The older children finished up reading the book of Esther, last week, in their Bible reading. With Purim, the Jewish celebration initiated at the end of that book, coming up in another two weeks, or so, it seemed like a good time to pause and take a closer look at the story.Kay Arthur, author of the Precepts Bible studies for women, along with Janna Arndt, has published a series of five week, inductive Bible studies for children, including one on the book of Esther (you can view the introduction, and first chapter, here).
Apart from fill in the blank worksheets, crosswords, word finds, and other puzzles, maps, time lines, and even a recipe for Hamantashen (the three cornered, jam filled cookies made, and shared as a part of Purim), the book contains a reprinting of Esther in the New American Standard translation, for children to highlight, underline, and circle their way through, as they discover the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of the text.
Each day's study is tied together with a fictional story following two children, Max and Molly, along with their dog, Sam, on a visit to Washington D.C. with their Uncle Max. So today, for instance, on our third day of the study, we not only focused in on the roll of Queen Vashti in Esther chapter 1, but also learned about the Constitution of the United States and the three branches of government.
The study is aimed at children ages 8-12, and that seems about right. I am working through it with five of my children, ages 7-14, and am finding the fictional storyline to be too babyish for the 14 year old, and the amount of writing required to be a bit heavy for the 7 year old, though she is working very hard to keep up with the older children. Of course, the scriptural lessons from the book are applicable to any age, 14 year olds included.
I'm not sure yet whether we will end up finding the fictional storyline helpful, or distracting, but so far the children seem to be enjoying the process of digging deeper into the biblical text, and we are all learning a good deal more about Esther, and ourselves, as servants of God.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
6 comments:
You know, it was really fun to visit Jerusalem today and watch little kids all dressed up for Purim parties.
Natalie - I couldn't be more jealous! Such a neat holiday - though I understand the drinking is heavy.
I want to check it out ... thanks for sharing such a fun tool for us to help teach our children about God's inspired word. I really appriciate it. Sincerely, Mommy of two little blessings & so much more!
My eldest is doing one of the Kay Arthur kiddo Bible studies this year, and may I just say how IMPRESSED I am with it! It really teaches kiddos how to "read" and "dissect" the Bible. My father, who is an English and Literature Professor at a Bible University always emphasizes to his students,
"Bad reading leads to bad theology..." :0)
Do you think there's an advantage to having these books as books vs ebooks? Just curious :)
Kendra - Yes, they are meant to be written in - which would not be nearly as easy with an e-book. After our first day into the study, I decided each child really needed one of their own, too - and splurged for them, though that was a hard decision, because they are not cheap. But, they will provide five weeks of reading and writing activities, as well as Bible study, so I decided it was worth it.
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