Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
One of the reasons I love homeschooling my children is because I get to incorporate Bible into the schedule. We begin everyday with Bible, as I feel like it helps us start our day on the right foot. I struggled finding a curriculum that I liked and one that provided a deep biblical foundation. This quest to find a strong, biblically based curriculum gave me such stress. That is why I jumped at the opportunity to review 4th Grade – Building Life Castles from Positive Action Bible Curriculum.
Positive Action Bible Curriculum is a nonprofit publishing ministry that specializes in Bible curriculum and studies for churches, schools, and homeschools. Their mission is to ensure that their products are God-Focused, which is seeking God’s glory and God’s grace through all things. They also work to ensure that the lessons are biblically grounded.
4th Grade – Building Life Castles consists of two books. The teacher’s guide and the student worktext. These are available in physical and digital formats. I received the physical format of each.
The teacher guide consists of a three-ring binder and is 349 pages long. Included with the teacher’s guide materials are section dividers for testing material and answer keys, as well as the teacher manual.
The teacher’s manual is comprised of the lesson directions as well as the answer keys to the student’s pages.
The lesson plan begins with notes for the teacher such as the purpose of the lesson, the objectives, and the vocabulary.
The lesson plan then moves to the content in the lesson. This consists of questions that needed to be asked, and explanations that would help explain the concept to the students. They are tips that are outlined in gray boxes that help the teacher to make the lesson more in-depth for the student.
The answers to the student’s key is designed to be the exact student workbook page. This makes it easy to use and to quickly grade student work.
There are 35 lessons in the curriculum.
The goal is to do one lesson per week, and there are a variety of options on how the teacher spreads these out during the week.
Lessons 1-13 focus on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Lessons 14-17 focus on the work of the Holy Spirit to believers. Lessons 18-28 focus on godly character as found in both the Old and New Testaments. Lesson 29-35 focus on the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul.
Each lesson also contains member scriptures that reinforce the topics of the study.
Each lesson has a quiz that is found in the teacher’s guide.
The cost of the teacher’s guide is $39.95.
The Student Workbook is a 160-page, full-color, soft-cover bound book. It $17.95 per book, unless you purchase five or more, at which time they are $15.95 per book.
The student lesson begin by focusing the students attention to the important vocabulary.
The lesson formats vary. There are essential questions that work through the bible verses for the lesson, as well as activities to reinforce the concepts such as puzzles, maps, etc.
Life-Castles are at the end of every lesson which are applications of the ideas that are taught in the lesson. These are usually higher-level questions that are geared towards making the child think deeper about what they have learned.
I used 4th Grade – Building Life Castles with my daughter, who is in 7th grade. While the lessons were easier for her, it helped her foster some independence, and made it not so teacher-driven. She was able to work through certain sections of the lessons on her own, and was able to think more critically of the verses without me having to prompt her.
The image above shows her using the Bible to answer the questions about the “Regions of Israel”. This was completed entirely on her own. My youngest son, who was in fifth grade, would have needed a small amount of guidance from me.
This is one thing that I love about homeschooling. I can place my children on varying grade levels to meet their needs. This is certainly the case with 4th Grade – Building Life Castles. It would be appropriate for a variety of age levels, depending on the students’ ability.
I will likely choose curriculums from Positive Action Bible Curriculum to teach the Bible to my children in our future endeavors. We loved that the workbook pages were in full color, the layout of the lessons and the fact that the lessons are very strongly biblically grounded.
If you would like to connect with Positive Action Bible Curriculum, you can do so in the following ways:
Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BibleCurriculum/
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