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Resources for Parents/Carers
Cars come with a manual, phones come with a manual, children don’t ...
Psalm 78 (NIV) says:
"we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,
so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands."
Moses calls God’s people in Deuteronomy to teach their children:
"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
At Christ Church, we aim to teach children and young people the ‘praiseworthy deeds of the Lord’
so that ‘they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands’.
We’re very aware that parents/carers are given first responsibility for this and we want to support you as best we can.
We’re creating a resource base for parents/carers which we hope you can add to.
We want to know what you’ve found helpful in building up children and young people as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Please contact me on dave.thornton@ccwinch.org.uk if you want to recommend a resource or comment on anything we’ve mentioned.
Cars come with a manual, phones come with a manual, children don’t ...
Psalm 78 (NIV) says:
"we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,
so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands."
Moses calls God’s people in Deuteronomy to teach their children:
"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
At Christ Church, we aim to teach children and young people the ‘praiseworthy deeds of the Lord’
so that ‘they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands’.
We’re very aware that parents/carers are given first responsibility for this and we want to support you as best we can.
We’re creating a resource base for parents/carers which we hope you can add to.
We want to know what you’ve found helpful in building up children and young people as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Please contact me on dave.thornton@ccwinch.org.uk if you want to recommend a resource or comment on anything we’ve mentioned.
Bibles
We’d really like to encourage you to read the Bible with your children.
5 minutes once a week is a good start, but why not try to make it a daily habit?
Letting your children see you reading your own Bible helps them realise it's important to you,
making it more likely that it will be important to them.
Bibles for children and younger people are a challenge.
Children generally want to read books with pictures and easier words, and want them to be concrete rather than conceptual.
Balancing Biblical accuracy with these needs are a challenge.
Here are our recommendations:
Scramblers (2-4 year olds)
We use The Beginner’s Bible by Candle Books.
Short text. Colourful pictures.
Climbers (4-6 year olds)
We use the Jesus Storybook Bible (written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and published by Zonderkidz).
This has more detailed text and colourful drawings. Every story points towards Jesus.
An alternative is The Usborne Illustrated Children’s Bible.
There is lots more text in here, which means many more Bible stories, with very beautiful pictures.
Online, check out The Bible App for Kids at https://www.bible.com/kids.
This is aimed at under-7s but can be used by older children.
It’s an animated Bible storybook with games and activities.
For something a bit different, you could try Stories Jesus Told (Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen and published by Candle Books).
This is a short book with 8 parables beautifully illustrated.
You could also try, for 4-8 year olds, My First Message (Eugene H. Peterson, published by Navpress).
This is colourful and has more text in. There are questions to think about and ideas for discussion, prayer and activities.
Xplorers (7-10 year olds)
We use the Good News Bible.
This has the full text in, with some line drawings. The language is simpler than many other Bibles.
For something a bit different for this age group, get hold of Diary of a Disciple (Scripture Union).
It’s a retelling of Luke’s gospel by Gemma Willis. It looks good, has easy to read text and ways to engage with the story.
There's also a free Guardians of Ancora app (https://guardiansofancora.com), a platform game aimed at 9-11 year olds which tells Bible stories and is regularly updated.
Pathfinders (11-14 years old)
We use the Soul Survivor NIV Youth Bible.
It has the full Bible text, with boxes in the text for explanations, doctrine and answers to tricky questions.
Download (14-18 years old)
We use the NIV.
The editions by Hodder & Stoughton look good.
Hot off the press is the Good News Bible: The Youth Edition published by The Bible Society and Youth for Christ.
Young people have been involved in the creation of this edition, so it looks good and is the one I would now recommend to a 11-18 year old.
It’s got space on every page to make notes and thoughts to help investigate further.
A great resource for teenagers (and adults!) to understand the Bible is at https://thebibleproject.com/. There are great videos there that overview Bible books and explain theology in eye-catching ways.
For something a bit different, you could look at The Manga Bible (Siku, Hodder & Stoughton),
The Lion Graphic Bible (Jeff Anderson & Mike Maddox, Lion) or
The Action Bible (published by David C. Cook).
These are all cartoon strip Bibles and might be useful for someone who finds it hard to read.
Reading the Bible with Dyslexia
The Bible Society is increasing its range of Bible books printed in dyslexia-friendly formats.
You can get hold of Psalms, Mark, Luke, John and Romans.
All of these are the Good News version, except Luke which is ESV (English Standard Version).
We’d really like to encourage you to read the Bible with your children.
5 minutes once a week is a good start, but why not try to make it a daily habit?
Letting your children see you reading your own Bible helps them realise it's important to you,
making it more likely that it will be important to them.
Bibles for children and younger people are a challenge.
Children generally want to read books with pictures and easier words, and want them to be concrete rather than conceptual.
Balancing Biblical accuracy with these needs are a challenge.
Here are our recommendations:
Scramblers (2-4 year olds)
We use The Beginner’s Bible by Candle Books.
Short text. Colourful pictures.
Climbers (4-6 year olds)
We use the Jesus Storybook Bible (written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and published by Zonderkidz).
This has more detailed text and colourful drawings. Every story points towards Jesus.
An alternative is The Usborne Illustrated Children’s Bible.
There is lots more text in here, which means many more Bible stories, with very beautiful pictures.
Online, check out The Bible App for Kids at https://www.bible.com/kids.
This is aimed at under-7s but can be used by older children.
It’s an animated Bible storybook with games and activities.
For something a bit different, you could try Stories Jesus Told (Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen and published by Candle Books).
This is a short book with 8 parables beautifully illustrated.
You could also try, for 4-8 year olds, My First Message (Eugene H. Peterson, published by Navpress).
This is colourful and has more text in. There are questions to think about and ideas for discussion, prayer and activities.
Xplorers (7-10 year olds)
We use the Good News Bible.
This has the full text in, with some line drawings. The language is simpler than many other Bibles.
For something a bit different for this age group, get hold of Diary of a Disciple (Scripture Union).
It’s a retelling of Luke’s gospel by Gemma Willis. It looks good, has easy to read text and ways to engage with the story.
There's also a free Guardians of Ancora app (https://guardiansofancora.com), a platform game aimed at 9-11 year olds which tells Bible stories and is regularly updated.
Pathfinders (11-14 years old)
We use the Soul Survivor NIV Youth Bible.
It has the full Bible text, with boxes in the text for explanations, doctrine and answers to tricky questions.
Download (14-18 years old)
We use the NIV.
The editions by Hodder & Stoughton look good.
Hot off the press is the Good News Bible: The Youth Edition published by The Bible Society and Youth for Christ.
Young people have been involved in the creation of this edition, so it looks good and is the one I would now recommend to a 11-18 year old.
It’s got space on every page to make notes and thoughts to help investigate further.
A great resource for teenagers (and adults!) to understand the Bible is at https://thebibleproject.com/. There are great videos there that overview Bible books and explain theology in eye-catching ways.
For something a bit different, you could look at The Manga Bible (Siku, Hodder & Stoughton),
The Lion Graphic Bible (Jeff Anderson & Mike Maddox, Lion) or
The Action Bible (published by David C. Cook).
These are all cartoon strip Bibles and might be useful for someone who finds it hard to read.
Reading the Bible with Dyslexia
The Bible Society is increasing its range of Bible books printed in dyslexia-friendly formats.
You can get hold of Psalms, Mark, Luke, John and Romans.
All of these are the Good News version, except Luke which is ESV (English Standard Version).
