Bibles, Bibles Everywhere!

Bibles, Bibles everywhere

Bibles near and far

Let's use our hands and feet to count

How many versions there are.

(Adapted from the Baby Einstein book "Water, Water Everywhere")

Probably the most important thing you can do with your kids is read the Bible to them and with them each day. We do this at bedtime, but any time that works for you and your family is the right time!  We've also found that having a Bible (or Bible story books) at your child's level really does make this a time when God can speak to their little hearts (and your heart too).

I am often asked for recommendations in this area, so I'll share what I've found to be useful with my kids. I've spent a lot of time searching, and these are the Bibles I like the most. If you have one that you'd like to recommend, please do add it in the comments at the bottom of the post! The links I included are linked to Christian Book Distributors. I find they have the best prices, but they also often allow you a peek inside the books online. That's I feature I LOVE!

I started my kids off with these:  

These are small board books that tell individual Bible stories. You can find them at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com by using their search application to search for "Patricia Pingry" who is the author. There are quite a few titles as you can see in the picture below (some are also available in paperback which is cheaper). I like that there is just one story per book (as opposed to a toddler Bible with a collection of different stories). I just find this to be easier.

Sometimes the lesson gets wrapped up in a trite little sentence at the end, but I always expand on the story myself so I don't worry about that much. The one book that I'm not crazy about is The Story of Noah because they leave out the rainbow and God's promise. That's kind of key to the whole story, don't you think? I also really like their series for holidays. Thanksgiving and Easter are pictured below, but they also have Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and America's Birthday (4th of July).


Once my kids were ready for more stories and more text, we moved on to The Beginner's Bible:

I liked it a lot. I liked how Sawyer could start to understand the Old Testament from the New Testament (because finishing the old and moving on to the new was always a big deal around here). The best part about it is that it doesn't break the Bible stories up. The whole story of Noah is one story. The story of Abraham is broken up into various parts that are whole stories that make sense. That's the format I prefer, but several Bibles I looked at did not do that. They would break the stories up in odd places so that they could keep the stories to just a two page spread. For example, the Read and Share Bible:


I switched to this Bible when we had gone through the Beginners Bible more than once. I like it a lot, but they put a new title on each 2 page spread. Therefore, the stories get chopped up into small parts that don't make a whole story. I would always read several "stories" at a time each night to my kids to make one coherent story. For example, the story of Noah is broken down into 5 parts: Noah,The Big Boat, Inside the boat, The Dove, and The Rainbow. I would read all 5 parts to preserve the whole story. Scot (my husband) didn't get that, so he'd read just one chunk at bedtime until I pointed out to him that that didn't make a whole lot of sense. It wasn't a big deal, I still really liked this Bible, but I just think it would be improved if the stories were kept whole.

What I did like about that Bible more than the Beginner's Bible, is that there is a question at the end of each "story", so there was good interaction about the story throughout. I also liked the illustrations better.

As my son got to be ready for kindergarten, it was time to find another Bible that was more at his level: more text, but still a lot of pictures. We had read through both the Beginner's Bible and the Read and Share Bible several times. This was somewhat hard to find. I actually ended up stumbling across the perfect pick at W@lMart, the Read and Learn Bible:



So far, this is my favorite Bible. It includes lots of detail in each Bible story, and it is perfect for K-2 I think. The thing I liked about this was that it greatly expanded on the stories from the Beginner's Bible and the Read and Share Bible, but it still had LOTS of pictures. At this age, pictures are still a HUGE boost to understanding for kids, so I think they are necessary. This book doesn't skimp on text or pictures which I love! Also, each story stays close to the Biblical account which is important to me.

Hopefully, this helps you out. Again, if you use a particular children's Bible at home and it isn't listed here, please add yours to the comments below if you'd like to recommend it (or NOT recommend it if you have found you don't like it).

If you are looking for a Bible for your elementary-aged child, check out the "Elementary" page for some recommendations!