• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

  • Home
  • Our Library
  • Math Freebie
  • Contact Us
  • Legal Policies
    • Disclosure and Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Archives for Bible Study

Bible Study

Product Review–Bible Blueprints

July 13, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Do you ever struggle to get the gist of a book of the Bible? It can be helpful to have a resource that tells you, in a few sentences, what each section of a book is about. A Bible study tool we have been using lately, for our family devotions, is Bible Blueprints, from Teach Sunday School. We have found these pages quite helpful, just to get a quick overview of a book, chapter, or section of chapters.

Each page of Bible Blueprints has several sections. At the top of the page is some general information. At a glance, you will know the book’s order in either the Old or New Testament, how many chapters are included, and what type of book it is (historical, prophecy, etc.). Next on the page is an overview of the entire books and its author. This line also gives information about when the book was written and the time period covered in the book.

The heart of the page is the lower half. Here, the book is divided into sections, according to the themes of each group of chapters. Sometimes only one chapter is summarized, or there may be several chapters put together. The heading for each group is a different color, making it attractive and easy to use. Each section has a heading and a several-sentence summary. For example, I’m looking at Judges right now. There are six headings, with from one to five chapters per heading. The first section gives an overview of chapters 1-3; the second, which groups Deborah and Gideon together, describes chapters 4-8, and then Chapter 9, which tells the story of Abimelech, is by itself. I just learned something I didn’t know about the book of Judges: it is believed that the prophet Samuel wrote it!

Right now, for our family devotions, we are reading through the Minor Prophets. I printed the pages for the next several books we’ll be reading, and gave them to Gayle. As we start a new section of chapters, he has been reading the summary of that section to us, and it has helped us to understand the passages a little better. We just finished the book of Joel. I have always struggled to understand the imagery in this book, but now it is much clearer.

There are many Bible study tools available; this is just one. However, it is a tool that is easy to use and very clear. The way it is laid out makes it easy to lay eyes on just what you need at the moment. I believe we’ll be using Bible Blueprints for a long time for our family devotional time.

Click on the image below to see what a number of other families have said about this book! I’m sure they will have a lot of creative ideas for putting this Bible study tool to good use.

Click here to read more reviews!

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Bible Study, Homeschool Review Crew, Product Review

Product Review–BibleMemory.com

February 22, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

After we bought an iPad in December, I asked Esther if she knew of any good Bible memory apps that I could use with it that would help me with memorising scripture. For many years I’ve been working on memorising large portions of the Bible, but I’ve been frustrated with how hard it is to actually learn them. I have been just using my Bible, running a card down the page to cover up what’s coming next and trying to recall the passages and recite them that way. However, when you can read nearly an entire verse a glance the way I can, it is too easy to just read the passage instead of reciting it. I wanted an app that would help me to learn the words of the Bible. She found me one, and while it had some fun games it didn’t really do what I wanted. Then, I was given the opportunity to try out a subscription to The Bible Memory App–Bible Memory PRO from BibleMemory.com. I jumped at the chance. I’ve been using it now for about six weeks and I am impressed. Memorize Bible Verses with BibleMemory.com

It took me a week or two to really learn how to use Bible Memory PRO, and at first I wasn’t sure I liked it. It didn’t have the fun games that the other program had, and there were a few facets of the program I had a little trouble wrapping my head around. However, the more I have used it the more I like it. Setting up an account was the first step. With a Pro account four different people can have their own account. For this review I was allowed a few more than that. Esther and Elijah and I all signed up and so did Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination. You have the choice when adding verses to add single verses or entire chapters. Each verse or chapter can be put into a collection. The collections make it easy to find what you need, although it took me a couple of weeks to figure out how I wanted to organise my collections. It’s very easy to change the names of collections, or even move chapters from one collection to another. Each chapter becomes a sub collection of its own.

After adding a chapter it’s time to learn the verses. You learn one verse at a time. First read the verse, then type the first letter of each word. Do that twice, or more often if you did not get 90% of the words correct. The first two times through you can see some of the words flickering on and off which gives hints to what all the words are. After those two times through you have to type the first letter of each word without seeing any of them to test your memorisation. You also have to remember the reference. If you got 90% accuracy you are considered to have memorised that verse and are ready to move on. I like to learn one verse a day from the passage I’m currently working on.

Each day you are told you need to review certain verses. The program pays attention to how well you know the verse when you review it, and decides from that how often you need to review it. If you did not get 90% of the words correct it suggests that you swipe the verse off the screen and redo it. I like to use the setting to combine all verses needing review which shows me the text of the verses that the program doesn’t think I need to review that day and leaves blanks for the ones that need to be reviewed. You can also choose to review the entire chapter in one go, or you can review individual verses – whatever works for you.

There are two other options for reviewing verses besides typing the first letter of each word, but I have not used them. One is flashcards; I just looked at it but I could not see how it was supposed to work. The other is drawings; I am guessing that you may need an Apple pencil to draw on an iPad and I do not have that. Like I said, this program does not have a lot of fun games for reviewing verses, but it is very effective. I am remembering the chapters I’m trying to memorise much better than I was before. Esther said it is helping her to learn better as well. Elijah quit using it soon after he started. He didn’t feel like it was the right program for him. Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination used it for a short time, but they are not fast enough at typing for it to work very well for them. If you don’t know the keyboard very well, you lose too much time hunting for the correct keys. I may try them with it again sometime in the future. And speaking of finding the keys one thing I appreciate is that if you hit any key that touches the correct one it counts it to be correct. Since I’m using it by tapping the on-screen keyboard, with usually just my index fingers, it’s very easy, when going fast, to hit a nearby key instead of the one I want. Of course, that also means that if the correct word is different from what I thought it was but begins with a letter very close on the keyboard to the one I was trying to hit the program thinks I know the verse better than I actually do.

Bible Memory PRO can be used on any device. Esther and Elijah have used it on their iPhones. I am using it on my iPad. It can also be used on a computer or an Android device. As long as the device is connected to the Internet it syncs with wherever it was used last. Overall I am very impressed with this program and I intend to keep using it. I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to review Bible Memory PRO because it has given me the tool I really needed to memorise scripture more easily. Click on the image below and have a look at other families’ experiences with the program.

Click here to read more reviews!

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Bible Study, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Product Review—Teach Sunday School (Bible Breakdowns)

October 12, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Over the last year or two, I have, several times, seen advertisements for Bible Breakdowns. No, this is not the kind of breakdowns that my mechanic son would think of! Rather, the meaning is more like breaking something down into its parts to make it more understandable. I was attracted to the idea, but not sure enough that we would use them to want to buy them. When Teach Sunday School offered the Old Testament and New Testament breakdowns for review, I decided to give them a try.
Teach Sunday School

I printed the cards as soon as we were sent the PDF. It took awhile to figure out how to use them, but I finally gave Mr. Sweetie the ones for the books of the Bible he is reading in his morning quiet time. He checks off the passage he reads each day. Knowing the theme of the passage helps him get a little more out of his devotions.IMG_0111

I also printed several copies of the cards for the book of the Bible we are currently reading as a family in the evenings. I gave these to Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss. Before we read our chapter together, one of them is to find it on the page and read us the theme for that chapter. That helps us all to understand it a little better, I think, and see how the chapters fit together in the book.Teach Sunday School 1Teach Sunday School 2

There are several parts to each card. Of course, the title of the book is at the top of the page, along with which Testament it is part of and the number of the book—for example, Ephesians is the 10th book in the New Testament. A paragraph talks about the theme of the book and why it was written. Then, there is some general information, like number of chapters, type of book (historical, law, etc), when and where it was written, and who the author likely was.

The main part of each card is the outline of the book. There is a line for each passage—sometimes only one verse, often a whole chapter, or sometimes multiple chapters. For example, here is part of the card for I Kings (chosen at random):

Teach Sunday School 3

(In case you’re wondering, the stories highlighted in blue are the most well-known stories, the ones that appear in Bible story books all the time.)

At the bottom of the page is a list of the most popular verses in that book of the Bible, and their rank, as far as popularity, both in that book and in the entire Bible. We did wonder where this information came from. Did the Teach Sunday School people search books to find these verses? Or take data from Bible apps? We’re finding this information interesting, anyway.

If you are looking for a way to help your children understand the layout of the Bible better, Bible Breakdowns might be a good tool. If you have any more ideas of good ways to use them, please leave a comment—I would like to hear what you suggest! Click the image below to read what other families have to say about this interesting product.

Click here to read more reviews!

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Bible Study, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Product Review—Bible Unearthed

November 6, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

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.

We have been enjoying Drive Thru History® Adventures for several years now. When the opportunity was given to use and review their new course, Bible Unearthed, we jumped at the chance. We were given early access to this brand-new course; it will be available to everyone before too long. We have been watching one of the videos each week, and reading the extra material that goes with it, too. Everyone is finding it quite interesting! I’m even wishing my husband would have time to watch these.

Bible Unearthed is a bit different from the other courses we’ve used from them. Most of Dave Stott’s films show him exploring a historical location and narrating what happened there at some time in the past, which is a great way to learn about history. This course, however, is mostly filmed in one room. Dave Stotts and Randall Niles are at a table with archaeologist Titus Kenndy, asking questions and learning about archaeology. At least, Randall is learning—Dave is clowning around! His funny antics help keep these videos from being lectures, and keep the children’s attention!

A few years ago Mr. Intellectual used some of their courses and I wrote a review about this company; we really liked them. This time, I’m having everyone who is home during the day watch the videos. That includes Mr. Diligence (15), Mr. Sweetie (11), Mr. Imagination (8), and Little Miss (5) all the time, and Esther and Mr. Intellectual at times, when they aren’t at work. The older ones are understanding and appreciating the information about archaeology and how it helps to support the Bible, and the younger ones really like the joking around that Dave Stotts does. We watch the video one day while we eat lunch; the next day, we read the article that is linked in the Digging Deeper section of the lesson during our history time. The day after that, we read the rest of the information in the lesson and answer the questions on the worksheet. Here is one of the “Digging Deeper” articles and a part of a worksheet.drive thru history-1drive thru history-2

The series of 12 episodes begins with a discussion of what archaeology is and what impact it has on our understanding of history. Then, we got to learn about how archaeological sites are discovered and what life is like for an archaeologist. Next week, we’ll get to learn about what’s being discovered today, and then some archaeological mysteries. That sounds fun! I did skip ahead a little and watched a couple of the later episodes when the older children were away but Simon was here; he enjoyed learning about top discoveries in Biblical archaeology and accidental discoveries. Some of the other titles look intriguing, too, like Trends in Archaeology and Weird Archaeology. I’m looking forward to getting to those!

The dashboard makes it very easy to use this course. After you watch one of the 15-minute videos, you are automatically moved on to the next episode, but if you come back later and want to read one of the articles or rewatch something, it is easy to move back and forth. I like that each lesson has a button to click when it is completed—that way I know where we’ve been and what we’re ready for!

This course is definitely worth going through. We tend to love history, and especially finding things that prove that the Bible is true, so this is perfect for us. As an example of something we heard yesterday in the episode we watched, an inscription was found in northern Israel that mentioned David. This helps to prove that David was a real person. Many little gems of information like that are scattered through the course.

Eighty-four families had the chance to use this course and review it—click on the image below to find their reviews and see what they thought of it!

Bible Unearthed {Drive Thru History® Adventures Reviews}

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Bible Study, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Primary Sidebar

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Goodreads

Recent Posts

  • Book Review–The Me I See In You
  • Book Review–She is My Child
  • Little Girls
  • Book Review–The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem
  • Christmas Day, 2022

Archives

Disclosure

Some links on this site are affiliate links.

Subscribe to the Blog

Thank you!

Please check your email to confirm your subscription.

.

You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.

The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

Book Reviews Website

IgniteLit

COPYRIGHT © 2023 · TWENTY SEVEN PRO ON GENESIS FRAMEWORK · DISCLOSURE & DISCLAIMER · PRIVACY POLICY