New Bible Curriculum “Telling God’s Story” coming in February 2011

Posted on July 5th, 2010 by Pete Enns

I have been working on a Bible curriculum for Olive Branch Books, the religious instruction imprint of Peace Hill Press founded by well-known author, historian, and homeschooling guru  Susan Wise Bauer.

In February 2011 the Parents’ Guide and 1st grade material will be available. Grade 2 will come out later that year, with a publication schedule of two curriculum years each year thereafter.

The Parents’ Guide introduces the approach taken in the curriculum, which differs from others on the market. The curriculum is divided into three phases: grades 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Each lesson begins with a “parent text” that explains the passage to parents in more detail, followed  by the children’s lesson. There is one lesson per week with activities for each day of that week to reinforce the lesson.

Rather than beginning at the youngest ages with Bible stories or moral lessons, the first phase of this curriculum introduces children to Jesus as he would have been introduced to the first Christians: though his stories, teachings, miracles, events of his life, and other things.

Having been introduced to Jesus, the second phase moves toward a sweeping grasp of Israel’s story. Here, too, we do not think in terms of moral lessons or character studies, i.e., “be like David, or Abraham, or Moses here (but not there).” We focus on what part in Israel’s story Abraham, Moses, and David play. In other words, for those of you who are familiar with the term, we are taking a redemptive-historical or biblical theological approach to teaching children the Bible.

The third phase (high school) will focus on historical backgrounds. Many young children leave high school and go to college to find that their understanding of the Bible is superficial and susceptible to strong criticism. They cannot interact well with the kinds of historical issues raised regularly on the History Channel, Time Magazine, or The DaVinci Code. We will address all sorts of issues of historical context for the Bible, not in a defensive, apologetic manner, but with an attitude of learning more deeply how “God’s Story” was heard in the ancient world.

The links above point you to sample sections.


Tags: Bible Curriculum // 2 Comments »

  • http://likeachildscience.blogspot.com like a child

    I would love to see some condensed material that would help a public school parent like myself help address some of these issues in the limited time I will have to teach my children the many things I want to supplement their education with. For my kids, home will be the only place they will learn how to integrate the secular and scientific view points they will learn at school, and the inerrant Scriptural model they may learn at church. And that seems like a daunting task when a) I have questions myself and b) I'm a science geek and an awful teacher. I also think it is worthwhile to have material for the preschool–kindergarten age range, maybe in the form of picture books. I have a 6 year old and I've had many a opportunities to discuss some of these issues, but often all I can come with is I Don't Know. For example, what is heaven like? Since I know there is controversy even about that, I had no idea what to answer her. It would have been great to have a picture book to talk things through with her!

  • Anonymous

    I just finished reading Telling God’s Story (beautifully and impeccably written; concise yet thorough).
    I not only feel inspired and encouraged in my calling to teach my children the Word because of the sensible approach presented, but I was also refreshed in my own journey of faith. Thanks so much for making this guidebook available.
    I’ll be looking for your middle school teaching tools. :)

« »