How do you really get to know someone? You spend time with them. You listen to their stories. You hear about their successes and their failures and the lessons that they’ve learned. And through all that and over all that time you put the pieces of their life together into an overall scope. That, I believe is how you know them best. How you can best recall what they experienced in their life and apply it to your own. And this is what happens when you use Grapevine Studies.
We were recently sent the new Joseph study that was released at the beginning August. It is a timeline study and so it is perfect for really getting that full scope of a person’s life- Joseph’s, to be exact.
You first survey his whole life, start to finish. Then you go back and latch onto all the details, studying him in depth. Then you go back and review it all again. By the end, you know him and the way God worked in his life, inside and out.
Joseph is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I have been in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat three different times and would jump at the chance to do it again. I know the story front and back- I can sing it for you. Yet, I still find that I learn new things about this man and his life by doing this study with my children, who are at the same time, acquiring that same love for this precious excerpt of the scripture.
And it’s in short, manageable chunks- doable for a VERY active 5-year-old.
And he is interacting with the text as he draws the pictures.
And he is making it personal by drawing his favorite parts of the story he has learned that week as a review.
And he is retaining it- remembering it in both his mind and his heart.
And he is committing scripture to memory- that which will not return void.
And he is hearing the actual story, straight from the Word, not some dumbed-down interpretation of it.
We could spend all year on this study if we wanted to! (But don’t worry, it can also be done in a much shorter time frame if you like!) Best of all, it’s a multi-aged study so we could do it again in a couple of years with both boys and they would be able to learn right alongside each other. Oh, and did I mention the wonder of being able to have the teacher’s manual on my iPad, instead of having to print it out?! Yeah, that rocks too. (Although you could print it out or purchase a hard-copy version that they will mail you and it is pre-hole punched and everything!)
We honest to goodness love these studies. And while we were sent this study for an honest review, I only call it like I see it- I’m bold, remember? Go check them out, download a sample, get impressed and invest in the hearts of your children with Grapevine.
Oh, and hey- I’ve got a 20% off coupon for you that you can use on any non-sale item until September 30th: blog55
See? All the more reason to go check them out!
