Wise Up Wisdom In Proverbs {Review}
I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
I believe my most important responsibility as a Christian parent is to guide my children in a firm foundation of faith. I welcomed the opportunity to review Wise Up from Positive Action Bible Curriculum to use with my daughter.
The Wise Up curriculum is designed for 6th-8th grade students. There are 35 weekly lessons that can cover a full school year.
We received a student workbook and a teacher’s manual. The workbook is soft covered and includes lesson exercises, some engaging illustrations, and note-taking outlines. The teacher’s manual includes directions and suggestions for using the curriculum, teaching material for all 35 lessons, testing material, and answer keys for workbook assignments and quizzes. Both books are also available in download form.
About the curriculum:
Wise Up is an academic and devotional study to support middle school students. As kids grow and assume more responsibility they can face challenging decisions. The lessons encourage students to study the wisdom of proverbs and apply it to their own lives.
The teachers manual contains instructional material organized under headings:
- Target Truths – includes a short list of clear objectives for the lesson.
- Teaching Strategy – provides notes for the teacher with suggested lesson planning and activities.
- Additional Teaching Suggestions – contains ideas for extra activities or discussions to study deeper, or to encourage more student participation.
- Teacher’s Lesson – A lesson is provided in two formats allowing the teacher to choose how they prefer to provide instruction. A lecture can be read, or material can be taught by topic from bullet point notes.
Copies from the student workbook are provided with answers. Each lessons teaching material ends with a fill in the blank outline for review.
The suggested schedule for this study is to complete one lesson per week. The teacher’s manual includes plans for three, four, or five-day calendars. It is noted that the amount of content in the study could be challenging to cover in a shorter schedule.
How we used the study:
I was thrilled about the opportunity to work on this program with Johanna. She’s ready for the more mature biblical studies this curriculum offers.
The first lesson went quickly using the five-day suggested schedule. I followed the teaching suggestions, and Johanna worked through the workbook assignments independently.
As we began lesson two, Johanna quickly became overwhelmed with looking up scripture, evaluating the material to form her own conclusions, and documenting her answers. She is used to a lighter bible devotion during summer break, so we began working on the assignments together. We trade off looking up scripture and documenting an answer after we have discussed the assignment.
While studying the proverb comparisons of the wise and foolish, I was delighted to see a spark of understanding. Johanna noticed relatable biblical truth and considered how to apply it.
I had planned to follow the suggested five-day schedule, but Johanna is benefiting from taking two weeks to complete some lessons. I have easily adjusted the schedule to slow down when more discussion is needed, or to move quickly through assignments that are quickly understood.
I have been impressed with the depth of content the curriculum offers. It’s a wonderful study to transition middle school students into more challenging material while growing in knowledge and learning biblical application. I believe it would also benefit older students.
Visit the Homeschool Review Crew to see how others are using Wise Up and another bible curriculum from Positive Action Bible Curriculum.