More resources?

I realise there are many more books about family, sex, babies and puberty written for children.  Do you have any you recommend?

I am keen to read Patricia Weerakoon’s new one – although we are a quite a few years off reading it to our kids yet, so I can wait on that for a bit.

Any other books your family has found helpful?

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.

Teaching the faith - resources

On Monday I talked about using a catechism to teach our children the faith.

I have come across a book which helps us to do exactly that.

Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade is a book of family devotions based on the Shorter Catechism.

She has arranged 6 daily devotions around each of the 107 questions of the Shorter Catechism (which she has adapted into more modern, accessible language). If you do it with her timetable it will take 2 years. However, I imagine it's the type of resource you use in bits and pieces. Perhaps you decide the first 20 questions are your goal for this year, or something like that.

Because the language is so accessible, you could also make this version your 'family catechism' and learn one per week and talk about it at the same time. We may indeed switch to that at some point.

We have not started this book yet, but once we have a bit more of our family catechism under way - we will stop and work on some of them in detail for a while, possibly with just the older children. I'll let you know how we go!


Another resource, along the same line is Bruce Ware's Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God. Ware is professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. When his daughters were young, he would sit with them at night and teach them the same material (yet simplified) that he he was teaching his students.

He has turned those times into this book. There are 3-4 pages per topic, covering topics (which are all broken into smaller sections) such as:

- God's word and who God is
- God as three in one
- God is creator and ruler of all
- our human nature and sin
- the person and work of Jesus Christ
- the Holy Spirit, etc, etc

It is essentially a doctrine course for children and youth. Having looked through it (although we haven't used it ourselves yet) - it seems appropriate to read and explain to primary-schoolers or perhaps something you could give to a teenager. My guess is that parents would learn a massive amount from reading it too! It looks like exactly what we learnt at bible college, but in much more manageable language.

Does anyone else know of any resources that help teach the faith to children?

Raising kids with God at the centre - resources

Resource List

This is the adapted list of resources that I handed out.

Books for adults:

• Leading Your Child to Jesus, David Staal (Zondervan, 2006)

• Praying the Scriptures for your Children, Jodie Bernt (Zondervan, 2001)

• Disciplines of a Godly Family, Kent and Barbara Hughes (Crossway, 2004)
  

• Treasuring God in Our Traditions, Noël Piper (Crossway, 2003).
  

• Gospel-Centred Family, Ed Moll & Tim Chester (The Good Book Company, 2009)

• Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God, Bruce A. Ware (Crossway, 2009)

This link will take you to a summary page of all books for parents I have reviewed, which include most of these above. From there you can also link to more detailed reviews.


Books for children (from younger to oldest readers):

• Learn about God series by Carine Mackenzie (God has power, God is everywhere, God never changes, God is faithful, etc)
• The Beginner’s Bible series of bible stories
• God knows all about me, Kate Toms
• God Made You Nose to Toes, Leslie Parrott (ill. Valeria Petrone)
• God Gave Us You, Lisa Tawn Bergen (ill. Laura J. Bryant)
• Lost Sheep series by Andrew McDonough. Especially Dave the Donkey (An Easter Story)
• I’d Be Your Princess, Kathryn O’Brien (ill. Michel Garland)
• Ten boys and Ten girls series, by Irene Howat (10 boys/girls who didn’t give in, who made a difference, who changed the world, etc). For confident readers.

Some bible suggestions:

• The Big Picture Story Bible (David Helm, ill. Gail Schoonmaker, Crossway Books, 2004). This is a great bible for the 4-7 age group. It is one of the few children's bibles which explains that there is one unifying theme through the whole of the bible, God's people under God's rule in God's place. The illustrations are vivid and often from odd angles, which kids enjoy. The individual story units are sometimes too long, but you can split them.
• The Jesus Story Book Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, Sally Lloyd-Jones, ill. Jago. Very good for ages 5-8. It draws attention in each story to how Jesus will or does fulfill each part of the bible, Old or New Testament. The illustrations are engaging and enjoyable. It does not shy away from details and emotion.
• The Beginner's Bible (Candle Books, UK or Zonderkidz, USA, 2005). Suitable for 3-6 years. The stories give some detail and the pictures are engaging (although not very realistic!).
• My First Bible (ill. Andrew Gleeson and Sophie Keen; Parragon, 2007). Suitable for 4-6 year olds. The illustrations are less engaging and colourful, but the stories themselves are good and quite detailed.
• When reading independently, move to a full bible (simpler translation), eg. NIrV or Good News.
• For another review of bibles see my previous post or Jean's post.
  

Bible Reading Resources:
(all distributed by the Good Book Company)

• Beginning with God - Bible discovery for pre-schoolers
• XTB (for readers, 6+ years)
• Table Talk (family bible discovery with children age 4+)

Other resources:

• Music: Colin Buchanan, Emu Music, Veggie Tales, adult Christian music – both contemporary and traditional hymns
• Bible verses to song: Colin Buchanan’s Boom Chicka Boom & Baa Baa Doo Baa Baa
• DVDs: Colin Buchanan, Veggie Tales

Christmas Ideas

• Advent calendar / set of readings about the birth of Jesus or the story of the bible up to Jesus: design your own or use another, eg. Advent Calendar Packs or XTB – Christmas Unpacked (both by Good Book Company)
• Celebrate Jesus’ birthday the same way you would celebrate any other family birthday
• Listen to good Christian Christmas music CDs, eg. carols and Colin Buchanan’s King of Christmas

Easter Ideas

• Passover Meal on Thursday night (simplified for your family. An example is here)
• Read through accounts on the days they happened
• Daily readings leading up to Easter (design your own or use another, eg. XTB – Easter Unscrambled)
• ‘Resurrection cake’ on Easter Sunday (put an cracked Easter egg on top – to show the empty tomb)

Many of these Christmas and Easter ideas are from, or adapted from, Disciplines of a Godly Family (Hughes) and Treasuring God in Our Traditions (Piper). See the books for more ideas.


Organisations / Ministries to consider supporting (there are many more!)

• Compassion (Christian child sponsorship)
  
• Tear Australia (supporting Christian relief and development work, they also have a Useful Gift Catalogue)
  
• Samaritan’s purse (for Operation Christmas Child boxes)
• Church Missionary Society (CMS)
  
• Bush Church Aid