As much as I love teaching my children, I have found that sometimes I need them to work independently, and
Veritas Press has proven to be a great place to turn. Last year Ian went through one of the online Self-Paced History courses, and Elijah has been eager to have a turn. He was thrilled to get to try their online
Self-Paced Bible course “Old Testament 1: Genesis to Joshua.”
About Veritas Press Self-Paced Bible Courses
Veritas Press Self-Paced Bible Courses are interactive online lessons that take students through the Bible chronologically. There are 32 events covered in “Old Testament 1: Genesis to Joshua,” corresponding to the Veritas Press Bible cards. Each card is covered in 4 lessons (including the quiz at the end). It is possible to do the course without having the physical cards, but I decided to go ahead and purchase them, and I was glad I did. Elijah liked having something tangible to refer back to, and he used them with almost every lesson.
During the lesson two young Israelites, Asher and Abigail, act as teachers or guides, walking the student through the story (with a little help from an animated cat, Teb).
There are lots of different activities, such as putting events in order, matching up definitions, a catchy memory tune that covers all 32 events, and even fun games. Students do need to be able to read to complete most of the activities, so these courses are intended for 2nd-5th grade. (Scriptures used come from the New King James Version.)
Following the classical style, students memorize names, dates, and places, gaining a solid foundation of biblical understanding that will prepare them for delving deeper in the Bible as they grow older and move into more advanced stages of learning.
Veritas Press Self-Paced Courses are all online. The student logs in and is automatically sent to the correct lesson. (If they stopped in the middle of one, they can choose to pick up right where they left off.) Quizzes are graded, it’s easy to see how they have done on each lesson by looking at their student dashboard (or signing in as a parent).
There are actually two options for going through these lessons. The first is the Self-Paced Course Elijah is doing, where the student has one year to work through all the lessons, and they are graded on how they do on the quizzes. The other choice is a monthly or yearly subscription to
VeritasBible.com, including an option for a family subscription that allows multiple students to use the program. With VeritasBible.com, they can also access the lessons from ALL the available Bible courses (both Old and New Testaments). While I usually try to find resources that can benefit several of my children, this time I opted for the Self-Paced course because I felt like having a deadline to get through all the lessons would help us stay more disciplined about getting through the entire program, plus I was only going to have Elijah using it this year.
Our Experience
Because Ian went through one of the Veritas Press history courses last year, Elijah went into this course with certain expectations. Some things were the same, but there were also several differences. His favorite thing about the history lessons had been the games. He watched Ian get to play a new one every week and was so excited to start his own course so he could play games like that too. Unfortunately, for the first several weeks there were no games. He was really disappointed, and it was hard to get him motivated to sign on and do his Bible lesson.
Thankfully, when he got to the Flood, he found a game very similar to one from Ian’s course. From that point on, Elijah gladly worked through his lessons. The games continue to be his favorite part.
Here are the main ways this Bible course compared with the self-paced history courses:
- Still 32 cards (for 32 weeks) but only 4 lessons for each card rather than 5
- The Bible lessons are a bit shorter (13-14 slides each)
- Similar activity pages
- Not a game for every week
- Continual review of what’s been learned previously so students master the material
My Opinion
I am really pleased with this Veritas Press Self-Paced Bible course and have already signed Elijah up for the next course, Old Testament 2: Judges – Kings to start once he completes this one. (If you purchase before July 11 you can save $100 off the price of the course and set the start date for any time up through September 1!) I love the solid Biblical foundation Elijah is getting through this program and want to keep adding onto it.
Other Crew Member took a look at different courses, and some received a subscription to VeritasBible.com, so if you want to learn more, click on the banner below to see what they thought of those options.
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