Review: GrapeVine Studies, Birth of Jesus: Beginner (TOS Review)

For this review we tried out Birth of Jesus: Beginner (ages 5-7) and Traceable for Beginner (ages 3-6) by GrapeVine Studies. 

I received the following e-files:

Birth of Jesus: Beginner Teacher Manual
Birth of Jesus:  Beginner Student Manual (for ages 5-7 years of age)
Birth of Jesus:  Beginner Traceable Student Manual (for ages 3-6 years of age)

I used this program with my 6 and 5 (soon to be) year olds.  I have to be honest, they were not too thrilled with it.  I guess drawing is NOT their thing. I do think this is a great way to introduce Bible Stories in a multi-sensory way.  Many kids (and adults) are better able to listen while their hands are busy. 

I think that my 6 year old son would have done better with the traceable sheets because he is such a perfectionist and doesn’t like to make mistakes.  My almost 5 year old would have preferred to free draw, instead of stick figure, he especially was not interested in tracing.

The lessons are very systematically outlined for you.  This is a very easy curriculum to follow.  They tell you exactly what to do each day, for the 7 lessons.  Of course, you could choose to change that, but there is no question as to what their recommendations are. 

Each lesson basically consists of reading scripture verse (they provide the verse, you read it from the bible of your choice), a small discussion, and stick figuring (drawing) the verse each day.  Weekly there is a memory verse, lesson review questions and vocabulary to look up in the Bible Dictionary.  There are also final review questions at the end of the 7 lessons.

The difference between the Beginner and the Beginner Traceable is that the pages for drawing are blank in the Beginner, and in the Traceable the stick figuring is done for the child to trace.  The teacher is to model the stick figuring on a dry erase board for the children during the lesson.  The lesson pages are to be printed from the Student Texts, I used the Teacher Texts in iBOOKS as PDFs.

I’m disappointed that my kids were not really into this activity, I am going to try again next month and see if being in the Christmas Season will help.  (One can hope!)

I do feel that this is a good program and has a lot to offer.  It all depends on your kids.  You could easily adjust the lessons to your children as well.  For instance, we just read the verses and excluded the drawing (though that is really what made this curriculum unique).  If you have children that like to doodle, are interested in drawing and you want to use those traits to introduce Bible study, then this would be a good curriculum for you!

The Teacher book is $12.50, the student book is $8, the traceable student book is also $8, to use one book with more than one family member you must purchase the family license which is $6.50.  Classroom licenses are also available.   They offer a wide range of topics for courses.  Many of which have also been reviewed by the crew this time, you can see them by clicking below.

To help you decide what level to buy and where to start you can click on the hyperlinked words or see the graphics in the post above.  You can also see SAMPLE PAGES.

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