King of Glory is a Protestant Bible course that teaches the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation through videos (or a picture book) and a study guide. While other components can be added, the videos, the study guide, and the answer key for the study guide are all you need. All the components are attractive and colorful, even the workbook exercise pages!
The videos are available free online, presented as a 222-minute movie with clear segment breaks. The videos are also available for purchase on DVDs. The 175-page King of Glory picture book (available in many languages) can be used in place of the videos or alongside them. The picture book features 70 full-page illustrations (called scenes), each facing a page of text. Scenes don’t cover every book of the Bible, but they illustrate the key events for understanding salvation history. The movie is a word-for-word presentation of the picture book, making the book’s text the movie’s script. So you could use either the videos or the picture book (or both).
The study guide, available only in English, divides the video into 15 lessons, and each lesson corresponds to three to six scenes in the picture book. The videos use the scenes from the picture book and many more as the primary type of imagery. The movie scans in and out of images to simulate movement and adds bits of animation and occasional film footage of nature. The movie's voice-over narration can be listened to in your choice of more than 60 languages. All versions can be accessed for free.
The 176-page study guide provides easy-to-use lesson plans for 15 sessions that are adaptable for children through adults. One page introduces the lesson, then students are to watch the specified part of the video or read the corresponding scenes from the picture book. The five or more discussion questions that come next mix comprehension questions with some requiring summaries of key ideas or individual responses. Following the questions, a bible verse is presented for either reflection or memorization. Finally, four or more pages provide reinforcement in the form of workbook exercises: answering questions on the lines provided, filling in blanks, circling the correct words in a sentence, completing a chart, matching columns, and selecting true/false answers. Students write directly in the study guide, so they need their own books.
Those with younger children might want to use the King of Glory Coloring Book. It has 70 images that correspond roughly with those in the picture book but are not identical to them.
The King of Glory Card Game has 54 cards with images, and they are numbered according to their sequence in the story. Following the instructions, players draw and discard, trying to construct the longest sequence of cards before the deck is gone. A few of the cards can pair up with another related event, procuring a bonus move for the player. The sequence and relationships of biblical events might be discussed as reinforcement for learning, but the game doesn’t require it.
All the video and book resources, plus the picture book in additional languages, are also available as free digital files in the ROCK International Language Library. The printed books are beautifully produced, so I would recommend purchasing them rather than using the digital versions. Also, those who want students to use the workbook exercises in the study guide will probably find it cheaper to buy it rather than print it in color. The curriculum set includes the videos on DVDs, the study guide, the picture book, the answer key, and the coloring book. The DVDs can be played in several different languages. Note that a different version of the DVDs, available apart from the curriculum package, offers even more language choices. You can see a comparison of the two DVD options online.
Summary
The King of Glory course works well as a survey course on the Bible for those who need to learn the storyline. Its adaptability for a wide age range makes it particularly suitable for homeschooling families, but it should also work well for groups.
