I don’t know about you, but I find the idea of teaching my children about the Bible to be a little daunting. We’ve been reading our Children’s Bible, but it’s taken a while to get to the point that my daughter realizes that, in order to read any other bedtime stories, we first need to read a story from the Bible. But this means that she likely thinks of them as stories, not as lessons from which she can learn.
I recently discovered a new curriculum that would handle my dilemma. Teaching the Bible is a curriculum that journeys through the Bible to share its stories with toddlers and preschoolers. It’s filled with crafts and hands-on activities that are each designed to impart and simplify the lessons so that they are easier to understand and remember for our little learners. Alyssa Riggan, the mom behind the Teaching with Faith website, shared this curriculum with me in exchange for an unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Note: Read the entire review or scroll to the bottom to find a coupon for 25% the entire 12 Unit curriculum!
In The Beginning
The Bible begins with Genesis and God creating all things big and small. So does Teaching the Bible. I really loved how the first lesson of the first unit of this curriculum begins with creation and takes the time to make sure it’s memorable. Although creation covers seven days, this first lesson is meant to last for a week or two depending on if you include the optional lessons or not.
All of the units are digital downloads, but Unit 1 includes an extra download – a Creation Book for each child to make. I’m guessing it’s much easier to make if you own a cutting machine, as it includes instructions for properly setting one up to cut each color for each day, but we don’t own one so it’s a lot of cutting… mostly for mom and dad (I don’t expect a toddler or preschooler to be able to cut out an octopus, rhinoceros, or the letters in “REST”). If it proves too much cutting for you, Alyssa has the option to purchase a Creation Book Kit that includes a printed book with all of the cutouts on her website. (Although I did suggest that she add an optional coloring book to use in lieu of the cut-and-paste craft, I completely understand why she didn’t… see my interview with her below!)
Aside from including some difficult things to cut out by hand, I loved the Creation Book. Immediately after finishing the cover and Day 1 (God created light and dark), my daughter immediately had to call Grandma to share what she learned. She was super-excited and so was I, and then Grandma was excited too! A definite win!
Teaching the Bible Curriculum: Scripture
Every single lesson includes a Bible verse to learn and memorize which goes along with the lesson. There are posters for each memory verse in NIV and KJV, but the actual story from the Bible is not included. This allows you to choose the Bible you share with your children. As a Catholic, we do not use the NIV or KJV versions of the Bible as there are translational differences. That being said, I still believe the memory verses are worthwhile. The posters are optional, so it would be easy enough to replace the verse with the text from whichever Bible you use. Alyssa describes movements to use with each verse. These can either be used with the text she provides, the text from a different Bible, or you can modify the movements for your needs.
I didn’t grow up memorizing scripture outside of the songs I sang in the church choir, so the act of verse memorization is new to me. I really love that Alyssa incorporated movements. Whether you’re an adult or a child, you will usually have one way of learning that is best or easiest for you, but when you incorporate multiple methods it tends to be more effective. This verse memorization includes reading (for the adults and big kids), listening, speaking, and movement. This combination of learning styles will make memorization much easier than it would otherwise.
Crafts and Activities
Although we haven’t finished this curriculum by any means (there are 12 units to encompass a full year of study, and each day’s lesson should only take about 15 minutes [perfect for a toddler or preschooler attention span!]), the majority of the lessons were quick and easy to set up and used supplies that we printed or already had at home. Along with sensory bins, cut and paste crafts, matching, and more “typical” craft ideas, Alyssa incorporates toys and household items, and also includes food activities so your kids can learn as they munch on a snack.
I admit it. I found a bunch of the crafts and activities to be super-silly. But I think that’s the point. When kids do silly activities and have fun, they’re more likely to remember the activity and, hopefully, the lesson too. More importantly though, when kids find crafts and activities that have to do with the Bible fun, they’re more likely to be happy to learn about their faith. When my daughter completed her crafts, she was proud of her accomplishments and wanted to share. This allowed me to reinforce the lessons as she taught someone else what she’d done and learned.
Alyssa also includes an “Objective” and the “Bottom Line” after each activity. These are spaces that share the point of the activity. If something seems out of the box or you’re not sure how it relates to the Bible story for the lesson within the unit, just check out the Objective and Bottom Line. For example, after a craft where your child paints and decorates a rock, she shares “Bottom Line for Activity: Ensure children know that today’s story is about a boy who used 1 rock to kill Goliath.”
Overall Thoughts on the Teaching the Bible Curriculum
As I mentioned earlier, I read to my children from their Children’s Bible before reading their picture and story books each night. As we work our way through the Old Testament, there is a lot of killing and slaughter. I could easily ask my daughter to reflect to me what I read to her and try to get her to remember the stories, but I don’t want to really focus so much on those things. I want the exposure, but I don’t want her to think so much about death. Teaching the Bible is a way around that. The focus is on the lesson over the actual Word. After reading the scripture, you get to do crafts and activities that lead to understanding of the main idea of the lesson. Here are a few examples:
“We can obey God”
“God hears our prayers”
“We can have faith”
These main ideas are really the heart of teaching the Bible to our children after all: teaching them to know and love God and follow his Word. Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing every single activity in every single lesson, you can definitely pick and choose the ones that resonate with you and the ones you feel would be most impactful on your kids. And when you get to the end of the 12 units and have completed the Teaching the Bible curriculum, you can easily go back through it again! Just as adults will continue to study the Bible and learn new things every time, so will kids. And when we get to the point of restarting, my little toddler may be old enough to understand more, participate, and make his own creation book.
If you’re interested in Teaching the Bible, use the coupon code “inourhomeschool” to get 25% off the full curriculum!
By the way – if you want to learn more about the curriculum and about each unit, you can click here.
Interview with Alyssa Riggan
Can you share a little about yourself for my readers?
I live in the midwest of the US with my husband and our three kids, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 2 year old. Our house is usually pretty loud and crazy all day! I run on caffeine and Jesus! We are very active in our local homeschool community as well as the online homeschool world. I have an online focus on teaching young learners not only normal preschool concepts, but also Bible truths.
What inspired you to create the Teaching the Bible curriculum and what is your favorite part?
I was teaching a mixed preschool class at our church and at a loss of what to do with all the children because our curriculum just wasn’t working for us. Many of the curriculums were not a good fit— too expensive, only for older children, only for younger children, too many supplies each week, or set up for a larger church! So I set out to create my own. I created Teaching the Bible to use in this mixed classroom of children from 3 to 6. Once I started staying home, I wanted something that could be used with all my children to teach Bible truths at one time! So I pulled out my Teaching the Bible curriculum and made some adjustments so that it could be used in the home as well! My favorite part is that it is not just a collection of stories and coloring pages. I find that many homeschool programs are just worksheets or coloring pages and my kids want more. So I love that there are different types of activities for each lesson so that my kids are never bored. They ask all the time what our Bible activity is for the day and that makes me super happy!
How did you decide which Bible stories and lessons to include?
I used a few different children’s Bibles to pick out the main stories. I wanted the curriculum to cover the entire Bible from front to end to provide a complete curriculum for my children. I also took into account how the calendar fell to ensure that Bible lessons would fit with the Christian holidays. I then just started combining them into units to make it easier for organization.
Aside from your Teaching the Bible curriculum, what other products do you have that might benefit my readers?
I have a ton of early learning activities in my store. I have started working on a weekly alphabet curriculum that would span the whole year for an older toddler or preschooler. Right now I already have activities for each letter: sensory mats, a coloring book and letter crafts. Coming up soon, I will have a recommended reading list for each letter of the alphabet as well as snacks to finish out a weekly curriculum. I also have some other early learning activities to do with your child such as nature hunts, zoo field trip extensions, and some dramatic play kits designed with the homeschooler in mind!
How can my readers connect with you online?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachingwithfaith.alyssa/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alyssateachingwithfaith
Facebook Group: Hands-on Preschool with Teaching with Faith https://www.facebook.com/groups/3357990187792656/
Blog: www.teachingwithfaith.com
Thank you so much for your time! And thanks for joining us In Our Homeschool!
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