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This is the first year we’ve incorporated a Bible “curriculum” into our school day. And when I say “curriculum” I really mean we try to schedule regular readings from our age appropriate Bible and a few age appropriate devotionals every day. But, if we’re being honest, one of the reasons I haven’t incorporated much Bible “curriculum” until this year is because I wasn’t sure how to break up the chunks of information. I mean, it’s the Bible for crying out loud. It’s a huge chunk of material! We needed a bible study for children that would break it down. So, when the Review Crew had a chance to take a closer look at Wizzy Gizmo I jumped at the chance to try out the Fast Track Bible Pack: New Testament cards to see if they would help with organizing and teaching the information.
For this review I was sent the Fast Track Bible Pack: New Testament 27 card set.
How does Wizzy Gizmo teach the New Testament?
Wizzy Gizmo’s Fast Track Bible Pack: New Testament cards are intended for ages 2 and up. The cards are meant to teach children the Bible in a way they can remember. The set includes 27 5×9 cards with information on the front and back about each book of the New Testament. The front contains a brief summary of the book, it’s author, the number of chapters, when it was written, and the main theme. The back of the card goes into more detail including an outline of the book, key chapters, key passages, key doctrines, and key people. To use the cards, they suggest starting slowly for the younger ages, reading only the from the information on the front of the card and progressing to harder memorization of the information on the front and back of the card for the older 12 and up child.
Our experience with the Fast Track Bible Pack: New Testament
I used the cards with the kids, and for myself. I really love them for myself, but I have to admit, they weren’t the perfect fit for my little kids.
We started our review of the cards by reading from the front of each card during our morning Bible time. I would simply read the summary and chat with the boys about the author a bit before moving on to our other Bible information in our morning routine basket. I had hoped the cards would give my second grader a chance to dig a bit deeper into studying the Bible. However, we haven’t “formally” studied much of the Bible beyond reading the popular Old Testament and holiday stories set in children’s book form. And after further use of the cards I started to realize that they were a little too advanced for where we are in our introduction of Bible-related materials. And, while I loved them in theory, in practice they didn’t work out quite like I had hoped. The wording, while meant for the young reader, was still a bit too advanced for my second grader’s interest. He simply needs a “younger” delivery than the cards provided. Don’t get me wrong. The cards are written in clear, understandable language and I absolutely think they could work for the school age child or the child who has already been immersed in Bible material. But, they simply did not catch the attention of my children by just reading the information as provided.
That being said, I LOVE these cards.
“But you just said….”
I know, I know.
When we sat down to review these cards I tried them out like the company suggested for our age range. We started slow and easy, reading the summary and theme of the same card (front) and reading a key verse or doctrine from the same card (back) every day for a week. We tried memorizing the author, date of writing and number of chapters (front) every day in the same week. But the boys were bored with my delivery. It could have been that our experience with the New Testament is lacking outside of our knowledge of Jesus and that the characters and books were too unfamiliar for us to start with a “study guide” type product. Whatever the case, I decided that we will continue to use the cards but as a resource for myself. The cards are a wonderful study guide tool. And I love the design and layout of the information. Personally, I have learned quite a few things from the cards since we started using them. So, I decided that I will first use the cards as a layout for outlining our current Bible lessons. Before receiving the cards we were studying people and stories from the Old Testament. I would LOVE to see Wizzy Gizmo come out with cards for the Old Testament as well. But until they do, I will use them as an outline for mapping information from our Old Testament stories. For example, after reading the popular story like Noah’s ark, I’ll explain that the story comes from a book in the bible called Genesis, who the author/authors might have been, some of the key people, how many chapters, and when it might have been written. I feel like doing this after reading an easy-to-deliver children’s version of the story might prime them to be ready to use the cards once we reach our New Testament lessons.
The simplicity of the cards is wonderful. But we need more exposure to the characters and the stories before the boys are able to effectively utilize such a product. I think the cards would be wonderful for the Bible school student or for Bible competitions in children’s church or for the child whose heard the story enough times and desires more. I’m definitely keeping them close by in my teacher’s materials for my own reference. And I think we will definitely use them in the future as we explore the Bible further and move into the New Testament.
Purchasing information
Fast Track Bible Pack: New Testament $14.99
I would encourage you to head over and check out the reviews of this product from the other members of the crew. 90 other bloggers reviewed this product including the other products provided by Wizzy Gizmo. If you’re looking for products to add to your study of the Bible click the banner below.
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