Homeschool Creations: The Life of Joseph ~ Grapevine Bible Studies

Who knew that stick figures and the Bible could go so well together! Maybe the thoughts running through your head were the same as mine when I first heard about Grapevine Studies, but let me tell you ~ we LOVE the time that we are spending drawing little stick people and especially the Bible learning that goes hand-in-hand with it!

Bible was truly the one area that I struggled trying to find something for our family to use this year. While we’ve been reading the Bible together, I hadn’t found anything that we could all sit down and study together. When Grapevine Studies contacted me and asked if I would be willing to review their newly revised Life of Joseph Bible study, I quickly replied ‘yes’! I knew it was a shorter study and would give us a good look at the program and a chance to see if it would ‘fit’ with our family.

Short answer ~ I can’t wait to start our next study!!

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What’s included in the Life of Joseph study?

In this 14 week study, students learn all about Joseph from the time he was a young boy {and the favorite of his father} in Canaan until the time of his death in Egypt {view a sample lesson here}.

The teacher’s manual has lesson notes, timelines, full-color stick figure drawings, vocabulary terms, a map, lesson goals & key points, memory verses, as well as review questions & answers {ebook $16.95, 3 ring punched $20.95}.
The student book includes lesson pages, timelines, a map, verse memorization and more {ebook $11.95, printed $13.95}.

In addition to the teacher and student books, you will also need a Bible, colored pencils, a whiteboard {or large paper} and colored dry erase markers.

What We Loved About the Life of Joseph Study

All four our our kids were able to sit down and draw along as we went through the Life of Joseph lessons together. Granted, Kaleb’s drawings were a little less involved, but he enjoyed being able to sit down with us and participate ~ because the stick figures were much simpler for him!

In a typical lesson we would do a timeline review and then work through the rest of the lesson. We would read a passage from the Bible {we use the NIrV Discover’s Bible} and then complete the drawing to go along with that passage.

We have a large whiteboard easel that I would draw on using our BIG colorful pack of Expo dry erase markers so all the kids could see the pictures. As I read and we talked about it, they would copy the pictures onto their lesson pages.

The only thing that we did not do with the lessons was the Bible memory verses because we are working on our Awana verses now and other verse memorization. I do appreciate that it is included in the study, but we just opted not to include it at this point.

Here are a few things that we liked specifically about the study:

Four-square layout for the studies ~ saving lots of room and printing!
Multi-colored stick figures ~ the variety keeps the kids really involved in the details of the drawings, even though the drawings are based on stick figures
The ebook works PERFECTLY on my iPad ~ I didn’t have to print it out! I can honestly say that this has changed my opinion of ebooks!! {and yes, it would work well on my laptop too, but I have a tendency to get distracted, so the laptop if off during school time!}.
It IS multi-aged focused ~ the fact that Kaleb can draw his cute little stick people along with us makes my heart so happy {you have to love those big eyes on the stick figures!}.

We will definitely be continuing on with Grapevine Studies throughout the rest of our year. This is another curriculum that has gotten two thumbs up from all of our kids and will be a part of our school time for awhile!

If you’re interested in any of the other studies and levels from Grapevine, you can download sample lessons from many of their other studies here. They have a variety of studies including Old and New Testament, Esther, the Birth of Jesus, the Resurrection, and Biblical Feasts.