I figured just reading the story would be something. I guess it was...something...but now I like offering these narratives within a context. I think offering it simply within the liturgical year is really a lovely way to introduce these stories, Lindsay! And, of course what is beautiful is that this can be done very simply at first and with increasing depth and breadth, inviting more dialogue, as children mature.
crunchymom wrote:
| (OT: My boys are just getting old enough where their questions exhibit confusion over time and space. They don't read yet, but would a time line still be useful for visualization even if they can't quite understand what the numbers mean?) |
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There are two approaches here...one would be to just allow the stories to stand on their own and begin to form a sense of family and history just through their narratives. In general, I don't do any kind of timeline work until around 3rd grade, because as you are observing, a sense of time is confusing and not yet there in a younger child. It's still too abstract, and easily becomes confusing and overwhelming.
Having said that...there is one way to offer a sense of connecting to these stories with a timeline and I do this when my children are young (K/1st/2nd grade) with success. I use fan-fold printer paper (I happen to have inherited a huge stash from somewhere and protect it quite vigorously - something like this - hopefully you could find something cheap, or free). The point of the fan fold is that it folds up tidily, but stretches out neatly as well. I don't have the wall space to stretch out for thousands of years...but I do have a long hallway floor. Other ideas would be to tape pieces of paper together and crease at the taped seams so it folds...or...don't use paper at all...use objects on the floor to indicate the passage of time for certain years. We like paper because it can be added to by the children.
Anyway, use images, not words to indicate events. I got this idea from CHC many, many years ago. They suggested purchasing a second copy of a children's Bible to (gasp) cut up and use for a simple timeline. My first introduction to cutting up books.  (Nowadays, it would be simple to do this printing images from the web without having to cut up a book)
You start by stretching out the paper down the hall (you might mark it incrementally for yourself as a reference. The first thing to do is add a picture of baby Jesus at the fullness of time. I make a big deal out of that. Then, I give the child a picture of himself and show him where to add that. It's neat to step the time from Jesus to kiddo out. Then, it's just a process of adding events as we read about them on our fan fold paper using pictures. The big aha moment comes when they see themselves....and stretching way down the hall, they see baby Jesus is born...and stretching way down from that many of the Old Testament story images. We even used this for Advent one year, talking a little about the stories of the Old Testament and HOW LONG the very first Advent was...about 6000 years. It was our first attempt at a *Jesse tree*, only I didn't know it at the time.
Anyway, I never talk about numbers or dates really...just always point to the distance between HIM and us...or HIM and Abraham...saying things like, "look how long they have to wait." The fullness of time was always my point of reference. If this seemed confusing to the children...I'd just put it away without much ado...and read. The nice thing about this, for any kind of reading, is that you can jump around a bit...and you will if you are reading liturgically (though, since I've never paid really close attention, I'm not sure how much, that will be very interesting to me.) Anyway, having the fan fold **fullness of time-line** allows you to add in any Old/New Testament story we would happen to be reading during the liturgical year, always having that point, the fullness of time, as our reference almost like a fixed point on a compass.
Oh dear...time for me to go...and I don't have time to proof this at all, and I fear it could benefit from proofing as it's quite lengthy. I hope it's not confusing!!! I'll be back later to clean up any messes I made!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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stefoodie
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Our approach:
adults and high school: Jeff Cavins' Great Bible Adventure + the 14 books, then individual reading either Teen's Bible or their choice (we have NAB, RSV-CE and Douay-Rheims), Navarre Bible for those who are so inclined.
confirmation age: T3 (Great Bible Adventure, teen version)
Holy Eucharist age up to confirmation- their own children's bible
We started with Beginner's Bible, then Catholic Picture Bible, then My First Catholic Bible and the Golden Children's Bible (if I remember correctly -- it's a thick one and not Catholic but there were Catholics on the editing board) -- these are really just read at their leisure, and since they love reading their Bibles so much I don't have to twist their arm. My only problem is that they read through these so fast! I'm thinking of being more intentional and slow about it in the future, maybe starting next summer.
I'm thinking of Great Bible Adventure for Kids but since they watched the regular one with us anyway we might not need this.
In the past few months I've been reading the Liturgy of the Hours to them, the readings and some of the prayers at least, but quite sporadically, and just until interest wanes, e.g., we start in the morning and we take turns reading, and stop when I see their eyes or attention beginning to wander.
I see the benefit of using both approaches. Will be reading this thread more closely to see if we can improve some of the things we're already doing.
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stef
mom to five
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Bookswithtea
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stefoodie wrote:
confirmation age: T3 (Great Bible Adventure, teen version). |
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Can you tell me more about this, please?
stefoodie wrote:
| We started with Beginner's Bible, then Catholic Picture Bible, then My First Catholic Bible and the Golden Children's Bible (if I remember correctly -- it's a thick one and not Catholic but there were Catholics on the editing board). |
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 This is pretty much the same set of children's bible stories we've used. The Vos bible is our last story bible before switching to some sort of study.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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stefoodie
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| I think it becomes hard to juggle at some point, because I also want to include church history, apologetics, moral and social issues, etc. And of course, there are the studies of the saints, too. There's only so many years, kwim? |
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We do the Great Bible Adventure one time only -- or at least that's what we did with 18-yo dd, around 9th or 10th IIRC -- the whole family watched and filled in the timeline at the same time, then we did our own Bible readings. Scripture study per se already came hand in hand with Catechism and Apologetics so studying it in depth per the timeline, after the 14 books, was done on her/our own.
With the 13-yo our approach may be a bit different -- T3 now and then maybe a refresher with the adult version around 11th grade.
here's more info on T3
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stef
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Paula in MN
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I believe that Jeff (and Scott?) offer free online courses covering Salvation History here.
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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stellamaris
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Quote:
Using the Bible Study Guide is new for us as an alternative to the story bible method. It takes 4 yrs to get through on a normal homeschool pace, and it requires mom, which makes it harder to keep up with than just assigning a story a day from the Vos bible, or whatever. I am really impressed, so far. I should say we aren't halfway through the first volume yet, so its possible there are aspects to it that are denominational (not Catholic). Caroline (Stellamaris) has more experience with them and may have some light to shed on this aspect???
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There are a few questions in the BSG that suggest that only faith is necessary for salvation (and not baptism, also) and there is no incorporation of the Catholic understanding of the Sacraments in the program, but as just a method of studying the stories of the Bible, it is great. It is very easy to work around the non-Catholic elements, since the mom presents the material.
Like Jennifer, we have taken a historical approach in the early years, which is basically family-centered, while in high school we have used the Didache series, which they do on their own more or less.
One resource that is fabulous as a supplement to studying the history of salvation is Steve Ray's
Footprints of God series. I'd skip "Over Holy Ground" unless you wanted a video on the Holy Land in general, but the others are fabulous. The DVD on the apostolic fathers does have quite a few images of the deaths of martyrs, so you might want to save that for the older children, depending on your family.
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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sunshinyliving
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This is how we incorporate Bible stories and scripture reading in our homeschool:
We don't follow the liturgical year, but instead use a Bible story series that starts in Genesis and proceeds to the end of the New Testament.
For the Bible stories I read aloud one story/per day from the 10 volume "Uncle Arthur" Bible Story set. It is very comprehensive, covering just about every story in both the OT (no apocrypha) and NT. This set is beautifully illustrated. It is not Catholic, but most of the stories follow the Biblical account pretty closely. I generally just skip over any "moralizing" found in the stories. The stories are short, 5 minutes each or so.
For scripture, we generally study the passages found in the questions we are covering in The Apostolate's Family Catechism. We memorize some of these scriptures as well. Sometimes they end up correlating with our Bible stories :-)
This system has been easy for me and I feel the kids get a lot out of it.
Sincerely,
Diana C.
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Natalia
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Last year we started our studies with the Great Bible Adventure (the original one) and then we followed it up with the Footprints of God. The Footprints of God are available through Netflix which made easy on our budget. It has been a great thing.
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Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Incorporating Scripture and Bible Study
