Enliven Your Bible Time!

So, how is "Bible Time" going in your homeschool?

In our homeschool we have certain times when try to work in Hymn Study, Bible reading and Bible memory.  Right now we are focusing a larger amount of that time on Bible memory, because JD is active in our church's Awana program. Sometimes we spend more time on daily readings. Sometimes we get excited about hymns, and do a lot of songs.

Does your Bible reading time ever get ...dull? Or do your kids find it dull?

This month I had the opportunity to review a CD from the company The World’s Greatest Stories.
Narrated by George W. Sarris, these CDs are award winning narrations of stories from God's word, word for word, available in both New International Version and King James Version.

Actually, I received two CDs: the first was a sampler, and the second was Volume 1, The Prophets, which contains the stories of The Blazing Furnace, The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, Elijah and the Prophets of Baal and The Prophecy of Jonah. The sampler has little snippets of stories from Creation though major and minor prophets, Gabriel visiting Mary, through time after Jesus' death. The snippets on the sampler go fast, telling none of the stories completely, but giving a very good flavor of the excitement the narrations inject into the stories. I really like them.

George W. Sarris  had a desire to increase Biblical literacy in children, so he followed God's leading to create this company and these CDs to dramatize the stories in God's word in a way that was true, word for word, to the Bible, yet "flavored" with enhancing sound effects and told with dramatic flair. They are available in both NIV and King James. I like both Bible versions, but I chose to receive NIV in the hopes that my son would get more out of it that way. Each CD is about an hour, but since each CD contains many stories, maybe about ten minutes each, it is an ideal thing to have in the car to listen to while you are driving to church, the library, wherever you go.

These narrations are intended for children approximately ages 4 and up, and how they are received will vary with the child. My son is 12, and he did not like the CD. Now, I need to preface this with the statement that my son seems to be going through a stage where he can be quite contrary or resistant to new things. (Or this may be his personality.) I know of previous "new" things that I introduced to him that he initially hated that he now loves (for instance, the audio series of Cinnamon Bear at Christmas). And I find The World’s Greatest Stories to be very similar to other dramatized Bible stories that he does love, so I don't think I find any fault with the stories, but think rather that my son is just being contrary and resistant. It doesn't help, in my opinion, that my son already has a strong foundation in the Bible. I mean, if these stories were new to him he might have reacted differently, but he already has had broad Biblical exposure, and I think he just saw this as something I was "forcing" him to listen to when he had an audio book he preferred to be listening to. He also seems to have auditory issues, sometimes. The very things about these CDs that appeal to me and others may be the very things that are causing him to dislike them: the background music and sound effects, the sound variations and voice changes to dramatize the stories. ::sigh::

The World's Greatest Stories can be purchased as cassette tapes or CDs, and sell for $7.95 each.  The volume I received,  The Prophets Volume 1, contained the stories of The Blazing Furnace, The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Elijah & the Prophets of Baal, and The Prophecy of Jonah. The other available CDs are:
The Blazing Furnace; 
The Handwriting on the Wall; 
Daniel in the Lion's Den; 
Elijah and the Prophets of Baal;
The Prophecy of Jonah; and
the newest volume, Defeating Giants
(in both NIV and KJV, as previously states).
If you purchase six volumes or more volumes, the shipping is free!

Here is an audio sample for you to hear the quality of these products: 
The Blazing Furnace audio

In addition, this effort is ongoing, so you can expect additional volumes to be available in the future. Creating each volume is a huge effort, because they are accomplished through George W. Sarris completely memorizing and dramatizing the complete Bible sections in both Bible versions! It's amazing!

In addition to the CDs and Tapes that are available, George W. Sarris also performs live at various times and various locations throughout the United States throughout the year.  This is a delightful way to interest your children in the Bible. The entire family can listen to enjoy to stories, and the kids can listen to them again and again and again. And the entire time you can know that there are no errors; God's word is being hidden in their hearts correctly, word for word. Wonderful!

So visit their site. Listen to their sample clips. Consider investing in these CDs for yourself, or to give as a gift to some young family you wish to bless!


Disclosure: I received a free  The World’s Greatest Stories CD of  The Prophets Volume 1 in exchange for my honest opinion and review. I received no other compensation (other than the aforementioned), and this page contains my honest opinions.

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Review.

TOG Crew Review page for this product.Throw me a bone! Leave me a comment! I love comments!