Building On The Rock - Summit Ministries

Teaching your children to memorize Scripture and gain Bible knowledge is important. However, teaching them to internalize these facts and really know God is even more important. In essence, our instruction must point young souls to Christ and equip them with a Biblical worldview. In this curriculum, Summit Ministries has laid a fantastic groundwork to develop a Biblical worldview while teaching the major events and truths of the Bible. The goal is to present a framework of biblical truth and values, reflect upon it, and encourage children to apply what they have learned through various learning formats. Although this Bible curriculum was developed for a classroom, it can easily be adapted for home use. If you are including multiple children, you might choose to pick one grade level that meets everyone in the middle (or start with grade one). There are 20 Biblical truths and four character traits taught each year. Four of those truths become the main focus in each grade level, while the other sixteen are previewed or reviewed. Although, at the kindergarten level all 20 truths and character traits are covered equally, along with an overview of the entire Bible. The spiral sequence ensures each topic is reviewed and concepts are developed and reinforced at each grade level. The first two-thirds of each level teaches worldview by interweaving Biblical truths. The latter third focuses on Bible survey (an overview of the Bible chronologically taught in sections beginning in grade one). For each grade level, a teacher manual and a student workbook for each child is needed.

The Teacher's Manual includes the daily instruction. Within each lesson, there are sidebars featuring the memory verse, objective, supplemental material, required materials necessary to teach the lesson, and enrichment activities. The lesson is divided into three sections: Introduce, Develop, and Close. The first section involves playing a quick game or other activity and having thought provoking discussion. Then the concept is developed by reading a short story or using more activities and discussion. Finally, students are given a few questions or statements to evaluate. There is also an enrichment activity available if time allows. Oftentimes, the main lesson includes hands-on activities or object lessons using household items. In addition, some lessons require using Blackline Masters containing paraphrased Bible stories, tests, and other student material. Transparencies (full-color visual aids) might also be used in the lesson.After the lesson, students need to complete a page in the full-color Student Workbook. Pages are perforated for easy tear out. Answers to the student workbook are shown on reduced images in the teacher manual.

Another creative visual component used with this curriculum is a Worldview Model. This is a house model that is built on solid ground (representing the theme of the curriculum). Instructions in building this model are interspersed throughout the teacher manual. The model is built every year. This does not come with the kit but can be purchased separately from the publisher. There is also a free pdf version of the model you can download on the publisher's website.

When you intentionally take time to build a solid foundation based on scriptural truths, you are giving your children a wonderful gift by helping them know Christ and establish a biblical worldview. With this foundation, they will be able to decipher truth and respond to the world around them biblically in both their thoughts and actions.