Help Your Kids Learn & Love The Bible ~ a Crew book review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Danika Cooley has written some neat curriculum for Bible study that I have used in a few different ways and groups over the years. So, when her newest book, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, published by Bethany House Publishers, came up for review, I jumped at the chance to read it. I have found over the years that Mrs. Cooley presents no-nonsense ideas and straight-forward talk on the Bible amid creative ways to apply the content. I was not disappointed in her approach with this book.

Mrs. Cooley’s focus, in all of her writing, is about raising our families to know, understand, and live the word of God. She has put her knowledge of stumbling along this road with her own family down on paper so that you and I can benefit from her hard-won information. She shared, very plainly, her successes AND her failures so that, maybe, I won’t find the same pitfall. This book is easy to read and feels almost like having a cup of tea and talk with someone who cares about your family.

Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible is a softback book of about 5″ x 7″. It contains 198 pages divided up into three parts, plus an introduction and conclusion.

Part One: You’re The Leader

Okay – this one is an obvious one but we don’t always claim this role the way we should in Bible study. I really like the way Mrs. Cooley approaches some of the big excuses people use for not delving in deeply to the bible with their young children. Straight forward responses in a way that is relatable. Working right into the heart of the matter – priority – Mrs. Cooley gets your time schedule and your habits worked on right from the start. No excuses, time scheduled, ideas presented.

Part Two: Faithful Reading

The information in part two deals with topics such as where the Bible came from and how it came about, the message of the Bible, and what it does for us when we read it faithfully. Where the Bible came from does deal with some big words that our children need to know and understand. Mrs. Cooley does a great job of defining those and helping us define them for our children. The chapter titled Keeping the Message in View brings up large themes that are carried through the books to be on the lookout for and practical ideas for your kids to utilize to focus, such as cheat sheet cards with questions to think about. I also enjoyed the Profitable Discussion chapter because it is again, some very practical ways to begin discussions about what is read in the Bible. I do not agree with the catechism recommendation. God gave us His word to answer questions. Answers should be straight Bible verses if you are going to work on memorizing answers to questions, rather than what man has created as the answers to questions and filled with interpretation. Doctrine should be straight from the Bible.

Part Three: A Daily Walk

Once again, Mrs. Cooley delves boldly into keeping your daily habit of reading and studying the Bible as a family up front and center. This section really has some practical ideas of how to read, how to pray, memorizing, and keeping up the habit when life throws a few wrenches your way.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. I feel as though it is more of a practical read for those with younger children, though she does address how to do some of this with teens. We have 3 girls – 12, 15, 17 – that are all very active in many things outside of the home. The practicality of these ideas have been something that I would have loved and benefitted from 10 years ago but struggle with today. Between the girls activity and my husband’s non-standard work schedule, I have yet to be able to put into practice any of the ideas. I plan to reread some of the chapters and see if I can find a way to apply them to our family. I would love to do a family Bible study so I have to find a place for it, perhaps moving some other thing when we get off of the summer schedule. As Part One says – I’m the Leader. 🙂

Be certain to head over to the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read what other families have done with their schedules after reading Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible by Danika Cooley, published by Bethany House Publishers.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Wise Up: Wisdom In Proverbs ~ a Crew review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

I had been looking for a Bible study to do with my middle schooler daughter. We went through a Hebrews study last year and she enjoyed it a lot. So, when Wise Up from Positive Action Bible Curriculum came up for review, I took a really good look at it. It is a study of the wisdom found in the book of Proverbs in the Bible and is recommended for middle school and up. Themes run the gamut of wisdom, from home life and honoring parents to freedoms, responsibility, and attitudes. It covers submission and obedience, learning and serving God’s will, and what is truly success.

Wise Up: Wisdom In Proverbs came as a set with a student manual and a teacher manual. It includes 35 lessons (enough material for a school year) and sample schedules for 3, 4, or 5 day a week studies. The student manual is a softback book and the teacher manual is a large 3 ring binder.

The student manual is intended to be used by a single student and is a consumable resource. You will need one for each student involved in the study. Each lesson has its own set of pages in the student manual with questions of all levels for the student to answer. There are suggested days for assigning the student work in the sample schedules but the student can complete the student manual at whatever point in the lesson the teacher determines it is best suited.

The teacher manual contains information on the purpose of the study, as well as scripted lessons, target truths for each lesson, strategies for teaching, notes to help, and testing materials. There is also a page for logging the suggested memory work. This is a large, heavy 3 ring binder with almost 400 pages in it. I found myself taking the pages out that I needed for the current lesson so I didn’t have to move the binder around too much.

The teacher manual has a lot of information for the teacher to read through before beginning the study. I found it a bit overwhelming and it took me a couple of weeks to figure out how I wanted to approach this study with my middle school student. The answer key in the teacher manual is helpful but it also caused me a good bit of confusion. The answers are designed to work with all translations, which means it doesn’t really work with any translation well. Several of the suggested answers didn’t make sense with the NIV1985 translation that we were using. Even pulling up side by side translations online was unhelpful.

Inside the teacher guide showing the strategies and some of the teaching materials.

Inside the teacher guide showing answer keys for the exercise, corresponding to the student guide.

So, what did we do with this study? We used it, and will use it this fall, completely different than the suggestions in the teachers manual. As set up, it was too slow and shallow of a study for my daughter. Instead, we are focusing on a single lesson in a single day. We are not doing the memorization recommendations and we are working through the student manual together in discussion. (See the previous paragraph for information on the translation, which is why we are doing it together in discussion.)

We used the Bible app on the Kindle a couple of times in trying to match some of the answers to a version of the Bible.

We really enjoy studying the book of Proverbs and talking about the wisdom to be found there. We snuggle up together on the couch or side-by-side at the table with the Bible, the student book, and the teacher pages for the lesson. I paraphrase the scripted teacher lesson (so that it makes sense for my daughter) and we talk about it and the target truths for the lesson. Then we open up the student manual and tackle what is there. I found it common to skip some of the questions each lesson as it was often repetitive.

I believe that this is a program best suited to a full classroom situation, rather than a homeschool. It doesn’t flow well for a single student and the scripting/strategies/testing from the teacher manual seem burdensome for a single student. There is a lot of review time built into each lesson, especially in the 5 day week schedule. This type of review and pacing is necessary when you have a large number of students but with just one student, I have seldom found it was needed.

I can see a lot of benefit in this study and we will continue using it with the modifications we have made. If you are looking for a program that is all laid out for you, that includes written work and testing, and you would like something spread out over a few days or a week, this is for you. It is written for just that.

Please visit the Homeschool Review Crew to read additional reviews on curriculum from Positive Action Bible Curriculum. Other families were using either Wise Up or 5th Grade – Possessing the Land.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Praise in Singing

Last Sunday, May 30, was our 5th Sunday singing at evening worship. I love those singing days a lot. Singing is a joyful way to worship and praise. This is a recording of that worship service. Sing along and enjoy!

List of songs (I think I got them all listed here)

• I Come to the Garden Alone
• To God Be The Glory
• Flee As A Bird
• Hide Me, Rock of Ages
• Step By Step
• I Stand Amazed
• Just As I Am/I Come Broken
• Thomas’ Song
• Be Thou My Vision
• Holy, Holy, Holy
• Will Your Anchor Hold?
• Night With Ebon Pinion
• I’ll Fly Away
• When I Go Home
• O Lord, Our Lord
• It Is Well With My Soul (When Peace Like A River)
• Restore My Soul
• Ten Thousand Angels
• I Am A Poor Wayfaring Stranger

We live stream our services on Facebook every time we meet. You can join us Sunday mornings at 9 am CST for Bible class, 10 am CST for worship, and 5 pm CST for worship. We also meet at 7pm CST for Wednesday devotional and Bible study time. If you are in town, please visit in person. We’d love to meet you.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Pursued To Eternity book ~ a Crew review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Stories can often convey ideas and influence thoughts that we as people struggle to articulate. Pursued to Eternity shows us just that. This is a fictionalized story, though it is so well written that it can pull you in and make you want to research more about the people in the story. This short story is an easy read and is within reading ability for most middle school students and up.

John Riley is the author of Pursued to Eternity. He wrote this story to mix the truth of salvation and apologetics (defending the truth of the Bible) with fictional story lines that intersect. The story is written with the purpose of defending the Bible and bringing truth to those who doubt the Bible. The idea of evolution is addressed in the story, as is the idea of an old earth. One of the main characters is an athiest but God is pursing him, thus the title of the book.

The story line spans several locations and several centuries, bringing the old to the new through geology and archaeology. But first, there is an introduction that addresses ideas of time, pursuit, eternity, and history. Bible references are throughout but are particularly common in this introductory section.

Connor Bridges and Alan Bridges were brothers. The book starts with a retrospective from Connor Bridges. He begins by telling us who his brother was and that he died a few month prior. And Connor is rejoicing because Alan turned from athiesm to Christ right before his death. And then Connor tells us the story.

It begins centuries ago with the story of a dinosaur hunt. We follow the hunt to see that the wounded creature took a man to his death with it. Next we are in Egypt about 1000 years later. We follow the story of Egyptians who sympathized with the Hebrew slaves and helped them secretly. The man and his family have to quickly leave the city when it is suspected that they had been found out as helping the Hebrews with food, medicine, and money. After they leave, though, God does something even more amazing – the ten plagues are upon the Egyptians. The daughter of the family that has escaped to the desert is keeping a record of all this in her diary which she hides in a clay pot in the sand before the family is discovered and punished with death for treason.

Jumping forward in time to 2020, we find the Bridges family going through their lives with the two brothers at odds over beliefs. There is a great discussion included of Conner talking to Alan about why he believes the Bible and science are on his side. After this discussion, Alan announces he is leaving for a new job in Kenya. The family is concerned.

Conner’s life continues on as he goes about teaching biology. His students are smart, interested, and questioning. They ask him tough questions that the school boards has forbidden him to respond to with anything other than the teaching of evolution. Outside of school, he met his students one day and he encouraged them to pursue their questions and told them he would help guide them but all work must be their own. The students start a website of questions that the science curriculum doesn’t answer for them. They research it. They want to know.

Well, because Conner is connected to the students, he ends up facing termination from his position for it. Despite so many in the community supporting him and his students, he loses his job. But all is not bad – he is able to join Alan in Kenya. And wait until you read about what they find!

This all adds together to create a compelling story that is easy to read but has a lot of depth to the Biblical truths it teaches. The Biblical references are clearly noted so that the reader can double check them for truth and it makes for a strong apologetics storyline.

I found that by the end of the story that the characters felt very real and I wanted to go searching to find out more about the “finds” in the story. Of course, it is fiction so the characters weren’t real, nor were the archaeological finds. This is well written and can provide a good foundation with simple reading for someone struggling with the teaching of evolution, big bang theories, and athiesm. Will it be the only thing needed? No. You have to be involved with the new students learning about God but this is a good little book that can head them in the right way through a fictional story that has a lot of Bible truth in it.

If you would like to know more, you can visit the website for Pursued to Eternity.

You can also visit the Homeschool Review Crew to read about what other families thought of this short novel with a fictional setting and apologetics storyline. I encourage you to do so.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Online Book Club – Migrations

Migrations was a tough theme for me since we aren’t in the homeschool time where a theme is easy to incorporate. Also, I couldn’t think of any good books just for me to read for the theme of migrations. My personal reading came through, though, to my surprise.

Walking The Bible: A Journey By Land Through The Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler

Walking The Bible is the story of Mr. Feiler’s journey to follow the footsteps of the people in the first five books of the Bible. This truly is an epic journey, employing walking, driving, camels, rowboat, and more. It took more than a year on the path and more in planning. But it brought him to where he was wondering if he could come – to an understanding of God and man’s relationship with God.

Mr. Feiler is a Jew and there is much in here about the history of the Jews, not just in the Bible, but in time. Keep your Bible close while reading this one, as you’ll want to keep up with the stories they are following and double check the facts and stories. I found new details from the accounts that I didn’t know. I learned a lot about the Jewish culture, as well as the bedouin, Egyptian, and other peoples from the Middle East. I learned much about the land itself while Mr. Feiler and Avner, his guide, traveled and talked to people.

Learning more about other culture’s beliefs and understandings helps me see more about the truth of the Bible and the God of the Bible. It made me search more in the word of God to understand where others got their belief from and how it aligns or doesn’t with God’s word. It was really quite interesting.

So, how is this a book about migrations? Well, I could state the obvious, since these men traced the paths of Adam and his sons, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the Israelites. These men migrated from one place to another as God directed them.

But it is also a personal migration for the author of the book. He went from a Jew who barely believed, to one who was proud to call himself a believer in God and a member of the people that were brought out of Egypt. He understood more about God, the relationship of God and His people, and the land to which they were brought.

Please note that this book is a Jewish man searching for more understanding of the Jewish beliefs, not a Christian book, though Christians do believe in the truth of the first five books of the Bible. Just note where their belief differs from Christianity. This book is still a fabulous study of the first five books and how archaeology will support the truth of the book.

This is one I had tried to read a few times previously but got stuck in the significant study that I wanted to do to go along with it. It is a fascinating book and I am glad that I had the head space to be able to read it through now. This “migration” of understanding is wonderful and I would definitely recommend this book for strengthening your understanding of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

As I was working on this, I found a video on the book by the author. It might be worth viewing. I’ll be watching it soon.

Please visit the others who are participating in the Online Book Club, hosted by Hopkins Homeschool.

Hopkins Homeschool
The Life We Build
A Net In Time
Homeschool Coffee Break 

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Easter With Older Children

Easter often means cute dresses, egg hunts, and bunny crafts. But when your children get older, that changes. It also looks different when you celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ all the time, not just at what the world has named Easter. Christ’s church celebrates Christ all the time, not just for this one week of the year, and that is what makes Easter so different for us. We spend this time in a special convention with other believers the world over celebrating the work our children have done all year long serving the Lord. This weekend is the Lads to Leaders Annual Convention!

Lads to Leaders is an organization that started some 50 years ago and is dedicated to helping the young men and women of the Lord’s church become his servants, his hands and feet, here on earth. It helps the young men and women find their areas of interest, talent, and growth. Whether it be service, leading songs, reading scripture, teaching, helping, media, or any number of other areas, or all of the areas, the students grow in their abilities to serve. This year, our girls have grown through teaching, serving others, leading songs, reading scripture, studying the Bible for Bible Bowl (Hebrews), studying for the Pearls test (topic: Better Than, actually that’s the whole year’s topic), making power points to be used by teachers, writing blog posts, working on puppet scripts, studying the debate topic (baptism), creating artwork and photos, and so much more. I am certain I have missed some things the girls have worked on. And it is all dedicated to growing in God, knowing God and His will better, and being more dedicated to serving Him.

Here are two of the things the girls did this year – Blog post 1 and Blog post 2. Since I don’t know if they have been finalized in the judging yet, I am not attaching any names to them still. 🙂

Here is post I wrote a while back about what Lads to Leaders is and what the girls worked on that year.

As everyone remembers, last year (2020), Easter looked quite different. Here’s what I wrote about our quarantine Easter.

And here is a recap of our Easter from 2019, complete with Lads to Leaders convention and our own Easter celebration after that.

This weekend, while many are doing egg hunts or have spent the week making palm fronds, we have been and will be focusing on Bible, songs, debate, art work, media presentations, and so much more that directly impacts the Lord’s church. We are blessed to have such a strong church to be a part of and to spend the weekend with so many others who are dedicated to Christ.

Our prayer this week is that you are able to spend your time in something strong and meaningful that strengthens your faith and leads you into a closer relationship with God, through Jesus.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Linking up at the Homeschool Review Crew for the weekly challenge.

Scripture Writing

I stumbled upon a scripture writing community and joined on a whim. I am so glad I did. I am not staying on schedule perfectly but who cares? I am learning soooooo much! I have never done a sustained study like this, every day. It has been challenging, eye-opening, and life changing. And I love it.

The one I am part of is writing the book of Acts right now. We just hit chapter 9 and Saul’s conversion. We write about 4 verses each day. I have a composition book that never got used in our homeschool that I do all my daily writing and study notes in. I have a plain black ink pen that I like how it writes to write the verses of scripture. And then I have a set of 5 gel colored pens that I use to make study notes and comments with. I strive to use each color every day, thus finding 5 different aspects of the passage to focus on.

The ladies in the group are just amazing. They are true mentors in the word, and ooze love for others in every comment and answer. I have asked some questions, truly wanting to know but sort of thinking someone would answer that I should know it already, but they don’t. They always respond and they always respond with great information and helpful, loving comments. I learn so much through these mentors. I wish I knew them all in person and could hug their necks to say thank you. And we are only in March! What all are they going to bless me with by December?

Today’s lesson – I’m a couple of days behind but catching up! Spring break threw me off.

This has challenged me to keep up or make up what I miss. It has challenged me to dig deeper into word meanings. It has challenged me to connect scriptures together across the whole of the Bible. It has challenged me to think and focus and study within God’s bounds on it all. It is a great challenge.

This is a year long project and I am blessed by it. I highly encourage everyone to write the scriptures. Bit by bit, you learn more and more. And are blessed by a deeper understanding of God, His word, and how to live your life.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Visit the Homeschool Review Crew Round Up for more wonderful material to read.

Two Covenants – and the Message of Hebrews ~ a guest post for a Lads to Leaders entry

When I was a small child, I was made to learn the first five books of the Bible, the Law. These books contain the Law of Moses: a collection of commands that set the terms by which the Israelites would live and worship God, defining the covenant between God and Israel. But soon came a different covenant. A better one. Using the theme “Better Than,” from Hebrews, we will be exploring the first and second covenants and why the second covenant is better, even leading up to the very message of the book of Hebrews itself. Let’s get started.

Our journey begins with the first covenant, and a verse from the New Testament. Hebrews 8:7 says, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place should have been sought for the second.” Why was the first flawed? Because Israel was not faithful to their covenant with God. Many times they turned away, often swayed by the influence of the other nations around them. In fact, there’s a whole book about it: Judges.

Did you know that the Law of Moses contains 613 commandments?! Unfortunately, humans are not perfect (Romans 3:23). The Israelites, as flawed humans, could not uphold the previous covenant. Therefore, it was fragmented. Romans 4:25 says, “Because this covenant was broken, it was a necessity that a new and better covenant be instituted.”

So in the time of Jeremiah, God promised that he would soon establish a better covenant. Jeremiah prophecies in Jeremiah 31:31-32, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord.” 

The way He fulfilled this promise is extraordinary, and goes all the way back to the Old Testament. Then, sins were atoned for by animal sacrifices. The law says for the cleansing of sins, there must be bloodshed (Hebrews 9:22), and it is blood that makes atonement for one’s life (Leviticus 17:11). But, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). While sacrifices under the Law of Moses atoned for sins, the law could not remove them completely.

Today, Jesus takes the place of the sacrifices that were offered repeatedly in the Old Testament, instead having sacrificed His body for us (Romans 8:3). Jesus’ sacrifice does not have to be continually re-offered, but is eternal, offered once for all (Hebrews 9:12). God replaced the first covenant and established the second through this sacrifice (Hebrews 9:15).

We’ve covered the first covenant, and how the second, better covenant was established. Why is it better? Because it was established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). In this new covenant have a better hope (Hebrews 7:19), a better possession (Hebrews 10:34) and a better salvation, even better than the salvation of the biblical heroes of the Old Testament (Hebrews 11:40). This is all possible through Jesus, the surety and mediator of a better covenant, who received a better ministry (Hebrews 7:22, Hebrews 8:6) and is a better High Priest, superior to the high priests of the old covenant and even to the angels, thanks to his status as God’s son (Hebrews 7:26-28 and Hebrews 1:4-5).

For our conclusion, consider this verse: “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:1). This is the purpose of Hebrews. 13 chapters, 303 verses, and 6,897 words* for this message: A better salvation through a better high priest. But…better than what? Better than the Old Testament salvation, yes. But really? Better than anything else.

Hebrews 2:1-3 says, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away…how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation…?” We have been given a great opportunity; a better salvation through our better high priest. We must not neglect this salvation. Are you?

Being Me, Not Better Than You – Guest Post for Lads To Leaders Entry

Likes, dislikes, good comments, bad comments. The world has always been full of people who judge one another. Today, we have the online platforms to reach people all over the world. Because of the nature of social media, people can hide behind a screen and say whatever they want, without accountability. Unfortunately, many people use their online personality to cause more harm than good. On the receiving end, people care what others think. Some people constantly compare themselves to others, especially after receiving hateful comments. Some of those people even try to change themselves to fit in. Hebrews 6:19 talks about hope being an anchor for the soul. In today’s world, where is their hope? What do you hope for?

Matthew West wrote a song that I love to listen to. It gives me hope. It is called The Me You Made. The first verse reads:

I wish I looked like Bradley Cooper

Wish I had movie star muscles like Chris Pratt

I wish my kids thought I was cooler

Wish I wasn’t just a skinny-jean wearin’ dad

Now there’s another thing I’m wishin’

I wish I didn’t say what I just said

‘Cause now everybody’s heard

All the insecure voices in my head

The first verse is addressing how he compares himself to everyone else. But in 2 Corinthians 10:12, Paul reminds us not to compare ourselves to others who use themselves as a comparison, which is conceited. The second verse of the song is where he starts talking about social media. He says:

The whole world is postin’ pictures (yeah)

Looks like everybody else has the perfect life

And we’re just watchin’ from the bleachers (yeah)

Discontent and thinkin’, “Wouldn’t it be nice?”

But comparison is the thief of joy

Trust me, I know

‘Cause for way too long, I let it steal my joy

But not anymore

On social media, everything looks perfect. Four billion people from all over the world use social media, posting pictures, videos, or memes that show off their lives. The second half of this verse quotes President Roosevelt. “Comparison is the thief of joy” means that comparing oneself to others takes away one’s own happiness. This is the part of the song where he stops comparing himself to others. Lastly, the chorus:

Hey

I don’t wanna spend my life

Wishin’ I was different

That would be a waste of time

‘Cause I know You

You love me just as I am

And I know my God don’t make mistakes

So, I’m just gonna be the me You made

Now we come to the part of the song that talks about our theme this year, Better Than. 

In Romans 3:9, it says, “Are we better than they? Not at all.” We are not any better or worse than anyone else. In this case, Paul was referring to the difference and separation between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. But the same concept applies to us today. Even though something might look perfect on social media, those people are showing themselves through a filter. Don’t put your trust and admiration into something that is being filtered. One of the reasons we can trust in God with our whole selves is because He is completely honest and open with us. Psalm 118:8 says that “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” 

We can compare everything with the phrase “better than.” We like some things better than other things. No one is better than anyone else. In Hebrews, the New Law is better than the Old. 

We should put our trust in God because He created us exactly the way we should be. There is no “better than” with people. God doesn’t make mistakes; we know because the Bible says so in Matthew 5:48, Psalm 18:30, Deuteronomy 32:4, 2 Samuel 22:31, and many other verses.

The Me You Made ends by saying “I’m just gonna be the me You made,” acknowledging that there is no way for us to be completely perfect. We are human and humans make mistakes, but God did not make a mistake when He made each and every one of us the way we are. We shouldn’t have to change ourselves to fit into the “perfect” world behind a screen.

We know that our God loves us, just the way we are, and that gives us hope.

image created by guest author

Bible Studies from Julie Naturally ~ a Crew review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Living a life for Christ begins with knowing the word of God. Spending time in the Bible can be guided many different ways. Two studies from Julie Naturally have been a part of guiding my daily time in the Bible recently. I have been using the Faith Journeys Bible Study Series: Romans bundle and the Faith Journeys Bible Study Series: Philippians.

Julie Naturally is the company run by Julie Polanco. She is striving to use her site and resources to help Christian homeschooling families. There are four parts to the Julie Naturally site – homeschooling, holy living, wholistic health, and homesteading. You can explore these, including her blog. But I am going to direct you to the Bible studies found in her shop. This is what I was using – Romans Bible Study Bundle and the Philippians Bible Study.

Romans Bible Study Bundle

This bundle included a downloadable and printable PDF of the Bible study of Romans, a downloadable/printable PDF of the coloring pages and memory verses, and access online to a video introduction to each of the 8 weeks of the Bible study. Each week of the study has a short video introduction, about 2 chapters to study for the week, and 6 days of study questions and discussion points. In between each week’s set of questions is a coloring page and there are memory verses for each week to print also.

coloring page from Romans study

Each daily study has a passage of verses to read and ponder. The daily questions are related to the reading. The questions range from basic information recall to considering background to apply the concepts to the world of today. Some of the actions for the daily study include prayer and spending time considering how God is working in a specific way. According to the website, this study is appropriate for an older teen or woman. Plan to spend about 15 or 20 minutes daily on this study if you work at the pace Julie planned.

Philippians Bible Study

The study of the book of Philippians is a 4 week study. It does not include a video component for each week. It could be coming later as it was mentioned in the introductory pages but it was not available when I was using the study. As with the Romans study, there are daily readings of a prescribed set of verses and the discussions are related to these verses.

The discussion includes questions of various depths, background information, and statements designed to provoke thought and application to daily life and the world around. According to the introduction to the study, each day’s reading and discussion in under 20 minutes.

My Thoughts

Both the Romans study and the Philippians study did not feel deep and challenging for me. I found that it took me about 5 minutes a day in the Philippians study to read and answer the questions. In the Romans study, it took me closer to 10 minutes because the readings were longer. I prefer my daily study to be 30-45 minutes or longer.

The videos were difficult for me to follow because her speaking style was not as organized as I prefer when working on a Bible study. The quality was similar to a live video from social media, including issues with the reception in week 3 where there content is missing at about the 7 minute mark.

I found that the daily discussions had some interesting points that I had not considered before. For example, Philippians starts with a discussion about leadership in the church. It was a good, thought provoking point. There were a few of these throughout the study. Overall, I found the questions to be recall level questions or to be worded so that I was unsure what was being asked for. If you are going to print the study, I recommend printing two pages of the study per page because there is a lot of blank space on every page, much more than is needed for writing.

I would have greatly appreciated a leader’s guide to go along with this so that I could figure out where she was going with some of the discussions. Several times, I left questions blank because it was unclear what she was considering.

I added the words from Philippians 4:8 to each of the shapes in this coloring page to help me focus on that verse.

I did enjoy the coloring pages in the Philippians study. I liked that the coloring pages in the Romans study had scripture on each one, though it wasn’t stated on the page where the scripture was found.

It was not a favorite study for me and I don’t feel like it would take my girls deep enough into the text. I can really see this being good for others. I found that there were some very good ideas covered in these studies. If you are a fairly new Christian or a younger teen, I can see these studies being appropriate for you. They are also appropriate if you are looking for a simple daily study that doesn’t require a lot of effort or in depth study.

Be sure to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read about others who have been using these studies from Julie Naturally.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.