Thursday, November 20, 2008

Old Testament Questions

Those cute little CCD fourth graders. They have so many questions. We are reading Marigold Hunt's wonderful A Life of our Lord for Children, though we are only plodding through the chapter entitled "Before the King Came." This chapter is a sort of Reader's Digest version of the OT, in the extreme. Just about every part of the story is left out, and those mentioned are very, very abbreviated. For the purposes of the class--not too much time, not too much previous knowledge--it's perfect. See, most of these students have never heard any of the OT, except a bit about Adam and Eve, a bit about Moses, and, if they are very well-informed, they have seen a DVD of Joseph. So a quick overview is just the thing. Sadly.

We are up to Moses now, and they are interested, and asking questions. "What were the plagues?" "What if an Egyptian had put blood on his door posts. Would he have been spared?" "Why didn't God just transport the Israelites out of Egypt?" And then there was my favorite: "Why didn't God intervene in the American Civil War?"

When we got to Passover, their faces all lit up in recognition right away...at least, they had heard of it. They didn't know the history at all.

60 minutes per week. Will we ever get out of the desert?

3 comments:

Janet Cupo said...

Hi MacBeth,

I was just thinking about you this morning and thought I would come say hello. I wish I was in charge of a conference, so I could pay for you to come speak at it.

AMDG,
Janet Cupo

MacBeth Derham said...

Oh, Janet, how are you? As soon as I saw your name in blue I was hoping it was that Janet! How are you and yours?

Janet Cupo said...

We are well. We had a wedding on October 23, my son, and are having another on April 18, my middle daughter. My youngest daughter (my youngest) turned 21 Friday, and is at TAC, so I feel quite deprived of children. Your blog makes me miss the old days. I DO have a PRE class to practice all I learned in my homeschooling career on.

AMDG,
Janet