The Biggest Story Curriculum Review
The Biggest Story Curriculum Review
It’s no secret that raising kids is hard. Shephering them in truth is hard. Sitting down every night to read the Bible as a family can feel like an uphill battle between sports and extracurriculars, bedtime and busy-ness. But it is absolutely worth the sacrifice.
Our kids need us to speak heavily and clearly into their life with not only our words and guidance but Biblical truth. They need us to show them and teach them and sometimes we could use a helping hand to do that.
So when I heard about The Biggest Story Bible curriculum, I was ecstatic.
Even though my children go to a private Christian school and spend a good chunk of their day at school learning the Bible, that isn’t enough. I can’t outsource their biblical education to anyone. That’s on me as the parent. I have to know they are reading, learning and growing in their knowledge of God’s word – and from as young an age as possible.
Consider this schocking headline from Barna Research:
That’s startling. No plan? But as a parent with young kids – I GET IT! It’s so tough to find something and then stick with that thing.
HOWEVER. I think this curriculum from Crossway could quite literally change the game for your family. So when I got the opportunity to review it, I jumped at that.
Do you want to know my favorite thing about this curriculum?
My favorite part is that my kids are EXCITED to use it because of the varied content, videos and activities and the notable quality of all of the above.
Yes, part of it is they’re spending time with mom and dad after the littlest has gone to bed. Part of it is special “stay up late” time. Yes, part of it is they’re getting to look up verses in their bibles and read them to us. But this curriculum is structured in an accessible format and with such rich and dynamic resources that it makes our girls genuinely enjoy the process of opening up God’s word, watching a video, having me read the “big picture” and other sections of each lesson, and doing the associated activities.
Family bible time always brings up rich and thought-provoking conversation with kids. You finally hear the questions that have been on their mind about God or His word, and you get to look together at what it says.
But I know you’re wanting to see inside – so here you go!
HOW IT WORKS
The lessons are structured in a easy-to-follow format where you TELL the story, TEACH the story and then make GOSPEL connections. There are also activities included like color sheets, crosswords and make-it-yourself crafts, perfect if you are teaching Sunday school!
My girls favorite part is watching the video that accompanies each chapter, which you can quickly scan with your phone using the QR code at the beginning of the chapter. Typically I pull it up on my laptop for ease of viewing (and so there’s no complaining that “I can’t see!”)
After you either read the scripture or the passage that accompanies from the Biggest Story Bible OR watch the video, you move to teaching the story. I read that part and make sure the girls are listening so it makes sense. Then we move to the best part – how it connects to the gospel. This part is SO critical for me because I didn’t learn this at all as a kid, even growing up in the church.
I want my girls to see that the entire Bible is about JESUS and every story has connections that tie into the gospel message. This helps me do that.
No joke – just from reading the Genesis 1 lesson and watching the video and asking a couple questions, I found myself also leading them to John 1:1 which proves Jesus IS God, and Col. 1:16 (also referenced in that lesson) that shows us that Jesus is the creator of all things. I then told my girls after we did all that hopping around that they had just done biblical theology.
My almost 9 year old fell back dramatically in her chair and sighed “that’s incredible.”
I AGREE!
Another helpful aspect is the estimated times listed next to each section. That helps me decide which sections we have time for. For instance, tonight we had about 30 minutes. I chose to show the video, teach the story and do the gospel connection. Then we still had some time for very rich and engaging discussion. We’ll do the activity for that lesson tomorrow night. You can make this work for your family whether you have 5 minutes or an hour.
I can’t say enough good things about this curriculum, and when I shared it online, my audience couldn’t either! Just look at what these moms had to say – either because they had already utilized the resources from this curriculum or planned to.
YOUR REACTIONS
If I haven’t made it clear, this is curriculum you’ll want to invest in.
I have daughters age 3.5, 7 and almost 9 and it is definitely something I’ll be using with all three of them. I know the older two will get the most out of it but the youngest will for sure be joining us for the videos! She’s a sponge right now.