There is no shortage of Bible curriculum in the homeschool world. Many curricula have Bible study built into their studies but some do not. Biblical Principle Approach places God at the center of every subject, but there is still a need for more formal Bible study. The choice I made is Judah Bible Curriculum.
How it works:
The Bible is divided into five overarching themes that are covered each year. Your family reads through the Bible each year, highlighting different people, events and scriptures. A weekly leading idea and scripture are offered in the hard copy version. The curriculum rotates every six years (after a one year intro the first year). See a scope and sequence here.
What I love about it:
- It’s a notebook method (which is consistent with what we already do), so your kids are reasoning from God’s word for themselves and producing their own pages. The hard copy version comes with a comb bound books with notebooking ideas and samples that are a great place to get inspiration.
- The 8 instructional tapes that come with the hard copy are wonderful. They introduce the idea of thinking governmentally, teaching through the themes and so much more. I enjoyed them and still refer back to them from time to time.
- Your child studies the Bible for himself. There’s no lesson to interpret scripture for you, no curriculum to follow (even though it’s called that, there are no formal lessons). The Holy Spirit guides the lesson tailored to your family.
- It studies the Bible governmentally (that is, who or what is in control). I love this! We are noting God’s providence, His character and nature and through key sheets we learn why things happened the way they did.
- It encourages Biblical scholarship and mastery of Bible study tools.
- It’s so affordable. $69 plus shipping gets me all I need for all my kids for all our years of homeschooling. That’s an amazing deal!
- Easy to use. It does not require a lot of preparation on my part. I can study right alongside my kids. They become my study helpers and we dive into the word of God together.
- See more about its distinctiveness here.
What I’m not crazy about:
- Ordering. It can be a challenge and take longer than you intended to receive it. The creator goes out of the country on mission trips frequently, so it can be a little dicey. Thankfully he is working stateside with a potential distributor, so hopefully that issue will go away soon.
- Online version. I wish it was as complete as the hard copy. I talked with the creator and he says they are working on getting the audio teaching online and that will be terrific. Those tapes are so helpful.
All in all, JBC is perfect with BPA because that’s where the creator is coming from. It’s a nice way to ease into BPA as well, if it’s new to you. And the drawbacks would still not keep me from buying or recommending it to others. In fact, I moderate a group for those using JBC here.
To see more, please visit Judah Bible Curriculum.
This is wonderful that you read through the Bible each year! I love that their is not a set script to read, but you let the Bible speak for itself. I bet you learn something new each time you read the scriptures. I like the idea of notebooking along side of it, is it like journaling?
This looks wonderful! I am going to take a look at this.
Thanks so much for the wonderful explanation. I’ve been intrigued by the responses several have stating that they use Principle Approach. I must admit I’ve not heard of it prior to seeing it on this site and really wanted to know about it. I really appreciate the detail you gave along with pricing and availability. This is something I may need to look into.
Thanks for this, I had recently looked into this curriculum and was sadly disappointed by the lack of detailed information given on the site. It sounds like something I will definitely buy once the audio resources are available online.
Amy
tarapoto, peru
Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for this review. I was on a hunt for a Bible curriculum because my daughter just really needs more direction and a more thorough teaching. So I came here after doing a few Google searches and coming up with nothing. I looked into the site and the scope and sequence and everything and went ahead and ordered it today!
I’m excited because it’s exactly what I’m looking for. I needed something that would challenge her and keep her interest and I really think this will be a great tool for the both of us.
So thank you VERY much for this review! It helps mother’s like me who need some direction and recommendations.
I am much more willing to go off a recommendation then to buy blindly, so I appreciate this site. 🙂
.-= Christin´s last blog ..Atmosphere =-.