Note: I was provided with a free copy of What God is Doing for review purposes. I was not compensated for my review, and my opinions are my own.
There are a lot of options for Bible curriculum out there, both for homeschool and church use. Many of them are engaging, easy to use, and easy to understand.
There’s just one problem with most of them: they don’t really go into the important part of Bible instruction!
Many of these options fall short, in my opinion, because they’re so focused on keeping the lesson fun and keeping the kids occupied. Both of those are important, but the purpose of Bible instruction shouldn’t be simply to keep kids busy while their parents are in church or to check off a box on the lesson planner.
Simply put, learning about the Bible should mean learning about and really growing in relationship with God.
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That’s where What God is Doing comes in. It is easy to work with and fun for kids, but it goes a lot further than that. And that’s a good thing!
Reasoning through the Bible
This program is incredibly easy to use, but my favorite part about it is that the lessons cause them to really think.
Instead of just teaching the facts of each story or making a fun project, children are brought through the process of critical reasoning. Rather than being asked to just blindly accept the lesson as truth, they get to think through it for themselves, on their level.
This is something we should all strive to do, but often, we don’t. And even more often, we forget that our kids are capable of it!
What God is Doing
The title of this book might seem a bit odd, but it’s aptly named. It teaches from the point of view that the Old Testament is the story of how God worked in the lives of people to bring His plan to fruition.
What God is Doing digs into the history, geography, and culture of Israel and the surrounding nations in order to help kids (and teachers!) understand the context of each passage.
What God Is Doing: Old Testament Object Lessons for Kids
It also helps kids understand why they hear conflicting information regarding things like evolution and creation, whether God is real, and other huge questions.
No matter what we happen to think about these questions, it’s incredibly important that we help our kids learn to reason through those issues for themselves. They need to understand how to work with different types of evidence in nature, history, and scripture and think through it critically.
Often, that’s a skill we’re not sure how to teach. Fear not. This book will show you what to do!
Lesson Format
The lessons are formatted chronologically, but they can be used in any order.
The chronological order is designed to bring students through the process of God working out His plan in history. However, sometimes a topic comes up and you want your kids to be able to dig further into it. With this book, you can do that!
Each lesson starts out with an overview of the point of the lesson, any supplies needed, and the geographical and historical background of the passage. (All of the supplies are things that you probably already have around the house.)
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There is also a poster for each lesson, which is downloadable from Future Flying Saucers. These posters have wonderful, child-friendly graphics and the memory verse to help your kids understand and remember what they’ve learned.
Each lesson starts out with an easy object lesson. These involve things like Legos, balloons, and Ziploc bags – nothing too extravagant. The lessons are amazing, though, and help to really drive home the point!
Each lesson is also scripted for you and comes with handy tips to help you teach it. Anne Marie has years of experience teaching the Bible to children and shares what she’s learned with you!
During each part of the lesson, there is ample opportunity for discussion. This is where a lot of the critical thought comes in.
After the object lesson and discussion, each lesson ends with life application. Now that we know the story and understand the reasoning, what do we do with it? Why does it actually matter, and how do we live it out?
Teacher Helps
Throughout the book, both in the introduction and in each lesson, there are short but essential teacher helps. These tips will help you easily structure and prep the lesson. There are also practical tips on how to adjust the teaching for different age groups.
There are also resources, including the posters, available for download on Future Flying Saucers. You’re provided with just about everything you need!
What God is Doing is available on Amazon, and at the time of this writing it is discounted quite a bit!
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I hope you have as much fun with this program as I am! It’s giving me so many incredible ideas, and really is just plain enjoyable to work with. What God is Doing is great for homeschooling, ‘afterschooling,’ and church programs.
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