We had SO much fun studying Leviticus! Please see the conclusion of the post to check out Leviticus: A Commentary for Children and the other resources from which these GREAT ideas came!
Introduction
We talked many times through our Exodus study about the tabernacle, high priest, sacrifices, and feasts in the old covenant being like scaffolding, used to construct the building but no longer needed when the building is complete. Leviticus is full of scaffolding. We began our study with an overview of the book. We made an outline showing all the things we would be learning… laws on sacrifices, priesthood, uncleanness, feasts, etc… things that are just a picture of something much greater. Then we made shadows. It was a great way to get the children interested and excited! Each child got a bag and filled it with objects to hold behind our “curtain” while everyone else guessed what the object might be.
“They serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” Hebrews 8:5
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near… We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:1 and 10.
When we looked at the curtain, we were not seeing the real toothbrush, but a picture or copy of the reality.
Sacrifices
We reviewed a previous study we completed on the different types of sacrifices and learned that God commanded sacrifice of 1,278 animals through regular offerings, not including special and individual offerings! Jesus was the Lamb that fulfilled and replaced the old covenant sacrifices.
Priesthood
As we learned about the consecration of Aaron and his sons, we compared it to an ordination. We actually talked about the crowning of the kids in Narnia and about special ceremonies. Leviticus: A Commentary for Children (see below) helped us to understand the process of the washing, dressing, anointing, sacrificing, sprinkling, eating, and waiting that Aaron and his sons were commanded to complete. Then we were able to see how we have been made priests and set apart for service to God through washing, dressing, anointing, sacrificing, sprinkling, eating, and waiting! (It’s a great book!)
We thought it might be fun to put red stickers on our right ears, thumbs, and big toes to remind us of the blood sprinkled upon Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu.
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you probably know that our family loves singing Psalms! We sang Psalm 133 that speaks of anointing oil poured out on Aaron’s head.
We bought incense and burned it so the children might see what a “pleasing aroma” to the Lord might look like and to see what might be offered on the altar of incense.
We talked about the offering of Nadab and Abihu that displeased God. Not only did they attempt to improve upon God’s plan for worship, they also tried to change a detail in a picture that God painted perfectly to point to Christ. We lit sparklers and thought about the “consuming fire” of the Lord that burned Nadab and Abihu.
Uncleanness
As we talked the Levitical dietary laws, we were reminded that this “list” of unclean animals caused the Israelites to constantly put their thoughts on God and have faith that He would provide what they needed in the wilderness.
We took a field trip to the kosher section of a grocery store!
We made collages of clean and unclean food for our notebooks!
We also looked at pictures of people with leprosy and discussed the laws given in Leviticus regarding lepers.
Feasts
We tried to talk about all of the feasts, but we only did activities for some of them. We built our own booth for the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. It was just too hot here to enjoy it!
We also ate unleavened bread and made shofars using balloons and poster board. They really worked!
We had a lot of fun with a somewhat difficult book, and I am so thankful that we could take as much time as we needed studying it! Yay for homeschool! I am hoping to spend a little less time on Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua because during our nighttime family worship we just finished reading through Joshua. We’ve talked about it quite a bit as a family, and I’ll try to catch our homeschool study up to Judges so we can be in the same place! Whew!
Here are the wonderful resources we used for Leviticus:
Leviticus: A Commentary for Children by Nancy E. Ganz I loved this! It even includes Psalms to sing for each lesson and field trips and activities! Great book! I guess I’ll nestle our children’s commentaries right in with Dad’s Calvin’s on the shelf! Ha ha.
Celebrating Biblical Feasts: In Your Home or Church by Martha Zimmerman
Old Testament Days: An Activity Guide
Bible Road Trip ~ We’ve loved using these FREE, detailed Bible notebooking pages for each book of the Bible! Scroll down to print Leviticus pages. The site includes free Bible curriculum, too! Heading there for Numbers and Deuteronomy!
I finally updated our Bible activities page. You can click the picture to check it out.
Happy Bible Studying!
i have no greater joy 
Great ideas– as usual! Love how you come up with such fun things to teach parts of the Bible usually reserved for older kids (if they are taught to kids at all). Can’t wait to see what you come up with for Numbers 🙂
Thank you! We are enjoying your posts, but I usually hand them over to my husband to read and then explain to me!! Ha ha! 🙂 Happy summer to you!
I LOVE your blog! You are doing an amazing job at giving the Lord much glory through your Bible lessons. Thank you for the encouragement and ideas in our own homeschool! I began reading your blog in the beginning when I discovered we both used Veritas history and have similar aged children (8, 6 and my own “twinies” aged 3). I may have missed this as I’ve read your posts, but do you have a “spine” you are using for Bible to guide you in scheduling? I am hoping to implement a similar in-depth study (beginning in Genesis) this coming year with my children, but operate better when I have a game plan in the beginning. 🙂 Thanks!
How neat! Yes, our children are very close in age! And you have twins, too?! Wow! Nice to “meet” you! I am like you, I need a spine! In the beginning, I covered only the Biblical events covered in the VP History cards. Then, I eventually took it upon myself to dig in a little deeper any time I felt we needed. VP totally skipped Leviticus, and I understand, but I just decided to cover it since summer allows us a relaxed schedule and more time. I just found all of the VP Bible cards and — get this– cassette tapes (!!!) at a used curriculum sale, so I guess I will try to go thru that next school year. I loved being able to incorporate Bible and history for Ancient Egypt! I think Bible will now begin too move more slowly than history. Thanks so much for reading! Do you have a blog? Thank you, also, for the encouragement! Will you have a 3rd grader next year? 🙂
So much in common . . . what a gift to be able to connect with like-minded people. 🙂 Yes, I will have a third grader next year (daughter), a first grader (son), and my twins (boy/girl also!) will do some preschool work. Thanks for the info on your spine. I started off with both VP History and Bible, trying to mesh the two cards each week, but it got to be too hard for me to combine them (some weeks they’d be the same, some different, then one would pull ahead and another would pop up again a few weeks later). So I stuck with the VP History cards and inserted Biblical history when I could (the Book of Centuries was great in organizing it all for my kids). I’m interested in the Ganz book you mentioned (and supplements!) and might go back and just spend a good chunk of time on the first five books. I really want my kids to see how all of the Law and the feasts and the tabernacle point to Jesus and our need for Him and you’ve given me just great ideas on how to implement that. Thanks for doing the hard work! Perhaps when my son is in second grade next year, I’ll try the VP Bible as a spine again? The game plan has a tendency to change a lot. 🙂 Also, because of you, I’ve been looking into notebooking for next year. I think my kids will really enjoy that. Anyway, thanks for the reply (no blog yet . . . maybe I’ll get brave enough to start one at some point). 🙂
I was convinced a few months into homeschool that I’d never use VP again! Well, here I am going back to it! I do NOT do all of the worksheets and activities, and (shhhhhh!) I do NOT memorize all of the dates. I just go over the cards and use the books that VP recommends. I think each family finds out what works best. I don’t think I’m as “classical” as I once thought. Keep in touch through 3rd grade! 🙂 Do you do Latin?
Nope, I don’t use all the worksheets and activities that come with VP, either. We’ve enjoyed doing some of the History Pockets and reading many of the historical fiction books they recommend. And if it’s a good week, we’ll have listened to the song a few times. 🙂 I actually use several of the resources/ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason (hymn study, poetry, character development books and some of their literature suggestions). 🙂 We also love the missionary books recommended by Sonlight. Yes, this year we will try Latin. I debated between Prima Latina and Latina Christiana and decided for the latter. I guess we’ll find out if I made the right choice in a few weeks! Blessings to you!
Oh my goodness! There is so much to “like” about this post: loved the shadow illustration and your own homemade booth. A Jewish tourist was visiting here during the feast time and built one just like that right on our beach! By the way, we attended an RPC church for many years that also sang Psalm 133 to the tune of “O For A Thousand Tongues.” Is that your background also?
I’m so glad to hear from you! Any thoughts on blogging? I miss y’all! We pray for you daily & can’t wait to hear good news about a precious baby boy! I hope Mommy is feeling well. You guys have had some really neat experiences with tourists! I can’t imagine! We love the ICB Bibles and can tell the children are really comprehending all that they are reading. Thanks so much for your suggestion! Since marrying, Charles and I have been members of an EPC congregation and are now members of a CREC congretion. One of our former pastors was in the RPC. You? 🙂
Just got back from the mainland and am deep in preparations for the upcoming school year. Hoping to have as little to do as possible by the time baby comes. Am thinking might have time to squeeze in a weekly blog post and will let GMK followers know when it’s up and running. Have also been inspired by you to integrate Notebooking this year. My husband and I both have non-denominational backgrounds but spent 7 years in an RPC church before moving to more rural settings where we were blessed to be a part of some good-old back-woods congregations with no affiliations other than Jesus Christ. Since moving to Hawaii we have been attending the oldest church in the state begun by Presbyterian missionaries almost 200 years ago. By the way, how are the anniversary plans coming? 🙂
😦 I think we’ve decided to go to the Cayman Islands… a little closer to home which means less flying time… 5 hours vs. 13. It also means more “vacation” days rather than flying days for Mom and Dad. Of course, we LOVED Hawaii but just look forward to spending time as husband and wife… anywhere. I have NEVER enjoyed any vacation as much as HI, but photos of Grand Cayman have me convinced I could probably enjoy time there, too!
My one regret about not visiting HI is that I just might have been able to meet you! That coffee date would have really been fun! (Charles and I would have loved meeting your family, too!) :’-( Maybe 15 year anniversary? Ha ha! Or wait, maybe the kids will be so easy and well-behaved that this –almost– week away could become a yearly thing?! Yes! Or maybe you’d like to spend an anniversary in Arkansas! Just kidding. 🙂
So, “deep” in preparations, huh? (Will you ever have time for a mom/family blog?) Charles and I have been discussing our memory verses for the year, and I think I have a mental plan… just need to write it down and make it happen. I’ve have been surprisingly laid back! Just resting knowing the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Question… do you do any formal character training? I know so many character training opportunities seem to present themselves throughout the day (yay for homeschool) but wondering if you plan character training.
Please think about emailing us when Baby comes. I like updating the children about things we have prayed about, and we’d love to know when Baby Boy 5 has arrived. Still have you in our prayer book and pray for “Mrs. Julie and baby in HI” each day! 🙂
Sorry to hear I won’t get to meet you here in HI but we WILL meet someday and I know you’re going to have a great anniversary trip wherever the destination. Just finalized all our memory verses for the year and it is still my favorite part of homeschool prep. Typed them along with corresponding hymns and poems into blog drafts so that will be one less thing to do when school starts. As to your question about formal character training I think the one who could really benefit from it around here is ME! Other than trying to be consistent in discipline and saturating their lives with the Word and Ways of the Lord, I don’t really follow a particular plan or philosophy. Let me know if you happen to make any earth shattering discoveries in that regard. So far, all of your recommendations have been great. Thanks for your continued prayers. That means so much to me.
Thanks for sharing links to the books and resources you’ve used. I’m praying and researching for the new school year and really appreciate all the the resources you post and your experience with them!!