Judah Bible Curriculum

QUICK START GUIDE

PLEASE PRINT OUT THIS QUICK START GUIDE TO BEGIN.

Follow this QUICK START GUIDE to get you started with the Judah Bible Curriculum as quickly and easily as possible. It is suggested that you DO NOT begin with the teacher training seminar.

You received an email when you bought the Judah Bible Curriculum that has the links for the curriculum downloads. Find that email by searching your email inbox for JudahBible.

Make a special JudahBible folder on your computer where you can find it. As you download parts of the curriculum, save them to your special JudahBible folder.

Here is how to begin:

1) First, you will train yourself. With the Judah Bible Curriculum, you will be teaching your students how to:

research the Bible accurately,

reason from the Bible principles of truth,

relate those principles to all of life,

record findings and conclusions for use in their future stations in life.

2) You will need: Bible, pencil, pen, paper, one 2″ 3-ring notebook for the JBC manual, plus 3″ three-ring notebooks for you and each of your students, plus one 3-ring paper punch,

3) Begin each week by choosing a Weekly Theme Focus. The Weekly Theme Focus is a weekly theme that your students will study and research for one whole week, or as long as you see is needed. There are Key Individuals, Key Events, Key Institutions and Key Documents. You will study through the whole Bible each year – not reading the whole Bible but studying a new set of Bible keys each year in the context of God’s overall purposes. (Of course, it is certainly valuable to establish a program and habit of reading through the Bible each year, but that is not part of the Judah Bible Curriculum.)

Download the JBC Manual. Print it out and put it into your 2″ three-ring notebook as you can. This is your Judah Bible Curriculum Manual.

4) We will use Abraham, a Key Individual, for our QUICK START GUIDE. From the Weekly Theme Guide, p.26 of the JBC Manual, we can see that scriptures concerning Abraham can be found in Gen. 12:1-9, 15:12-16, 17:1-8. The weekly Theme Guide also has a weekly scripture verse that can be used as a memory verse, and a statement of the weekly theme, Gen. 19:6 for Abraham.

5) Now you will learn how to fill out Key Sheets. Print out a few blank Key Individuals key sheets to use to study Abraham. It is found on page 18 of your manual AND on the JudahBible.com website, under My Account, on the menu at the bottom of the page. Also, print out the Example key sheet for Abraham on page 19. Don’t read the Example until after you have filled out the blank key sheet yourself. The key sheets are research sheets that will help in learning how to pull important information from the text and write it down in an organized fashion. The key sheets are one of the methods of study we use with the Judah Bible Curriculum. Look at the blank key sheet and familiarize yourself with the categories across the top of the page.

6) Read the Scripture passages. As you read, look for the pertinent information for the various key sheet categories. Then spend time studying the portion of scripture and writing down the information on the key sheets. If you need more room, you can use another blank key sheet, or even a blank piece of paper, for your findings. Recognize that you are searching for understanding of the passage, NOT trying to get the key sheet filled out.

Begin with the Bible passages on the Theme Focus Guide. Then eventually augment the exercise with cross-referenced scriptures, your Thesaurus, Bible Dictionaries, Bible Handbooks, Commentaries, and other resources.

7) Ask yourself and the Lord, “Are there any other ways that would be good to illustrate this Weekly Theme Focus?” The curriculum allows for maximum creativity on your part. Weekly Themes may be expanded with additional memory work, art projects, or writing exercises. Weekly Themes can also have additional key individuals, events, institutions and documents that can be studied with key sheets. You will find that both you and your students will come up with fun ways to illustrate the Weekly Theme Focus.

8) Now look at the Example key sheet. See if the example key sheet for Abraham has any more thoughts or ideas you can incorporate into your key sheet. Add new ideas to your key sheets, as appropriate. When working with your family, this is where a family discussion will be most valuable because you can correct any errors in thinking and understanding. Look for teachable moments around the Weekly Theme Focus. (The curriculum has only one example key sheet for each type of Bible Key; the rest is up to you. The goal is for you to be dependent on the Lord for this study, not on a curriculum author.)

9) Edit your key sheet. Go over your key sheet(s) with a red pen (redlining). Mark additions, corrections and changes you see would be good. You are working your key sheets towards finished products for your notebook. Add questions that you may have about God, man, government, and the specific Bible story, to research later.

10) Build your Personal Bible Notebook. Place your work into your notebook. Copy your key sheet(s) over neatly and legibly, and build your Bible Notebook. This exercise should be used to train accuracy, neatness, diligence and organization – all important qualities of self-governing character. You will need a 3” three-ring notebook for your Bible Notebook. Each of your students will need his or her own 3” three-ring notebook as well. Place your key sheets, art projects, section title pages, and other research papers and activities for the week into it, all in proper order and complete. Make your Bible Notebooks very special. Incidentally, your own notebook will become your teacher’s manual for next year as well.

11) Read the Judah Bible Curriculum Manual, if you have not already done so.

12) Now, you will train your students to study the Bible. Prepare to teach them to study the Weekly Theme Focus much the same as you did. Begin with Weekly Theme Focus #1, Creation. It is found on the Weekly Theme Guide under the First Year All Grades* category on page 16 of the JBC Manual. The second week will be #2 Creation of Man; the third week will be #3 Garden Command and Fall; and so on.

13) After you have gotten started with all of the above, you can begin to listen to the teacher training lectures as you can. Incorporate what you learn into your teaching as you go along. Read the JBC Manual first. The idea is to begin where you are and expand your understanding from there. The goal is for you to train your children to be able to study and research the Bible for themselves, and to develop a practical Biblical worldview to guide their lives.

Lecture 1 explains the JBC philosophy and overview – the WHY and HOW of the Judah Bible Curriculum.

Lecture 2 explains How God Changes Nations and the character needed for that change.

Lectures 3,4, 5 teach through the Bible as you would teach through it, explaining the “big picture” concepts and ideas. You can listen to them a little at a time to keep ahead of your class.

Lecture 6 explains the methods we use with the Judah Bible Curriculum, and why.

Lecture 7 is a bonus and applies the principles to history from Pentecost to the present, and how to look for the hand of God in the lives of men and nations.

Lecture 8 is a bonus and is an example of the hand of God in an individual’s life – Joseph.

14) EACH ONE TEACH ONE or more. This is a crucial step in turning our nation’s character back to God. As you get comfortable or accomplished with the Judah Bible Curriculum, tell a friend about it who would benefit from it. Tell your home school support group, and disciple them to use it. Tell other Christian schools.

Teach it in your church and Sunday school class. One teacher used his lesson for his 8th grade Sunday school class. There was a student whose parents made him come to the class, and he hated being there, and tended to be disruptive. One day, however, as they were studying the hand of God in a Bible character’s life, he was struck with the possibilities for his own life. He began to listen and connect the lesson with himself. Soon his life turned around completely.

15a) The second year in a home school. You will begin again in Genesis to start studying through the Bible. You will use the 2nd grade Weekly Theme Guide, which gives a new set of Weekly Theme Focuses in the context of the same big-picture story through the Bible.

15b) The second year in a Christian Day School. In a Christian School, all grades use the same First Year All Grades weekly theme guide for the first year, so all teachers understand the basics and can help each other implement the weekly themes. This provides an overall unified first year big-picture view of the Bible. After the first year, each grade uses the Weekly Theme Guide for its grade. A student advances through the grades studying a new set of Bible keys through the whole Bible each year, resulting in a comprehensive study of the Bible. Each year, the various keys are studied in their context of the overall “big picture” concepts and principles. The themes for K-6 are repeated 7-12.

Helpful Hints:

In a family setting, your whole family can study the same Weekly Theme Focus each week, each studying it at his own scholastic level, i.e. younger elementary students will do more art projects and question-and-answer activity, while older students will do more written research.

When your family is writing key sheets, you can all have daily discussions about ideas and findings. You can talk with your students about how they see the story applying to them personally. This can provide many “teachable moments” for you with your family.

It should be pointed out that the Weekly Theme Guide is a suggested guide that you can change or arrange as you see may be needed for your students. Its purpose is to keep you on track with a generally chronological guide to weekly themes through the school year.