I am part of a homeschool group in my area and sometimes those ladies have some of the greatest ideas! One of the ideas on the site was about a Proverbs study one of the families did. I fell in love immediately and decided that it was something that we were going to do. I thought I would share about it here. I have added some of my ideas to the study that I didn't see in hers and hopefully you will have some to add to mine. If you do, please share! I am always looking for more fun ways to learn.
First I looked up the book of Proverbs online in the version I wanted to use. I chose New King James but you can do any version. When you find it the hardest part is next, copying it and pasting it to a Word document and then formatting it to look how you want it to look. This can be a little time consuming but well worth it when it is done. I chose to separate each Proverb with a page break. So Proverbs 1 is on two pages, Proverbs 2 on 1 page, but no two proverbs are on the same page. I made sure it was an easy to read font for my daughter who is 7, then I printed it out. It was about 60 pages so it was a lot of printing. I recommend that if you have more than one student to print the first one and then get the rest copied or your ink will dry up fast. It is ideal for each child to have their own.
Then I put the pages into a 3 ring binder with some lined pages behind each Proverb. I made a cover page for the front of the book and then we were set and ready to start learning. The only other things I made sure to have was my Bible and my Muppin's Bible, so my Muppin could see it was truly from the Bible, dictionary, drawing paper, pencils, crayons, markers, construction paper, glue and scissors. We are going to get creative!
Now comes the fun part!
We are reading 1 proverb a week meaning that everyday we start out by reading the proverb that we are focusing on for the week. This is great for them to practice their reading skills and gives them a chance to get better at the reading. I then pick out a verse for us to memorize that week from that proverb (as she gets older, or if she gets excited about one in particular she will pick it out). We just started our study yesterday so our Bible verse is Proverbs 1:8-9.
As we read we are picking out words she doesn't know the meaning of and looking them up in the dictionary for the definition. We are then choosing a couple words a day that she will learn to spell, they will often be the same as the word she is looking up in the dictionary. Then we are writing out the same proverb we are memorizing for penmanship practice
One of the most fun things we are doing is picking out a part of the proverb to create a picture, a visual story board, or some other form of art about. It can just be drawings or it can be something that is cut out and created, such as a shadow box, or other type of art. The idea is to let creativity run here and to help them get the real meaning down in the heart in a way that kids really get it. It is so much fun too. Below is a picture my Muppin did about Proverbs 1:8-9. She has the dad telling her to be kind, the mom telling her to be loving and because she is obeying she has a crown (or ornament) on her head and necklaces (or chains) about her neck. She will be coloring it later, she was tired :)
Lastly, depending on the proverb, we are adding some history about the times and how they relate to now in an effort to make it more applicable to today for her. We have The Archaeological Bible and that is a great resource. Crosswalk.com has some great ones too with their
Bible Study Tools. I highly recommend them and they are totally free!
All in all, it is so much fun. After our Proverbs study is done, we are doing the book of Ester, my daughters favorite. What other ideas do you have that could be added to round out this study?
