AHL Discussions - Bible

[momxnine]

I'm wondering how many of you did this study with your children. I read on a post somewhere that there is a reading schedule in the manual for parents to keep up with the Bible reading with their child. Did I understand that correctly? I'm assuming this means the portions of Scripture assigned for each day. Right??

Is that enough to then have discussions with your child? Or did you get your own book to do yourself? I'm wondering if I should have ordered one from myself? In looking at my son's copy, I think it will be great for him to have the questions to chew on as he reads. I just can't decide if it would be helpful for me, in having discussions with him. Does this make sense? I feel like it doesn't.

Dee

I started off doing it last year with my son, but unfortunately I couldn't keep up. I was hoping to try again this year with the next son, but again, I just can't fit everything in.

In the very back of the manual there's a Bible reading plan that you can copy for yourself. That way you can at least read the same passages even if you can't get to the OT challenge book. I think it would be helpful if you have time, but you wouldn't have to buy another book. Just use the one you have and a notebook.

I even tried doing Daniel last year with my son and got through the first few chapters, but there again, I just didn't get to stay with it. When all of my children are through high school and gone, I'm going to do ALL of the MFW high school and see what I missed out on when I was "young."

[mlangley]

I agree with Vicki that I don't think you need your own book. I try to follow the schedule of reading just so I can aid in discussions.

[Julie in MN]

We read the OT together as a family, rather than using the parent guide to read it separately. Well, we read the history portions together. We got behind, so ds read most of the Psalms, Proverbs, and Prophets by himself, and dh and I used the parent list to read them separately at our own pace (or listened to audio in most cases).

Anyways... we didn't use the OT Challenge when reading it as a family. We're more of a just-read-the-real-thing type of family, so we'd read & discuss just the Bible. Also, the OT Challenge has you reading verses from various places, especially the NT, as you answer the questions, so it depends on how much that helps you. I have a built-in dislike of jumping around in the Bible based on my experiences with different folks jumping around in different ways when I was a young adult, so I have a straight-thru-in-order bias. Dh kept feeling like those other verses in OT Challenge were being read out of context and he didn't know them well enough to guide our son regarding their connection to the day's OT reading without a lot of research, so he wanted to skip OT Challenge - he was a research kind of guy. So in summary, we didn't use the OT Challenge for our family Bible reading, but ds did answer the OT Challenge questions later, or else he wrote up a short summary later. We did use either the Greenleaf Guide (OT history) or my own study Bible's foot notes (NT history) to help discuss anything we wanted to discuss as we went along. So we did have those, but they were much simpler than OT Challenge.

But each family is different. For one thing, some families have already read the entire Bible several times thru, and some are just beginning. Also, some folks really like having those types of discussion questions. I do think it's important to process what you read in some way or other, so you don't forget what you've read one minute later. I did buy two copies of OT Challenge just in case, and easily sold the unused one afterwards.

So there's another family's opinion. Nice that there's room to do it multiple ways.
Julie

[donutmom]

When all of my children are through high school and gone, I'm going to do ALL of the MFW high school and see what I missed out on when I was "young."

That's so funny, because I've said the same thing--even about the 5-year cycle years! I've already learned so much that I wasn't taught. When people ask how I like homeschooling, my answer usually includes, "I love it. I'm learning so much."

Thank you all for your input. I can see my trying to keep up with the book, but getting behind and getting frustrated with myself. So I'm just going to focus on the reading schedule and look at son's book if/when I can/want.

I'm trying to figure out how to keep the Bible discussions going with one child now in high school and the other two doing the Bible from another year. (And truth be told, I'm having a hard time with the thought of him not being "with" us for lessons each day. ) Bible time was always the best part of our day, and we'd often get into discussions of the reading that sometimes lasted quite long. He's a thinker and stumps us sometimes, but it's also been fun to see him "struggling"--maybe wrestling is a better word--with what we'd read, as he matures and thinks things through at a deeper level and makes his faith his own. I don't want to miss opportunities for input in those moments, because we are only reviewing things once or twice a week, and not right when they're read. Know what I mean?? I don't want to lose that, but not sure how to balance it all.

I guess I'll just have to experiment, but saying that sounds dreadful.

--Dee

[Julie in MN]

I ordered and have received, among other things, AHL. I placed my order Thursday morning, and Thursday afternoon realized, after reading back over the AHL description in the catalog, that it was recommended for one of the parents to have their own copy of the OT Challenge to work through alongside their child so as to be able to see what they are expected to learn and know and to help when I am keeping track of his progress throughout the study. I called to see if it was too late to add it to my order. This was one time that MFW's super quick customer service worked against me. I was not quick enough. They had already filled my order. I ordered Thursday morning and got my order Monday morning Thanks for the speed, MFW!

I plan to look through it to see if I NEED a second copy or if I can make do with the one copy, but in the meantime I wanted to ask you experienced AHL mothers if you had a second copy. If not, did you feel like it hindered your oversight of your child in this study and how did you make it work.

Also, it was suggested that if I did decide to order a second copy, that I might want to consider getting the most of a shipping charge (since this was something that I had mentioned as a negative to ordering just one book) and order an extra copy of the Daniel study to do alongside my ds. The lady I spoke with told me that some parents choose to do this as well. So I am also wondering how many of you did this and how that worked for you. Just would like to hear other's experiences.

Thanks!
Amy C.

I got a second copy but we actually didn't use it. We did do most of the OT together as a family, which was lovely and included discussion. But then my son did his own question assignments or summaries after that.

I never did the Daniel study, but ds seemed to benefit from that. It was something independent for him, in a home where we did more together than most, but just not the 2 things you mentioned

I hope you receive other replies, because I imagine each family is different, and each family connects with different things. I've heard of some who really love to delve into a good study program like these. We're just a house that's more basic, I guess. We just love listening to the Bible on audio, maybe using the Journey book or the footnotes in my study Bible to notice details or answer questions, but not a lot outside of that. But we do get it done that way. Others might get more motivated with the study materials.

Julie

[dhudson]

I had my own copy of the OT challenge as I did work through it alongside my son but we did all the questions in a discussion format. So, it could be possible to have only one copy. I also have younger ones coming up so I didn't write in my book and plan to give it to one of my younger ones. Oh, and I found it helpful to start the OT challenge several weeks ahead of my ds as once we started school, I wasn't near as diligent as my ds.

I didn't have an extra Daniel but we did that study together as well and it was great!

I found that I liked having a daily connection to my ds that first year and did those things with him. This year,(10th in WHL), I did Experiencing God, A Tale of Two Cities and Cry the Beloved Country. It wasn't at all necessary but we enjoyed it.

[Amy C.]

Thanks, Julie and Dawn, for sharing how each of your families have done it. It is helpful to hear from other moms who have gone before me. I will look at both studies and see if I need a second copy of each or if one copy will suffice.

Thanks againn!
Amy C.

[Julie in MN]

My daughter is going through AHL and wondered why Daniel 10 is not included in the study? I checked through the TM and it seems that it does go from Daniel 8 & 9 to Daniel 11. I don't recall seeing anything said about this, but I could have easily missed it. Anyone know why? Or are we missing sheets we should have?

Thanks,
Lori

Hi Lori,
You know, I remembered this question coming up once before and I found my post -- dated May 2011! What I guessed was that students by that point in the guide had been re-reading the book of Daniel quite a few times, so maybe some sections weren't as necessary. And chapter 10 seemed like just a lead-in to chapter 11.

It doesn't say it's an MFW-adapted guide, so I'm not sure if MFW would know exactly why the publisher made that choice -- you could always call the office to ask. But know that it's always been that way as far as I can tell

My ds never noticed; he's a boy, I guess
Julie

[MFW-Lucy]

Lori,

I think Julie's answer is pretty much correct. This is a lead into the vision Daniel is given in Chapters 11 and 12 and the chapter has been included in the back so that it can be read to lead into chapter 11 but as far as end times or additional study I do not think the author felt it was necessary to break anything down from that chapter. We do not publish this study and were not involved in the editing of it.

Pages 77-78 are missing from the Daniel worksheets (which I think would correspond to Daniel 10)

Page 77 should have rams on it (from the study in Chapters 8 and 9) and page 78 is blank before starting the next chapter. So you should have those 2 pages but no information is on them. This is just like pages 65 and 66 with a blank page before chapters 8 and 9 start in Lesson 10.

If you have more questions let us know:)

Lucy

[joyfulmom]

Thanks - that helps!

Lori

[Julie in MN]

Who puts out this book for the Daniel Inductive Study in AHL for 9th grade? I can't find info on this. Thanks.

I don't think this study is in print any longer except via MFW. It's from Precepts ministry, known for their "inductive" studies, the same group that does the Kay Arthur children's study of James in EX1850. This is a teen version, so it has more text than the Kay Arthur ones, but it is similar in that the study includes the text of Daniel so students can circle different things etc.

Does that help?
Julie

[annaz]

This is what I needed to know. Thanks, Julie.

[Julie in MN]

I'm wondering if anyone has stretched out the study of the Old Testament in AHL. I was considering beginning this summer, continuing through the school year, and even extending into the following summer if necessary. Will that take away from the integration of bible and history? Do I need the teachers manual or any other resources to begin? Probably "Taking the OT Challenge". Thanks for any thoughts about this!

Hmmm, I'll come up with some thoughts. To me, starting without having the AHL package yet is a newer thought than reading ahead or behind, which is very common.

1. Yes, the manual would be handy to parse out daily readings, especially as far as how much is reasonable to read per day. Of course, you could also use time limits or other methods. Also, AHL assigns Psalms to be read alongside other OT readings throughout the year, but your student could catch up on that later.

2. The most "correlated" other book will be the Journey through the Bible. You may have that on hand from CTG/RTR and know how to use it? It just gives some maps, photos of the area or the coins or whatever, things like that.

3. AHL assigns daily questions from the OT Challenge book to help students "digest" what they are reading in the OT. You could, of course, do something else to keep your student alert and engaged with his reading - journaling, family discussion, etc.

4. As far as correlation with other history and literature, I think it's all so ancient that it doesn't match up year-by-year or anything. There will be times that you'll miss something that matched up very nicely (e.g. New Answers chapter related to creation while doing Genesis's creation account, or Egypt studies when the Bible heads to Egypt), but my experience is that sometimes you are blessed with a completely new match-up and you will be delighted with that, as well.

5. Once you begin your formal school year, there will be times when you will need to adjust. For instance, there are days here and there when the history or English assignment is actually to read more of the OT that day, and you may not be in the same place on the OT but want to assign a longer OT reading?

Very random thoughts. Hoping to hear from others, as well, maybe those who've done something similar?
Julie

[RB]

Julie,
Thanks, that actually helps a lot! I think I will plan to order AHL soon and really look at the bible portion. Yes, we do have Victor/Journey and I am so excited that it is scheduled in AHL because it was a favorite of ours.

Great to know that the bible and history aren't so tied together daily that starting bible 2 months earlier would ruin the program We could (and might) wait for the school year, but Bible is the subject we would really like to do as a family next year. With more people involved (2 parents, 2 high schoolers and an 8th grader) I thought it might be wise to get a head start to offset inevitable delays. Once the school year begins there will certainly be times we will all read/study/journal individually and discuss once or twice a week, too.

So thanks again for your reply!
If anyone else has stretched out the OT study a bit, I'd love to hear your experience too.

[TravelBug]

We started our year out with a different high school curricula which had a different OT study. I didn't like that one so we made a switch to Taking the Old Testament Challenge and had gotten all of the way through Genesis before deciding to switch our entire curricula to AHL. So, essentially, we did what you are asking, I think.

We have had a very nice start to the year by already having read Genesis. My dd simply "refreshed" her memory with Journey through the Bible as scheduled each day. Job was covered early on so we had plenty of Bible reading to do in the first weeks with that scheduled.

As long as you are using the Book and doing the discussion questions along with the readings, I don't think it would be a bad idea at all to start ahead of time in the summer.

[RachelT]

Have any of you used the DVDs or digital downloads from the New Answers Book 1 in AHL? The Answers in Genesis website also has a downloadable study guide with just a few short questions for each chapter on the DVD, which is about 10 of the chapters from the book, not all of them. I thought the videos might be a fun supplement. I'm wondering what they are like and if they just introduce the topic for the chapter or if they cover the same material that is in the chapter. Thanks!

Reply from Julie in MN » Fri Jan 13, 2017 12:02 pm
Hi Rachel,
We did! The main thing I remember is that they were very short - not at all a replacement for the New Answers book. But my son really loved seeing the authors speak, kind of like the video summaries you will have when you get to Thinking Like a Christian. And being the last one at home, ds always appreciated something to liven up our quiet household.

Here's something I posted about it back in 2011, when it was fresher in my mind:

2. For the New Answers Book, there is a video from AIG that goes along with maybe a dozen of the chapters. The videos are very short but cover the topics and show the actual authors (a good reminder that many adults believe in creation). If you sign up for AIG's emails, sometimes you get a free or inexpensive download of videos like these, plus other good ones.
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10591&hilit=dozen#p72323

And here are some excerpts from a 2010 conversation - I like the idea of a family viewing!

...if you're a very, very busy mother, get the videos & watch with the family!
I know the books cover more material, but the videos are a great tool for those who don't read much, or are just so busy

Book 2 has 31 or 32 questions, the Answers DVD says it contains 12 answers, ten of which are based on topics in The New Answers Book 2, and two are totally new: ....

...If you haven't read the books, then I'd say the DVDs are like an intro or a teaser for the book. The DVD segment might be 5 minutes, while reading the chapter might take 30 minutes. There's probably nothing added on the DVD that isn't already in the book, but my son just enjoys seeing/hearing things, and he also very much enjoyed seeing Mr. Ham "in person." (There are a few other guys talking about some chapters, but Mr. Ham is definitely his favorite!) So at our house, we watch the DVD segment and then read the chapter.

Thinking of getting DVD #2 as just a lunchtime extra, since the second book isn't assigned. Or, maybe we'll watch one every year as a "refresher"?!
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=9151#p67502