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BookItLookIts Review by Melanie Schemanski and Jacquelin Caffey

Sasha Walters
Designer Bible Drill
325-812-2750
PO Box 1041
Athens, TX 75751
http://www.designerbibledrill.com

BookItLookIt Designs and Scripture Pictures from Designer Bible Drill helps kids work with memorizing Bible scripture verses. You may have heard of different quiz bowls, or Bible memory teams. I live in a fairly small area, and we still have kids in our homeschool community that participate in a Bible Quiz Bowl setting. BookItLookIts comes in a CD format to be used on your PC. The files are in pdf for printability. It comes in three age levels; children, youth and high school. The program also comes in HCSB® (Holman Christian Standard Bible ©2009), KJV (King James Version), and  NIV® (New International Version ©2011) versions of the Bible. Additionally there are three cycles that the programs run through; Red Cycle 1, Blue Cycle 2, Green Cycle 3.

The owner Sasha Walters began a Bible Drill program in five different churches in two states, as well as continuing to teach it in her own church. She has had the experience needed to design a helpful memory tool for this program, as well as learning scripture at home in a homeschool setting. Each CD costs $25 and will cover the student’s passages for the cycle they are currently on.

For our particular situation, I felt the best place to start was with the children’s Red Cycle 1. I felt for memorizing scripture together, that this would best suit our needs. There are verses as well as key passages to memorize, both old and new testaments. Included are scripture pictures which print out full size to put on the wall in a place where you may study. Having the scriptures you are working on, displayed on the wall will help you in memorizing them. There are also flashcards you can print out to work with. The part I liked was using the little booklets that you can print and put on a file folder type lapbook. There are 10 on each page which works well with a Bible drill team. I of course didn’t need that many per page. My kids love assembling lapbooks and it was even more fun using Bible passages.

Though designed for Bible drill teams, this program can be modified to help you in your homeschool to memorize specific scriptures that the Bible drill teams use. The repetition of seeing it flashcards, on the wall, and putting them into a lapbook, gives the student several opportunities to review the verses. Any reading age student can benefit from this. The high school level works on verses about the steps to salvation as well as verses focusing on what they believe as a Christian.

Many of the printables worked great for a homeschool family. The flashcards were ten different ones per page, and the scripture pictures were regular paper size. The only printable I would like to see an addition to is the key passages where they print 10 identical on one page. Maybe have a combination page of 10 different ones so that homeschoolers can just print out that one page per student instead of having all of the extras. If you are easy going, and want to know which scriptures to memorize as a family, it makes sense to use some that the Bible drill team uses. If you are looking for specific books of the Bible, or verses, you may be disappointed. Because it follows a specific program, it is geared toward that. I think if we were involved in a Bible Drill team this would be perfect. Great way to get the extra practice in that you need to memorize the scriptures. It is great also for families that aren’t sure where to start in having their children do memorizing work. It gives a clear order and help to memorizing verses and key scriptures.

Though designed for Bible Drill, this program can be modified and used in a homeschool setting, or even a co-op class. You can never go wrong instilling more of God’s Word into the hearts and memories of students. This tool is one that you can use to memorize great portions of the Word.

-Product review by Melanie Schemanski, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, December, 2016

Another Reviewer’s Perspective:

Hiding the Word in our hearts is an important part of our daily learning in our house. Bible drilling is not a new concept; it’s been around for years within the churches and in homes. With the help of Designer Bible Drill we have been learning Bible verses in a fun, hands-on way!

BookItLookIts were created by Sasha Walter for her two children to help them learn and prepare for the Bible Drill competitions in their state. Wait, BookItLookIts, what? Essentially, they are lapbooks that you and your child create from file folders and colorful cardstock based on the Bible verses in the drill year you are on. You make the BookIt, then you LookIt, that is look over it repeatedly, and learn your memory verses.

The Designer Bible Drill is available in three different cycles, red, blue, and green, and offers cycle levels for all ages for children, youth, and high school levels. You can learn your drill verses in KJV, NIV, or HCSB versions of the Bible. Everything needed to make your BookItLookIts and Scripture Pictures and Flash Cards for all the verses are included on the purchased CD in PDF format.

Getting started with a Bible memory drill is as easy as picking your cycle, red, blue, or green, and then selecting the scripture version you wish to memorize for your child at his or her level. A helpful supply list is included along with a detailed instruction guide that shows you just how to assemble your BookItLookIts with pictures down to what color papers to use for each color coordinated verse for each corresponding learning level. I love that aspect of the program; color-coding makes my heart happy!

Using this program within our homeschool house was simple and fun! I am always trying to incorporate fun ways to hide the Word in my children’s hearts and this is the perfect solution for us! The fact that the program spans from grammar aged children through high school is a huge plus for me because I have students in several different grades.

We received a copy of each Bible cycle and all three levels with a different Bible version for each one for a total of three CDs received. Normally, each CD is sold for $25 per grade level (i.e. children, youth, or high school) and cycle color. If you had children in all three levels, the total price would be $75 for access to all the printed materials needed to cover the cycle scripture. I choose to start our family in the Green cycle 3 because that CD had verses from the NIV Bible, the one we frequently read as a family.  We assemble and study our BookItLookIts during our Morning Time Recitations each day at the appropriate level for each of my children currently 1st, 4th, 8th, and 10th graders. We normally spend 15-30 minutes assembling (in the beginning) and drilling verses across the board for my students. As we approach the holiday season we are focusing on the verses we have included in our BookItLookIts and not adding in anymore verses. After the new year we will pick up where we left off and continue to add in verses to complete our folders. The scripture pictures are the perfect companion to the complete program! My children are visual learners and the colorful 8.5 x 11 posters correspond to the inside BookItLookIts pictures. If you print them in smaller sizes they are also great for matching and memory like games.

Originally the BookItLookIts were designed to rotate on a three-year cycle of verses and passages to complement the Bible Drill programs within the Southern Baptist churches but truly these products are priceless for anyone looking to memorize scripture within their family, homeschool, church or Christian school. I can’t say enough about this program; I love it! Getting started and printing out everything is super simple and since it is black and white ink it doesn’t cost too much in that department. Gathering supplies was fun because who doesn’t love all the colorful paper for the folders. Most of the items I found at my local Wal-Mart well within my budget. I enjoy that they are also portable! So as we start our gymnastics travel season come January you best believe that our BookItLookIts will be traveling right along with us. BookItLookIts are a fun scripture memory system that takes the trouble out of memorizing scripture, a huge plus for this sometimes sleep-deprived Mama of many.

-Product review by Jacquelin Caffey, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November, 2016

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