Possessing the Land

It had been awhile since I’ve done a formal Bible study with my older three children. That was one of the gaps I had in our schedule for this year, and I wasn’t sure what I’d use to fill it. Then I was asked to review Possessing the Land Bible study by Positive Action for Christ. I was interested in seeing if this would fill the need we had to study the Word in a formal way.

What Is It?
Positive Action for Christ is a Christian publishing house geared toward equipping Bible teachers with curriculum for youth. You can see their Mission Statement here.  They have Bible curriculum for elementary age students through high school. In addition, they also church curriculum. The goal for their entire line of elementary curriculums is to teach students to study the Word of God for themselves.

I received the 5th grade Bible study curriculum, entitled Possessing the Land. This curriculum is a survey of the Old Testament. The goal is for students to gain a clearer perspective of how the stories of the Old Testament fit together in one pattern. The curriculum consists of:
* student workbook
* teacher manual
* hymn cd (optional)

How We Used It:
As a mom with kids in multiple grades, there is no way I could teach 3 different Bible curriculums. I decided to use this curriculum with all three of my kids ( 3rd grader, 5th grader, and 7th grader). Ideally, each student would have their own workbook, but it can work with just one. During Bible time, one child was the recorder---the person who got to write all the answers in the book for the day. The other two took turns looking up the passages. We took about 3 days to do each lesson. The lesson involved:

* vocabulary word(s)
* learning scripture verse for the week
* working through portion of the workbook
* discussing character traits
* discussing the lesson
* hymn study (This is optional.  A hymn and chorus is learned each month. I did not have the necessary cd’s to implement this fully. I did however, teach my kids the hymns I could remember from my youth.)

What We Thought:
It was a perfect fit for our family and exactly what we needed for our Bible curriculum this year! I appreciated that it wasn’t just a learn-a-Bible-story curriculum. The kids had to learn vocabulary words, look up and apply what they were reading to the lesson, and they learned why we believe some of the things we believe. Honestly, I was expecting some major resistance from one particular child of mine, but was totally shocked when it was consistently this child who would make sure we got our Bible done for the day. I saw a new part of this child’s heart by doing this study together. We plan to continue using this study until for the rest of the year.

You can check out their other materials and the scope and sequence by clicking the photo above.

Positive Action for Christ Home page
Elementary Bible Studies: around $50 for student workbook and printed teacher's manual. The manual can be ordered as a CD, which cuts down the price.

For More Positive Action For Christ Reviews See: Disclosure: I am a member of TOS and I was given this product free for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.