GrapeVine Studies ~ Stick-Figuring through the Old Testament (Review)

If you've followed my TOS Review Crew blogging career through the years, you might remember a post way back in 2009, when I was first introduced to GrapeVine Studies
At that time I reviewed and used the older levels with my oldest children and our Japanese Exchange Student. What a great way to give her a visual overview of the Bible!

Now, six years later, I was pleased to be chosen to review Old Testament 1: Level 1 Creation to Jacob  with my youngest child. We have a slightly unusual situation, in that we attend a VERY small church on Sundays, and my son is in a Sunday School class of two. Youngest is 8 years old, and his friend just turned 5. I enquired whether I would be able to use this study with them for their Sunday School class, and was given the go-ahead. Please note the classroom licenses at the end of my review, if this is an option you would like to use.

On with the review...
Level 1 has an option that was new to me, The Traceable option, and given the wide age spread, and the fact that I didn't really know the abilities of our young friend, I thought that Traceable might be the safest course to take.

GrapeVine Studies uses stick figures to highlight the major events of the Bible. This is an ideal method to teach children, because it engages each of the learning styles with simple figures that just about anyone can draw~ 

• Hear the Bible (auditory)
• See the figures being drawn (visual)
• Draw (or trace) the figures yourself (Kinesthetic) 

The first week our young friend was absent, so it was just Youngest, and so we did the introductory "Timeline Review" lesson with printed pages for Youngest. Because we don't have access to a white board or a chalkboard, this week I just told him what colors to use on the traceable figures, using the teacher's book as my guide.

The next week, our young friend was there... Hurrah! However, we started out with some technical printer difficulties (both at home and at church!) so I was not able to print out pages for the boys to draw on. Because the lesson must go on, we just folded copy paper in half and the boys drew their figures for the Days of Creation one day on each half of the paper, following my examples using the whiteboard app on my iPad. (Unfortunately I left those pages at the church in their binders, and didn't have a chance to take photos, I'll try to add those in later).

The following week the printers were working again, and the boys both used the traceable pages. There were mixed reactions on both parts... Youngest decided that he preferred to draw his own figures instead of tracing ... uh oh! I really like having the pages printed with the titles and the Scripture References. However, we accidentally discovered something that helped me out~ if I print a traceable page for our young friend, and then copy it on the copier, the traceable pictures are so light they don't copy! I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it is working well for my purposes, with two children, and a fairly wide age/ability gap.

Our young friend is a VERY active lad, so doing the Stick Figuring throughout the whole class works EXTREMELY well to keep his attention through the entire lesson~ because he is involved with his ears, eyes and hands! Win! Sadly he's been absent for the past few weeks, so my Youngest has been doing the studies on his own... :(

Although Youngest isn't the most excited about the drawing aspect, he DOES remember what he's drawn, including the colors, so GrapeVine Studies is doing the job it is intended to!

Be sure to go GrapeVine Studies website to check out the samples and guides to helping you choose levels and more.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: GrapeVine Studies
• Product: Old Testament 1: Level 1 Creation to Jacob 
• Family Use License
• Level 1 ebook  ($10) Hardcopy ($12.50)
• Traceable ebook ($10) Hardcopy ($12.50)
• Classroom License
• Level 1 Class ebook License ($37.50)
• Traceable  Class ebook ($37.50) 
• Old Testament 1: Level 1-2 Teacher License ebook ($18) hardcopy ($22.50)
• Ages: Traceable (3-5) Level 1 (6-8) 

Visit GrapeVine Studies on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ , and Periscope: @Grapevine Studies.

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~