For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall
search for me with all your heart. ~Jeremiah 29:11-13
search for me with all your heart. ~Jeremiah 29:11-13
One of our biggest prayers for our children is that they will do as this verse says and pray to God and seek Him with all their hearts. There are many things we can do to help our kids know God better and love him. Obviously we take them to church and read the Bible to them and try our best to teach by example but there are so many other resources out there you can use to teach your kids the ways of God. I thought I'd take some time and give you the ones we have used and like and that our kids have really enjoyed. If you are a parent seeking materials that will build up your kids in the faith then some of these are worth taking a look at.
1. Read-Aloud Bible Stories by Ella K. Lindvall. My MIL bought this set of books for the kids a few years back. She used to read these stories to her kids and remembered how much they enjoyed the stories. They are geared toward young children and my kids have loved them. Even now that Noah and Owen are older they still enjoy them only now they enjoy reading them to their younger siblings.
2. Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible (dvd) These DVD stories are really well done and true to the Bible. Our kids have really loved them, and we have several. Plus they are inexpensive and make great gifts.
3. Gods Wisdom for Little Boys/Girls by Jim & Elizabeth George. These two books are excellent for teaching your young kids about the kind of character God wants them to have. Each page is dedicated to a different "virtue" that God wants a boy or girl to exhibit making it a great book to use for devotions. I have not done the girl book yet but have enjoyed using the one for boys with Gabe & Will. A friend of ours recently bought the kids these two books and I am so thankful because I'd been wanting them and they are a great resource to have.
4. Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen Taylor. The author took John Bunyan's original story and simplified the vocabulary and concepts so younger children could understand it. This was a Christmas gift so I am only a little over halfway through the book reading it with Noah and Owen. They beg me not to stop, they are so into the story and at the same time are learning so much about what Gods word teaches. I find Gabe & Will too young still to really grasp the concepts so am waiting to share it with them. The time reading it with my two older boys has been precious and the questions they've had have really helped them grow in their faith and build their understanding.
5. Dinosaurs, Genesis & the Gospel (dvd) by Ken Ham & Buddy Davis. We recently purchased this DVD from the Answers in Genesis website and could not be more pleased with it. If you are a family who believes in creation, this DVD is a must have to help instill those truths while keeping it fun with silly songs about God's creation. It's definitely geared toward older children but your younger children will enjoy the songs.
6. Jonathan Park Audio CD's from the Answers in Genesis website. My kids have the Aquarium one, which teaches them about the sea creatures. They listen to these CD's at bedtime and really like them. We have a few different series of audio CD's for the kids like Patch the Pirate, etc. Our kids love falling asleep to audio CD's and lately they've really been enjoying their Jonathan Park ones. I want to get them the Amazon one next.
7. Fins, Feathers, and Faith by William L. Coleman. This is a great devotional book for kids using God's creation. We used this book with the kids for devotions before school last year and they really liked it. My older two boys especially love animals so it was really perfect for them. This too, was a gift from their aunt and uncle and one I recommend.
As I write this list I have to take the time and reflect on how blessed my kids are to have so many people in their lives who care so much about their spiritual growth. Many of the resources we have come to value came to us as gifts from friends and family. So even if you don't have young kids of your own to purchase these items for, maybe you can be a blessing to a family you do know who has young kids by gifting them resources that will help them grow in the Lord!
We have been looking for something to do with Ella (3yo). Like you we do sunday school, pray, live out our faith so she can see, do special things around the Holidays, have a picture Bible we read, but we've been wanting something a little more to do with her...like a devotion her age. We have family devotion time each night after dinner which she sometimes reminds US about :) but the material we have is really not age appropriate for her and I can tell it loses her attention. What age would you say the "God's Wisdom for Little Boys/Girls" is good for? And the read along Bible stories? Also, what are your thoughts on scripture memorization, do you do this with your kiddos and what age did you find was good to start?
ReplyDeleteI think the book, God's Wisdom..." would be fine for her now because you can adapt the "truths" in it to fit where she is at now. You know her understanding best and even you could pick and choose which virtues you want to go over with her now. Some she will easily comprehend while others might be more difficult and be better for when she's a little older. The Read-Aloud Bible stories are excellent for this age and I use them for devotions with my kids. At the end of each short story are questions you can ask them about what they learned so it's a great book for that. We start scripture memorization as soon as they are ready and 3 is a good age to introduce it. She is definitely capable of memorizing short verses. Our younger ones see our older ones doing it and always say, "I want to try" so we let them repeat after us and usually after a few times they have a word here and there memorized. The reference I don't even bother with until they are a little older like, 5, because my experience has just been that the numbers are harder to remember but she might be different so you can try however you think is best for her. I tape the verses we're memorizing on the chimney that is right next to our dining room table so we can see it and remember at meal times to go over it. The more kids we have the busier we get and the less diligent we are about doing it every day so having it right there where we are often helps a lot!
ReplyDeleteLove all your ideas and it is so encouraging to know families like yours are diligently teaching their children to follow and love Christ. :)
ReplyDeleteLiss, another great daily devo for kids 6-12 is Keys for kids. (http://www.cbhministries.org/ForKids/KeysforKids/ReadListen.aspx)
ReplyDeleteThe readings were just a page, but geared for real life situations and 'what would you do' responses. Great to get kids thinking about how they would act/react if it were them. Helping them to think NOW of how they will act when temptations come LATER will greatly help with right choices just as Joseph determined in his heart not to sin against the Lord. He was ready when the temptation came.
The link takes you to the site. We use to get the booklets in the mail. It had the devotions for the month and we had to send out a card each month to get the next issue. They also have other avenues such as the online version, email, even fb I think. I preferred the hard copy. When Ben was too old for these, we still had them participate by doing the reading or asking deeper questions of them. Wasn't done regularly with all of them..hard to get schedules to sync once they hit middle/high school. Check it out. :)
We have used Keys for Kids and they're good, the kids just didn't like them as much. We figure the devotions are for them so we want them to enjoy the time not feel like we're struggling through it with them and that's how we felt when we were using Keys.
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