GrapeVine Studies - Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level - {Review}

Over the last few years I have seen the name GrapeVine Studies on a few homeschool blogs and have really wanted to use their products with Nathaniel.  I was very excited to learn that they have a Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level and even more excited when they offered it to the crew to use.

One of the things that attracted me to the study is that your student does not need to be writing at any grade level in order to use it.  Not being able to write does not affect their ability to fully use the curriculum.

Currently they have an Old Testament and New Testament overview, Esther,  Biblical Feasts and Holidays, Old Testament Catechism, Birth of Jesus and The Resurrection studies available. You can download a sample of each study HERE.

What we received

• Birth of Jesus study Student eBook (1.1 MB) - 49 pages consisting of:
  
  • Birth of Jesus Timeline,
  • The Announcement,
  • Birth of Jesus,
  • The Proclamation,
  • The Wise Men and Herod,
  • Final Review,
  • Map
• Birth of Jesus Study Traceable eBook (4.9 MB) - 49 pages consisting of the same as the Student eBook.
• Birth of Jesus Study Teachers Manual (5.24 MB) - 65 pages. This book is divided into:
  
  • About GrapeVine
  • Teacher Goals
  • Student Goals
  • Supply List
  • Teaching mulit-levels
  • Timeline Narrative
  • Lesson Goals/Key Points
  • The Announcement
  • Birth of Jesus
  • Proclamation
  • Wise Men & Herod
  • Final Review
  • Map

How we used the Study

After downloading the three pdf documents I printed both the teachers and student manual for our use.  I only have a black ink printer so our cover is in grey-scale.  The actual product has a beautiful red and green cover. In the multi-level pack you have two options to use for your students.  The one is the basic student pages and the other is in traceable format which is suitable for younger students or students in need of support in their drawing. The only supplies needed for the student are: a bible, the student pages and coloured pencils.   The student needs the following eight colours to use: Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, Brown and Black.

There is not a lot of prep work involved in using the program. The Teachers Manual is well laid out and all the prep work and lessons are laid out in detail.  The basic frame work is laid out for you and it is up to you on how you present the lessons and to what depth you want to pursue each topic according to your own denominational doctrinal belief.

As a teacher you will need The Teachers manual, 8 coloured markers and a bible dictionary.   Since it's only Nathaniel and I, I chose to use sharpie pens and plain white paper as my delivery medium for the lessons. The manual has two different suggested schedules one is daily lessons and the other is weekly.  We did a weekly lesson.

 The program starts with a timeline of events to help the students understand the sequence of events. There is no guess work on how to draw the pictures or what to say to the students it's all laid out for you in the teachers manual. I appreciated having the stick figure guidelines.  This made for a much simplified lesson.  When I first told Nathaniel we would be drawing pictures he complained because he does not like to colour in.  When he saw that we were drawing stick figures he became very enthusiastic of the program.

Teachers Manual sample page.

Working on the stick-figure timeline.

The next stage consisted of looking up the bible verse and then drawing what we had read.  Nathaniel really enjoyed adding up the total number of generations between Adam and Jesus.

Drawing stick-figures for our lesson.

 After completing the last Student Page it was time to do a drawing review.  This consists of the student drawing their favourite part of the story and writing their memory verse.

This is followed with a final review of the study.  The final review consists of 28 questions covering the events from the announcing the generations between Adam and Jesus up to and including when Mary, Joseph and Jesus return and the Word says He grew.

Each sections we studied also had questions covering the lesson. Some lessons had a set of words to look up in a bible dictionary.  There is also a map to label at the end of the book.

*Cost of GrapeVine Birth of Jesus

• Student Book $8-00
• Teacher Book $12-50
• Traceable Book $8-00
• Student Family eBook $6-50
•  Teacher eBook $10-00
• Traceable Family eBook $8-00

*All prices are current at time of review.  Please check the website for up to date pricing before purchasing. All prices shown are in U.S. dollars.

Recommended Age Range

• Ages 7+

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Over All I thought ...
Nathaniel and I both enjoyed this lesson and look forward to using other GrapeVine products in the future.  He loved the simplicity and that there were no complex drawings and I enjoyed using the Word and coaching him on note taking using stick figures.

The Schoolhouse Review Crew have also reviewed Creation to Jacob.

Blessings
Chareen