When it came to choosing curriculum for our first year of homeschooling, I knew two things.  First, I wanted to use a Christian curriculum.  Second, I knew we had a very limited budget.  So I did what any second generation homeschooler would do.  I helped my mom clean out her homeschooling books.  Ok, yes, I raided her shelves and took what she no longer needed.  Since I knew I wanted to incorporate the Bible in our homeschool day I was excited when I found she still had The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine F. Vos sitting on her shelf.

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Bible as History Class

When we decided to dive into homeschooling, I also decided I would do everything I could to use this time to help him develop and grow his faith.  One of the practical ways was to use the Bible as our first year of history lessons.

The Bible is rich with history.  In fact this year we’ve been focusing more on ancient history. It’s been fun to see where and how events in ancient history connects with events in the Bible.

Why The Child’s Story Bible

I really loved using The Child’s Story Bible for a couple reasons.  First, it’s written in story format.  This book is written in a way that is engaging to children because of the story format.  It is not a regular Bible with chapter verse.  That being said each chapter in this book does reference where in the Bible the story comes from.

I also love this book because it’s written for an elementary age child.  While you certainly can read this to younger children, my point is that this book doesn’t water down the content of the Bible to make it appropriate for toddlers.  It doesn’t skip over passages (at least not anything that popped out to me) it covers the entire Bible.

The book is pretty much all text.  There are a couple of pages of pictures in the middle of the book, but other than that it’s all text.  That being said, each chapter is also only about a page or two long.  The lessons are short and sweet so you don’t loose your child when you’re reading to them.

Extra Activities

If you want to do more than just read a chapter from the book as history class, it’s pretty easy to add to it.  Some days I would find worksheets on Pinterest that went with the lesson for the day.  On the days I couldn’t find some sort of activity, I would use the lesson for a writing prompt and have Grasshopper write a couple sentences.  Sometimes I would ask him to draw a picture about the lesson (see how I just got writing and art class done too).

If you’re a creative person I’m sure you could come up with a LOT of fun ways to make the Bible come alive and enforce the history lessons read in this book.

Bonus Lessons

By choosing to study Bible History for your history lessons, you’re teaching more than just history.  Our children will also learn about God’s plan for mankind and how everything though history is tied together.  If you’re a Christian homeschool family, it is imperative to teach in a way that will give our children a solid foundation in their faith.  Studying the Biblical account of history is only one of many ways to do this.

“Train a child in the way he should go.  When he is old, he will not turn away from it.” -Proverbs 22:6