Christian Curriculum

 

Product:

The Judah Curriculum's purpose is "to make Bible Literacy the hallmark of the new generation of Christians. The Judah Bible Curriculum is designed to help you teach your student how to study and research the Bible, extract true understanding from it, and apply Biblical principles to his or her own life and character." The curriculum offers the student the following:

• The BIBLE is the textbook. The student studies and learns the Bible.
• The student learns God's purpose in history, studying the hand of God in the lives of men and  nations through the Bible.
•  The student develops his reasoning ability, helping him to apply Biblical principles personally.
•  The curriculum helps you shift from rote learning to Biblical reasoning.
•  The student learns the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the personal responsibility of the individual.
•  The student learns the relationship between individual character and national liberty.

This Biblical curriculum is based on the principle approach which helps the student develop Godly character and knowledge of the Bible. The Judah Bible Curriculum gives you a curriculum map for grades K-12. Each week the student studies one Bible Key in depth for the whole week and from other relevant resources. The curriculum will take the student through the bible in one year. Each year, the student will be studying different Bible Keys- individuals, events, institutions, and documents helping the student understand the whole picture by teaching details. The curriculum comes in a downloaded form as well as hard copy. The online access which cost $44, includes the Judah Bible Manual of instructions and resources in e-book format. The manual has a K-12 Weekly Theme Guide. This includes in e-book format a Notebook Ideas book to help you get started. You also will get the complete JBC Teacher Training Audio Seminar. This training includes eight lectures in mp3 format that you can download to your computer three of which teach through the Bible. You can use this material online and/or download it to print out. With the hard copy you will receive the Judah Bible Curriculum Pack. This includes the Judah Bible Curriculum Manual of instructions and resources with the K-12 Weekly Theme Guide. You will also receive a Notebook Ideas book for elementary to help you start your notebook. The JBC Teacher Training Audio Seminar includes - eight lectures on CDs that teach you how to teach the Bible to your students. "Three of the lectures teach through the Bible as you would teach your students. The lectures contain the seed ideas and concepts to be taught with the Judah Bible Curriculum." They include the following topics:

    Education and Character/Curriculum Overview
    How God Changes Nations
    God’s Kingdom: Creation - Flood.
    God’s Kingdom: Abraham - Malachi
    God’s Kingdom: Matthew - Revelation
    Methods: Weekly Themes, Notebooks, Key Sheets, Writing Exercises, Essay Testing
    God’s Kingdom: Pentecost - Present
    Studying the Life of Joseph

The cost for the hard copy is $74. The audio seminar is available separately in the on line store.

The Judah Bible Curriculum

PO Box 122

Urbana, IL 61803

217-344-5672

217-344-0446

My Experience:

With this curriculum the Bible is the textbook which gave me an opportunity to study the Bible together with my 6 year old daughter. Since I had the opportunity of doing this with her, I'm able to help her understand the principles so she may apply them in every area of her life. Just a few weeks ago, my daughter learned about Creation , The Flood, and The Tower of Babel. Since these were some topics she had already learned, I decided to go over Lecture 3 Creation-Flood just to make sure she had understood the stories. In this lecture, Bill Burtness explains Genesis. He mentions how all government has been given to God. When we sing or say God is Lord we are talking about government. Bill Burtness also explains  the story of Adam and Eve. When the serpent manipulated and lied to Eve to cleverly get her to eat from the Tree of Wisdom. In this lecture, the vendor asked his students to look at a diagram, however, I was unable to see it because I was listening to the audio. In this lecture Bill Burtness also explains the story of Cain and Abel and how jealousy turned to murder. All these stories accorded before the Flood when the type of government was "anarchy and vengeance." After the Flood, "authority was given to man for a specific purpose; to protect the sanctity of human life made in the image of God." Once I finished listening to the lecture, I explained the lesson to my daughter and had her complete some of the suggested note book activities.The activities had grade levels printed on them so it was easy for me to look at the grade and see if the activity was appropriate for my 6 year old. The suggested activities were a bit hard to decipher what was written on them. The hand writing was not clear and some of the activities did not state what the child had to do to complete them. One of the activities reviewed was the verse Genesis 3:11. In this verse God approached Adam and Eve and asked them if they had eaten from the Tree of Wisdom. On the top of the page was the question " Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?" written on it. On the left side of the paper, there was a "happy face" and the word "right" written beneath it. On the right side of the paper there was a "sad face" and the word "wrong" under it. Written on the bottom of the page was the verse "Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.. Joshua 24:15." I'm not exactly sure how she was to complete the assignment so I had her write two behaviors which God would approve of above the "happy face." Above the "sad face" I asked her to write two behaviors that God would find to be inappropriate. When I continued to look at the suggested note book activities, I came across an activity suggested for a 4th grader but I decided we could complete it together. The activity was called 'Creation Command" and the student was suppose to write three statements. Each statement was an example of a traffic light. For the green light, the student would write something that God would want her to do. For the yellow, the statement written had to do with a situation that might become inappropriate and therefore not right in the sight of God. The last statement dealt with the red light. The student would write something pertaining to a situation that would break one of God's commands. This is my assumption of the activity. The last activity my daughter completed for Lecture 3 was one teaching her about God's love. Printed on the sheet of paper were two arks. One of the arks had Noah's name written on the top of it and a rainbow drawn in the center of the ark. On the right side of the paper was the word "Me" written on the top of the ark and a cross drawn in the middle of the ark. I was unsure of what my daughter was suppose to do to complete the assignment so I asked her to color both of the arks. I also explained to her how God placed the rainbow in the sky (hence the rainbow draw in the middle of one of the arks) to remind us of His promise to Noah. I also explained the other picture by reminding her of His promise to us. That our sins are forgiven for those that except Him as our Lord and Savior (the cross drawn in the center of the other ark). Another lecture I decided to listen to was Lecture 8 Key Individuals Joseph. In this Training Audio Seminar Mr. Bill talks about Joseph and his experiences with his brothers and later in Egypt.While listening to the audio, a female individual asked a question and unfortunately, I could not understand what she had asked. There was some background noise and the question was not repeated by the speaker. I did enjoy listening to scripture being quoted especially verse Jeremiah 29:11. This is one of my favorite quotes. It says "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." I love this verse. After I listened to the Training Audio Seminar, I viewed the suggested notebook ideas but unfortunately I did not see any activities for her grade level pertaining to Joseph. All of the stories are retold via the Training Audio Seminar so if someone did not have a bible available, the adult could still understand the lesson and teach the child. Time lines and maps are recommended but the lessons could be taught without them.

My Overall Thoughts:

The lectures were a bit long and with two kids running around it was a bit difficult to listen to all at once. I would recommend the curriculum but not for young children. Even though my daughter really enjoyed revisiting the story of Creation, The Flood, The Tower of Babel, and Joseph, it was time consuming for me to listen to the lectures and then present the information to her. I found it helpful to browse the website judahbible. Even though I would have to come up with my own explanation on how to complete the activities, I still found ideas that I may use for her Bible notebook. The Scope and Sequence section was also informative. This gave me an overview of the summary of the Bible Keys my daughter would be studying with this curriculum. The web site also had a power point presentation in which the vendor talked about the Three Philosophies of Government. The first one was “Individual is Sovereign” in which there's no government. It's basically an anarchy. The next one was “God is Sovereign.” In this philosophy there's liberty with the law and an internal government. And the last one was “State is Sovereign.” In this type of government there's tyranny and an external government. Additionally, while listening to the lectures, diagrams were being referred to, however, I was unable to see them. The curriculum  is complete for its purpose. I emailed the vendor and less then 24 hours later, he responded to my email. I appreciated his quick response to my question. Final note, " When we refuse to govern ourselves then authority over our lives is shifted upward. In order to keep freedom, we must govern ourselves."

Homeschool Crew Blog post homeschoolcrew.com

The product was received free of charge for review purposes.