by Donna | Apr 24, 2011
As Christians, Easter reminds us of our Savior’s sacrifice for us. His love. His suffering. And God’s power to raise His Son.
As Christian parents, Easter reminds us of the enormous responsibility that we have to teach our children about our Savior’s sacrifice for us. His love. his suffereing. And God’s power to raise His Son.
But not just to teach. Not just to tell. Not just to repeat those verses of hope and songs of old (though teaching, telling, and repeating are crucial in Christian parenting). But to live a life that shows that we are grateful for our Savior.
A life that is “not our own; but is bought with a price.” A life that shows our children that Christianity is far more than repeating a sinner’s prayer or following church disciplines (though, again, those are crucial). A life that shows them that believing and trusting in this Savior changes a heart. Changes a life. Changes a parent.
“Lord, this Easter, help me not to just teach my children about you…but to live you. To “prove” to them that I am a follower of Jesus Christ–through my life and my love.”
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
The link below just came through on Facebook, and I automatically started running through the many applications of it. Writing (our son is speaking about word choice today at the APACHE convention in Illinois today during his Writing With Style session!). Marriage (oh yeah). And, of course, parenting.
How many times do we say, “You always…” When we should say, “I feel like this or that happened..” How many times do we say, “Why can’t you…” When we should say, “It would be so great if you could…”
And then there’s the whole thought of hurtful words. How many times do we use hurtful words to our children instead of words of peace; words of love; words of affirmation; words of encouragement; or even words of helpful instruction?
Watch this clip with those thoughts in mind…and let’s all choose the right words today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU&feature=player_embedded#at=97
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
