Old Testament Sheets, New Testament Sheets

The great folks at Hold That Thought have done it again! If you have seen their history notebooking sheets, or even read the review for them, you'll know what a fantastic boon these are to busy parents who are homeschooling their kids and want to give them a quality education. Well, the notebooking sheets for the Old Testament and the New Testament are every bit as good and as high quality as the history sheets.

I've always known that an overview of the Bible was important to a good Christian education, but I could never seem to find something that matched my teaching style. These notebooking sheets are a huge step in that direction for me!

The folks at Hold That Thought have taken the survey of the Old Testament and broken it down into worksheets that follow history chronologically. If you want to start with the days of Creation, then do it! Use any book or books you choose to study the topic, and then print one of these sheets off and use it to record what you've learned. There's space for each day of Creation and a space for the scripture reference to refer to it. There's a timeline for Adam and Eve in which you fill in whatever events of their lives that you choose to, and also put a scripture reference in if you choose.

There are timelines for every important person in the Bible, and for every event there is a notebook sheet. You choose which sheets you want to use, and which events you want to cover. There's even a sheet for the return of the twelve spies of Canaan! Both well-known and lesser-known Biblical events are covered. There are charts and maps for everything you could imagine covering, and if one you do cover isn't there, and then there are blank maps and charts for you to fill in and add whatever you choose to add!

These notebooking sheets will give direction and purpose to our Bible time together as a family. My kids have always heard the Bible stories, but we don't really tell them chronologically, so they don't have a real firm grasp of what happened when. Following the sheets on this CD, I can do a survey of the Bible and study whatever topics I choose to and still keep on track chronologically. They'll be able to see the big picture much more easily and at the end of the study they will have a notebook that they will be proud of and can refer back to whenever they choose to. It's my hope that this notebook will go with them throughout their schooling and even adulthood!

On the CDs, there are also alphabetical listings of all the who's who in the Bible. Then the amazing people from Hold that Thought have gone one step further and given us a censored list and and uncensored list of who's who. That way, if you are using these sheets with young ones and you want to skip some of the more 'colorful' people in the Bible (particularly the Old Testament), you can do so with ease.

I can't imagine doing any kind of Bible talk or survey or overview without these notebooking sheets! They are that good! To be able to use these for the whole Bible you will need the Old Testament CD and the New Testament CD. They are very affordably priced, however, and shouldn't be out of anybody's budget, especially when you consider what's in them and the time using these sheets will save you. For me, as a homeschooler and also a working outside the home mother, this is priceless! Our family will use these for years and years, and it's one product that I will keep for my kids should they choose to homeschool their kids. And what a way to get them off on the right track!

Thank you, people at Hold That Thought, you've made our whole homeschool experience joyful again, and provided me with an excellent tool to teach my children the most important book of our lives, God's Word!
-- Product Review by: Holly Cameron, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Quiet Time Sheets

Here's yet one more quality product for your notebooking family! If you are unfamiliar with the amazing notebooking tools from this company, then please spend some time on their website, and read the reviews of their other products on our website. You will not be disappointed!

These sheets are to help with the student's morning devotions. They act as a guide as the student reads God's Word and contemplates it. There are prayer request sheets to print out and put in your notebook. As you pray for people, record the requests in the spaces, and as they are answered, there are places for this as well. There are sheets to record God's Blessings and Goodness, and then there are the devotional sheets themselves. These are printable sheets covering a multitude of topics. There are enough topics for a full year of study, assuming you school Monday to Friday.

If you decide that your children aren't ready for some of the topics, there are extra sheets with Bible verses on them that the child can copy out instead. Most of the devotional sheets are self explanatory. There are questions asked on some of the sheets, and there are scripture verses to look up, so the child can find the answer. Not all the answers are immediately obvious, as we want to encourage and develop critical thinking, and this is an excellent way to work on that skill.

Some of the quiet time sheets have scripture verses at the head of the page. These are for the child to copy out and meditate on. The children should be encouraged to make these copywork pages beautiful, and to spend some time thinking about the verses as they decorate the page.

One really neat tool that is provided is a page for your student to write the pages that the books of the Bible are found on in their own Bible. This is great for quick referencing, since sometimes several Bible verses are given on one day. The student can keep this reference page in the back of his/her Bible and then be able to quickly jump to the right page when needed! The authors recommend a good study Bible, as well as a good dictionary. They recommend the 1828 Dictionary, by Webster, which has been reprinted. This is fairly expensive, but will be an invaluable tool for far more than just your quiet time sheets! Any really good dictionary will do, but the definitions in this dictionary are both scholastic and from a Christian perspective. There are other suggested books in the section called Parent Read Me, but those are the two most important books.

I know we will enjoy our year of study, and look forward to studying the seasonal events as well. For each season there are several sessions leading up to the event. For example, there are 25 sheets on the study of Easter, enough to give you the whole month before as a lead up to this most important day! These sheets will help our kids produce notebooks that they can be proud of and they won't be full of busy work, but have quality sheets that have had thought and care put into them.

I'd say that these sheets are most appropriate for about fourth grade and up to do on their own, as they require reading and interpreting scripture. Younger students may be able to do it as a family devotional/quiet time, with the parent leading the discussion, although the student must be able to write or at least copy on his own to get the most benefit from this CD.

Once again, the price is extremely reasonable, and I have yet to be disappointed from anything that this company produces. All of the materials we own from them will remain in our home to be used over and over again, and to be used for our grandchildren, should they be fortunate enough to be homeschooled!