Teen Prasso (Schoolhouse Review)

Emily wasn’t overly excited about trying out another Bible study program. She has several already, and, with our review-schooling schedule has left her with some unfinished books on the shelf waiting to be picked up again. However, when the Teen Prasso Ministries books arrived, she immediately picked them up, exclaiming, “This looks cool. When can I start it?” (Cover appeal: Check!)

We received both the Teen Prasso Teacher’s Manual and Teen Prasso Homework Manual for review. Both are necessary for the course. Although the  Teen Prasso course is actually designed for group use, we found it very adaptable for individual use as well.

The Homework Manual is a consumable workbook that contains 12 6-day lessons. Each lesson focus on a particular topic, such as God’s Love, The Enemy’s Lies, and Where They Lead, Pressure, Anger, Forgiveness, etc..

A typical day’s work asks the student to copy a Bible verse and answer a few applications about it. (Why do you think Jesus says this is the most important commandment? What can you personally learn from both Jesus’ and Paul’s responses to their difficult situations? How do you plan to react the next time…..?)  There is also some short commentary that explains Bible passages or theology and tells stories and examples that demonstrate how to apply scripture. Day 6 reviews the lessons from the first 5 days and has a page of group discussion questions to answer. Each week also features a memory verse, which Emily copied onto an index card for study. Emily spent about 20 minutes a day working on the assignment and it is usually the first task she chooses to do for the day.

The Teacher’s Manual includes one group lesson for each week. It features a continuing story about two brothers who go on a backpacking adventure in the Rocky Mountains. Story segments are interspersed with Messages that relate the story to the concepts for each week. The story was very interesting and the messages relevant. I hope that the story tie-ins (for example relating the need for a map to the need to look to God’s Word for direction) will stick with Emily. These weekly group lessons took about an hour, so sometimes, we split them up into two days.

We found Teen Prasso to be a relevant, practical teen Bible study. I think the 7 days a week schedule might be a bit intensive for a group study. I’m sure most students would need to double up on assignments occasionally to keep up. This wasn’t a problem for us, though. Whenever Emily finished 6 lessons in her workbook, we just moved on to the group lessons and didn’t feel the need to do the group lesson on the same day each week.  At 15 years old, Emily generally prefers to study independently, so this program was perfect for us. She did the daily lessons on her own, and I just glanced over them to make sure they were done. Some questions were more factual, but many  encouraged her to express her own ideas about the topic, so I didn’t want her to feel that I was “checking” her work for correctness. The weekly group lesson gave us an opportunity to talk about the weekly topics together and allowed me to have a small part in what she had been studying.  I’m sure a Bible study group with other teens would have provided a different experience, but using the group lesson as a parent/teen lessons also worked out fine.

Emily plans to continue with the Teen Prasso study until it is completed. I think it is one of her favorite studies. Want more information about Teen Prasso? Click the banner below to read more Crew reviews.