Grapevine Studies

Grapevine Studies is a Bible curriculum built around a simple but durable idea: students retain biblical narrative better when they draw it. Stick figures, timelines, and chronological charts replace traditional workbook prose, and the method has sustained a family-run evangelical publisher for nearly a quarter century.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Chronological stick-figure drawing; timelines, pictograms, and brief narrative
Worldview	Christian-evangelical
Grades	K-12 (four age-banded levels plus multi-level editions)
Formats	Print workbooks and PDF digital downloads
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	2
ESA-common	Varies
Accredited	No
Established	Founded by John and Dianna Wiebe, approximately 2001
Website	grapevinestudies.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Appropriate to the subject; more breadth than depth
Ease of teaching	5	Teacher guide says exactly what to say and draw
Content quality	4	Chronological spine is genuinely useful; pedagogy is simple but effective
Flexibility	5	Multi-level editions let one family teach all children together
Value for money	5	PDFs under $30; print workbooks $15-$25; sibling-reusable
Worldview scope	2	Evangelical Protestant framing; Bible is the subject, not a supplement
Visual/design	3	Intentionally minimalist, the stick figures are the point
Support resources	3	Sample lessons, YouTube walkthroughs; no video curriculum

Who the publisher is

Grapevine Studies was founded by John and Dianna Wiebe, a Christian homeschool family that, according to the publisher's About page, began developing the curriculum for their own children after searching unsuccessfully for a chronological, visually memorable Bible study. The press has been operating for "nearly 25 years" as of its current public materials, which places the founding around 2001. The company remains family-run from its Wyoming operating address, with a modest catalog focused entirely on Bible study rather than a broader curriculum line.

The publisher's products fall into a few categories: Old Testament Overview, New Testament Overview, and Life of Jesus as chronological surveys; Old Testament Feasts as a topical study of Jewish festivals understood through a Christian framework; and a handful of character studies (Esther, Joseph, Ruth) that zoom in on individual biblical figures. Each study is available across four age bands, Beginner (PreK-K, oversized pictures to trace), Traceable (early elementary, traced stick figures with simple captions), Intermediate (upper elementary, drawn freehand with Bible reference lookups), and Multi-level (designed to be taught simultaneously to multiple ages). A Level 5 Teen/Adult Independent edition is available for older students who work alone.

Editorially, Grapevine is evangelical Protestant. The Bible is taken as historically reliable narrative; the stick-figure approach visualizes scriptural events as real events; and the commentary, where it appears, reflects a mainstream evangelical reading of Scripture. The product is stand-alone Bible curriculum, not a supplement to an academic subject, so the worldview is the content rather than an overlay on something else. Catholic and Orthodox families occasionally use Grapevine for the narrative spine but typically find the interpretive framing and the selection of topical emphases more Protestant than their traditions. Messianic and Hebrew Roots families use the Old Testament Feasts study with particular frequency.

The core pedagogy

Grapevine teaches by drawing. A student opens the workbook to a day's lesson, reads a short passage from the Bible (supplied by reference rather than reprinted, students use their own Bible), and then draws a series of simple stick-figure pictograms on the workbook's timeline or chronological chart. A lesson on the call of Abraham results in a stick figure of Abraham leaving Ur, a stick figure of Abraham arriving in Canaan, and a chronological marker placing the event on the broader timeline. The teacher guide walks the parent through what to say and what to draw; the student workbook provides the blank template on which to draw.

Three signature mechanics define the curriculum. First, the chronological spine: every study builds a timeline across Old or New Testament history, and students progressively fill it in over the course of the year. A student finishing Old Testament Overview emerges with a single chart that shows the whole Old Testament in stick-figure sequence, creation through the return from exile, which is a genuinely memorable artifact. Second, the multi-level design: the Multi-Level editions are written so that a parent can teach the same lesson simultaneously to a first-grader and a fifth-grader, with the younger student tracing simpler pictograms and the older student drawing freehand and answering additional Bible-reference questions. This is a real administrative advantage for families with multiple children. Third, the teacher scripting: the teacher guide is explicit about what to say, what to draw, what questions to ask. A parent unfamiliar with biblical content can still lead a competent lesson by reading the guide aloud and drawing along.

What Grapevine is not, and does not claim to be, is a rigorous theology or Bible-doctrine program. Students learn the narrative flow and the major events; they do not engage in systematic theology, doctrinal comparison, or textual criticism. For upper-middle and high-school students aiming at a deeper Bible study, Grapevine is often used as the survey spine with a second program, Bible Study Guide for All Ages or Positive Action for Christ, layered in for deeper content.

A day in the life

A third-grader using the Intermediate level of Old Testament Overview opens the workbook at, say, 9:15 AM after Bible-reading family devotions. The day's lesson is "The Tower of Babel." The parent reads the teacher guide (one minute of silent prep), turns to the student, reads aloud the three or four Bible verses for the lesson (three minutes), and then says something like, "Now let's draw this in our timeline." The student places the event on the chronological chart, draws a stick-figure tower, draws a stick-figure cluster of scattered people around it, and writes the year in the margin. A short review question, "Why did God scatter the people?", closes the lesson. Total time: fifteen to twenty minutes.

A Multi-Level family teaching three children ages 5, 8, and 11 together runs the same lesson at different levels simultaneously. The youngest traces a pre-drawn tower; the middle child draws a simpler version of the same scene; the eldest draws the scene, looks up two cross-reference verses the teacher guide recommends, and writes a one-sentence summary. The whole session takes roughly twenty-five minutes and covers all three children at once, an efficiency that families with large age spreads consistently cite as the reason they chose Grapevine.

What they do exceptionally well

Chronological retention. Students who finish a full Grapevine Overview genuinely remember the flow of biblical history. The combination of drawing, timeline, and spoken repetition produces long-term recall that pure read-and-answer workbooks rarely match. This is the curriculum's central claim and its durable strength.

Multi-level teaching. Few Bible curricula are honestly designed for simultaneous multi-age teaching. Grapevine is. A parent can teach a single Bible lesson at the kitchen table with a Kindergartner, a third-grader, and a seventh-grader present, and all three can participate at a level appropriate to their age without the parent running three separate programs. For large families this is not a feature but a core value.

Low parent-preparation time. The teacher guide is explicit. A parent who has not cracked a Bible reference book in years can open Grapevine's New Testament Overview, read the guide, and deliver a competent lesson the same morning. This matters for real families whose Bible confidence varies, whose schedules are full, and who want steady Bible exposure without a research project every day.

What they do poorly

Visual design is intentionally plain. The workbooks are black-and-white, the stick figures are deliberately minimalist (so the student draws their own), and the layout is utilitarian. Families who expect a richly illustrated Bible curriculum, The Biggest Story visual palette, say, or a color-saturated Catholic Bible storybook, will find Grapevine's aesthetics austere. This is a pedagogical choice, but it is a real trade for families who lean visual.

Depth thins at upper levels. The high school independent edition is a student-only workbook without a teacher guide, and the content is calibrated to the same survey level as the earlier bands. A teenager who already knows the flow of biblical history well will not find new material here. Families seeking substantive theological formation at the high school level should look beyond Grapevine.

Worldview fit is narrow. The curriculum is evangelical Protestant in its narrative emphases and in its handling of subjects like Old Testament feasts (presented through Christian interpretive frames) and the Life of Jesus (presented in a harmonized-Gospels fashion typical of evangelical Bible study rather than a Catholic lectionary framing or an Orthodox liturgical arc). Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish families will notice the editorial posture and may prefer curricula written from within their own traditions.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Grapevine if: you want a budget-priced chronological Bible survey; you have multiple children of different ages and want to teach them together; you value a teacher guide that eliminates parent preparation; your children retain visual and kinesthetic learning better than pure reading; you want a workbook-format Bible study rather than a devotional approach; you're comfortable with evangelical Protestant framing.

• Skip Grapevine if: you are Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, or otherwise prefer a worldview-specific Bible curriculum; you want theological depth beyond narrative survey; your family leans toward literature-based Bible study through picture books or trade titles; you want a video curriculum rather than drawing-based work; your student is a high-schooler who already knows the biblical narrative well and needs doctrinal or exegetical depth.

Cost honest assessment

Individual Grapevine workbooks list at approximately $14-$22 for student editions and $16-$26 for teacher books at the Grapevine storefront as of April 2026, with PDF digital versions at slightly lower prices. A complete family bundle, teacher guide plus multiple student books at the same level, runs approximately $50-$80 per course. The publisher's Old Testament Multi-Level Bundle, which covers multiple students simultaneously, lists at approximately $155 for a large-class pack.

Compared at the same subject tier: Bible Study Guide for All Ages runs roughly $15-$25 per level per student; Positive Action for Christ runs roughly $30-$50 per grade-level workbook; The Good and the Beautiful does not sell a stand-alone Bible curriculum. Grapevine sits comfortably in the budget tier, cheaper than Positive Action for Christ at the workbook level and competitive with Bible Study Guide for All Ages.

A realistic family budget for two children doing a Grapevine Overview in a single year: $60-$120 all in, with PDF-only purchases reducing the total to $40-$80.

ESA eligibility notes

Grapevine Studies appears on several ESA marketplaces where Christian curricula are eligible. Because the publisher sells direct via its own storefront and offers both print and digital formats, families in states that reimburse religious digital materials have additional flexibility. ESA-funded families should verify eligibility within their specific state marketplace before ordering; some programs reimburse print but not PDF, and vendor registration varies year to year.

Alternatives

• Bible Study Guide for All Ages, a family would choose BSGFA over Grapevine for a more robust, non-stick-figure Bible survey that offers a true four-year rotation across the whole Bible.
• Positive Action for Christ, a family would choose Positive Action over Grapevine for deeper theological content at each grade level rather than a narrative-survey approach.
• Telling God's Story (Peace Hill Press), a family would choose Telling God's Story over Grapevine for a literature-based, gentler Bible curriculum written for elementary grades by Susan Wise Bauer's press.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the publisher's About page at grapevinestudies.com/pages/about, the current product catalog and sample lessons at grapevinestudies.com/pages/sample-lessons, and the Old Testament and New Testament Overview kit listings. We cross-referenced published homeschool reviews from The Curriculum Choice and Raising Arrows. Prices and program details verified April 2026.