31 Days of Reading with Your Children // Day 2

It's Sunday evening and our little homeschool is on fall break as of tomorrow. Our girls are enjoying a rare Sunday evening snacky dinner and movie with Daddy; I've tucked our boy into bed and have been pondering my 31 Days post for the day. I decided that it seemed appropriate to start with what's most important to our family and that's reading the Bible together.

We have several different times that we try and read the Bible together during the day - different windows of opportunity with different resources used. Please know, we aren't perfect. We miss days. It gets bumped or forgotten on accident, and sadly sometimes on purpose, when other things are deemed to take priority instead of taking few moments to read God's Word together. I'll share three of the resources we use as a family and that we recommend.

In our morning circle time in school ... a time where we all sit together to kick off our school day ... we read from the Catherine Vos Child's Story Bible. In the 1930's, a young mother was looking for a resource to make the Bible a little more understandable to her small children. When she wasn't able to find a resource, she wrote her own. The Child's Story Bible is an excellent paraphrase of most of the stories in the Bible. Where a lot of children's "story Bibles" skip over the minor prophets and Old Testament stories that are harder to navigate, the Child's Story Bible tackles most of them in a precious, simple way that makes a child understand the concept without it sounding "dumbed down." We are in our third year of homeschooling and this year marked the beginning of our second time through this book. Highly, highly recommend.


Second, we love and recommend the Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. Where the Catherine Vos Bible is great for my kindergartener and early elementary student, the Jesus Storybook Bible speaks volumes to my preschoolers. When it says that "every story whispers His name", it means that every story points the reader to Jesus. Jesus as the promise mentioned in creation when the sin of Adam and Eve separated us from God. Jesus as the promise given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as they travelled to the promised land. Jesus as the promise of Isaiah when he spoke of a "Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace." The artwork is extremely well done and my girls have studied and studied this sweet book until the binding has broken off and been repaired time and time again with packing tape. Another highly recommend if you are a looking for a story Bible for younger children.

Lastly, this resource isn't a Bible but a devotional for kids. Many are familiar with Sarah Young's devotional, Jesus Calling. The thoughts in this kids' version are the same as in the original, however they are modified for a early elementary or tween in their language and style. The author spent several years, as part of her devotional time, sitting and listening to the still small voice of God, and writing down what she believe God was telling her. Scripture verses are given in each devotional to reinforce and tie-in to the short devotional. While I try and remember to read the Jesus Storybook Bible to my four and five year old before their bedtime, my husband is currently reading through Jesus Calling with our 8 year old at night along with a few verses from Proverbs a day. They both miss this time in the evening when it doesn't happen.


I hope that these resources are an encouragement to you ... three simple books that we have had on our shelves for some time and are part of our daily routines. And, thank you so much for your encouragement that you left on my introductory post yesterday! I'm looking foward to visiting around to the 31-day-ers in the next few days as we have some time off school ... so many wonderful topics you have shared with me. : )


Day: 1

The book links above are Amazon affiliate links ... if you click them and make a purchase, I will earn a few pennies towards books for my munchkins. Just thought I'd mention it. :)