JUDAH BIBLE CURRICULUM
SAMPLE LESSON 1 – KEY EVENT: THE FALL
The Judah Bible Curriculum is a “Principle Approach” Bible class curriculum designed to help you teach your students HOW to study and research the Bible, and learn principles of truth from God’s Word that will apply to and guide every area of their lives.
The goal is to fill their future with confidence to be always able to choose the right and please the Lord in the midst of the many voices around them demanding their attention and allegiance. The last thing we want as they grow up and ultimately leave the nest is to set them adrift in this media age without this foundation in God’s Word. This is the end goal of all our educational efforts.
The strength of Principle Approach Education is the self-governing-under-God character coupled with the self-educating frame of mind you will build into your students. This non-dependent character is the foundation of sustainable liberty in any nation. This character was pervasive in America at its founding.
We need to build in our students both a comprehensive basis in the Scriptures and the ability to reason from that basis to apply it to all of life.
TRY THIS SAMPLE EXERCISE WITH YOUR STUDENTS.
Preparing. Begin with prayer.
You and each of your children will need your own Bibles to study. Any translation is fine. Use the translation you are comfortable with. The Living Bible is a good paraphrase, and may advantageous for beginning.
One of the main exercises used in the Judah Bible Curriculum is the key sheet. Key sheets are used to analyze the Weekly Theme Focus. We study through the Bible each year, one Weekly Theme Focus at a time, for the whole week as appropriate. We have key sheets for Key Individuals, Key Events, Key Institutions and Key Documents.
Sample Lesson 1 is a Key Event study. We will study The Fall.
For this exercise, print out the blank Key Events key sheet, 2 each for students and teacher. Also, print out one copy of the example Key Events key sheet.
Print out blank Key Events key sheets.
Print out example Key Events key sheet. Don’t study it until later.
Step 1: Researching God’s Word. Together with your students, have them read aloud from the Bible Genesis 1 through 3, especially Gen. 2:15-17 and Gen. 3:1-24. (If they are too young, read the text to them as a story.) Take the blank key sheet and discuss the categories at the top of the page. Use the different items to jog your thinking. You are extracting the pertinent information from the passage. Next, you and they write down that information on your key sheets in the appropriate column.
Step 2. Reasoning principles and concepts. Let your students express their thinking on the passage. The idea is to stimulate your students’ thinking and teach them to reason cause-to-effect. “If this is true, then what about that?” Then you guide them if their thinking needs to be adjusted or corrected.
Use this as “teachable moment” time and be sure to share with your students what you already know about the subject.
Don’t think, “What does the curriculum author want me to put on this key sheet?” but rather, “Lord, what can we learn from You and Your word here?” We want to shift from “What is the correct answer?” to “What does this tell me about the Lord and His ways and His character?”
Then, AFTER working together without it, use the example key sheet as an “answer key.” Go over it with your students.
Step 3. Recording your finished Product. After finishing the study, you now have a rough draft. Have your students copy their key sheets over on a fresh new key sheets to produce a final copy.
This copy should be neat, finished, correct and presentable. One purpose of the key sheet is to develop comprehension skills, and self-governing character qualities of neatness, diligence, and organization. The purpose of the study is to dig out truth and understanding, and develop reasoning ability in your students.
Notebooks. Place your finished products in your special Bible notebooks. You will need a 3-ring binder for each student and teacher. The purpose of the Bible notebook is not mere paper storage, but producing a valuable record for future use. It helps build character qualities of prodiuction, organization, finishing a project, and creativity. Generally, our kids are steeped in consumption, and need to be taught production. The notebook is to be prized by each student and teacher.
Step 4: Relating ideas and principles to every area of life. Now, apply the study personally. Ask your students, “What did you learn? What questions do you have? What does this mean about God? Why did God do what He did? What does this mean in your own life?” These questions will spawn more questions.
When taking a week to study one Weekly Theme Focus, you will be able to bring in other Bible keys for that Focus – individuals, institutions and documents. The curriculum explains how to do that. You can teach your students to expand the study with timelines, commentaries, concordances, Bible dictionaries, art projects and other study resources.
You will be adding a new layer of understanding each week through the year. Your students will learn to study the Bible and apply it to their lives and to the world, becoming non-dependent, self-educating students of the Word of God.
Each year the Weekly Theme Guide gives you a new set of weekly themes in the same context of God’s purpose in history. It will help you keep your family steadily paced through their years of Bible class.
Resources:
For further explanation of the Judah Bible Curriculum philosophy of education, listen to the audio Lecture 1 of the Judah Bible Teacher Training Seminar, Curriculum Overview (here).
For a “big picture” view of the fall to teach your children, read The Hand of God in History I, from The Third Alternative:Christian Self-Government, by Bill Burtness, Chapter 4 free (here).
Risk Free!
The Judah Bible Curriculum is risk free, so if you decide you do not like it, we will cheerfully refund your money (upon returning the hard copy, if that is what you ordered). If you DO like it, we will accept donations to help expand the ministry. 🙂
Tell your home school support group about it, and disciple them in using it,
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