So yesterday we picked a good children’s Bible and now we’re ready to study it for Sunday School. What now? Now you need a few good children’s Bible studies.
Well, there are several children’s Bible studies on the market. I’ll go through a couple of the ones I know of, but I DON’T KNOW THEM ALL. I’m always looking for more resources to tell people about.
Bible Study Guide for All Ages
This is broken down into three categories: beginner (preschool/early elementary), Intermediate (middle elementary about 2-4 grades) and Advanced (5-8 grades).
There are some parts of it I really liked, it goes through ALL of the Bible. What I struggled with is it’s rather Type A, there’s fill in the blanks, or coloring it this way, and do this thing. My kids were struggling with it. They wanted to just be able to color it however they wanted, so eventually, we quit using it. I still think it’s a good system and refer to it when I’m planning my lesson (I bought the whole set to look at for ideas occasionally), but it doesn’t work for my family.
This is an overview study. It’d take a year with one lesson a week to go through the whole Bible. Each lesson covers one book of the Bible. I think it does a great idea of giving you the big picture of the Bible.
Ultimately though I want more detail in our studies, so we use this to introduce the book of the Bible we’re about to study. Or for some of the prophets, we’ll just use this because it explains pretty well.
Stick figuring through the Bible
I have to admit I haven’t looked into this too much. I’m personally not a fan of stick figures, and so I have a prejudice against it in that regard, but everything I’ve read on it, and the sample lessons I’ve seen have some great things in it.
Over at The Pelsers she’s got a review and giveaway of this going on. I don’t know anything about this because my kids aren’t old enough, but it looks great for those of you with older kids (junior high age or older).
Another great resource that just came out (like in the last month), so far all they have out is the book of Luke, but it looks quite intriguing. I wish it had come out a few years ago. It might have saved me a LOT of time and effort.
I have to admit none of the Bible studies I found quite fit what I wanted, so for the past year and a half I’ve been working on a plan to go through the Bible in 2 years as a family. I’ve created questions for preschool/early elementary, Upper Elementary, and “Older guys” (aka junior high on up), with activity ideas, and links to any related ideas I’ve found online. You’ve seen hints of it in my Bible posts so far.
If your kids are ready to read the Bible on their own I suggest How to Study the Bible for Kids. It takes a lot of the ideas from The Dig, but broadens it out to a generic how to study the Bible. Of course I’m prejudiced because I wrote it, but I think it’s pretty awesome.
So, that’s the Bible studies for kids that I know of. It’s only a handful at this time. Three years ago there wasn’t much in the way of children’s Bible studies. In the past year, I’ve seen a sudden explosion in content in this area. This excites me because that means there are many other parents eager and hungry to teach their kids about the Bible from a young age.
Today I used some of Jamerill’s tips from her post yesterday and gave myself grace today. I’ve also enjoyed Happy Brown House’s Developing Fine Motor Skills series.
Day 1: Choosing your Bible
Day 2: Finding the right Bible study for you
Day 3: Choosing a children’s Bible
Day 4: Choosing a children’s Bible study
Day 5: What to do when you’re spiritually empty
Day 6: Digging Deeper
Day 7: Live it Out
Day 8: Sing it Loud
Day 9: Act it Out
Day 10: A week in our Bible Study
Great post! We are going to try a grapevine bible study next. We are currently using Positive Action but it just isn’t working for us!
I’ll have to check that one out, I haven’t heard of it.
I think you should write a children’s Bible study!
lesson one of the one I’m working on is available right now as a download for subscribers! 🙂
Or it is if I set that up right…….
OK, I have a couple of resources to add to this list:
Pre-K and Elementary:
*What’s in the Bible- they now have a little booklet of fun activities for the Pentateuch- woo hoo!
Upper Elementary and Middle School:
*Kay Arthur’s studies for kiddos- they are so in depth! Awesomeness…
I’m actually covering What’s in the Bible later under videos and such stuff.
I’d forgotten the Kay Arthur ones when I was writing them. With my kids being younger I don’t really have as much experience with them.
you should look into Children Desiring God Bible studies…they have a younger children walk through the Bible in 2 years (OT then NT chronologically) that is wonderful
Do you know the website by any chance? I’d love to look into it.
http://www.childrendesiringgod.org
and then its in the curriculum(these can be used for Sundya School curriculum but are wonderful for using at home) Its the preschool age that walk through the old then new testaments,…but then their Bible studies go on up through the ages and although my personal experience is only with the first two, I’ve had friends enjoy several others and its definitely on our radar to continue them. very solid, very rich studies, and very age appropriate.
I love how thorough you are with this!
Thanks! I’ve been looking around a lot trying to find the perfect thing, so I tend to check out everything!
I love these resources! I just have to add – we are using Grapevine studies in our Awana program right now and the kids are loving it! Stick-figuring sounds boring, but there is so much symbolism you can add and you can enhance the studies however you see fit. It is like notebooking and time-lining. 🙂
It’s my personal hang up, it looks like a really good study, but for some reason I don’t like stick figures. It’s the most ridiculous thing, everything I’ve heard is it’s awesome, and yet I get hung up on the silly stick figures. I do keep going back to look at it, so who knows maybe someday I’ll let go of my stick figure thing and try it.
It’s got to be on the list of silliest reasons not to try a Bible study 🙂
I’ll second Wonder Mom’s note on Kay Arthur for kids for 10 to 12 year olds. My 11 year old really absorbed a lot during our K.A. Esther study last spring, and mentions it often. I’m thinking about ordering in the Daniel study this winter.
Daniel was the first Kay Arthur study I did. I LOVED it!
Teaching God’s Word to children is so important. Thanks for the post.