Our family has had the opportunity, once again, to review Bible Study Guide For All Ages. Since I have several children, they were generous to send me the levels we needed for each of my children to participate. We got: Advanced (5th & 6th grade), Intermediate (3rd & 4th grade), and Beginner (3-K). In addition to the student pages for each level, we also received a set of Large Bible Book Summary Cards and a Beginner Time Line. These levels can all be used by different students simultatneously, so it truly is a Bible Study Guide for All Ages and perfect for families with multiple young and elementary-aged children!
The Student Pages we received cover lessons 1-26. There are a total of 16 different Student Pages books for each level because the program covers the entire Bible in a whopping 416 lessons! They cover the Old and New Testaments. For each of the lessons, the lesson is a front and back of a page in the Student Pages.
The Beginner level is really for kids who are not reading yet, or are beginning readers. It is intended for kids aged 3 through about kindergarten. This level still has plenty for a parent or teacher to read to the student, but it incorporates more coloring and larger illustrations. This level is great because it provides some fine motor practice for kids, encourages them to sing and memorize information and scripture, and asks more basic questions about the scripture being studied. The company does sell a CD that corresponds to the lessons, which is optional. They also sell the Beginner Time Line like we received and each lesson references a few pages from that for students to review with you. There is also a summary of the story and an illustrated version of the story.
My kids really enjoyed the comic book-style Bible lesson based on each lesson’s scripture. These were very similar for each of the levels, but the older levels changed it up a bit by adding in some quiz-style elements straight into the comic, like fill-in-the-blank, unscramble the letters, and answering questions.
The Intermediate level is intended for 3rd and 4th grade students. There is another level (Primary) for 1st & 2nd grade students, but it does not correspond to the other levels. It’s bridging the gap for kids in that kind of awkward pre-reading to reading stage. They recommend choosing a higher level for good readers or lower level for beginning readers if you are wanting your 1st or 2nd grader to follow along with the same lessons as your other kids. My middlest just finished 2nd grade, so we went ahead and got the Intermediate level for him as he is an excellent reader and enjoys doing more advanced work.
The Intermediate level has an included timeline on each lesson page, as well as some memory questions for students to think about what they’ve read about in the scripture being studied. This also recommends the song CD and tells you which one to listen to for the lesson. It gives them practice finding scripture on their own in their Bible. With the Time Line, they are given directions for filling it out, adding things, labeling, and more. Students are given questions to apply what they’ve read, a spot for a prayer list, “Get Active” activities, and some little factoid type tidbits. They also get to do a little bit of map work as well. On the back of the lesson page, they have their comic book with the different activities added in and there is a section to the side with instructions for what they’re supposed to do, for example circling the correct answer or filling in the blanks.
The Advanced level is for 5th and 6th graders. You could use it for slightly older students as well, or have your older kids help teach your younger children. The advanced level is very similar to the Intermediate level with a few more thoughtful questions, slightly more complicated Time Line work and questions, and more involved “Get Active” projects and activities, such as performing a skit or recreating scenarios from the lesson. They also have the Remember It? questions, map work, time line activities, memory workout activities (which reference the Bible Book Summary Cards), and the comic book style story at the back of the lesson with activities to fill out.
The Large Bible Book Summary Cards are great as a standalone product, or wonderful to look at in conjunction with the Bible lessons they’ll be completing. I love that there is a large, colorful picture on the front, and then the back describes a bit about the book and who may have written it (or definitely did). It gives some information about what you might read about if you were to open your Bible to that book. The questions are provided on there for a teacher, parent, or other student to use to quiz someone. We used them by showing the big picture to one of my older kids and asking them the questions as they looked at it. When they didn’t know the answer, we got the Bible out and looked! It was a good way to get to know a little more about the different books of the Bible, especially the ones that went with the passages we were studying in our lessons.
The Beginner Time Line was a fun addition to our lessons. We used it as they were referenced in the Student Pages. It gave good visual clues to what we were learning about. My younger kids really liked it because the pictures would trigger everything they knew and had talked about. Since we were all doing the same lessons, all of my kids could use this as a learning aide. I also thought the Time Line was good for everyone, even though it was really meant for the younger students. Both resources are regular paper sized (so about 8.5″x11″) and on thick cardstock with full color illustrations.
A Teacher’s Guide is not required or neccesary for any of these levels. I loved that I could just look right alongside my kids to help complete the lessons. I also enjoyed not having to teach the same information many different times to cover all of the kids. We all studied it together and were able to enjoy the lessons in one quick session. These never took longer than about 30 minutes to complete together. Some of the Advanced Level activities took a little longer, but not much! My older kids were able to work together to do some of that. I went ahead and had my 13 year old jump in and do these with her little brothers, aged 11, 8, 6, and 3. It worked great and wasn’t drudgery for them; they all really liked the brief, colorful, engaging lessons. They were good for all the different learning types and contained everything we needed, really, besides our own Bible and something to draw or color with.
These lessons are brief enough that you could easily complete one a day. If you’re tight on time, you could complete one a week! We did about 3 a week, and that pace was good. We have been away from town for the past few weeks, and this has been very portable and easy to use while away from home and the internet. The Student Pages are very affordable at less than $6 per set. As a student gets older and needs to move up to another level, it’s no big deal to just get the next set of Student Pages in the higher level and just keep on going on with it since all of the levels we received work at the same pace, using the same scriptures and lessons. This product is awesome for large families!
There are several levels to the program, as you can see. To see how other families used this Bible Study Guide for All Ages with their family, be sure to click the link below:
Kaz A says
This looks like a great study for families!