You have to love this Bible, it is great for kids – we read ours everyday at lunch time and I often find my kids browsing through this book looking for projects… he! he! he! They are browsing through the Bible!!! I can’t say I would have done that as a child.
I can not rave about this Bible enough, it is the Bible my children want to read and I have included se7en of their activities in this post for you to see how quick and easy they are. They also have a good website where you can download free curriculum samples, articles and ideas.
The thing about this Bible is it is for kids, but it isn’t a story Bible, it is the real thing, The New Living Translation. It is packed with heaps of activities – hands on learning at its best – no more worksheets, word searches, coloring pages or mazes!!! The activities inspire discussion – they are crafts, science experiments, very simple recipes to try – a whole range of things to do.
It has a fun introduction to each book of the Bible, including a mini timeline and a Jesus Connection. There are Bible Hero Biographies scattered throughout as well. With each of the biographies there is an associated activity.
It is also spattered with great Fun Facts, and instant object lessons. Here are some examples just from Genesis:
- Read Genesis 1:1. Take a piece of black paper and ask the kids “What do they see?” the answer you are looking for is “Nothing” – yup, there was nothing until God began His wonderful creation.
- This is all about Genesis 3 and Adam and Eve trying to hide from God after they had sinned. Let your kids make thumb prints, draw all over their thumb with markers and then stamp it on clean paper – it isn’t messy! The point is, while you can see these thumb prints, we leave our thumb and fingerprints on everything we touch, even if you can not see them. God doesn’t need firngerprints to catch us – He sees everything. Luckily He wants to forgive us, and that is why He sent His Son, Jesus.
- The story of Noah is in Genesis 6:9-22. Did you know that if God had asked Noah to fill the Ark with popcorn, he would have had to pop about 6 million bags? Did you know that? – It is the sort of thing my kids like to know!
- Pour some sand onto a piece of paper and give the kids a couple of minutes to count the grains – you can really ham this up into a huge competition… The point is it can’t be done. Can you imagine a whole beach – or even all the beaches in the world! That’s how many descendants God promised to Abraham, in Genesis 22:15-18 and if you are one of God’s followers then you are a part of this enormous family.
- Staying with Abraham, God told Abraham that he would have as many children as there are stars in the sky – we took glow in the dark stars and decorated them with glitter. We wrote the name of a close friend on the back of the star, and they stuck the stars next to their bed, to remind themselves to pray for that friend when they went to bed every night.
There are 52 Key Verse Activities, Aha! Thats one for each week of the year – now these are scattered throughout the Bible, but they are cleverly (for the adult reader!) collected at the back, in a series of family devotionals. Here are two examples:
- First read 2 Chronicles 7:14. We took two pipe cleaners per child and cut them in two… then everyone could choose four halves to work with. Fold each stick into a corner at the center and thread a bead into the middle of them. Place each of the bent sticks next to each other and twist the pipe cleaners together – you should end up with a cross and the four beads are two remind us of the four things God asks us in the Bible verse: Be Humble; Pray; Seek God and Be Good.
- The Bible says someone is knocking at the door. Print a door hanger, from this template, for each child. Get each child to write Revelation 3:20 on it. Then decorate the door hangers with stickers and things. The door hanger is a reminder that Jesus is knocking on everyone’s door.
The Reference section at the back is great: A Bible F.A.Q., charts, maps, dictionary/concordance, lists of where to find specific verses and all the hands-on activities are collected together in a section for family devotionals.
As you can see there are lots of fun learning opportunities in this Bible and I hope you can get your hands on one and have as much fun as we have had.