Do you include Bible in your homeschool? We do regularly, but up until now it has mostly been just reading Bible passages or Bible stories, memorizing verse, or just talking about the Bible. Then we were given the opportunity to review Grapevine Studies Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level and that has changed our Bible time for the better.
The kids didn’t hate Bible time or anything but it certainly wasn’t the most fun part of the day. We have tried devotionals and stories, which are the their favorites, but overall it is just something that they enjoy the stories but overall is not “fun” time. I think Grapevine Studies has changed that.
Grapevine Studies is a fun way to learn about the Bible by drawing stick figures of something that is happening to help students remember and embed a Bible story.
When I first heard about “stick figuring through the Bible” I was a little confused. I didn’t get how drawing stick figures could help a student retain Bible lessons but, hey, whatever, right?
But once you see what Grapevine Studies has to offer, you will see that it’s much more than drawing stick figures. It’s a way to engage your student with the lesson, have them thinking about the point of a passage or a story and then drawing about what they heard, what they retained, without feeling pressure to perfectly draw something. Stick figure drawing takes the pressure off the statement – draw me a picture about what you just learned, or other similar notebooking styles
In the Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level study, we studies the Birth of Jesus. The lessons are short and the teachers guide, as well as the student guide, provide the student with a passage to read, discuss and then stick figure draw the point. For instance, Lessons 1 studies when the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her the good news. The student reads the passage, or you read it to them, you discuss the passage, and then stick figure draw what happened (ie. a stick figure of Mary and a stick figure of the angel Gabriel talking to her). Each lesson has several “cells” to draw in for each passage. There is a place to draw the students “favorite” part of the lessons each day. There is a memory verse associated with each lesson and a place to write it you wish to have your student write it out. Verbal discussion is good too.
The beginning of each lesson, after lesson 1, begins with a quick recap of the previous lessons, which is good in keeping the student engaged and with the story, even if you do not do it every day. There is also a timeline that can be used throughout and maps that can be worked with to identify the geography of where the story is taking place.
We received the Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level digital download, this is one that allows multiple aged students to work together through the same lesson. In this case, the story of the Birth of Jesus. I have a 5th grader and a 1st grader so they are at very different learning levels. The Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level study made working with them together perfect. There was no issue with covering the same lesson and having them work on their own.
Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level is stated to be for ages 7+ with the Traceable Multi-Level book for ages 3 to 6. I would say this was great for my 6 year old boy and probably would have bee good for my 6 year old girl. I think the tracing would work great for a younger student, though I would probably not require EVERYTHING to be traced at a younger age. If you have a student who does not like to draw, this might be a good one for them as well.
My 5th grader had the standard student book and my 1st grader had the Traceable Student book made specifically for younger student. In the traceable student books, the stick figures are already drawn in the boxes allowing the student to trace over the drawings as they discuss the story and what happened in the passages.
This was a VERY good option for my 6 year old boy. It would be too much drawing for him and to come up with the idea of what to draw would be overwhelming and he would likely not pay much attention to the story. Having to trace the figures took the pressure off and allowed him to listen to the story and do something while he was listening or while his older sister was drawing. He only had to “free” draw one thing each lesson and that was the ‘favorite’ part cell, which he seemed to enjoy doing most days.
The teachers guide was easy to use and there was no preparation. I used my online Bible to read that passages to the kids but, I will be honest, the teacher’s guide has enough ‘gist’ in the discussion section that you could probably go off that if you didn’t have the Bible to read from. However, the passages are NOT printed in the guides, you do need to look them up. This is great because it allows for families to utilize whatever translation of the Bible they wish to use for their studies.Overall I was pretty impressed with Grapevine Studies, as I had hoped to be. Both kids liked the study and that is nice to be able to work with them both at the same time off the same text but working at their own levels. This was very enjoyable and I was very impressed on how well it worked.
I would say that Grapevine Studies Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level study was a hit in our house. We will finish it soon and I look forward to finding another study in the future to use with my students together.
You can purchase your own copy of the Birth of Jesus from the Grapevine Studies website.
You can check out what the rest of the TOS Review Crew had to say about Grapevine Studies and the Birht of jesus study, and several other Grapevine Studies by clicking the button below. If you are trying to decide which Grapevine Studies level might work for you., check out Information About the Levels. You can also see samples and check out where to start.
Be sure to check out Grapevine Studies on their website and on social media at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. You can visit them on Periscope at @Grapevine Studies.
DISCLAIMER – I am an affiliate for Grapevine Studies, this post continues affiliate links. If you purchase through my links I will be compensated for the purchase, which will help us purchase homeschool materials. Thank you.
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