VeritasBible.com from Veritas Press is a wonderful homeschool Bible curriculum that includes access to three courses for multiple people! Here’s my review of theOne Year Family Subscription from VeritasBible.com.
Bringing the Bible to Life with VeritasBible.com
Now my kids don’t get a lot of screen time, so letting them use the computer to study the Bible was already pretty exciting for them! Then they saw the amazing and visual journey through the events of Scripture and were even more thrilled.
One of my favorite features of this online Bible curriculum is how it “tracks” the students progress with digital banners and badges. On the “map” of the events, they get stars and banners for completing each session (three stars if they get 100% on the quizzes). On their profile pages, their badges turn color when they complete a segment. It’s a great way to motivate the kids and for parents to see progress at a glance.
Currently there are three Courses:
- Old Testament 1: Genesis to Joshua
- Old Testament 2: Judges to Kings
- New Testament 1: The Gospels
Inside each Course are Events that tell the various stories, historical facts, and Bible verses that are connected. Each course has 32 lessons… so that’s a total of 128 lessons for your family for the year! Perfect! Need more? Two more courses are under development!
Each Event has about four Lessons that go along with it. Each lesson adds a bit more detail to the story, while continually reviewing the details from the previous lesson. There is a lot of repetition in the lessons, but it’s helpful to cement the learning.
In each lesson, kids watch about 12-15 short segments as the storyline is told. Here’s a few things the kids might do in the various segments:
- Watch live action interactions – In the first course, siblings Abigail and Asher, dressed in Biblical era garb, interact and tell the story. They also engage with animated characters Teb and Tizzy (a laid-back cat and a flea!) to share more details and react to the story.
- Play digital games and activities. Kids use the mouse to draw lines to match correct answers. Or they slide tiles around to put answers in the correct order. Sometimes they do activities to place locations on an interactive map.
- Bible Verse Card. Very simply, a Bible verse visual read aloud. It is not the King James Version, just FYI.
- Listen to a Memory Song. This song is the same throughout the course, so as the kids complete more and more lessons, the timeline of events becomes more significant to them.
- Take a Quiz. Multiple choice questions are featured throughout the lessons, but always as the last segment of the lesson to assess learning. In the VeritasBible.com version of VeritasPress, you will see your child’s score, but then it doesn’t save the score for later.
One neat aspect of the lessons, to me, is the live action segments with the actors. I like how they react and show surprise, dismay, curiosity, and bewilderment at the stories. I think this mirrors what the children must be thinking as they hear these stories, and aids in comprehension. It also demonstrates for kids to be active readers/listeners when they hear Bible stories – to ask questions, wonder, and consider the meaning behind the events of the Bible.
My other favorite part is the integration of historical facts, Biblical truths, art, music, and visuals to bring the entire Bible to life for kids!
How we used VeritasBible.com in our homeschool
VeritasBible.com was a perfect addition to our end of year coursework and summer learning. The boys generally use this program after breakfast or during Quiet Time after lunch. The lessons are fairly brief, so if the boys stayed on task, it was a great option for filling small amounts of time. It could also be a nice option for when you want to work with one child and have the other kids work independently.
Watch together or Independently?
The reading level of your children will affect whether you choose to watch the lessons with your child or have them work independently. Because a few portions were just a smidge above my son’s reading level (he’s about First Grade level), we all watched the lessons together, so I could help him with the reading portions. Older students (2nd grade level or above) will likely be fine to view independently. Viewing with a parent or older child makes the lessons accessible to a younger age range. My three year old loves watching the videos, and he likes to guess which answers are right for the matching games.
Use one profile or multiple?
Initially, I set up a profile for each boy. But… I had a challenge persuading them to continue to the next lesson! Because they loved each lesson so much, they kept wanting to re-watch them! And each boy wanted to watch the same lesson on each account. Now, that’s not a bad thing, because re-watching helps solidify the learning! But since they both needed my support, I found it was slowing our progress down dramatically. I eventually decided we’d just use the older son’s account for all viewing since they enjoy doing the lessons together.
I like that there are these options for parents who will watch with the child and parents who will use VeritasBible.com as an independent resource. This allows the courses to expand to fit with your child’s development.
We’re excited to keep using VeritasBible.com to supplement our Bible curriculum throughout the summer and the school year, as it’s created a lot of excitement around visualizing Biblical times and events.
