How We Use Student of the Word Curriculum in our Homeschool

Sharing is caring, please pass this along!

UPDATE: It is with sadness that I discover that Student of the Word no longer exists.

I guess this post should have been posted long ago. There have been so many people writing and asking me about SOW or Student of The Word programme and how we use it in our homeschooling. I have hesitated in writing since I don’t want to duplicate what is already written on the SOW website.

An overview of the curriculum can be found under Attributes of SOW. Do read that.

I did write about it briefly in Doing Devotionals with the Children and Homeschool Planning. But I guess a more detailed post is required 🙂

What is Student of the Word (SOW)

It is, in a nutshell, a 6-year course of study which you repeat, making it a complete K-12 programme. All the usual subjects are covered, except Maths. It is tailored according to the American education system and therefore should not be used lock-stock-and-barrel to prepare for PSLE or O and A Levels. It is also not an accredited programme.

Why Repeat the Same Subjects?

Why would one want to repeat a 6-year course all over again, you may ask? Simple. What you take away when you are 7 years old is different when you are 13. Be it for Bible, History or Science. Also, the research one does with mom when one is 9 is different when one does it independently when one is 15.

Tying Bible with All Other Subjects

SOW tries to tie in the other subjects (History, Science, Creative Writing, etc) with the Bible reading for each week. Sometimes it coincides perfectly. For example, Genesis for Bible and Creation for Science. Sometimes it doesn’t but it really doesn’t matter.

In our first two years, I used it as it is. Following their scope and sequence and the books they recommend, except for Phonics since we had been successfully using the phonics programme from Christ-Centered Curriculum. But our family grew! 🙂 And it became very hard on me to pre-prepare the lessons required.

No Answer Key or Teacher’s Manual

Take note that the SOW curriculum does not provide any Answer Keys or Teacher’s Manual. With the Bible portion, this is great as it is then non-denominational. However, with the other subjects, it gets very challenging as you progress up the grades. This is especially so if you are not strong in that subject. It means you have to spend more time and do more work to find the answers.

Adapted for Our Family

Despite that, I still like the Student of the Word programme. So I adapted it to suit our family’s needs and the MOE requirements. This is what I did :

• do just the Bible portion (Outline, Topic, Character, Commentary).
• slow down the pace by reading 1 chapter per day instead of the portions prescribed.*
• threw out all the other subjects except Creative Writing and Literature. When Baby #7 came along, we used only the Bible portion.

Student of the Word Just for The Word

So, although the Student of the Word programme is a K-12 programme, we have used it ONLY for the Bible portion. I absolutely love it! I do not regret buying the whole curriculum to end up using only the Bible portion. It is the best bible curriculum we have used thus far.

Why? For one, it goes through the entire Bible chronologically. Each week, one reads a scheduled portion* of the Bible (Eg Genesis Ch 1 – 4). After reading that portion (or chapter in our case), you would be required to do the following :

a) Outline (Mondays)

Each week’s reading asks that you give an OUTLINE of the reading in 4 main points. You summarise the chapters read into just 4 main points.

b) Topic (Tuesdays)

A TOPIC of the week based on that week’s reading is given. You are to give a definition of the topic chosen (eg. jealousy, temptation, etc) and write 4 main points about it. You are to also provide a Scripture Verse that refers to the topic.

c) Character (Wednesdays)

One CHARACTER from the week’s reading is chosen and you are to decide if this character is godly or not and to explain the basis of your decision. You would also have to list out the facts pertaining to the character. A Scripture Verse that relates to the character is chosen.

d) Setting (Thursdays)

There is also a SETTING worksheet that you can do but which I skip since I am not great with Geography and am not focusing on that for the moment. It outlines the location that the week’s reading is set in.

e) Commentary (Fridays)

The COMMENTARY gives an overview of the entire week’s lesson. You summarise what you have learnt about God, Man, satan and the main lesson gleaned from the study. Students are required to give a Scripture Verse that summarises the lesson learnt.

* I found their prescribed portions too large (eg Book of Proverbs in one day!) and so reduced it to 1 chapter per day. I prefer the slow and steady method!

** Younger children are only required to draw out the lessons they have learnt. I transitioned them out of this stage by making them copy one to two sentence summaries. The next stage has them writing what I dictate. That gives them handwriting practice too!

Learning to Read God’s Word

The SOW programme teaches one how to study the Bible at the most basic level (which few people know how to!). It also forces one to think through what one has read. If you do this diligently, week-after-week, you will definitely learn a lot about God and His people. For the parts that you are unsure about or are totally lost, you are encouraged to seek out commentaries that shed light on it. Better still if your child can do the research for himself.

Isn’t it great? You, the teacher learn alongside your child and the result is that both are gleaning from God’s Word, which we know never returns to Him “void, But it shall accomplish what He pleases”. Isaiah 55:11

Prayer Letters

This has been a much raved about part of SOW. It teaches one how to pray according to the acronym PRAY :

• P – petition
• R – repentance
• A – ask
• Y – yield
• S – supplication

However, I found that our children began to pray in a rote-like manner 🙁 So I have stopped that. But others have had better success with it. So it depends on your child/ren.

Morning and Evening Devotions

SOW also mentions doing both morning and evening devotions as a family. If it makes you feel any better, we don’t. 🙂 But I do a short devotional with the children after lunch, before we end the day’s school. When SOW focuses on the Old Testament, we will do our devotionals based on the books of the New Testament. Then we swop over.

Housekeeping Details

SOW requires that you must start at Year 1, regardless of the age of your child. You need to start with it because it lays the foundation for you and the child. Year 1 does not mean Grade 1.

The Year 1 package (Teacher and Resource Editions) comes with a CD and a pre-printed set of worksheets. This allows you the option of printing out as many copies as you wish off your computer or to photocopy as many copies as you wish, whichever is more cost efficient for your family.

In order to keep things organised for me, I created a SOW Booklet for each child. This way, papers are no longer flying around or getting lost. Previously each child would hand me his/her piece of worksheet to grade and then it would invariably get lost instead of getting filed!

When Can We Start?

Although the curriculum states that it can be used from Kindergarten level (6 years old), I strongly suggest that you wait till your child is older. Unless you are very sure of his maturity, reading and comprehension ability.

Otherwise, you’ll be doing a lot of summarising and many things will go over his head. That can be rather off-putting for mom and child. Mom has to keep simplifying and summarising and the child may still not understand.

Few Words of Caution

Do not expect to know how to use SOW immediately. It is unlike most curriculum out in the market. And once you received your package, do not give up because it seems too confusing. Keep on reading and do the first few lessons yourself. Once you do that, things will start falling into place.

If your child has been using another curriculum before, expect some resistance in the beginning. He will have to get used to a lot more thinking for his answers than he was used to! 🙂

As I have mentioned before above and under Homeschool Planning, I do not recommend using this solely to prepare your child for our Singapore school system unless he is not required to sit for PSLE. You would need to supplement with local textbooks and assessment books to keep up-to-date with the local exam requirements.

Sharing is caring, please pass this along!