The most important subject of all is the Bible. Our goal is to be conformed to the image of Christ. We know that to be like Him, we must see Him. We see Him primarily through the Bible which is His spoken, written revelation to the world. Your child should have a habit of daily personal Bible reading and prayer to begin their day. The Bible part of their education is a supplement to that – not a replacement.
It’s best to begin the day’s study with the Bible subject and ideally you should spend time on this subject everyday. Our plans for late 6th grade and all of 7th and 8th grade do this. For the first seven months of 6th grade we use a great book which may be a little deep for some 6th graders. A House For My Name (HFMN) is a survey of the Old Testament in narrative form. The author pulls together many of the pervasive biblical themes that we may miss if we read the Old Testament too slowly. Each section is 6-10 pages and ends with several Review questions and Thought questions. The student should read the section and answer a few of the Review Questions. This is a single lesson for the week, rather than a daily lesson as we recommend for the final weeks of 6th grade, 7th, and 8th grades. We did not assign all Review Questions, but chose those appropriate for the age and time allowed for the subject. Again, flexibility to permit routine study that can be scaled back to prevent overburdening when time is tight.
The HFMN study should be paired with the corresponding section of the Holman Bible Atlas. This Atlas is a rich resource in itself. The student should read the Atlas section, which has vivid maps, landscape photos, and charts the day before the HFMN reading. Note that the Atlas serves to build geography skills and experience, while avoiding making geography study into “busy-work”.
After completing HFMN, we finish out the year with Jesus in the Spotlight: John 1-10 by Kay Arthur and Cyndy Shearer. This is a nine week study that introduces the student to the inductive Bible study method. The rest of John’s gospel will be studied in grade 7 using other books in this series.
Here’s our schedule for the year starting with 27 weeks worth of lessons for HFMN and the Bible Atlas. This should be followed by the final 9 weeks of lessons in the Spotlight book to complete the 36 week school year. You’ll see some of these HFMN lessons on the month 1 and month 6 schedules where the Atlas study is Wednesday followed by HFMN on Thursday.