Verse of the Week

Whew!!  I am so glad to have the month of February over and done with.   I am so behind on so many things because I was so drained from the craziness.  I have tried to stay on top of my nightly Bible studies but I admit I haven't done as much of it as I normally do.  That's not to say that we haven't dug into the scriptures these last few weeks, I just haven't sat down with my private independant studies like I would have liked.. I'm hoping this new week will allow me to get back on track :)

The kids have been doing so good with their weekly scripture memorization.  Last week they memorized Psalm 100: 1-2 and the week prior they memorized Psalm 35: 9.  This week, we're working a much shorter verse.

I have chosen to be faithful to you.  I put my trust in your laws. 

          Psalms 119:30 (NIrV translation from BibleGateway.com)

We are still working through the New Testament Overview Pt 1 from Grapevine.  We have hit the halfway point in this particular study, so we will be working on the section review as well as working on our 2nd timeline.    Last week we learned about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus so it looks like we will be picking up on the temptation of Christ. 

As for my own personal scripture:

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5 (NLT translation from BibleGateway.com)

I've picked this particular verse to remind myself that I do not want to be one of the branches cut off from the Vine. I want to produce fruit and I know that in order for my life to be fruitful, I need Christ in my life.  I cannot produce good fruit on my own, to try to do so will only produce bad fruit.  I've produced more than enough bad fruit in my life, it's time to start actually making fruit worth having. 

Grapevine Studies (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Each year as a member of the Review Crew, I get introduced to vendors that I didn't know about before hand.  Some of them are really great and quickly become a favorite of ours.  Such is the case with this review:  Grapevine Studies.  If you've read either of my past reviews on this vendor, you'll know how much I really enjoy this company. So of course, when I was given the opportunity to review another one of their wonderful studies with the kids, I jumped at the chance and was so happy to be selected to review  New Testament Overview Part 1:  Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry (Level 2).   This included the Student Book as well as the Teacher's Guide.


The last time we had the opportunity to review a study for Grapevine, we elected to try a Level 1 study since we were unfamiliar with the company and I was unsure how the kids would do.  Level 1

targets 1st -2nd grade and offers large drawing areas and a traceable option (which we used). Since they did so well for that time (and because both kids have really improved their own artwork since), we elected to try the Level 2 studies this time around. Level 2 is targeted for 3rd and 4th graders but I felt that it would be a better fit for Ashleigh and Garrett.  I'm really glad I chose this option as the kids did wonderful with it.

Grapevine makes it easy to figure out what level your student might be ready for when making a decision as to which level to use.  Each level is designed with a particular age group in mind and they adjust the student pages for that age group.

Grapevine Studies was nice enough to allow me to download both Level 1 and Level 2 so that I could compare the two against each other. A few major differences I did notice were that the Level 2 included additional memory work (such as memorizing how many books are in the Bible, the names of the Gospels, ect), vocabulary words to look up, and map activities such as locating and marking Bethlehem and Nazareth on a map.  As previously mentioned, there is also a difference in the drawing boxes - while both levels have the same number of drawings per lesson,  Level 1 has one to two larger drawings spread out over more pages, where Level 2 has 3 to 4  smaller drawings per page.

This particular study is part 1 of a 4 part series that covers the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation. Part 1 begins with a very brief summary of the genealogy of Jesus and the announcement of the Birth of John to Zacharias and ends with Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. As with every other Grapevine Studies product, these lessons are taught with cute little stick figures, which is perfect for me to teach as I am not artistically inclined.

Stick Figures are about my Artistic Level

How We Used It:

Learning about Zachariah and the birth of John the Baptist

Inside the teachers manual are sample plans as to how you can use the study with your children, such as daily or weekly (and some people I know use it twice a week). In our school, the kids do actual Bible Studies on Monday so we can focus on what we learned and on our memorization the rest of the week.  Sunday night, I just print out the pages for the weeks lesson, staple them together and pass them out on Monday. Then we sit together and discuss the lesson and the kids copy what I draw on the white wall.

This has become one of the kids favorite times of the week and they actually ask for Grapevine to be the last lesson of the day as it is the "most fun".    The great thing about Grapevine Studies is that everything is already planned out for you  in the teachers guide - it tells you what to draw and with what color, what to read and how to explain it to your students.  I just grab my Expo markers while the kids grab their crayons (although, as of last week, they have requested markers) and we dive into the Word.  We also keep a Bible dictionary and a book of maps on hand for various activities that come up in the lesson.  Since we are using the Ebook version (physical copies are available if you prefer), I simply load the teachers manual on my Kindle and it's at my fingertips.

The fact that the story is told not just with the stick figures but with specific colors representing specific people has really helped with memorization of the story for the kids.  Ashleigh does tend to add little details to her drawings that aren't necessarily part of the story (Did you know Jesus had a pet cat?? yeah, me neither) but if it helps her remember the story, so be it.

Following each lesson is a series of questions used for a lesson review.  These questions are fairly simple if the kids have been paying attention to the Bible reading and not just drawing the pictures.  For the most part, the kids have done a great job at comprehending the lessons and can usually answer the questions without any problems.   Ashleigh especially has done a great job remembering everything from the lesson, as well as the memory work.

I also like the repetition.  Key points are revisited in the timeline at the start of each lesson.  The timeline helped keep the order of the events clear in the kids mind as to what happened in what order along with a review of past memory verses and the memory work for the week (which is a small Biblical tidbit that is easy for them to remember).

A typical Timeline Review

Since this is a Grapevine Studies review, I cannot get through it without mentioning how absolutely CUTE this whole thing is.   There, I said it, I feel better now :)

One of Ashleigh's lessons - Jesus had just gotten Baptized so he was still wet...  You can't tell me this isn't cute. 

As much as I've enjoyed many of the items I have reviewed, there are only a very small handful of vendors that I have actually spent my money on.  Grapevine Studies is on that very small list.  I've already purchased the next part of the New Testament series and will purchase the others as we get to them.

If this review has you curious, right now is a great time to try Grapevine Studies.  With Easter coming up fast, Grapevines is offering all of their Resurrection Studies at 20% off .
Also, I should mention that if you happened to read my review about the Grapevine Studies Calendar  then you'll know how wonderful of a resource it is. Grapevine Studies currently has a special on the calendar - buy the calendar and get the notes free.. This is a great deal and I highly recommend it :)

Want to learn more?  Be sure to visit Grapevine Studies on the following social media platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrapevineStudies/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrapevineStudy 
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/GrapevineStudy

Don't forget to visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew's page to read other Grapevine Studies Reviews. Just click the banner below.

Grapevine Studies (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

It has only been recently that we have added Bible studies to our school curriculum.  While my kids really enjoy hearing various Bible studies, finding a study that they can enjoy without feeling overwhelmed has proved to be challenging.   Recently, we were given the opportunity to review Birth of Jesus: Multi-level  from Grapevine Studies and I think that we have found a Bible Study perfect for my kids.

About the Study Unit

As far as Bible Curriculum go, this is one of the cutest things you will ever see.  Gone are the multiple grey haired men with long beards and robes and instead children draw out cute stick figures to represent various people in the Bible. Children draw or trace scenes that take place in the selected reading which helps in memorization of the materials. Relevant Bible verses and vocabulary are scattered through each lesson for memorization.  These verses are short and simple and even young students can remember them.

The Birth of Jesus study is exactly as it says, students learn about the birth of Jesus, beginning with the Genealogy of Jesus and the Angel's visit to Mary, continuing with Simeon's Proclamation and Anna's Declaration, and ending with the death of Harod and Jesus's return to Israel.

This particular study is considered a "Multi-level" which means that depending on the age of your student, various tools can be used while teaching the lesson.  Younger students who are not yet ready for copy work or memorization can be taught using only the stick figure drawings while older students will be able to look up words in the dictionary, verses in in Bible or places on a map.

Grapevine makes it easy to figure out what level your student might be ready when making a decision as to which unit to use.  Each level is designed with a particular age group in mind and adjust the student pages for that age group. An example of this being traceables for very young students, larger drawing areas for elementary aged students and more complex study tools such as dictionaries for older students.

What We Received:

For our review, we had selected the Birth of Jesus Multi Level Unit.  We were given a digital downloadable copy of both the Birth of Jesus Multi Level Students workbook as well as the Birth of Jesus Multi-Level Teacher Guide.  The multi-level unit is designed for students age 7+.

The Birth of Jesus Student Guide is a 40 page guide that contains the traceable handouts for the students to complete for the study.  There are 5 Lessons in this unit:  The Announcement, Birth of Jesus, The Proclamation, The Wise Men and Harod, and the initial Birth of Jesus Timeline.  There is also a final review as a way to gauge what students have learned through the course of the study.

The Teacher Guide is a 50 page lesson guide that walks parents through this study of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.   It contains teacher's notes that explain important information that need to be covered in the lesson, a Bible Dictionary that contains words where looking up definitions could be helpful, maps to add geography to the lesson and Lesson Reviews.  The guide also contains the answers for the Final Review found in the student workbook.

Both the Student Workbook and the Teachers Guide come in a downloadable PDF format or can be purchased in a physical format as well.


How We Used It:

This particular Grapevine study is broken in 5 lessons which can either be done as 1 lesson a week or 24 daily lessons.  For us, we decided that splitting each lesson between 2 days a week worked best for us.

As my whiteboard recently had a fatal accident, I purchased some white board contact paper to go on the wall to use until I could replace the original board.  This gave me a really nice size surface to work with that my kids could see clearly while they sat with their own copy of the work.

Each week, I would print out a copy of the traceables for the lesson we were going to work on for both Ashleigh and Garrett.  These smaller packets kept the kids from feeling overwhelmed and gave them a weekly sense of accomplishment as they finished them.

I found that loading the Teacher's Guide into my Kindle made for an easy and convenient way in which to access guide.   The PDF is very clear and works well while viewing on tablets.


What We Thought:

First, did I mention how cute this concept is?  It's stick figures!! Anyone can draw a stick figure!!  Meaning even the youngest of students can participate in this study.

Both kids really seemed to enjoy these lessons and had a lot of fun when we did these twice a week. With the fact that my son is a very visual learner, this Bible study proved to be exactly what he needed in order to not only maintain interest in what we were doing but to be able to do the assignments without too much difficulty.  Garrett typically isn't one to like to draw, however, so the stick figure drawings seemed perfect for him and he enjoyed tracing and drawing on his own for each lesson.  Ashleigh absolutely loves to draw and color and tends to draw on almost everything, so anything that allows her to break out the crayons and draw is alright in her book..

The kids had such a time watching mom "write on the wall" with the various colored markers while they copied each of my drawings onto their own papers in crayon.   Never once did I have them complain about doing their Grapevine studies: instead I had several days where they complained because they wanted to do Grapevine as their first subject rather than at the end of the day.

This study is indeed a keeper and I have a feeling Grapevine will become a staple in our homeschool for the next few years for Bible Study.

More information about Grapevine Studies can be found on their website as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google + .  You can also find Grapevine Studies by using @Grapevine Studies on the Periscope app on your smart phone/tablet.

You can also find out about one of the other Grapevine Studies that other Crew members had the opportunity to review by clicking the banner below.

Book Review: The Friends of Jesus

"What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! "

So many times when I was young, we would sing this hymn during worship service. I never really gave much thoughts to the words back then, being a young teenager who was worried about so many more things going on in my life.  However, these words came rushing back to me many times while reading Karen Kingsbury's latest publication "The Friends of Jesus".

 Karen Kingsbury is without a doubt one of my favorite authors and she didn't disappoint with this latest addition. Karen is a true master of bring a story to life and she has been given such a wonderful gift to bring stories of faith to her readers. "The Friends of Jesus" is the second book in the "Life Changing Bible Story" series, the first being "The Family of Jesus" which is equally wonderful.

 Much like the first book of this series, Karen takes Biblical characters and weaves a story together that really digs deep into who each of these characters were and how their lives intertwined with Jesus.  While she takes many liberties in doing so, she adheres to Biblical facts and doesn't change what the Bible tells us but instead builds a story revolving around what we already know.

This particular volume covers the stories of 6 well known people - Simon the Leper, Martha (sister to Lazarus), Jarius (the Leader of the Galilean synagogue), Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John.  Each narrative lays out these peoples faults for all to see, only to turn around and show how Jesus's compassion and friendship with each one changed their lives. The love that the Savior had for each one of these people, each whom he held dear to his heart, displays the love he has for each of us even thought we are all flawed, just as they were.  You can't help but be able to identify with at least one of the characters when reflecting on your own faith.

If you love the Bible and want to dig deeper, this is a great way to immerse yourself. There is also a Bible study at the end of the book for personal reflection or to provide a launching pad for a group study that coincides with each character.

Firmly Planted/Real Life Press (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

My husband and I use to enjoy doing various Bible Studies together.  Back when life wasn’t quite as busy as it is now, we use to enjoy laying in bed together and making our way though whichever study we had picked up at the local Christian bookstore. It allowed us time to connect with each other while discussing the scriptures and what they meant in our life.  Then, life got busy!  Changing diapers and late night feedings left us to the point where Bible study fell to the wayside and all we wanted to do was sleep.  Years went by and we would have enjoyed picking it up again but could not find one that the entire family could do together without either boring the little kids out of their minds or be well over their heads.

John and Heidi St John, the Co-founders of Real Life Press seemed to recognize the need for a Bible Study that could be applied to all members of the family, from the youngest to the oldest. Together they developed the Firmly Planted Bible Study Series; a series of 10 week courses that used various activities to allow all family members to be involved.  I had the opportunity of using and reviewing the digital version of the third volume of this series, The Gospels Part 1- Stories from the Life of Jesus, along with the Student Workbook.

The Gospels Part 1 is broken down into 10 weekly lessons that cover various aspects in the early life of Jesus life, before the Crucifixion.   The lessons included  are:
1.  Gabriel Visits Mary
2.  The Birth of Jesus
3.  John the Baptist
4.  Calling of the First Disciples
5.  Jesus Clears the Temple
6.  The Woman at the Well
7.  Jesus Casts Out Demons
8.  The Good Samaritan
9.  Feeding of the 5,000
10.  Jesus Walks on Water


Each week uses scriptures from various portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to help paint a picture of Jesus’s birth, life, his teachings and his compassion.   The study guide starts each week with a brief reading from one of the scriptures that sets the mood for the rest of the week.

The main concept behind the Firmly Planted program is the cultivation of learning from the seed to "tasting the fruit".  The way this works is that the key concept is presented early on in the start of the week and as the lesson progresses, the understanding of this seed progresses until finally the real life application is presented.  The journey from the seed to the "tasting the fruit" goes through various steps that include the memorization of key scriptures and working towards deeper understanding of the lesson.  Each of these steps are clearly marked in the Study Guide so that you know what level of understanding you are currently working on.

The symbols used as you progress from Seed to Tasting the Fruit

I was VERY pleased to see that I could easily upload the PDF of both the Study Guide and the Student Workbook to my Kindle Fire without any loss of formatting and I was able to print the work book pages from the PDF file on my computer.

For the last few weeks we sat down as a family 5 nights a week, reading the lessons and working through the various activities.  Each day, my husband or myself took turns reading the daily lessons out of the study guide (occasionally my 15 year old daughter agreed to read) and then we would spend anywhere from 30-45 minutes helping the kids with the activities we had printed out for the day.   I really liked how this made us turn off all electronics (with exception of the Kindle) and brought us all together and spend time as a family.

An example of the Scripture Reading from the Study Guide

The kids working on their crossword puzzles together

We really liked the various activities provided in the student workbook.  Many of the activities such as the
crossword puzzles and word finds are presented both for younger children as well as a more challenging version for the older children. It was very nice to see Alyssa working with Garrett and Ashleigh on their various activities as they all worked side by side on the activities.

An example of the same activity presented for two different age levels

Other activities included mazes, mystery word searches, coloring pages and either scripture copywork for younger children or Prayer Journal pages for both older children and parents . Each of these activities help to reinforce the key concepts presented during the weekly lesson. Mapwork activities are also provided to study ancient geography and history. 

Two other activities presented are the "Exploring the Bible with Theo Logy" (I love the name *giggles*) and the Upper Class activities. The Exploring the Bible pages help to take children deeper into the lesson and present material that require actually thinking about the lesson (the answers aren't just found in the material) as Theo Logy teaches the doctrines of the Bible.  These pages are bit more challenging and provide a great opportunity my husband and myself to sit, discuss and guide the kids (Especially Ashleigh and Garrett) through the activity. The Upper Class pages are designed for "older students" (ie: parents get to do fun activities too) to dig deeper into the scriptures, think about them on various levels, and then see how those scriptures apply to our lives as Christians.  

Final Thoughts

As a whole, we thoroughly enjoyed this bible study. There were some minor mistakes in editing in both the Study Guide and the Workbook that have been addressed and should be corrected soon but they did not take away from the lessons being learned by the material.   The multi-age approach is a perfect fit for our family that has a year age gap between our oldest and middle child, allowing each of our kids to have their own activities geared for them but also allowing them to help each other out.  As mentioned above, this was a perfect way to get everyone to turn off their electronics, sit together as a family and participate in the discussions since there were questions on all various levels of understanding.

All of the Firmly Planted Bible Study series (both the Study Guides and Workbooks) can be purchased at the Real Life Press website. All of the series is available as a PDF and many of the series are available in a physical book.

Heidi St John (AKA The Busy Mom) can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.