Enjoying God’s Gifts Bible Curriculum ~ A Review

Enjoying God’s Gifts is a first grade Bible curriculum that is published by Positive Action for Christ.  Positive Action for Christ specializes in publishing youth curriculum, including Bible Curriculum for both churches and Christian schools.

We were sent Positive Action’s First Grade Bible Curriculum Enjoying God’s Gifts.  Our kit contained a colorful student manual {consumable workbook} and a teacher’s manual {hole punched in 3-ring binder}.

You can also purchase additional products that go along with this first grade curriculum, including the Teacher’s Manual on a CD-ROM {$19.95} and a music CD {$9.95}.

The First Grade Curriculum

Enjoying God’s Gifts focuses on the “many gifts of love provided for us by God.”  In this 35-lesson curriculum, first graders will study “aspects of creation, our families, friends, possessions, Jesus Christ, and God’s care for us”.

As I mentioned previously, this Bible curriculum contains 35 lessons; each lesson is intended to take one week.  The teacher’s manual contains suggestions for weekly lesson plans for a 5-day week, a 4-day week, and a 3-day week ~ depending upon how many days per week you plan to teach Bible. 

Enjoying God’s Gifts also incorporates scripture memory, character trait studies and music {hymns and choruses}. 

My Thoughts

My dd6 was so excited to have a Bible curriculum that would be just for her.  She absolutely loved the full color workbook that came along with this curriculum ~ and I appreciated that the work was especially leveled for first graders.  Dd6 is a very beginning reader and she was able to easily complete the assignments in her workbook {2-3 pages per lesson/week}, with just a little help from me :).

I really appreciated the organization of the teacher’s manual.  Even though it was written for a classroom setting, it contained many suggestions for ways to adapt the curriculum to fit your needs {such as the 5-day, 4-day, 3-day lesson plan suggestions}.  It also provided a very detailed overview of each of the lessons and gave lots of suggestions for teaching strategy and activities that can be used to make the lessons “real” to your student{s}.

I also liked how they incorporated music into this curriculum.  The students are asked to focus on one hymn per month {sometimes two months} and two choruses per month.  The hymns and choruses used in the curriculum are available on a cd that can be purchased separately from Positive Action for Christ.  You can also easily substitute your own hymn and/or chorus selections if you want.

Although this Bible curriculum was originally created to be used in a school classroom setting.  I think that it can be easily adapted so it can be used successfully in a homeschool setting.

There is one aspect of this curriculum that can be seen as either a positive or a negative, depending upon your perspective.  While I love that this curriculum was specifically leveled for my first grader, this aspect also makes it harder to implement into our homeschool day. Given that I am a homeschool mom, I do not have a classroom full of first graders…in fact, even though my classroom is very small {3 kiddos – if I count the 4yo}, it contains a wide range of ages and abilities.  I currently have a 3rd grader {a very proficient reader}, a 1st grader {a beginning reader} and a preschooler. 

My dd6 absolutely LOVED having her very own Bible curriculum, and she loved the 1 on 1 time that she had with me.  However, because I am teaching more than one student, I tend to try to teach as many “family” subjects as I can…which means that I try to find curriculums that allow me to teach my 3rd grader, 1st grader and preschooler all together. 

I think this is a wonderful, complete Bible curriculum.  I love that it includes character trait studies, music studies, and scripture memory, along with truths from the scriptures.  However, I am not sure that this particular curriculum fits my homeschool needs at this time since it would require me to teach Bible separately to each of my students.

However, for those homeschoolers who want a grade-specific Bible program, I definitely recommend that you look into Positive Action for Christ Bible curriculums. 

More Information

The components of Enjoying God’s Gifts can be purchased separately directly from Positive Action for Christ:

• colorful student manual {consumable} $12.95
• printed teacher’s manual $33.95
• teacher’s manual on CD-ROM $19.95
• First Grade music cd $9.95
• First Grade music tape $2.00

Only the student manual and teacher’s manual {either print version or CD-ROM} are necessary for implementation of this curriculum.

Positive Action for Christ also publishes Bible curriculum for other individual grades from kindergarten through 6th grade.  In addition, they publish a variety of Bible curriculums designed to be used with middle schoolers and high schoolers.   These are not grade specific, rather they are labeled “middle school” and “high school”.

Click on the above banner to read about my fellow crewmates’ experiences with Positive Action for Christ.

I received a complimentary copy of the student workbook and teacher’s guide in order to provide an honest review of my experience with this product.  I did not receive any other compensation for my review.