Homeschool Bible Lessons

I have tried several different approaches to teaching the Bible to my children. My oldest began reading pretty early so from about ages 5 - 7 or 8 he really enjoyed the free bible lessons from Calvary Chapel. But once he outgrew those I really struggled with finding a good free Bible curriculum. But my husband started having D write Bible verses as copywork to help improve his handwriting. And it is still amazing to me how much scripture has gotten inside of him from such a simple task.

Since I have 3 little ones so close in age I have tried teaching a Bible lesson a little at a time over the course of a week. But now I am thinking of taking a "Sunday school class" approach with the children. I will teach the lesson in one day. I will try to keep it short (to keep everyone's attention), but memorable.

Here is the new method that I'm going to try on Wednesday.

• listen to the passages on our dramatized Bible CD
• have children read, discuss, and color a Bible mini book
• do a craft
• have the children recap the lesson out loud

Why I'm Switching to this Approach
I recently started helping out in the children's church and I was amazed at how much my children retain from a single class. So, I realized that it really doesn't take a week long of "studying" scripture when they're so small. What a relief. It was challenging to try to stretch a Bible lesson for 5 straight days. But I'm finally learning that quality really does matter more than quantity.

Bible Mini Books
I am so glad that I cam across Bible mini books during my search for free Bible curriculum. These things are pure genius. And I am so grateful to those who have made these little treasures and offered them for free online. Here are the resources that I use for free Bible Mini books.

• Dltk-Bible
• Christian Preschool Printables
• Preschool Sunday School Central

By utilizing all three sources, you can cover quite a bit of the Bible. We're covering the stories in the order they occur in the Word . And my 12 year old is studying the same lesson using the free Padfield Bible curriculum. He did a few lessons from it last year and really enjoyed it.

Update 03/30/11 Smiley (age 6) is starting to say that the DLTK work is "babyish". And he is not really into coloring. So I am keeping the Bible study the same for everyone else. But I am starting to print out lessons from Calvery Chapel for him. Everyone is still studying the same lesson, but with (hopefully) age appropriate material.