God's Great Covenant

God's Great Covenant by Classical Academic Press is a Bible course for children.  I had the opportunity to review the New Testament course and I can't wait to tell you about it.

In God’s Great Covenant, New Testament 1: A Bible Course for Children, students will follow the story of Jesus, the Messiah and King, as He is born and fulfills all God’s promises. But Jesus does not arrive as people expected. The people were looking for a mighty warrior to deliver them from the oppressive Roman government. Instead, He came as the suffering Savior, who would die as the sacrifice for sin and death. He was building a kingdom that was not of this world—it was the kingdom of God. He is the Son of Man, God’s Servant, the Messiah, and the Son of God. Each of the four units in this text emphasizes one of these names of Jesus. God’s Great Covenant, New Testament 1 teaches the Gospels to students in fourth grade and up, using stories, worksheets, memory verses, devotional guides, quizzes, and a little boy named Simon. In the introductions to the text, students will also learn about the historical, cultural, and geographical setting of the New Testament. This book is a most comprehensive and heartfelt study of the Gospels, and many parents and teachers will find themselves learning along with their students.                     -from the website

a sample of a map

 God's Great Covenant NT has a 23 page introduction divided into 6 sections

Introduction
Historical and Political Information
Chronological Information
Geographical Information
Religious Information
Daily Life Introduction: Welcome to Simon's World

The introduction is followed by 36 weekly chapters with 4 themed units:

Unit 1: Jesus, the Son of Man, Has Come...To Live Among His People
Unit 2:Jesus, God's Servant, Has Come...To Proclaim the Good News
Unit 3: Jesus, the Messiah, Has Come...To Teach About God's Kingdom
Unit 4: Jesus, the Son of God, Has Come...To Conquer Sin and Death

Each chapter contains:

• A memory page with a weekly memory verse, key facts chart, fulfillment of prophecy section
• A thought-provoking “Think About It” question
• A worksheet and quiz
• Unit reviews that contain a memory verse worksheet, devotional guide, and a fun short story of life in Simon’s world

(Simon's world is found at the end of each unit.  Simon is a fictitious character in a fictitious Galilean village.  Each Simon's world section introduces daily living in Bible times.)

The worksheet sections include crossword puzzles, fill in the blank, matching, codes to crack, questions to answer and more.  You will also find maps.  Each section also ends with questions that cause you to think about how the weekly lesson applies to your own life.

You can see the entire table of contents and sample pages of the student edition here.

Sample of review worksheet

Each lesson has a Theme, Scripture (or Scriptures) that the lesson is based on, Memory Passage, Key Facts and a Prophecy Fulfilled section (which I love).  Next is Story-time which includes the Bible story told in a story format followed by the Worksheet section.

A detailed Teacher’s Edition is also available. It is a full copy of the student text (in a reduced size) with explanatory notes as well as lined margins for your own notes. It also provides answer keys and additional factual information to expand upon the historical, geographical, cultural, and theological concepts introduced in the text. 

sample from the Teacher's edition

Click here to view more samples from the Teacher's edition.

We have really enjoyed using this book.  I decided to use this book for our family devotions rather than as a workbook for one student.  We would read some of the listed scriptures and then read the story from the lesson and answer questions orally.  I have to admit to not using the teacher's manual but it really is a great resource and has a lot of  information. The print is pretty small for me though.  (I'm in the over 40 crowd and need bi-focals soon.) Though this book is recommended for "children" 4th grade and up, we found it beneficial for the whole family.  I can't imagine kids any younger than this working on this on their own but it was appropriate for our entire family for devotions.

God's Great Covenant is written from a covenantal and reformed theological perspective.  I am a conservative, fundamental Baptist and haven't found anything I would disagree with.

Every lesson is footnoted with multiple scripture references so you can look up EVERY thing you read for yourself.  Scriptures used in the book are from the NIV and NKJV.  We are a KJV family so we just read the scriptures from our own Bibles.  Most of the writings are not direct scripture quotations and it really wasn't an issue. Each book is just over 350 pages long.

The books are paperback and do not lie flat when open which is what I would prefer.  When I finally let one of my children actually write in this book I might take it and have it spiral bound.

The audio downloads are perfect for the car or bedtime (or any time really).  It would also be great to use if you want the child to listen on their own and complete the lessons.  Listen to the Chapter 1 sample.

You can purchase God's Great Covenant New Testament bundle for $56.95 which includes the student workbook, teacher edition and the audio downloads.

Individual titles are also available:
Student workbook $26.95
Teacher's edition $29.95
Audio downloads $9.95

Classical Academic Press also offers an Old Testament curriculum as well as Latin curriculum, Logic courses and more. (I reviewed The Art of Argument earlier this year.) Click for the .pdf catalog. You can also find Classical Academic Press on Facebook.  You also might like Headventureland which is a free website that has games and activities that go along with some of their curriculum. (not Bible)

Read what others are saying about God's Great Covenant on the TOS crew blog.


disclaimer: I received a free copy of God's Great Covenant teacher and student editions and mp3 downloads in exchange for an honest review.

The Art of Argument

We've recently been given the opportunity to review The Art of Argument by Classical Academic Press, an introduction to the informal fallacies written for junior high students. Learning the informal fallacies in our culture (not to mention an election year!) is a valuable skill all students ought to learn.







A description from the website:

Junior high aged students will argue (and sometimes quarrel), but they won't argue well without good training. Young teens are also targeted by advertisers with a vengeance. From billboards to commercials to a walk down the mall, fallacious arguments are everywhere you look. The Art of Argument was designed to teach the argumentative adolescent how to reason with clarity, relevance and purpose at a time when he has a penchant for the "why" and "how". It is designed to equip and sharpen young minds as they live, play, and grow in this highly commercial culture. This course teaches students to recognize and identify twenty-eight informal fallacies, and the eye-catching text includes over sixty slick and clever, “phony advertisements” for items from blue jeans to pick-up trucks, which apply the fallacies to a myriad of real life situations.

This text comes in a workbook format with clear explanations and many updated illustrations and examples to insure understanding and mastery. The text aims at the practical application of the informal fallacies through an analysis of current social, commercial and political issues, which are discussed and evaluated. This practical application should insure that students continue to evaluate arguments, detect fallacies and reason well long after the course is completed.

Students master 28 fallacies (such as begging the question, the straw man, ad hominen, et al) by studying many pertinent examples. The text features a variety of:
Dialogues
Worksheets
Real-World Applications
Phony Advertisements
Dialectic Discussion Questions
Tests
Fun extras such as a humorous skit for students to perform, and the famous short story, Love is a Fallacy by Max Shulman

The Art of Argument DVD Set, a DVD video series featuring three experienced logic teachers and four capable, enthusiastic students discussing the 28 fallacies presented in The Art of Argument. This video series will be a valuable resource for every student using The Art of Argument.


The Art of Argument DVD Set contains:

5 DVDs containing a total of more than 8 hours of video
28 videos—one for each fallacy contained in The Art of Argument text
Fun outtakes, extras, and “logical” humor

View a sample chapter from the book and a sample of the Teacher's manual. THEN
Watch a sample video from the series of the straw man fallacy.



We are not really big fans of the videos but you can be the judge of what you think by watching the sample I posted above. That being said I think it's nice to see them discussing each of the fallacies and would help students that prefer a video to reading the book (though you need the book too). The Teacher's book contains the student text with answers to all of the exercises, and has the tests and answer keys.  I would say that you need the Teacher's edition in order to teach this properly (unless you are an expert on fallacies) but there would also be value in just reading through the student text together.

I would recommend this course for anyone wishing to teach informal fallacies and logical argument to their students. This is recommended for junior high students but you can easily use this with older students which is what I did.

You can purchase  The Art of Argument Basic Bundle for $88.95. This includes the student book ($21.95), teacher's edition ($24.95) and full DVD set ($54.95).   Visit Classical Academic Press for other classical subject curriculum including Latin, French and other languages, Bible, poetry and more.




See what others are saying about The Art of Argument on the TOS crew blog.




disclaimer: I received The Art of Argument book and first DVD in exchange for an honest review.