{TOS Crew Review} Judah Bible Curriculum

"I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of Hell 

unless they diligently labor to explain the Holy Scriptures, 

engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise 

no one to place his child where the Scriptures 

do not reign paramount.  Every institution in 

which men are not unceasingly occupied 

with the Word of God must become corrupt."

Care to guess who said the above quote? Do you think it a modern day homeschooler? You would be wrong. The quote is from Martin Luther, a German Monk who lived from 1483-1546. He is best known for standing up to stop the practice of buying indulgences (trying to buy salvation through good deeds) as well as translating the Bible into the common language rather than having it only in Latin. This allowed the common people to have a copy for themselves.

Bill Burtness, author of the Judah Bible Curriculum (JBC), believes in equipping not only students but parents with the practical knowledge they need to fully understand God and His ways and to live their lives accordingly. JBC follows the Principal Approach to education at an entry level. The Principal Approach was used extensively when this nation was being founded. This the method used to teach the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Simply put, the Bible was the textbook and the students were taught how to research and reason with a biblical basis. Every aspect of their life was viewed through the lens of "what does the Bible teach."

Mr. Burtness has set up a curriculum to follow this approach and he takes you step-by-step through the process. You can read more about how this philosophy is used in the Judah Bible Curriculum by simply clicking HERE.

This is not a curriculum you would purchase and simply start the next day. While it would be doable, much can be said for the audio training seminars. Mr. Burtness breaks down the methods to this teaching practice as well as goes over the weekly themes - the crutch of the program.

The weekly themes are explored by creating Key Sheets. There are a number of different Bible Keys that will be studies as one progresses through the program. In fact, you can check out the Scope & Sequence to see just how extensive this program really. The Key Sheets help a child explore the people, events, institutions, and even documents.

I have to admit that I was slightly overwhelmed when I first received JBC. It's not my usual approach to teaching. However, I  found the layout of the website extremely helpful. TOS Crew members were given the downloadable copy of the program. As such, we were taken to a log-in area of the website where we could download the audio training, the manual, and notebook ideas.

On the website there is also a "Teacher Walk Through" that I found extremely helpful. Each of the first four lessons were broken down in to step-by-step "walk throughs." It was easy to simply follow each step and use this was a guide to how the program should work.

I wish I had heard of this program earlier. I'm finding it a bit tough to implement in my homeschool currently. However, I do plan to continue. I feel that overall it's a fantastic way to study the Bible. It's in-depth and builds upon itself each year (you can see how this works by viewing the Scope & Sequence). I appreciate the work that has gone in to creating this program and look forward to continuing to use it.

There are two ways to purchase the curriculum. Either method includes the Judah Bible Curriculum K-12 manual, the elementary notebook idea booklet, and an eight-lecture teacher training seminar. If you would like a hard copy of the books and CDs of the lectures, the cost is $74. However, you can also purchase ebooks and audio files for a 40% discount - a total of $44.

Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew members had to say about this product.

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review.  All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.