of VeritasBible.com from Veritas Press. This is an online bible study curriculum
So..... What is VeritasBible.com?
VeritasBible.com is a fun, self paced, independent way for kids to study the Bible! Through fun games, quizzes, and videos they travel through the bible creatively. There are currently three courses aimed towards grades 2nd-6th:
Each course covers 32 Bible events with four lessons for each event. I had my 12 year old son do the math for math and he has calculated that that is 128 lessons in each course for a total of 384 lessons! That is a lot of bible lessons!!!
- Genesis to Joshua
- Judges to Kings
- The Gospels
- Chronicles to Malachi and Job
- Acts to Revelation
Each course covers 32 Bible events with four lessons for each event. I had my 12 year old son do the math for math and he has calculated that that is 128 lessons in each course for a total of 384 lessons! That is a lot of bible lessons!!!
Each course includes the following:
Each lesson starts with a short video with real actors that go over the main parts of that days lesson. Interspersed between every five or so minutes of these videos are quizzes, activities, games, and review.
- Music to memorize the chronology of bible/historical events
- Memory tools for names, dates and places
- Foundational concepts for future in-depth study
- Exploration activities in art, music, and geography
- 32 major biblical events
- Activities, Projects, Work sheets and Tests
Each lesson starts with a short video with real actors that go over the main parts of that days lesson. Interspersed between every five or so minutes of these videos are quizzes, activities, games, and review.
How did we use VeritasBible.com?
I set up an account for each of my kids and my sorta-nephew (who is staying the summer with us) ages 6yrs-12yrs and they all started in the Genesis to Joshua program per the suggestion of the program itself.
While VeritasBible.com is geared for grades 2nd-6th I would say it was most perfectly matched for the 4th-5th grade kids. My non readers and young dyslexic spectrum kid had a really hard time doing the program on their own. We quickly realized that they would need a buddy to sit and do it with them. This made it more "hit and miss" with my 6yr-9yr old. The three other kids though could handle it just fine! Those three have been doing it 4ish days a week on their own.
While VeritasBible.com is geared for grades 2nd-6th I would say it was most perfectly matched for the 4th-5th grade kids. My non readers and young dyslexic spectrum kid had a really hard time doing the program on their own. We quickly realized that they would need a buddy to sit and do it with them. This made it more "hit and miss" with my 6yr-9yr old. The three other kids though could handle it just fine! Those three have been doing it 4ish days a week on their own.
What do we think of VeritasBible.com?
My Opinion first =)
I thought it was very well put together. The videos were high quality; both in acting and animation. The additional activities were engaging and not overwhelming. The content was sound and theology was on target. I really loved that they could do it on their own! I also loved that they were encouraged to take out their bibles and look things up and it inspired many wonderful discussions! Another great thing is that it remembers where each child left off as they all have their own accounts.
The only down falls I have are these: The program does not work on tablets... at least not on my samsung ones. We could get it to load initially but nothing beyond that. It would just scroll and scroll. It would have been sooooo nice if it had worked on them so that it would extend the computer use better. Another thing that was annoying was that the kids had to get everything in the questions correct to move on (no biggie) but the program would re-set the questions but something in the formatting was wrong and it wouldn't let you interact with it. So we would have to "refresh the page" every time, wait for it to load and then try the questions again.
The last thing that I didn't like was the way the two actors portraying a brother and sister were scripted to treat each-other. In fact, this really bothered me. They were rude to each other, argued, self-seeking, lied, and had bad attitudes with each other. This was interspersed throughout the video so there were plenty of kind moments too. It was easy to tell that these things were put in there in order to create some "humor" but I just don't find those things humorous.
My kids are not allowed to treat each other like that and when things do come up they are corrected. I didn't like that it was being modeled as "funny and normal". I thought maybe I was being too sensitive about it but my kids noticed too. On more than one occasion they commented that the way the siblings were acting was "not nice", "wrong", "rude" just to name a few. I agreed that it was unfortunate that they were behaving so and I prolly made a comment on how their parents should have taught them better. In the end we acknowledge the sin and moved on.
Those few things though were minor and easily worked with (and may just be my tablets/my internet/my computers/my standards). All in all, it was a smooth, well done program and it allowed me to slip in more bible study in a fun and independent way for my middle kids. A10.11 and K12 especially loved it and would ask to do it ALL THE TIME!!!!
What the kids thought:
E6b: "It was too hard to do by myself. I didn't like the questions but I like the videos."
D7b: "I like doing it with a buddy. I like the videos and the songs but I do not like all the questions, sometimes they are hard."
J9b: "It was good but too hard to do on my own because it does not do all the talking for you and some of the words are really hard. I didn't like how the brother and sister acting either. It was just wrong. I did like that you traveled through the bible world doing the lessons."
A10.11b: "Veritas bible is great. I love it! It is really fun. The video are funny and do a good job on the bible lessons. The tests help a lot because it helps me memorize and solve different bible verses. It really is helping me learn where things are in the bible. My favorite thing is the "Parts of the Bible" song. I am not sure if that is it's name but it is a great song."
K12b: "I like it a lot. It is a good program for kids to learn about the bible. My favorite part is the song "Genesis to Joshua". I think it is helping me memorize more about the bible and I am remembering stuff better because the learning is fun."
Ch11g: "I thought it was pretty good for younger kids. I didn't really care for it because it was just very young. I don't mind doing it with one of the little boy's but for just doing it on my own it was very young in presentation and I have been doing much older bible studies. Also I really did not like the way the brother and sister treated each other. I think their interactions showed that brothers and sister can treat each other in a snarky way. I think it modeled bad character."
ONE MORE THING!!!
You can get a free two-week trial at VeritasBible.com! I think it is awesome that they offer this so you can get a real feel for if this is right for your family!
I thought it was very well put together. The videos were high quality; both in acting and animation. The additional activities were engaging and not overwhelming. The content was sound and theology was on target. I really loved that they could do it on their own! I also loved that they were encouraged to take out their bibles and look things up and it inspired many wonderful discussions! Another great thing is that it remembers where each child left off as they all have their own accounts.
 |
| K12 happily working through it. |
The last thing that I didn't like was the way the two actors portraying a brother and sister were scripted to treat each-other. In fact, this really bothered me. They were rude to each other, argued, self-seeking, lied, and had bad attitudes with each other. This was interspersed throughout the video so there were plenty of kind moments too. It was easy to tell that these things were put in there in order to create some "humor" but I just don't find those things humorous. My kids are not allowed to treat each other like that and when things do come up they are corrected. I didn't like that it was being modeled as "funny and normal". I thought maybe I was being too sensitive about it but my kids noticed too. On more than one occasion they commented that the way the siblings were acting was "not nice", "wrong", "rude" just to name a few. I agreed that it was unfortunate that they were behaving so and I prolly made a comment on how their parents should have taught them better. In the end we acknowledge the sin and moved on.
Those few things though were minor and easily worked with (and may just be my tablets/my internet/my computers/my standards). All in all, it was a smooth, well done program and it allowed me to slip in more bible study in a fun and independent way for my middle kids. A10.11 and K12 especially loved it and would ask to do it ALL THE TIME!!!!
What the kids thought:
 |
| F16 doing a lesson with E6 |
D7b: "I like doing it with a buddy. I like the videos and the songs but I do not like all the questions, sometimes they are hard."
J9b: "It was good but too hard to do on my own because it does not do all the talking for you and some of the words are really hard. I didn't like how the brother and sister acting either. It was just wrong. I did like that you traveled through the bible world doing the lessons."
A10.11b: "Veritas bible is great. I love it! It is really fun. The video are funny and do a good job on the bible lessons. The tests help a lot because it helps me memorize and solve different bible verses. It really is helping me learn where things are in the bible. My favorite thing is the "Parts of the Bible" song. I am not sure if that is it's name but it is a great song."K12b: "I like it a lot. It is a good program for kids to learn about the bible. My favorite part is the song "Genesis to Joshua". I think it is helping me memorize more about the bible and I am remembering stuff better because the learning is fun."
Ch11g: "I thought it was pretty good for younger kids. I didn't really care for it because it was just very young. I don't mind doing it with one of the little boy's but for just doing it on my own it was very young in presentation and I have been doing much older bible studies. Also I really did not like the way the brother and sister treated each other. I think their interactions showed that brothers and sister can treat each other in a snarky way. I think it modeled bad character."
ONE MORE THING!!!
You can get a free two-week trial at VeritasBible.com! I think it is awesome that they offer this so you can get a real feel for if this is right for your family!
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