Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Bible, Bible curriculum

This topic has 11 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by Wings2fly.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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May 19, 2009 at 7:18 am
nerakr
Participant
I’ve decided to start our hs year in July. Here’s what I’ve decided for Bible: Penny Gardner’s Bible reading plan, supplemented with coloring sheets from DLTK and/or an activity from 1001 Ways to Introduce Your Child to the Bible. (I’m not going to use the Bible crafts at DLTK, since I figure that’s what CM would consider twaddle). Does this sound reasonable to you for kindergarten? I was going to put away the Bible story book unless he asks for it specifically and use the NKJV since it’s large print.
Karen
May 19, 2009 at 3:38 pm
the9clarks
Participant
Never heard of those resources, so I have no idea. We just read Leading Little Ones to God. 😀
May 19, 2009 at 4:43 pm
csmamma
Participant
We LOVE Penny Gardner’s Bible reading plan. Also, we use “Hold That Thought” Bible coloring & notebooking pages. I think your plan sounds great, Karen!
Have fun!
Heather
May 19, 2009 at 7:10 pm
baileymom
Member
We use Vos’ The Child’s Story Bible and Hasting’s The Children’s Illustrated Bible and he sits in on “real” NIV bible reading at night.
…I didn’t realize story bibles were “un-CM” like. I think I recall reading a post where Sonya even recommended Vos’ story bible…maybe that was for 3-4 yr olds though.
We did use Gospel Light’s BIG bible story coloring book until a few months ago, but then I did get the feeling it was a little twaddle, and now have the boys mostly draw their own pictures. “Hold That Thought” and Penny Gardener sound interesting, I may have to take a peek at those.
As for the DLTK being “twaddle”…am I correct in thinking crafts that really fulfill no usefulness would fit into this category? We did a lot of simple lapbooking/crafting the first half of Kindergarten and it just got to be…blah, the boys quit enjoying it, it got to be a lot of extra work on my part (planning), and they really weren’t learning from it. It was kind of just a way for me to “show off” I think…and then…I grew up 🙂
Kathi
May 19, 2009 at 10:39 pm
nerakr
Participant
Sorry; I didn’t mean to imply that story Bibles were twaddlish; it’s just that we’ve been through ours twice (we have the Read and Learn Bible) and I didn’t want to buy another one. But am I right about the Sunday School type crafts being twaddle? We just end up throwing them away after a couple of weeks if they last that long.
As for 1001 Ways…it’s by Kathie Reimer. I know it’s available at CBD, Amazon, and Lifeway (or it was a few months ago when I bought it). It has at least one activity for each book of the Bible (of course, more for some than for others).
May 20, 2009 at 12:37 pm
csmamma
Participant
I don’t mean to offend anyone and I understand that opinions will vary on this topic but I felt led to share.
I’ve decided that I will never buy a “cartoon-ish” looking bible again. I say this because when my (now 13yo) ds was little, I read to him many different childrens bibles that were filled with cartoon illustrations and twaddle (which at the time I didn’t know was twaddle). Also, I let him watch alot of cartoon bible videos. Sadly, at the time, I thought I was helping him by doing this.
Now, years later, he tells me that when he reads the Bible he still sees cartoon illustrations and singing vegetables. 😕 I know it sounds funny but this is a real struggle for him. My youngest is going on 2 and I’ve decided to only present to him childrens bibles that have real-life looking art illustrations.
I do wish I would have know then, what I know now.
Blessings,
Heather
May 20, 2009 at 12:52 pm
baileymom
Member
Karen
No need to apologize at all, I am just trying to really figure out CM homeschooling. I love our 2 children’s bibles, and will probably not part with them for quite a while, since I have many little ones (1 yet to even be born). So they fit our family right now.
As for the crafts, I am totally with you.
Heather
I have recently come to the same conclusion as you on the cartoon bibles, and singing veggies.
I have decided to slowly get rid of both. Honestly, we don’t have any actual cartoon bibles, just a lot of story books. Most have been given to the children as gifts from their grandma, so…that makes it a little difficult. We own 12 singing vegetable videos that I have stopped suggesting to watch (since I make the ultimate decision most the time). But when dad is home, he will almost always choose those because he says they could be watching “a lot worse”. Usually though, if I keep talking about my “crazy ideas” (which come more often now that we are trying to live life differently) he starts to see my point and agrees…it just takes time.
Kathi
May 23, 2009 at 2:04 am
Shanna
Participant
I wish I could post the link here but I would highly recommend going to the AO website and read about reading the KJV to even your youngest children.
Please do not take offense to this but why would you take great effort in picking the very best literature to read to your child and then in turn read them from a children’s Bible? They can learn so much from the KJV not just the Word of God but the poetry and language.
November 1, 2009 at 1:34 am
ellenblust
Member
I also have enjoyed the Penny Gardner plan this year (I’m a newbie starting my oldest dd in kindergarten) and Heather just inspired me to buy a CD of Bible coloring pages from Hold That Thought – it looks great!
My question is about the process of teaching Bible the CM way. Each morning we read from PG’s plan and are now reading about Jacob. Even though I’m filtering out the most graphic details, I’m holding my breath as I expose my innocent almost-6-year old to much of humanity’s sin and selfishness in the stories of Genesis (for example, all the sleeping around, jealousy and bitterness in Jacob’s family!) And when I ask her to narrate even a couple verses, the complexity of the narrative and the cultural differences usually leave her lost. So I do a lot of explaining and summarizing, giving her the message that God works through sinners like us. So, am I right to think in a year or so she’ll need much less of my explaining? And is it ok to expose her so early to all the evildoing because it’s in the context of God’s Word? I am glad, though, to not be putting a false happy face on these gritty stories.
Thanks,
Ellen
November 1, 2009 at 1:51 am
Crystal Wagner
Participant
Ellen,
I don’t have an answer about the explaining. But here’s what we are doing. I have a 5 year old doing Kindergarten this year. We are no longer reading her child story bible (cartoonish). Although we did really enjoy the Jesus Storybook Bible and I will be keeping that and reading from as requested. It is illustrated, but it is more like looking at an art book. And every story points to Jesus. But this year we are reading through the Egermeier’s Bible Story Book. It is a storybook, but it is not like any of the storybook Bibles commonly available in the bookstores today. The illustrations are not cartoonish, but more like what you see in church depictions of the stories. It does not have very much of the graphic information in the stories. And they are short enough for my dd to hear and think about. I plan to continue using this book next year as well, but requiring some narration. I feel that this is the level she needs right now – learning the stories and hearing about God’s works without the details that can bog her down and in some cases is not ready to hear. We also retell the Bible stories during bathtime, dinnertime, etc. She can tell us a lot of the stories.
Crystal
November 13, 2009 at 2:10 am
ellenblust
Member
Crystal, thanks for telling how it’s working in your house! I may look for Egermeier’s. Any other thoughts out there?
April 24, 2018 at 12:38 am
Wings2fly
Participant
This was a helpful post. Here are the links referred to above:
http://www.amblesideonline.org/WhyKJV.shtml
http://www.pennygardner.com/bible.html
Rod and Staff Bible Stories to Read has go-along Bible Pictures to Color:
https://www.milestonebooks.com/item/1-10002/