I love the idea of incorporating Bible study into our home school day. I was super excited to be given the opportunity to review God’s Great Covenant, Old Testament Book 1 by Classical Academic Press. For this review, I received the Student Book, Teacher Edition, and the Audio Book Download.
God’s Great Covenant, Book 1 covers the Old Testament of the Bible from Genesis to Ruth, and also includes the book of Job. It contains 32 chapters, with 1 chapter completed each week, and 5 unit themes. This book is considered 3rd grade level. This is a consumable book, meaning your child will be writing in the Review and Quiz sections. The chapter begins with a Memory Page which includes the Theme, Memory Verse, Key Facts for the unit, Things to Remember, and a “Who is God?” question. Next is Story Time, which is the story for the unit, followed by the unit Worksheets, and finally the Quiz. All pages are nicely printed in black and white, and I think that the font is the perfect size for a child to be able to read. It’s very clear and not too small at all. In the Story section, there is a “Jesus in the OT” blurb that coincides with the current chapter. The Student Workbook is available for purchase for $22.95
This is the God’s Great Covenant Teacher’s Edition that corresponds to the Student Workbook. It contains the entire student text, along with answer keys to the Review Worksheet and Quizzes, plus lots of additional facts that go along with the current unit. There is also space for you to write your own notes down if you choose to do so. The Teacher’s Edition also includes “Catechism for Children Questions” that apply to each chapter, and “Notes to Teachers and Parents,” which is a bit of extra information for you and your children for the current chapter. The book even shows you where you can read the information that is listed under the Teacher Notes, so a lot of work is done for you! Each page in the Teacher book is a copy of the Student workbook pages, much smaller than the workbook, but again, not too small with the Catechism and Notes to the side. Like the Student Workbook, the pictures and texts are printed in black and white, are very clean, and easy to read. I really loved all the extra information in the Teacher Edition. The Notes were a fun addition to the lessons, and are not overwhelming. I feel like it contained just enough information without bogging down the story or lesson. God’s Great Covenant, OT 1: Teacher’s Edition can be purchased for $24.95
God’s Great Covenant, OT 1: Audio Files is 2 hours of recordings of the Student Workbook. It is narrated by Christopher Perrin, and features all the stories that are in the Student Workbook. The audio files are in MP3 format, and once downloaded can be burned to a CD, or installed on iTunes. I really enjoy the files. The narration is engaging, clear, and not at all hard to understand or boring! The audio files can be purchased for $9.95
Classical Academic Press also offers an Old Testament Map and Timeline Set to go along with the book course. These maps and timelines were a great fun addition to the books. My kids loved seeing where history took place!
Ok, a day for us using the God’s Great Covenant may be different than most people would use this. As I said earlier, this curriculum is geared towards 3rd grade. After receiving the materials, I really felt like I could use it with all of my children, who are in grades 6, 4, 2, and Pre-K. The first day we would go over the Memory Page together. This is a great way to get all the children involved. Afterwards we would do a short review of what we just discussed. I really love the vocabulary. I learned some new Latin, Greek, and even Hebrew words that I had never heard before. I definitely utilized the Audio Files for Story Time for Day 2. I really loved the convenience of them. We all sat around the living room where we do our schoolwork. I used my laptop to play the audio. It plays clearly and worked very well. During the narration, I would pause in the sections that the Teacher Edition indicates the extra Notes to Teachers and Parents could/should be discussed, and read those notes to my children myself, since they aren’t in the audio files. Afterward, we would do a short review of the Memory Page again. On Day 3, we would do the Review Worksheets. I did these in sort of a public classroom setting, I guess you could say. I had my daughter be in charge of writing down the answers, since she has the neatest handwriting out of all my children. I asked the questions listed on the worksheets, and my children raised their hands if they knew the answer, and my daughter wrote the answers. The Worksheets are great for reviewing the Story that was read the day before. On Day 4, we reviewed the Memory Page information, and did a short review of the Story, because on Day 5 there’s the Quiz! The Chapter Quiz page is very similar to the Worksheets, although not an exact copy. The Chapter 1 Quiz includes Fill in the Blank Questions, along with matching Vocabulary words to the meanings. If you were using this curriculum with just 1 child, it would be more of an open-book Quiz, since you can’t tear out the page without removing part of the next lesson. I really think that’s great, though, because, in my opinion, when you’re teaching your children about the Bible, you don’t want them to be too upset if they don’t remember it all. They can go back and read to find the answer. I think another great way to use this would be as devotions. We did this one evening when my husband was late getting home from work. I just used the Story Time page as our devotions for the night!
I have to say that I’m very glad I had the opportunity to try out the God’s Great Covenant, OT 1 Bible Course. I love that it’s fun, easy to use, thorough, and very informative. I can definitely recommend this course to all of my Christian friends. Head on over to Classical Academic Press and check out all they have to offer.
I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse 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. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.
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