GrapeVine Studies (Review)

Friday, November 13, 2015

Having a good Bible curriculum is important to our family. We feel that teaching our children the truth is the most important thing we can do as parents.   Recently we were given the chance to try Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level, by GrapeVine Studies. This teaching program makes learning Bible truths fun for both the teacher & the student!
Grapevine Studies Review
GrapeVine Studies is well known for their iconic stick figure teaching method. The use of these simple drawings, specific colours & shapes to represent different parts of the Bible story being studied, makes the important content more easily remembered, as well as maintaining the student's interest. GrapeVine Studies believes that teaching a lesson using reading, hearing & drawing allows the student to have a higher retention rate then those who are just taught orally. They utilise this philosophy in their curriculum & their ambition is to point the student to the true source of wisdom - God!
We received the Birth of Jesus: Multi-level teacher booklet, the student booklet & a traceable student booklet as a download. These were all multi-levelled so all the students in the family can complete these lessons together, although it is recommended for ages 7+. They were simple to understand & utilise.
Grapevine Studies Review
 
Birth of Jesus: Multi-level is a simple, 5 lesson study, written to ensure the student will understand the events surrounding Jesus' birth & their implications to us. The teachers' guide is a 65 page teaching manual that is separated into three main sections. The first contains information specifically for the teacher. This introduces GrapeVine Studies and their belief. It also gives very detailed instructions on how the student should use each part of the study with their student. A list of needed supplies is provided, and a recommended schedule to follow is given. Birth of Jesus is written to be used four days per week. Each lesson will take a full week to complete.  Each day's work will take anywhere from 5 to 35 minutes depending upon what is being completed that day.
The second section of the teacher booklet gives instructions on the timeline element of the study. The timeline is an integral part of the study, so ensuring this is correct is important. This section includes example diagrams of what is needed to be drawn. It also uses the correct colours to ensure there is no confusion. At the bottom of each page it shows an example of what the completed student sheet should look like.
Grapevine Studies Review
The third section of the teacher booklet contains the actual lessons. The lessons are titled The Announcement, The Birth of Jesus, The Proclamation & The Wise Men and Herod. Each lesson section is 6 pages long. It includes full details of what to teach for that particular part of the lesson, a list of words to look up in the Bible dictionary, Bible passages to read aloud, examples of all drawings that should be completed. It also includes answers to the lesson review questions that are at the end of each lesson. The final page of the lesson contains a full example of what the completed timeline looks like. The fifth lesson in this lesson pack is the final review of all the lesson. The teacher book contains the answers to all the questions that the student will have to complete. The fifth lesson is the Final review.  This is an in-depth review of all the material being studied in the previous lessons and gives the students an opportunity to show their knowledge by completing the whole timeline again.
At the very end of the teacher manual is the labelled map of the geographical region being studied. This coincides with the unlabelled map at the end of the student booklet.
Grapevine Studies Review
 
 
The corresponding student booklet provided to us is 49 pages. In the package we also included a traceable option of the same booklet for use with younger students. The student booklet contains the blank timeline, the lesson pages & the final review. Each lesson contains three pages for the student to complete. This is in addition to the section of the timeline being studied. The aim is that by the end of the study, the student has a thorough understanding of the Birth of Jesus Christ.
The GrapeVine Studies' Birth of Jesus: Multi-level curriculum is an excellent program for teaching about this critical time in History. It is very relevant and makes an excellent Bible curriculum for fourth term (Australia) as we draw closer to celebrating this important event.
GrapeVine Studies can also be found at:
Periscope: @Grapevine Studies


Grapevine Studies Review

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