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Ladies, hello! I hope you are all enjoying this Christmas season! We have had a wonderful break and it is still going on. How good God is to give us times of refreshment. And my 11 yo dd was baptized yesterday! Praise the Lord for her public confession of faith!

I have been pondering something and would like to have some feedback on my thoughts. I grew up in a Christian home - my father is a pastor and a very godly man. I was taught very young to read the Bible daily and have done so for most of my life. But, something that was lacking in my life was an actual study of the Bible as a book - the history, the flow, how the different books fit together, etc. Even as an adult, I feel that I have never had that comprehensive study of the Bible as a book. I have studied individual books of the Bible, have daily devotional and study times, have read through the Bible from beginning to end at least twice - yet still lack the understanding and knowledge of the flow of the Book. Is this making sense? Anyway, that is something that my dh and I feel strongly about - giving the kids that base of understanding of the Bible. I truly love HOD's approach to Bible as a part of our daily school time and we are learning a lot through that. In addition, though, I feel that we need to make sure that the kids understand the history and flow of the Bible.

I guess my question is - is this something that HOD will cover in future years? I have read Carrie's plan for the first year of Ancients and I can tell that we will be studying the early Bible much more in depth - and I cannot wait! I am so excited about that! Will that continue in future guides when the time period of the Bible is not the time period being studied in history? Will you continue to cover Bible history and flow during the following years?

And also, for those of you who do study the Bible as a Subject and not just devotionally, what do you use? I am not thinking of adding a Bible Subject daily - like another workbook - but my dh and I have considered doing something like that weekly with the kids. I asked my dd about studying the Bible as a subject in addition to her daily quiet times, and she lit up. In the past year, she has expressed a desire to know how the Bible all fits together. We do not want our children to leave home without that knowledge.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this.

Tiffini,

Your question is a good one, and I know moms will be chiming in with any ideas they may have about doing a family Bible study. I have found that as I make connections among the various books of the Bible and see the overarching theme of God's plan for man's redemption that the Bible makes more and more sense to me. Knowing the context that the various books were written in and understanding how each one fits into history has also made a difference to me.

With that in mind, I thought you might benefit from a brief overview of how we do the main Bible study in our various HOD guides (although we do interweave Bible into many other subjects areas beyond what I'll mention below).

At HOD, we approach Bible study from all different avenues changing from year to year to provide variety in our overall Bible coverage, but always utilizing it along with the study of history.

In LHFHG, we memorize Bible verses that correspond with the history and cover an overall chronological view of how the Bible fits into history and how we got to where we are today. A corresponding devotional hits questions kiddos ask in relation to the Bible.

In Beyond, we continue to memorize Bible verses along with discussion of their meaning, while matching it to the study of history from the beginnings of Christianity in America. There is a focus on discussing and applying the verses to life.

In Bigger, we do a character trait study as we look at the key figures in American history. We weigh each character's actions in light of the Bible. A focus on memorization of verses from Proverbs corresponds with the character trait study. We spend time digging deeper into the meaning of the verses and into how kiddos can work on improving their own character to better glorify the Lord. We begin copywork of verses too (including verses in history and science).

In Preparing, we take an overall view of history, linking the Bible time-period wise and application-wise to the various events in world history. We look at history from the perspective of everything looking forward to the birth of Christ or back at His life as the pinnacle of history. The book Grandpa's Box does an amazing job of weaving the stories of the Bible together. We also focus on memorizing entire Psalms and applying their wisdom to daily life. Copywork of key verses continues (and branches out to include verses for science and history topics too). Kiddos learn how important it is to praise the Lord and glorify Him with their lives. Within the Deluxe Package, we also include a wonderful book, called "The Young Christian's Introduction to the Bible", on the infallibility of the Bible and how the Bible came to be with us today.

In our new ancients guide, we will do a sweeping view of the Bible from Old Testament to New Testament times, interweaving secular history and the Bible. We will also schedule for the kiddos to have an individual quiet time of their own each day including Bible reading, prayer, Scripture memorization, and music. The discussion portion of our Bible study will focus on Genesis 1-11. The kiddos will also be reading the entire book of John and the first 12 chapters of Acts as part of their history study on the life of Christ. In our read-aloud section, if you choose the History Interest option, you will also be reading aloud the books of Ruth, Jonah, and Esther as they fit into the matching time period in history.

You can never have too much Bible study, and I applaud your efforts to more diligently include this in your day in a systematic way. I just want to assure you that at HOD our goal is to include as much Bible study as possible within our guides, and to link the study in a meaningful way to show God's plan for man's salvation, pointing to the amazing sacrifice of His only Son as our only way to eternal life.

Blessings,
Carrie

Tiffini - congratulations on your daughter's baptism! I am learning so much within the Bible study of HOD too. Thank you Carrie, for explaining the intent and focus behind each Bible time in each guide. Just reading it gave me a sense of peace about all that we're doing Biblically within HOD. Tiffini - I don't know if this will help at all, but I've really begun to look at my HOD Bible time with my dc as a time to get pretty personal about my faith with my dc and share that with them as much as possible. I try to keep their Bible times separate so I can really focus on each child in this way, and make our sharing time as personal and intimate as possible. I wrote something about this on another thread, and I'll link you to that:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2502&p=18553&hilit= ... nal#p18553

This has been the best way for me to touch my dc's hearts deeply during our HOD Bible study. Hope something here helps! If you're looking for a way to include dh - I think you could have your dc say their Bible verses for your dh (maybe over supper, or something), and have him share (and you or anyone else too), what that verse means to him or when he would go to it for encouragement, etc. The dc could also share what they learned in their Bible time that day. Just a few ideas!

In Christ,
Julie

Tiffini so excited for you that your daughter made that profession of faith. How wonderful. I wanted to reply to this because we do something a little different with our Bible. But first let me say that we always do HOD Bible because it links to all we are learning and we really enjoy it. I have seen my children grow so much from HOD Bible time as well. So I highly recommend that if you do anything different it be in addition to HOD Bible time. I made a decision before we started HOD that our unit study each year would always be Bible no matter what else we do as well. In other words I wanted to not get caught up in worrying about the History cycle as much as I wanted to make going through the Bible our absolute each year as far as a cycle. To me the best way to really study Bible and understand how it flows and all the themes is to read through it chronologically and dig deeper as you go. So we do in addition to HOD Bible a separate study of the actual Bible. The basic thing that we do is read through the entire Bible chronologically to get real understanding of what events are connected and how the actual flow of the Bible works in terms of chronology. We also study themes that we feel God is showing us to study. We are using The Chronological Narrated Bible with our kids at about 1/2 the Bible a year and it is excellent. It has been wonderful! I think we could easily do the whole Bible if we were not also digging deeper as we go but I think that this way we are really getting more out of it. This is something that we plan on doing all the way through high school. I would like to have them take several deep tours through the Bible before we are all done each time looking at different aspects as we go and each time using books that help us study deeper as we go.

We use different things on different days to link to what we are reading in the Bible as well as the commentary that is in the Bible we use that is very good as well. The ones we use most are Victory Journey Through The Bible, Bible custom and Manners, The Stranger on The Road to Emmaus (this one is really good), Faith Factor NT and OT, The Bible Atlas, Who's Who and Where's Where in the Bible, Wilmington's Guide to The Bible and we also do a book called Changed in His Image Student edition (but we do this one very slowly). I just read the Bible and honestly fit things in as they make sense to use them. It pretty easy to link things as you go. My kids get so much out of this. This year we are looking at the Character of a real Christian and what it really means to belong to Him. We talk about what we study in terms of that theme as we go. Next year I will pick a different theme and it will just be something I think my kids need at the time. We have found either reading a little each day or having an entire day for digging deeper and reading has worked very well. So there is lots of flexibly on how to make ti work and you can add things like lapbooks to help as well.

I hope this gives you some ideas of what you might want to do with your family. It is so worth it to really read through the entire Bible with your children. They will really learn and understand the Bible so much deeper. Hope this helps!

w2w - Thanks! I am printing this for reference. I agree that doing HOD Bible is first and foremost in my mind, but adding in something such as this to do when my dh is home, or as an additional family Bible study would be excellent. I will be checking out the resources you've listed here. I want to own the chronological Bible for sure. I am currently reading (just for my own enjoyment) a chronological book of the 4 gospels. It takes each of the gospels and puts them in chronological order together, so for instance, it combines what was said in the four gospels about Jesus' baptism into one account and puts that summary within the framework of time chronologically. It is worded almost exactly as the Bible is - I am loving it!!! I am certain I would fall in love with a book of the entire Bible chronologically arranged as well. You are so wise to be studying the Bible in this manner on a consistent basis. I can learn much from you, Brenda - thank you for your gems of wisdom here on the HOD board. HOD keeps Christ at the center of our schooling day, and it's up to me to keep Him at the center the rest of the day - this will help.

In Christ,
Julie

I thank you, Carrie, Julie, and Brenda for your very thoughtful responses. I do appreciate so much the way that HOD teaches the Bible. There is no doubt in my mind that it is of the utmost importance to you, Carrie, which is one of the first reasons we chose HOD and are loving it so much. Thanks for your in-depth explanation.

Julie, I love how personal you get with your kids. I need to work more on doing that and not rushing through things sometimes. I know those personal sharing times stick with them the longest and mean the most.

Brenda, thank you so much for sharing your plan with me and the resources you use. Is the Chronological Bible paraphrased or a kids' edition or what version is it in? Do you work through the books like Deuteronomy as well? My dd who decided to read the Bible on her own this year from the beginning really struggled through that one!

I long for my kids to know and love the Word of God. They are definitely off to a good start in their young lives and we want to equip them as thoroughly as we can. We also want to be careful not to overdo it and expect too much for them so that they come to dread their time in the Word. I appreciate you!

The version I use is this one http://www.amazon.com/Narrated-Bible-Ch ... 0736902392 It is the Narrated Bible in Chronological Order NIV version. It is not written to children but I find my older kids age 8-11 understand it very well. The commentary is very good and I read it all. We do not skip any parts but maybe go through some of it quicker than others. It has the Gospels the same way as Julie describes. It does not do it by book but instead in chronological order, so you literally will be in several at once. My 6 and 4 year old do listen in but tend to not always be able to stay there for the duration. I encourage them to listen in as much as possible but I also read to them the Ergermeier's Bible Storybook as chronologically as possible to match the older kids as well as Leading Little Ones to God. We use the books Daily Life at the time of Jesus and If You Had Been There in Bible Times to dig deeper with the two little ones. It's kind of a mini big kid study. I alternate the story Bible with Leading Little ones and that works perfect. Again with them as well we do HOD Bible and really embrace that as well. I would never skip it and if I was only going to do one with the little ones it would be HOD because it is designed to mesh with what they are doing. But as it happens my two little ones beg to do the other study as well as HOD so it works well for us.

I also wanted to point out that I read it all aloud to them and stop where they have questions. There has been only one time where I needed to filter something in the Narrated Bible commentary and it was not a really bad thing just did not want to go that deep into the details. It was very easy to do and I can only remember one time I was paranoid enough to do that. At any rate I really think for the younger kids it would be too much to have them reading this Bible on their own. I would say teenagers would be good to go on their own. I think you kind of need to be there to explain everything to them and the questions they ask during this time I have found to be very valuable. I would not want to give that part up even if they were motivated to do it on their own. There is just too much there with the commentary but I will say it makes the more tedious parts of the Bible more interesting when you know all the history and everything that connects to it. That is what the narrated part does for you. It kind of explains what is to come and then connects all the dots and history before you read it so that when you read it you really understand it. The format is perfect for read aloud and perfect for explaining the questions before they are asked really. I am learning also with my children. I think with HOD half the Bible a year is very doable (or even 1/3 would be fine if 1/2 is too much). We are going to go through Revelation this year. I struggled with whether to do this but then I read that it is the only book that knowing it well comes with the promise of reward and it makes sense for them to know it. My kids are also bombarding me with questions about it as well. This may be too much for many people but I feel like we can do it and not cause fear if we focus on it being the restoration of all that went wrong in Genesis and the promise of Heaven. So we are not skipping anything except possibly Song of Solomon because I was told by my pastor not to read it until engaged and I think that might be a good plan for my kids as well.

This year a few of my older kids are reading and or listening to the Daily Bible on their own kind of as a group. They are jumping on the Church challenge to read the Bible this year. We will still do our more in depth chronological reading. I just think even if they do that this is too valuable and we learn too much from it to give it up. We will continue just half paced as well as all the digging deeper. And if they continue with their personal reading then that will be an even bigger blessing. I think the way we do it together is more of a study rather than a personal devotion or personal reading type things. And if they continue over the years and we do it together I will be very pleased.

Anyway the entire thing is something that is not going to be for everyone. It is definitely extra and I look at it as more of a life training thing rather than school. It adds time but it also adds blessings! It may or may not be something God calls you to do. Hope this information helps!

Thank you, Brenda, for all of the wonderful information you provided. I appreciate that!

I applaud you for going through Revelation with them. It is such a fascinating book. My dad is currently going through Revelation in his sermons. He preaches directly through a book from beginning to end, taking sometimes just a few verses at a time, depending on the passage. We are only in Chapter 3 of Revelation, but it is so fascinating. His sermons are online if you have any desire to listen. PM me if you want a link to the website of our church.

Thanks again so much for your help. I have been looking up the resources online. I, too, do not think of this as "school" but just learning together as a family the whole Word of God.

We don't use a Chronological bible, though I've thought about getting one. We read from the One Year bible. It has an OT reading, a NT reading, a Psalm and some Proverbs every day. I got it for myself, but the kids started asking me to read it to them when they were 4 and 6, so 2 years ago. We started reading it every night. Each day's reading is somewhere around 15 minutes. We are starting it over again tonight. I didn't do all of it with them the first time, since that wasn't my original intent, but this time we will start with Genesis and Matthew and go through the whole bible. I'm just bummed I didn't find it in time to start on Jan 1, so my dates would line up right. I've been searching the whole house for it. It was in my school room the whole time, but it was laying flat with the spine turned in.

Tiffini wrote:My dad is currently going through Revelation in his sermons. He preaches directly through a book from beginning to end, taking sometimes just a few verses at a time, depending on the passage. We are only in Chapter 3 of Revelation, but it is so fascinating. His sermons are online if you have any desire to listen. PM me if you want a link to the website of our church.

I would love the link to that. That is the hardest book to understand to me so I could use all the help I can get. Thanks!

Loving all this Bible talk! I just got a chronological bible for Christmas & I am really loving it so far. Now I want the narrated one!! LOL! I do love the way HOD weaves the Bible into our school & lives. I think reading the chronological with the kids is a great idea!
Thanks for all your great plans & ways you study with your family W2W. I wish we all lived closer. It is rare to find such like minded fellowship!


Love you gals!

Ours is very simple, so maybe not what you have in mind. We just read through a Bible story each day and color in a page from Calvary Chapel's children's bible story coloring pages. There's also some comprehension questions and a word search. We only do the coloring pages and sometimes the word search.

We got a one year chronological bible for Christmas and I am absolutely loving it! Right now DH and I are reading it together because Samuel would never sit still long enough to make it through the whole reading. I think that next year we will probably read through it as a family after dinner each night.