I love bible studies. I love the opportunity to dig deeper into the hidden treasure of the Father's love letter to us, His children. It is a highlight of our homeschool journey to share and discover truths from God's word together with the kids. Unfortunately, sometimes the family bible time gets pushed to the wayside in the summer, and this past school year, Connor was working through a separate Bible curriculum than the rest of us and often missed the time I spent with the younger ones studying the Bible. It seems that this review came at just the right time, giving the kids and me a chance to study the Word together using Prasso Ministries' two separate books, Teen Prasso Student Journal and Teen Prasso Teacher's Manual. The bible study is broken down into 13 lessons for a 12 week duration (the first week is an introduction).
The Teacher's Manual (the cover says Teaching Lessons) is set up to teach in a group setting, not for a typical family study or individual study. Each lesson is broken down into segments made up of a story and a message. The manual suggests you read the story in 3 parts interspersed with the message. I can see how this would be a good breakdown in a group setting. The story follows two brothers, Derek and Brandon, who take a long-dreamed-of mountain trek together. Their adventure is full of twists and turns and very engaging for teenage boys. Their journey is spread through the study, so you are basically reading a chapter with your group each week. The chapters have a key topic with a coinciding key verse, and are as follows:
- The Right Beginning - Proverbs 4:25-2
- The Map - Psalm 119:105
- The Bridge - 1 John 4:9-10
- The Storms - Romans 8:28
- The Enemy - 1 Peter 5:8
- Testimony - no story, guest speaker
- The Two Opposing Fears - Proverbs 29:25, Proverbs 14:27
- Anger - James 1:19-20
- Forgiveness - Colossians 3:13
- Pride - Philippians 2:3
- Refocus - Romans 12:2
- Prasso - Philippians 4:9
- Eternal Eyeglasses - 2 Timothy 4:7-8
The Homework Manual (the cover says Student Journal) is divided into the following 12 lessons:
- God Your Heavenly Father
- God’s Love
- Why Doesn’t 1 + 2 Add up in My Life?
- It’s All-Out War
- The Enemy’s Lies…and Where They Lead
- Pressure!
- Anger
- Forgiveness
- Two Brothers – Pride and Selfishness
- Refocus
- Prasso, putting it all into practice
- The Journey
There is a lesson for 6 days of every week. The first 5 days are reading scripture, writing scripture, and some critical thinking questions. Day 6 gives the student space to write what they learned or liked best from each day's lesson and then a set of questions to have completed for group discussion. Day 7 would be the day you would meet with your group or family.
Connor reviewed the first 3 weeks' lessons. While he enjoyed the introductions and topics of discussion, he found all the writing of scripture difficult. He liked the scripture, but felt there was a lot of reading for each day. The website said the lessons would take about 20 minutes a day, but he found them taking nearly an hour (again, that may have been due to the amount of writing, which isn't his strong point). So by the second week, he would spread the work of each lesson between two days, which he found much more manageable.
Chloe reviewed week 5: The Enemy's Lies and Where They Lead. She found the introductory theme very engaging - in fact, it has been a topic of interest to her for about a year. (The intro talked about Nazi Germany and codebreaking). She also remarked that there was a lot of writing. However, unlike her brother, she loves to look up scripture and copy it, so it didn't bother her at all. She actually prefers bible studies that have her copy scripture and memorize it because she said it helps her keep it in mind longer instead of just moving forward.
Overall, both the kids enjoyed the content of the study. I am looking forward to continue the lessons as a family, and the kids both said they will continue using the study.
You can follow Prasso ministries on their Facebook page.
Many other TOS Review Crew families got to work in Prasso. See what they liked about it here:
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