Show Me Thy Ways by Gertrude Hoeksema

I have just given away our well-used grade 4-6 Bible curriculum, all three years’ worth. It is another bittersweet moment marking the passage of time, and now it seems fitting to reflect on this quality resource.

Show Me Thy Ways, for grades 4-6, is an intense Bible curriculum, full of meaty ideas, Bible reading, maps, questions, and vocabulary words. Each lesson—and there are three a week—includes a Bible passage, an introduction, a detailed outline explaining many aspects of the passage and making it personal, a summarizing point to remember, and vocabulary. In the workbook, each week’s three lessons are usually grouped together, almost always with a map, questions, and many Bible texts to look up. The maps have important points marked with symbols, and the students are asked to print the place name next to the appropriate symbol. There are occasional timelines, crossword puzzles, vocabulary tests, personal applications, extra topics, and songs to sing and learn.

We did not use the curriculum quite as planned. For one, our Bible version does not match the workbook and that caused occasional problems. For another, we do not have access to the psalter used for memory work, but that’s fine because we have other memory work anyhow. And finally, we did not even know these books were still in print, so I had the children trace the maps and put them in the scribbler where they answered the questions, the side benefit being that they really did learn Bible geography well.

We found that our children could not manage the textbooks on their own in the recommended grade. This curriculum is meant to be taught by a teacher, so when I was unable to do that teaching, our children focused on the Bible readings and the workbooks and did not spend as much time as they could have with the textbooks. This was unfortunate, but they still learned a lot from the workbooks. On this note, older children and teens could benefit from this curriculum as well, especially since they would have an easier time with the textbooks which are, on the whole, excellent.

My favorite aspects: Most lessons include map work, so my children are familiar with the geography of the Bible, knowledge that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

My least favorite aspects: A few (very few) of the concepts in the textbooks seem a bit far-fetched, although usually the texts are insightful and explain the Bible passages very well.

Show Me Thy Ways is one of the best Reformed Bible curricula available for upper elementary grades. In many ways it is suitable for older students, too. If you are not Reformed, you will still be able to use this excellent curriculum for its comprehensive Bible instruction and map work; you should have very few issues because the worldview is not aggressively promoted but instead forms a background that occasionally determines what is highlighted. Another positive point is that is it priced very reasonably.

You can buy this curriculum from the publisher as well as from some homeschool suppliers; Amazon may be more expensive.