Have you been looking for a unique and engaging way to teach the Bible chronologically? Boy, have I found some goodies – What’s in the Bible? DVD’s!
What’s What’s in the Bible?
Created by Phil Vischer (of Veggie Tales fame), the What’s in the Bible? series uses puppets, animations and actors to clearly teach Bible truths through stories, skits and songs. Volume 1 in the series begins with the topics of what the Bible is and who wrote it. Each subsequent DVD continues chronologically teaching the history, people and lessons of the Bible.
The format of the DVD’s is goofy enough to make your children laugh all the way through, but serious enough to result in some super in-depth Bible knowledge. Besides the basic “stories” of the Bible, you’ll even find maps of Biblical lands, charts of lineage, and Bible vocabulary to be presented in kid-friendly ways. It’s for all the depth that I suggest even older children can benefit from watching What’s in the Bible? DVD’s!
About Volume 5: 1 & 2 Samuel
As part of an iHN review blitz, I was lucky enough to recieve Volume 5 of What’s in the Bible? This DVD includes (2) 25-minute episodes covering the main content of 1 and 2 Samuel. (Plus a bonus short video about the importance of honesty.)
The first episode covers:
Samuel the prophet
Saul as a king who doesn’t obey God and follows his own vain desires
David anointed
Davis and Goliath
Saul chasing David
A lesson about the Trinity
The second episode covers:
David becoming king
The tribes and trials
The capture of Jerusalem
The Davadic Covenant (Jesus coming from the lineage of David)
Bathsheba and Uriah
David’s repentance and forgiveness from God
Consequences
Solomon
I kept thinking, “I can’t believe how much real content is presented in 25-minutes of fun!” My kids loved the episodes as much as me and asked when we could get the rest of the series. Besides our homeschool, I can see using these with church classes, too!
Disclosure: I received DVD’s and compensation from What’s in the Bible? in exchange for a fair and honest review. As always, my reviews are strictly my opinion and I do not have to give a glowing review.
When you think of the Creation Museum, the first thoughts that pop into your head are probably things like Bible truths, dinosaurs, Noah and the flood, the need for Jesus and so on. We took a tad different approach to the normal routine of simply touring the museum this time around. Even though it rained the entire day, we spent time enjoying the beautiful and wonderfully varied nature trails.
Even though we probably would’ve had a lot more time to observe and look closely at plants and such on a pretty day, the rainy walk was a great way to see things we might not normally see. God’s creation is beautiful in any weather!
Water was dripping from everything, including us!
They have several water areas like waterfalls…
marshland….
And ponds
Plant life is just as varied from native to tropical.
Five different bridges make for a fun walk. My children’s favorite is the swinging bridge seen here.
Water, water everywhere!
Even clinging to the spider webs!
Trying to stay dry… Caleb found the leaf a bit too late. If you can’t tell, he’s soaked through and through.
And my personal favorite find of the day - itty bitty, teany-weany, less than 1/4″ each Bird’s Nest Fungi! It’s hard to tell, but each little cup has little egg-shaped pieces that are actually the mushroom’s spores and are ejected into the air by the rain!! How cool is that?? Now, see what we would’ve missed on a pretty day?
Have more fun in the rain than you can imagine with NaturExplorers’ Remarkable Rain!
On Sunday nights at church, I teach a Kidz Group class for children in 1-5th grades. Right now, I have only little boys in the class. What better way to catch their attention than to talk about dinosaurs! Dinosaurs and church?? Of course! Dinosaurs are a great topic for teaching the authority of the Bible as compared to evolutionary teaching. And for children, dinosaurs are one of the biggest “hooks” public schools use to disprove Biblical authority.
Just how do you educate yourself on the truth of the Bible vs. what the evolutionary world believes? It’s really as simple as children’s books! There are so many wonderful children’s books available now that teach Creation vs. evolution. And not only do they educate your children, they educate you as well! I’ll include just a few dinosaur themed books here and if you’re interested in me posting more wonderful creation-based children’s books, just let me know.
Some of these are more in-depth than others. If you’re hoping for a simpler book, I would suggest What Ever Happened To Dinosaurs or D is for Dinosaurs. The others are more detailed and best suited for upper elementary and above.
I listened to Casting Crown’s While You Were Sleeping many times this Christmas season. Each time, I was moved. Each time, I found myself silently (or not so silently sometimes) saying, “Amen.”
Listen for yourself.
I was particularly moved by “As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children…”
Fast forward to today. I was browsing blog posts from my Homeschool Buzz widget and ran across Redbud Lane’s blog. In her side bar I saw this:
Did you read that number? Did you really think about what that number represents? Seven and a half MILLION babies. People. God’s people. His babies have been murdered.
Think about this…
We had raccoons infesting our barn when we first moved to our farm. They were creating a mess and destroying hay, feed and structures. We had to secretly catch and kill these destructive creatures because it was illegal to kill raccoons at the time. They weren’t “in season”. We could have gotten in big trouble. I guess we still could now that I’m mentioning it.
Deer are all over the place on our farm (and the roads that we travel daily.) Did you know you can get in BIG trouble – fines, removal of personal property, and possible jail time – for killing a deer out of season?
Did you know you can face the same consequences for fishing without a paid license?
Did you know you can go to federal prison for killing an eagle or taking one of its eggs?
I’m almost done, but there’s one more real example I have to give. I used to work with a Teen MOPS group. It’s purpose was not to support teenage pregnancy, but to teach teenage moms how to raise a child, to teach them how to *not* get pregnant again, to encourage them to see God’s will for themselves and their child and to hopefully lead them to Him through our teaching and example.
We fed these girls and their children before each meeting. Many of them weren’t getting very wholesome meals because, like most teenagers, they thought McDonalds offered all the food groups in a healthy way. The local churches would each sponsor one meal a year for our meetings. I went to my very own church one month asking the ladies to come up with something really great for these families to enjoy for the next meeting. All I recieved were rolled eyes and accusations that I was supporting teenage pregnancy.
Hear that. In my own church (and I venture to say many others that were approached) the main thought wasn’t turned toward uplifting these teens for taking the high road and not aborting their babies. It wasn’t on loving these girls who made mistakes and are now trying to be better moms. It wasn’t on asking, “What else can I do to help these girls learn to follow my Jesus and raise their children to follow Him, too?”
The main thought was something that a Pharisee might have had. “You want ME to support THEM? Cindy, what kind of so-called ministry are you part of?”
I don’t mention that story for any other reason than to point out more of the obvious. Our priorities in this world, in our country, and even in our churches are not in the right place. Casting Crowns’ song asks, “America, will we go down in history as a nation with no room for its King?” I ask, “Christians, are we doing all we can to make room for Him – in our own hearts and in our nation?”
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.” Psalm 139:13-16
“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateway of the cities she gives her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you would have responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you - when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”‘ Proverbs 1:20-33
This has been such a relaxing and awesome study! Using Easy Fun School’s free unit titled The Names of Jesus, we’ve spent a little time each day focusing on one of His names from the Bible and creating a scrapbook-style keepsake for each name.
I chose not to include most of the other suggestions from the unit since we were already doing other things each day. It has given my children the chance to really focus on the meaning of each of Jesus’ names and plenty of time to create a daily scrapbook page.
Take a look at a few of their pages. What a great memory maker for them!
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