by Donna | Apr 21, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
One of my favorite “quick reads” for morning devotions (or anytime!) are books that are daily or just “many-entried” “collections.”
For example, we are currently doing some of the following for various devotional/read aloud times:
1. “Case for Christ Study Bible” by Lee Strobel—excerpts from his book within a NJKV Bible
2. “The American Patriot’s Almanac” by William J. Bennett—daily readings
3. “Gaining Favor With God and Man” –character stories about people in history
4. “In His Hands: A Family Devotional”—daily readings about nature/animals
5. “101 Hymn Stories” by Kenneth W. Osbeck
I have found that I am more successful and consistent in my “faith teaching” with my children if I have what I call “grab and go” types of materials. I don’t have a lot of prep time—and sometimes I need short reads for rushed days. “Daily” or “many entried” collections fit that bill!
by Donna | Apr 20, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
Although we seldom do a lot of picture books first thing in the morning (again, only the six year olds and up join us), I am placing them at this point since many of them are appropriate for the six to twelve year old group as well. Anything that helps you as a parent to consistently teach and talk of faith to your children is great! If a stack of picture books with faith-based themes that help you read and discuss the Lord and his ways is what works for you and your eight and ten year olds in the morning, I say, “Go for it!”
Picture books by Christian authors have character, Bible, and faith message. I love using picture books to teach many things to my children—faith and Bible, counting, alphabet, science, history/geography, relationships, character, and more. Go for the lengthier ones after age six or so—and don’t forget to discuss them after reading! The books and sources below include Bible story books, catechism type books, character, and more!
a. Christianbooks.com has a search engine that allows you to look for books under age groups, gender, theme, audience, etc. You can plug in your child’s age, and a list of books appropriate for that age will pop up! Check it out at https://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?event=EBRN&N=1119138+5401+200006+4294967144&Ne=200600&Nso=1&Nu=product%2Eendeca%5Frollup&Ns=product%2Enumber%5Fsold
b. See other Max Lucado picture books: https://www.christianbook.com/a-hat-for-ivan-board-book/max-lucado/9781581346565/pd/46565/1071101320?item_code=WW&netp_id=348434&event=ESRCN&view=details#curr
c. “Kidderminster Tales” by Christopher Lane –these might be out of print, so snatch them up used ASAP! All of my children have loved these lengthy picture books that retell some of Jesus’ parables in Kidderminster with animals. They truly are extremely clever and well-done—and the characters are much “deeper,” if you will, than the average “talking animal setting” of most books of this type. Children ages six to ten enjoy these immensely. (And these are available at many libraries!) https://www.amazon.com/Nicholas-Neighbors-Kidderminster-Kingdom-Tales/dp/0896938433/ref=pd_sim_b_1
d. “All is Well” by Frank Peretti—Peretti for young children? Yep! No angel and demon battles here, but this book tells about a family who fell on hard times and their response to that. Heartwarming. https://www.frankperetti.com/product/234.htm?parentid=1371
e. R.C. Sproul picture books are awesome at explaining difficult concepts, like forgiveness through Christ, and more. Here are two that are outstanding for this age group:
i. “The Priest with Dirty Clothes” by R.C. Sproul https://www.amazon.com/Priest-Dirty-Clothes-Timeless-Forgiveness/dp/0849914558
ii. “The King Without a Shadow” by R.C. Sproul https://www.christianbook.com/the-king-without-a-shadow/r-c-sproul/9780875527000/pd/227000?event=CFN
by Donna | Apr 19, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
“If I had $500 to spend on everything I could use to train my preschoolers in faith, I would purchase the “Family Bible Library” and many, many picture books from Answers in Genesis. Children are inundated from earliest ages with the falsehoods of “millions of years,” etc.—we must counteract that information found in movies (even some of our favorite animated ones have references to it!), music, cartoons, museums, zoos, etc. with the truth. Picture books from Answers in Genesis can help you do that.” from an earlier post…
I have already reviewed the “Family Bible Library”during this “when you rise up” segment. I am going to re-print some creation science picture book reviews (as referenced in the above quote form an earlier post) today—even though not all of these are ones we necessarily use “when we rise up.” As a side note, our “littles,” ages birth to six or so, were seldom up first thing in the morning for that “faith” time. I would do readings, songs, poems, etc. with them when I got them up later. However, the creation science picture books that I am sharing below are appropriate for the six to twelve year old age group too, so I am including them at this point in the “teach them diligently and talk of them…” series. Thanks for joining us!
a. Answers in Genesis!
https://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/catalog/57-Years-Old,184.aspx
b. “In the Days of Noah” by Gloria Clanin–one of our faves! https://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/In-the-Days-of-Noah,4339,185.aspx
c. “The Bible Discovery Collection Bible Animals”—this is the perfect age to read animal creation science books!– by Bruce Barton, James Galvin, Michael Kendrick, Daryl Lucas, David Veerman, Neil Wilson (looks out of print, but some on Amazon) https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Animals-Discovery-Collection/dp/084231038X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273891237&sr=1-3
d. “Dinosaurs and the Bible”—also the perfect age to read dinosaur creation science books!– by David Unfred https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Bible-David-W-Unfred/dp/0910311706
e. Answers in Genesis also has an amazing search engine that lets you search by age group. This is especially helpful in choosing creation science books because you do not want to get one with too much text for a four year old but too little text for a ten year old. The upper end of today’s age group’s suggestions can be found here https://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/catalog/811-Years-Old,185.aspx
by Donna | Apr 15, 2011
My five guys (four sons, ages 12, 16, 18, and 28; and Ray) and I are in Peoria, Illinois at a homeschool convention. We are looking forward to speaking in eleven sessions from “How to Teach Reading” (Donna) to “How to Teach Without Textbooks” (Joshua) to “The Successful Christian Father” (Ray). I have been preoccupied this week preparing for this weekend–and since we are focusing on character–I thought I would share our missionary-daughter’s new blog, “Extreme Servanthood.”
Her first post is sweet (she talks about her Dad and me! :)), but it also sums up the bare bones of Christian servanthood. Join her by receiving it in your email or your FB feed! And enjoy learning about “Extreme Servanthood”!
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=218954294785472
by Donna | Apr 13, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
I am going to list a few key products that we have used for devotionals for this age group. We generally kept morning devotions/read alouds shorter (thirty minutes or fewer) since we had other “character lessons” (i.e. chores!) and individual devotions to attend to as well. I will discuss the “under six year old” or lengthier types of materials later—though many listed in this post would work for youngers and/or olders.
As a rule of thumb, our non-schoolers (i.e. before six years old since we began kindergarten at age six and first grade at age seven), did not get up for morning devotions. I had other reading times with them at various points in the day—and they were in the evening devotionals/read alouds.
At this age, you will want to lengthen your faith reading time as much as you have time for and the children have attention spans for—and allow plenty of time for discussion and answering questions. On the lower end of this spectrum, your child may not be ready to sit for longer picture books or shorter chapter books, but keep trying! As an aside, any read aloud times that you instill in your children will help them to have longer attention spans in other scenarios, such as school and church. (Again, our morning times were always shorter than our ones later in the day.)
1. Bible
a. The Bible itself! We like to read aloud from Proverbs oftentimes in the mornings. Moreover, my husband has a special time with our guys called “Bible talks” in which he and the boys just read a portion of the Bible and discuss it for a few minutes. No other books needed—just “what does this mean to you?” and “what do you think this is saying?” You might start with familiar Bible stories in the Old Testament and Jesus’ parables in the New Testament.
b. “The Picture Bible” by David C Cook—this was listed in the preschool section, but children up to age twelve or so will enjoy this comic-book style Bible. Ray read this whole Bible aloud to each child when he or she was around age four. Then we “assigned” this Bible (in bite-sized pieces each day) to each child when he or she was around age eleven or twelve to read to himself or herself for personal devotions. https://www.amazon.com/Picture-Bible-Story-Book-Ed/dp/1555139906
c. Family Bible Library—I reviewed this book earlier in the year. This is a wonderful complete ten volume set of Bible stories. Read the review in full. If you have children ten and under, I highly recommend you find this set used, buy it, and use it every day. (That’s what we did! I read it to the kids when they turned four (sort of after Ray did “The Picture Bible”), then when each child became a fluent reader, between nine and eleven or so, he or she read the entire set to himself (or aloud to a little sibling). https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/02/day-fifty-nine-think-of-yourself-as.html
by Donna | Apr 6, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
“Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church.”
Jonathan Edwards
When Joshua, our oldest who is now a twenty-eight year old husband, was first born, we were visited by a friendly college student who was selling a set of Bible stories. We let him in and listened to his spill—and saw the quality product he had to offer and, in spite of being two poor college students with a new baby, we bought. And it was one of the best purchases we made for our children’s first twelve years of Bible teaching.
Also about that same time, we were introduced to the concept that is summarized in today’s quote by Jonathan Edwards. We were instructed at a parenting seminar that our home should be a center—a hospitality center, a Bible teaching center, an education center, a healing center (where we should reach out to those who are hurting), and much more.
From these ideas, we decided that church should be an extension of our family—it should augment what we do at home (not replace it or even be the main tool with family supplementing it). We should be our primary faith teachers—and church, Sunday school, and other outside sources can help us achieve our faith goals for our children. When we look at our children’s “faith teaching” in this way, we feel the true sense of responsibility that we have in our children. We do not become dependent upon someone else to do it for us. Yes, others have helped us greatly through the years—including Sunday school, Royal Rangers, Upwards, homeschool groups, etc. etc. But our children’s Bible teaching is ultimately our responsibility—and nobody else’s.
Family Bible Library and the idea that our home should become a miniature church, so speak, merged perfectly together. It was (and has been for twenty-seven years) a tool that we have used to be a “little church” for our children—a place where they learn the Bible and its concepts every day through lifestyle, materials, song, prayer, discussion, and more.
The original Family Bible Library (the one we purchased twenty-seven years ago) is the 1971 version. It is and was wonderful. In a nutshell, this is what you get with that version:
*10 hardcover books covering dozens and dozens of Bible stories in chronological order
*Pictures, charts, graphs, etc. throughout
*Text written at approximately at fourth or fifth grade reading level, though definitely children as young as age four can listen and comprehend the material
*Short two-three page stories with questions following each story
*Study skills types of material following each story, including maps, charts, diagrams, etc. that help the reader understand more about the story, the time period, the region, etc. (this was my two oldest kids’ favorite parts!)
We used these with our preschoolers and elementary children by me (Donna) reading through the entire series with each child. (Others could join us, but at least the child whose turn it was did it with me.) Then, when each child turned ten to twelve, depending on reading ability, he or she did the entire series for himself/herself (or in some cases had a daily read aloud with a younger sibling and the “reader” read it aloud to a little).
Additionally, because our teens have done a lot of Bible teaching of younger kids (our girls through their girls’ newsletter; our olders who taught character in public schools; our boys now who work with cognitively disabled adults; etc.), the FBL came in handy to use as a resource for them.
I can’t say enough about this program—and recommend it highly for all families with four to twelve year olds as a daily devotional with parents (or for the child to read for himself for his own devotions). It spans multi-ages, especially with the study helps following each story. This, along with Character Sketches (https://tfths.com/character.php –upcoming review!) and a Bible, is a perfect Bible/character combination for using daily with children ages four to twelve.
Downsides: You’re gonna love me for this—but Southwestern Publishing is no longer printing FBL! There are some still available through various sources—and you can get it used for 25% or less of the original cost. People have these sitting around in basements and attics—they’re out there; you just have to look a little online. Training for Triumph (our homeschooling business/ministry) used to carry the new (2005) version, which is outstanding and more beautiful than the originals—if you can get that version, do so! However, we were told a year ago that they were not publishing more. (We have the1971 version and still love it and use it, so the new is not essential.)
1971 version link: https://www.amazon.com/Family-Bible-Library-10-Set/dp/B0013GAYR4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267324741&sr=1-2
2005 version link: https://www.amazon.com/Family-Bible-Library-8-Set/dp/B001FQ8YH4/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267325676&sr=1-6
