Bible Bites

We have recently discovered a great resource for family devotions - Bible Bites.  Written by Ladeane Lindsay and published by Anglican Youthworks, it was shortlisted for the 2011 Australian Christian Book of the Year.

It contains 356 (undated) family devotional times. Split into 7-day groupings, they are designed to be used daily, but could easily be used a few times a week instead.  Each Bible Bite is based around a key biblical theme and memory verse.  Over 7 days, you learn a memory verse together and look at difference aspects of that theme; which includes a bible reading, activity/sharing time and prayer.  It is designed for children aged 3-12 and to take ~10 mins at a time. You could easily increase or reduce the suggested activity as family life and your energy dictates (I reduce it, having almost no energy for memory verse games!)

It covers 52 ‘Bites’ about God, his characteristics, key events in the bible, Jesus’ life, death & resurrection, and Christian living. Your family will end up with a fantastic grounding in the overall message of the bible and will have memorised lots of bible verses along the way.

We are 5 'Bites' in - having taken longer than 5 weeks to get there.  I am pleased to discover that the kids remember all five memory verses still, and the salient points of the themes.  All three (aged 9, 7, 5) are enjoying it and learning about God along the way.

A resource well worth using in the home.

XTB

XTB

Moving up in age from Beginning with God material, we come to XTB.*

XTB is marketed for 7-10 year-olds. We have found it's perfect to start using whenever a child is a relatively competent reader. When our son started using this material, he just did it on his own and we asked him about it after. Now our daughter (6) has just started using it, and one of us sits down to do it with her every night. She can follow the instructions, loves filling in the activities, and can either follow along when we read the bible passage or she can try to read it herself. It's become a lovely way to end the day together.

Our 8-year old son is still doing XTB as well, he is up to Volume 7 or 8 and has declared he wants to finish them all before he moves on (there are 12 volumes to date).

XTB also have specific material for Christmas: Christmas Unpacked, and Easter: Easter Unscrambled, as well as a summer holiday version: Summer Signposts. All 3 of these combine XTB and Table Talk material (See *below) in the one booklet. We have used both the Christmas and Easter material and are very happy with them. We may just keep ordering new booklets for each year.

To see some sample pages of material, go via here.

* Actually there is a resource in the middle called 'Table Talk', which is suitable for families with children from age 4 or 5, but we have gone with the individual age-appropriate ones for our children. It just seems to work better for us at the moment. I know many families who use 'Table Talk' and it works well for them.

Beginning with God

Beginning with God

For the next few weeks I am going to review some bible reading material for different age groups. I have been a fan of the The Good Book Company material for some time now, and their personal bible reading material for children is the main reason why.

The Beginning with God material is perfect for perfect for pre-schoolers (age 3-5). We started this with Amy when she turned 3 and she was just the right age. It has been designed to go alongside The Beginner's Bible, which is widely available. Using the stories from The Beginner's Bible, it picks out a key point to talk about, prayers to pray and a continual emphasis that these are true stories about God and his work in the world. You can do optional activities to emphasise which are suggested, and there is a sticker for each day when you have completed the study.

My daughter loves it - she begs to do 'bible time' with me each day, and it has been a special time for the two of us when the others are at school.

It's a great way to get little ones used to the idea of interacting with the bible, rather than just reading it.

If you want to see some examples of the material, go to the links available via here.