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Do you see the importance of teaching your kids to discern and understand different worldviews
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such as postmodernism, scientific naturalism, or secularism? Better yet, do you want them to know exactly what a biblical worldview is and what Christianity is
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Do you want to help them be able to articulate what they believe and why they believe it
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If so, the BJU Press basics of a biblical worldview course might be perfect for your middle school-aged homeschool kids
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In this video, I'll be giving you a look at the curriculum and talking about why it can make a tremendous impact on your homeschooling
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journey. So let's get started. Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. If you're new here
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I'm Sarah. I have four kids from ages four to 12 and we're in our seventh year of homeschooling
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I love sharing what I've learned along the way, both here and on my blog, blessed homeschool.com
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Today I'm excited to talk with you about an essential aspect of homeschooling for Christian parents
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biblical worldview education. Now, you might wonder why teaching a biblical worldview is so important
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Well, as Christian homeschooling parents, we have the unique opportunity to help our kids
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not just with their academic knowledge, but also their values, beliefs, and understanding
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of the world. Everyone has a worldview. This was the term I didn't learn
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They do not until my second year at the Teach Them Diligently Homestchool Convention just
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a few years ago. Ken Ham was the keynote speaker that year at the homeschool convention
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and his talk was all about how the arguments we face today are not about the issues at all
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Rather, they're about where our worldviews stem from. And a big point that he made was that
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we need to be able to articulate where our worldview foundation comes from to think
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foundationally and to be firm in our foundation. So why do we believe what we do about certain
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issues? Through what lens are we seeing the world? That was the year for me to really start
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thinking more about worldview issues, what they are and how it would impact me when I teach
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and train my kids. So what is a worldview? A worldview is a person's set of basic beliefs
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Their big story picture, their narrative about the world, where we came from, why we're here
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what happened, and where we're going. Our worldviews impact our actions and shape our culture
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Here is a sobering fact that I read, and this was a study done by the Barner Research Group
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released in 2020 and it found that a person's worldview is often set by the time they're 13 years old
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13 years old so it's absolutely important that we're talking with our kids about worldview issues
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research from barnah also showed that even though so many people own bibles and even know what's in the
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bible most of them don't know how to take important biblical principles and use them to respond to
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real life situations and challenges there are many worldviews that conflict with the biblical
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worldview today. And there's so many voices, so much information that our kids encounter on a daily
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basis, often without context or a clear source. And it's important for them to know that these
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voices or this information is not neutral and for our discipleship of our kids to include a strong
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foundation and what Christianity is and why its big story is comprehensive and true. Biblical
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integration in the curriculum we choose is important. And it helps us equip our kids to navigate
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through a world that often promotes conflicting ideas and values. It helps them develop critical thinking
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skills, enabling them to discern right from wrong based on timeless biblical truths
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Okay, so what is a biblical worldview? This could also be called a Christian worldview, but it's
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basically a worldview based on the Bible. It's believing that absolute moral truth exists and that
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this truth is clearly defined in God's word, the Bible. The Bible is our standard of absolute truth that we can know. It's the unchanging word of God who created
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everything, has power over everything, and knows everything. Having a biblical worldview involves
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interpreting and understanding every aspect of reality, including history, morality, purpose, human
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nature, the natural world, all of that through the lens of biblical principles and truths
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The Bible is the foundation for all life, not just our life on Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings
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So if you have a biblical worldview and want to not only impart knowledge about the Bible to your kids
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but also nurture their spiritual growth and help them develop strong biblical worldview
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the Bible should be the foundation for your learning. Through our teaching, we want to help our kids
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interpret and respond to situations in their lives in ways that are consistent with what the Bible teaches There are many great resources and curricula that will help you with this in your homeschool And one of these publishers is BJU Press Every textbook that BJU Press puts out
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you can trust that it has been built with a foundational, biblical worldview, and that the Bible
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is not an afterthought to their lessons. It's integrated throughout. Whether it's math, science
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or even handwriting, BJU Press resources will help you teach your kids what God says about the subject
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and how those truths can be applied to their lives. So a few months ago, I went to a conference
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at the BJ Press facility, which was really cool since we've used their curriculum
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for a few years. I got to tour the warehouse and the area where they film all of their online classes
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and kind of get a behind the scenes glance. You can actually schedule tours to do this
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So if you use the curriculum and get a chance, you might look into it. It was a lot of fun
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So anyway, my husband and I have been taking some worldview classes at our church, and I had been interested in this topic
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for a while now. And while I was on the BJU press tour, I saw this book and I knew that I wanted
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to use it in our homeschool this year. This course has been designed to give kids scripture
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knowledge and teach them all the biblical principles and foundations that lead to a biblical
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worldview. Plus, equip them with the practical ways to live that out. So this curriculum is geared
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for sixth grade. My son is a sixth grader this year and my daughters are in fifth grade
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and I decided that we would work through it together. Now, if you're familiar at all with BJU Press
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materials, you'll see that this teacher manual is very similar. It's written so that it can be used in a
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classroom setting, but it's very adaptable for homeschooling. And with it being for the sixth grade level
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I would definitely say that that's about right. It really is best for kids around middle school age
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so about 11 to 14, simply because of the complexity of some of the topics and some of the
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critical thinking that is required. My girls do fifth grade work in most of the subjects
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They're young fifth graders and actually two years younger than my son
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And even though we're going through this together, my girls tend to need a bit more help thinking through and understanding some of the material that's in here
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That being said, it's still been very valuable for us. One other thing that I'll say is that it is a full year curriculum, but we are most likely
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going to stretch it out over about two years. Mainly because of our schedule, this is not the only Bible curriculum that we are doing
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We also participate in a local Bible study fellowship group, and we just
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run out of time some days and I don't want to rush this so we're taking our time
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and mainly using this book and this curriculum as a means of discussion
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through the concepts and the lessons okay so let me show you exactly what's
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covered in this course and I think you'll see why it's one that you'll want to
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add to your lineup for your homeschool okay so let me show you what you get with this curriculum when you purchase it you do get a textbook
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for your students. So student textbook. And then there is an activities book that you would want to get for each student
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And then it also comes with a teacher manual and answer key for the student activity book. And then you also get some assessments, which I keep in this binder here
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So assessments that you can photocopy if you need to and then also an answer
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are key. Okay, so let's go ahead and walk through this teacher edition so you can see exactly
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what is included and how the lessons are kind of laid out. So first thing I want to do is actually
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go through each unit with you and talk about what your kids are going to be learning and what you
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can expect from them. So unit one. Okay, what is a worldview? This unit is really meant to equip
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kids to understand what a worldview is and to be able to identify different worldviews
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And then we move into Unit 2, How Should the Bible Shape My World View
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So this unit will teach students the Bible's big picture, the story of God's plan to redeem
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his fallen creation for his glory. In this unit, kids are going to learn to see their place
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in this big story. Then we move to Unit 3, Who is God and Why Should I Care? In this unit, kids are
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going to learn, who got it? That he is the foundation for a biblical worldview and that knowing
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him really transforms how we live. Unit 4, Who am I? In this unit, kids are going to basically
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be shown their identity as it described in the Bible right Important concept these days but also we going to see how fallen people can be redeemed That we were created in the image of God but we are fallen yet we can find
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victory in Jesus. So that is unit four. Unit five, how should I spend my time? In this unit
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students are going to learn how to wisely use the time that God has trusted them with, how they can
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cultivate their culture by the work that they do that is loving and that honors the Lord
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Okay. There are eight units total. So on unit six, how should I relate to others
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This unit is going to teach kids all about biblical roles and they will see how both
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blessings and brokenness result from either fulfilling God's plan or neglecting it
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They will also learn about the grace that gives hope when there are relationships in their lives that need work
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Unit 7. How should I fit into society? This unit is about helping kids learn about the roles that God gave them to play in the church, their community, and with government
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And then finally, Unit 8. How do I relate to people with other worldviews
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This unit, this culminating unit, is going to take what kids have learned from the course
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and help them learn how to interact with other worldviews. Okay, it will confront and guide responses to Islam, Buddhism
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unbelief, secularism. And it also ends with an application, a worldview quest
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that will encourage action. And there are a couple of worldview quests throughout this curriculum
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They're just, you know, projects and things that the kids are going to do to really apply what they're learning
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This one looks like a really fun activity. It's actually a video presentation that I'm excited to get to when we get there
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So the content that is in these units, just as I flip through and kind of look ahead, it is really rich
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And the more that I read and flip through, the more excited I am to continue to have discussions with my kids and teach them about these concepts
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Okay, so next step, I want to talk a little bit about some
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of the things that you'll see in the student textbook, which again, if you're familiar with BJU press
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materials, the teacher manual really has the student textbook on the inside and then some different
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teacher notes around the edges. So we'll talk about all that in a second, but I do want to talk
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about the different components of the student textbook. Okay, so let me actually grab a textbook
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so you can see some of these things. All right. So one of the things. the features that you'll see, we'll open up to the same page, is in each section they have
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scripture memory. So there's going to be a verse that you can focus on if you'd like to
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that is related to, you know, each section that you're in. And the verses really kind of
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help the kids understand the biblical perspective on the issues that you are covering. So you can
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choose to memorize them with your kids. If not, they're great to simply read so that
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they can understand how that scripture is going to apply to what they are learning. Each page is
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really colorful, really engaging. They have a lot of great infographics in here that really
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helps students to kind of evaluate and understand and think through what they are learning. So really
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interesting graphics and things on the pages of the student textbook. There are multiple case studies
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that are in the textbook. These case studies really show different current or historical examples
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that illustrate ways of thinking about the world that relate to whatever you're talking about
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in that section. These are going to help kids evaluate other worldviews and just learn how to
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respond to those situations in their own lives. And then they're also thinking through questions
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that are great discussion-based questions that you can use to talk with your kids
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and make sure that they're really understanding the objectives for that section
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Okay, I mentioned the worldview quests. Let me show you an example of one of those
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All right, so the worldview quest, it says here, they're projects that require kids to do research or produce content or products for presentation
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So I think there are four of them throughout the curriculum and helps kids to work through issues on their own from a biblical perspective and share their conclusions with others So that an example of one of the World Week quests At the end of every unit there are unit reviews
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Okay, so these are going to have some questions that you can go through with your kids to assess
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their critical thinking, but also if they can recall the information from that particular unit
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And it just really helps the kids themselves check their understanding. If you are going to utilize the assessments, it will help them prepare for the assessments as well
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And also check their application of biblical worldview in their own lives
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Okay, so let's go over what you will see in the activity manual
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And I'll use my, this is the answer key. As they're working through the activities in each section, they have some different Bible studies
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where the kids are going to have Bible passages to read and then questions to answer
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and these will help to help them understand the topics that you're discussing in the units in this course
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This will also really help them make applications and solidify what they are learning
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So a few Bible studies are included in the activity manual. A lot of great activities in this manual that your kids can work through on their own
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or you can do them together and discuss them together as a family
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So really engaging a lot of relevant information. that we have not found it to be boring, but very, very applicable
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So that is what's included in the activity guide. And then finally, looking through the teacher edition
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First, I want to kind of talk about the teaching cycle and how they have this laid out here
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So the first thing, when you go through your lessons, you'll see an engaged section
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So this is really a part that you're going to use to kind of. capture the attention of your kids. You're going to activate any prior knowledge, motivate them to
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learn the new content. Okay, so the side parts are basically your teacher notes. So you're going to
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start with Engage. And then, so there's a little bit more on this side, you'll also see the
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essential question for the section, any objectives, the scripture memory, and then the activity
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pages that you're going to be doing. All right. So we've got Engage. Then we have Instruct. Okay
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And this is where you're going to have some guided questions to ask during the readings
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We usually read through the sections together. And then we will talk about any questions that they have listed
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One of the other things that you will see is they will mention a worldview journal
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And this is just noting, you know, they have writing prompts basically that are going to engage your kids to apply what they're learning to their daily lives
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So you can either, you can get a journal if you want to. to, you can just use lined paper
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Some days, you know, we talk through this instead of writing it down. So again, really flexible in how you want to include this in your homeschool
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But, so that is basically what is included in the teacher guide and the student guides
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This curriculum is really engaging and interesting. It's designed to really help kids think deeply about many of the issues that they will face at this age
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It is, like I said, eight units, which comes out to be roughly one month per unit and they do lay it out as a full year's course. So
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180 days total to the end of this course from start to finish. So again, being homeschoolers
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you guys can use it as flexibly as you want to. But I hope this gives you a good idea of
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exactly what it covers and what's inside and helps you see if this would be a good fit for your
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homeschool. This curriculum is engaging, interesting, and it's designed to really help kids think
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deeply about many of the issues that they will face during their middle school years and beyond
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And even though it's been challenging for my kids who are on the younger age range, it's prompted
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some great discussions and introspection. Some of the issues discussed in the book, my kids have
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not personally experienced yet, so it's honestly been a great way to open the door to conversations
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about what they will experience whenever they do. I highly recommend this curriculum
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and really any of BJU presses resources if you're looking for tools to help you build that solid
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biblical worldview foundation in your homeschool. Thank you so much for watching this video. Again
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if you're new here, I'd love to have you stick around. So hit that subscribe button, hit that like button so you don't miss out on future content. We'll see you next time
