Review: God's Great Covenant from Classical Academic Press

My regular readers know that I am a huge fan of Classical Academic Press. We already use a few of Classical Academic Press' other products, and my children are enthusiastic about the ones we have used to date. So, what is it about this company and its offerings that we appreciate the most?

Their logo sums it up nicely: Classical Subjects Creatively Taught.

My children love the way this company injects fun and creativity into every subject. It's simply never boring.

While we have previously reviewed this company's Latin and logic offerings, this time we are reviewing a Bible course on the New Testament.

We received the God's Great Covenant New Testament One Bundle, including a Student Edition, Teacher's Edition and an audio file download of Dr. Christopher Perrin reading thirty-two stories from the four gospels. Designed for students fourth grade and up, this study focuses on the Gospels.

What is included within the consumable Student Edition?

• 6 separate introductions, which we covered in our first week--general, historical and political, chronological, geographical, religious and daily life topics are each covered separately
• 36 chapters, divided into four nine week units
• Weekly chapters contain a theme, Scripture verses, a focal memory passage, key facts and prophecy fulfillments. 
• Maps and illustrations
• An interesting story every lesson, based upon the gospel account
• Review worksheets to be completed during the week, roughly 2-4 pages in length
• Unit Memory Passage Worksheets
• Unit Devotional Guides
• Unit accounts from the fictional character Simon's world
• 3 appendices
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• 36 one page weekly quizzes
• 346 pages

The maps give the right amount of detail for the middle to upper elementary crowd, while maintaining visual appeal.

The review worksheets offer a mix of fill-in-blank, matching, true/false and short answer questions. Sometimes even a crossword puzzle is added for fun, which is always a big hit with my kids.

Overall, we were impressed by the Student Edition. We chose to cover the story from the gospel on Mondays, and take a couple of days to complete the review worksheets and have quizzes on Friday, but you could choose your own method of covering the material.

The Teacher's Edition contains everything included within the Student Edition, only in smaller print. In addition, it includes lined margins in which to make notes and plenty of notes for teachers and parents. Notes cover background, textual and historical information as well as some theological points. While parents or teachers would not necessarily have to explore every one of these notes, these numbered points provide many options for further exploration of the topic, as desired--or as your student asks questions.

You can see a page sample below.

And another. The lined margins would prove helpful for the parent or teacher desiring to make her own notes for reference while teaching. Answers are included for the student review worksheets and weekly quizzes.

And the audio files? I really love the way they draw my children into the story. Since I have children younger than the recommended age, with these audio files we could play the stories for all my children and allow the younger ones (4 and 6 years old) to simply listen in to and appreciate the Bible story, while my seventh grader completed the workbook. I love Dr. Perrin's speaking voice, too. He holds my children's interest and attention.

Once again, we have been impressed with this Bible Study from Classical Academic Press. It is interesting, age appropriate and flexible for different age groups as well as how much additional discussion parents want to bring to the subject.

Dislikes?

Since I have now entered the "bifocals stage" of life and am struggling to get used to my newest pair, I did find the smaller font size of the student text reprint within the Teacher's Edition a bit small and difficult to read. When I wanted to read from the text, I found myself reaching for the Student Edition. Really, though, a minor quibble, and one that probably will not apply to many of my readers. I think the advantage of having the wide margins for making notes outweighs this minor personal inconvenience.

God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1: A Bible Course for Children         $26.95
God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1: Teacher's Edition                          $29.95
God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1 Audio Files                                    $9.95
All of the Above Bundled Together                                                                $56.95

Disclaimer: As a member of the Homeschool Crew, I received a review copy of these texts and audio file. To see what other Homeschool Crew reviewers thought about this product, please visit the Homeschool Crew blog.