From Tracie: Wanderin' In the Desert

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Wanderin' In the Desert

A few months ago I was given the opportunity to watch and review the first two dvds in the new What's In the Bible series by Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer. I loved it! So, when I got an email from Tyndale asking me if I would be interested in watching a copy of the newest dvd, Wanderin' in the Desert, to see if it would be something I would use as homeschooling material, I was excited. I had already used the first two as teaching tools and was hoping that this one would be as good. I'm happy to say that I wasn't disappointed.

Wanderin' in the Desert covers Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  That means that the first three dvds in the series gives an overview of the Pentateuch. (and yes, they use the word Pentateuch in the movie) 

All of the characters from the first two episodes are back, as well as a new character, Marcy. Marcy is the stage manager for the show and definitely Katarina's new favorite.  She even drew a picture of Marcy for y'all so that you could "see just how cool she is".

The series continues to impress me by not dumbing down the information because it is intended for children. I loved that they didn't just cover the ten commandments and ignore all the rest. Instead they gave a wonderful explanation of ethical versus ritual laws.

They also gave a wonderful explanation of holiness that Katarina enjoyed, it involves a pirate and some mashed potatoes. Fun, but also effective.

I will definitely be using this as part of our homeschool curriculum. It is wonderful that they take the "hard" words from the Bible and make them understandable. We will be using them in every day conversations (this is easier with some words than it is with others) and writing them in stories. Hearing, speaking and writing words are all essential to really learning them and their meaning.

I'm sure we will also be acting out many parts of this story with our own puppets and dolls and drawings, like we did with the first two.

One video can't possibly tell every story from these three books of the Bible, but they do fit in a lot of them and it makes you want to read to find out more information. We will be using this video as a good place to start looking up the verses and stories that they talked about as well as the ones that they couldn't cover completely. Katarina already has a list of stories, verses, and laws that she wants us to look up and learn more about. These fun videos translate into real Bible reading and study which is great.

We sat as a family and watched it, and even my husband enjoyed it, the only thing he wanted to see changed was more scatting from Brother Louie. The scatting was his favorite. I'm happy to say that the third video in this series is just as good as the first two and I would recommend it to anyone with kids who wants them to really learn about the Bible, and to learn to think about what the Bible says for themselves.

I received a free copy of this What's in the Bible dvd from Tyndale for review purposes. I was not paid, and I was not required to say nice things about it.

1 comment:

  1. We have the first video in the series and we LOVE it!!! Kegan knows all the songs and sings everywhere we go, "Do you know what's in the Bi-a-ble, is it true, is it reliable?" I can't wait to see the next two DVDs!

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