Lessons on the Gospel- Go, Share, Missions, Witnesses

Some of the other lessons I used games and activities from the Bible App for kids website.  The website also leads to an OpenChurch website with their curriculum.  

I like the small group activities, the prop talks, and the connections to the Bible.  

I used ideas from: God's Good Gospel- Unit 19 and Journey's for Jesus Unit 9 on the Gospel and Missions.  

In Little Church and Children's Church, we did the prop talks from Journey's for Jesus- 

We looked at globes, and where we are, where Paul travelled, where Jesus lived, and where our missionaries live.   We then practiced saying, Go! Go! Go! Share Jesus! and we marched around chanting this!  

We had the traffic light and played a version of red light/green light, where when it was green- we knew we could, "Go! Go! Go! share Jesus (or share the Good News)"  As witnesses/missionaries like Paul.  

We also had a picture of a school, a home, park, and the world- and we asked, where can you share Jesus? anywhere!  or we picked a specific place and talked about sharing Jesus there!  

We then added in what we want to share as the Good News or the Gospel- which led us back to our images and tossing bean bags on all the aspects of the Good News- so that we could share that Jesus loves me, He died for me, He rose again so that I can have eternal life, He paid for my sin, He's preparing a kingdom for me, He sent the Holy Spirit (a dove symbol and we made our hands wings) to be our helper!  

We also sang our J-E-S-U-S song- because There is a name I love to sing and Jesus is His name. Yes! J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S and Jesus is His name Yes!  Because there is power in the name of Jesus- He is God and He lived as man without any sin!  

We did sing this song with the help of Youtube one or two weeks!  

We also sang, "This little light of mine!" and "The Bible" on occassion.  

We also connected throughout our Acts study that Peter and John shared the good news, and healed in the power of Jesus name!, that Philip taught the Good News to the Ethiopian Man, and we practiced sharing the Good News using head from the Ethiopian Man and Philip on popsicle sticks.  That come from another one of my favorite resources, BibleFunforKids, the author Debbie Jackson has been sharing and updating resources for years, and she does such a great job focusing on the verses that go with the event, as well as interactions that make it come alive.  I printed my teaching set full page, but for the kids I printed two pages per page, so that the heads were more reasonable size.  

Lessons on the Gospel- other resources I've incorporated into little church/children's church with pre-schoolers

 This spring, I've read the following books with our preschoolers at least once.  

This book defined words, shared the concepts, but doesn't have the same momentum-building connections as the other board books we read.  But it does present the concepts in a biblical, simple truthful way.  

This book I used at least twice. Once I read through the whole book, and another time we reviewed the gospel concepts by going through the story.  I think it's a better fit for the 5-7-year-old group as its pictures are more detailed, and a bit more intense with the artwork.  

Because I'm all about repetition but changing it up a little bit to keep the children listening, I also used this book.  It's a smaller book and the print is tiny and brief, so it was easy to work into our reading, and now it's in our bag of gospel books that are in our nursery/little church room.  

This is the last book that I shared in our unit, and probably the longest to read aloud, but the week I read the whole thing, we had a lot of our ages 4-6-year-olds present, and it's perfect for them.  

For me, it hits all the concepts I've been building in our preschool lessons:

·       God created the world, people. 

·       God loves us SO much. 

·       People sinned, separating us from God.

·       God loves us SO much- He had a plan- that plan is Jesus.

·       Jesus is God and man.  Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that we may have eternal life, be with God forever, made right. 

·       We want to be King of me!  and be in control.  But that doesn't work so well.

·       Jesus is Our King.  Jesus is working on His Kingdom, preparing it for those who believe in Him. 

·       Jesus loves you and me!  and I love Jesus!

·       I need to turn to Jesus (and to please Him I should stop sinning).

·       The Holy Spirit is God- and He is my Helper- to help me live with Jesus as King of me. 

·       This is the Good News! 

·       God's Word tells me that after I believe- I should share the Good News!  

So this was a perfect read-aloud after all the other books, and because it fit the concepts and themes we had been talking about for weeks, the littles listened better as it was familiar and review.  

Lessons on the Gospel: Teaching about turning from sin and loving King Jesus!

As we learned about the gospel, we had celebrated Easter in the months between the start of Acts and moving into the missionary journeys that Paul made.  When we discuss all the King Jesus has done, always using our hands to put a pretend crown on our head- to remember He is our King.  We talk about how sin separates us from God, and how Jesus is our Rescuer, who takes our sin on Himself, and is our sacrificial lamb.  

In our regular preschool classes, we go through the entire Bible and look for Jesus in all of the Old and New testament.  I have been writing my own curriculum using my ideas and using ideas from bloggers that have shared their lessons for use in a home, school, or church environment. One favorite blog that often has great printable visuals to bring the story alive is Faith Sprouts.  I used many of her printables, songs, and ideas to build on and repeat in our study of Acts and in helping the littles learn to share the "Good News!" 

I've created and laminated many of the printables that this blogger shares.  During the pandemic, I delivered a laminated Jesus figure and the donkey to help families celebrate Palm Sunday and actively engage their children in Easter Week.  

Older kids in Pre-K would have already learned about John the Baptist and defined the word: "Repent" which is a big message that Paul repeats in his journeys and trials- that we need to stop, turn from sin, and love Jesus.  

The follow-up props to this lesson are found in Jesus loves the children and blesses them, and I have made up popsicle sticks that one side has a heart and one side has a stop sign, and we hold the figures of Jesus, as we stand up, talk about turning from our sin, and loving King Jesus!  

Of course, we also learned about Acts 3, and since the very beginning of our Acts study, we have chosen to sing every week, the song about J-E-S-U-S Name that Ms. Susanna shared.  It took us a few months before we used the letters of Jesus' name and clapped as we skipped letters marching around and sharing the name that brings the power to heal!  

After we had read the gospel books, studied our Acts lessons, we also had to learn how to share the Good News, and we started with a few of Ms. Susanna's ideas here, and we held laminated foam globes from the dollar store, or a beach ball globe, or laminated small earth. 

I can't take credit for any of the free printables or even the wording, but I can say that through well-done materials from bloggers like Ms. Susanna and authors that write books that are well done for our littles.  I will build a series of lessons, pull together and repeat, repeat, repeat the truth of the Good News until our littles can share and repeat it back.  I wish when I was little I had been taught the gospel message this clearly.  

So after we have said "No!" to sin, and turned to King Jesus.  We build on how King Jesus saved us.  

Littles can share:

• Jesus died on the cross so that I can my sins are forgiven!   
• Jesus rose from the grave, three days later, to show that He is God and to give us eternal life!
• Jesus is my King! (and we have a larger crown image.)  And we learned in Acts 1- that He ascended to Heaven, to sit at God's side, and to prepare His Kingdom for those who believe in Him.  (and we have a castle picture).  
• Then we review that Jesus didn't leave us alone, He sent us the Holy Spirit (a Dove), as we learned in Acts 2.  To be our helper, and be God with us.  

We also read, review key verses.  

Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God!  

Romans 5:8- But God demonstrates His love for us, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! 

Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. 

Romans 10:9- If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.  

Romans 10:13- If anyone calls on the name of the Lord, he shall be saved.  

Acts 16:31- Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and You will be saved.  

I've been so encouraged at how even our two and three-year-olds have been able to interact in class, repeat concepts, and smile while we are having our class!  I feel a little in withdrawal, as I haven't been doing a full lesson and story the past few weeks for summer.  So after our family week away, I will choose a week and have a lesson or two to make sure the little retain the content!  

Lessons on the Gospel: Active Learning to Go! Share the Good News!

These are pages that I posted and reviewed each week as we discussed sharing the Good News!  I also printed the images on half sheets of paper, laminated them, and the children loved to toss their bean bags on a picture, and then share with the group what part of the Gospel this picture reminded us about.  This became one of our weekly activities, sometimes we'd also hold our laminated Jesus. Sometimes we set up our people and cat math counters so we had a group to share the good news with, other weeks we set up the women and guards from Easter finger puppets who needed to hear the Good News of Jesus.  We made megaphones to color and to help proclaim the good news. We sang J-E-S-U-S.  But mostly we practiced being witnesses or missionaries as the book of Acts has instructed believers to do!  I'm realistic I know not all the kids will remember this now, but I also know the power of memorization, especially when the Holy Spirit supports what is in our mind, and helps us in the right moment, at the right time, to find the Hope that is within us- and that Hope is Jesus!  But this has been the focus and fun of our lessons- with crown-wearing, foam worlds, beach ball world, bean bags, laminated images, songs, movement, and of course our Jesus soft plush that joined us somewhere at the end of May.  

I learned to wear a scarf with my outfit to tuck Jesus in as we shared the Good News! 

Stop! Repent! Turn from your sin

 and love Jesus!

Lessons on The Gospel- books and resources to help you share the truth with your children

I've spent all of 2021 building lessons and resources in order to help pre-schoolers know what the gospel is, reviewing, playing games, and developing the ability to talk about all God has done and is doing in the lives of His people.  

I had no idea there were so many published books on the Gospel.  I thought since this project has gone on over so many months, I should create a central post and share my overall favorite books to use with our littles at church!  

Repetition is key for young kids and these books I read multiple times with the preschool kids.  

Jesus Saves by Sarah Reju that I reviewed before it released in March, is probably my top choice, the rhyme factor, the simple terms that it uses, with questions to connect with the children, and helps them understand that Jesus loves me, loves who? loves me!  Asking Who is my King? King of who? King of me? and you?  Defining sin simply as the wrong things we do, wanting what others have, or taking things.  And me choosing to be king of me.  My explanation is nowhere near as clear as going through this book with a group of children.  A golden crown or two circulating and being worn as we ask if I am King of me? or if I let King Jesus be my King.  Here is a link where the author reads the book aloud!

This crown is soft, flexible, and the velcro adjusts to fit me or to fit a 2-year-old!  So far I have two for our little church program and they are a hit!  

Wow! The Gospel in Four Words by Dandi Daley MacKall

This book is a bit longer and so I didn't read all the words depending on how well the kids were doing listening, but the best part about the gospel is the story remains the same, and different authors find inventive ways to make it easy to grasp and to remember for children.  The hook of this story is the four words that you use to retell the story: Wow, Uh-Oh, Yes, Ahh!, and Wow!  Tyndale shares these free printables to help engage children.  

You can print finger puppets to help tell, review, and retell the Good News.  I put mine on popsicle sticks for ease of use and because the laminating made them hard to wrap around.  The kids really enjoyed these.  

The other book that really helped to tie the gospel into our Acts series is about Paul in jail.  I reviewed this book originally here.  And here is an explanation of how I used it this year.  

These images helped me create the visuals and story that I shared earlier this month.  

• My littles start with the fact that God made the world- and He does good work (thumbs up!). He made me and you.  
• God loves me and you- He loves me so much that He sent His Son Jesus to rescue us from our sin.  
• Jesus loves me- and Jesus loves you!  
• Sin is disobeying your parents, take things that don't belong to you!  We also do the actions and words that have been used in our AWANA program.  Sin is anything you say (point to your mouth), think (point to your head), or do (move your hands) against God.   
• Sin is wanting to be king of me. King of Who? King of me!  I want to be in control, instead of letting Jesus be my King.  
• I need to say No! to sin.  .... tomorrow I will share the lesson we have done when we have this conversation about sin originally from a John the Baptist lesson.  

Developing Biblical Literacy in your children, tweens, teens

Thinking about my book review yesterday, I wanted to follow up with some of my opinions on how to help your kids learn and love the Bible.  

At home, I'm a far less formal bible teacher than I imagine many of my friends even know because my free time is spent creating Bible literacy activities for the children from birth through elementary age at our local church.  It's also spent giving parents fun, engaging, hands-on ideas to enhance the passages we learn about as a family on Sunday mornings in an intentional book by book of the Bible study.  I also love discovering resources to enhance my thinking, learning about important events from the Bible in our local church and in homes.  I was disappointed that this book read more like a textbook than it did a book for lay parents to be motivated, feel equipped, and cheered on in the overwhelming consideration as to how to help our children LOVE His word.  

First and foremost, as a parent, you need to love and be in the Word.  I've had to learn to say to my kids (especially when I'm using an app, my iPad, or my iPhone) that this is Mom's quiet time to be in the Word of God or I'm doing my Bible Study while you ____.  But to mention that while they may not see me reading the Word (as my goal is that it is a quiet time- and that happens when they are asleep or not around) so that they know.   I learned otherwise they have no idea.  So I mention what I'm reading, or that I'm studying.  As well as talking about my wonders, my learning, etc.  

We attend church consistently as a family. When I serve in our little church during the message time, my kids know that I watch it at home during the week, and I take notes in each of our book studies, in a scripture book journal.  That's how I learn.  I've asked my kids to share what they learned from the message, in the car as we were talking about note-taking and studying- and with two kids- together they had all the main points- and they didn't take notes!  But that was my point, in their lives they will reach a point where they need to take notes on something, as their brother in college was learning this past year.  So we talk about the messages together.  We serve together. We help each other when we are teaching children in our growing deeper opportunities.  I memorize verses or passages to help me dig deeper and process them.  I don't do it every day, but in different life seasons, this has kept me healthy, and when I memorize I write (yes I'm consistent) and I often write the verse on my bathroom mirror and review it by copying it or writing from memory on my shower wall that disappears as I shower.  So they see it.  This helps them know I value it and commit time to it.  It works for me- others have different methods- make it your own- just make it known subtly.  

Thinking about ways that help my kids develop biblical literacy and love the Word- here are some responses that I wish were in my most recent book review.  

Kids love and learn by observing other people- so they can appreciate and learn the Word at home AND it can be reinforced and taught fresh in the local church, in para-church organizations, in small group gatherings, in other families' homes.  I believe we need each other to learn, grow, and be accountable, and so do our kids!  

Many of these skills- our local church accomplishes in our AWANA program and our Growing Deeper Learning Time (often known as Sunday School).  

Our local church children's ministry team also has chosen to spend our summers learning about bible translation, Christian life habits, and disciplines like prayer, giving, sharing the gospel, our testimony, what missionaries do, how we are missionaries no matter where we live, and serving the Lord.  We spend the school year teaching the under 8-year-olds a full view of the Old Testament and New Testament Events seeing Jesus in all of the Bible, then seeing who God is in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and seeing how His character, attributes, and intention in the lives of human beings and how He has given us the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit helps us once we believe.  Our older kids then go through and learn specific doctrine through Bible study and small group discussion.  

This is why my children have all participated in Growing Deeper and AWANA clubs, seen both parents volunteer and lead this ministry, and have awards to show their efforts.  Our third child, our only girl, got to a point where AWANA was not fun, and she did not enjoy it, so she did not go beyond 3rd grade.  But she was able to join a girl-only peer group that focuses on her age in a smaller setting, and it's filled in the hole very well.  And this fall, she will be old enough to help at AWANA an area that she looks forward to participating in, as she will be able to be sure children enjoy the club time and control aspects that made her want to quit for other kids. 

When your children are little, my thinking is that you read the Word from a child developmentally leveled storybook or storybook Bible that is accurate, expands their knowledge of more and more events from the Bible, and helps them to see who God is and who Jesus is throughout His word.  I've also learned that in the past 20 years, it's now possible to have quite an amazing home library of books that enhance biblical literacy, a view of who God is, teach the gospel, prophecy, missions, bible translation, Christian worldview, etc in fun age-appropriate ways that will appeal to children of all learning styles.  With rhyme, poetry, visuals, motions, repetition, metaphor, symbols, etc.  And that as a parent it's my job to keep these resources around and create readers in my home.  My home library of bible storybooks, individual events, holiday fun activities to celebrate advent or count down to Easter when the world is paying a lot of their attention on the secular holiday- we are investing in the real reasons to celebrate.  

Part of their DVD or streaming options were biblically fun programs- my daughter ironically enough loved Bibleman, my boys loved Veggietales, The Pond, Boz, and (the unforgettable) Roach Approach.  When we talked about being loving and kind to your siblings, we discussed what the Bible had to say about love and how to love others.  We still read aloud and count down to Advent as a family with different options and books each year, and repeat the same favorites!  So many simple, well-done materials are available in 2021- use them.  I stopped buying regular children's books and started purchasing a biblical theme or influenced books, and we go to the library to check out fiction regularly.  

I find there are many, many ways to help our kids develop biblical literacy.  As a lover of learning, and educator, it's my joy to create biblical education play.  I now seek out and purchase play materials that support our learning and remembering what happened in each bible event.  So recently, I acquired a stuffed Jesus (like a stuffed animal).  I've even been making sure to wear a looped scarf when I teach the gospel, so I can so that Jesus is with me and the center of the Good News.  I've purchased soft golden crowns that velcro to different sizes to discuss Jesus as Our King- and my desire to be king of me, because my sin nature wants to disobey, to have my way, to take things, etc.  I've laminated images of bible figures- including Jesus- and the world- so we can march and chant or sing about how much Jesus loves me- and the world- or to emphasize I need to share Jesus with the world!  It's amazing the power of something visual and a little movement has to get children to remember, to smile, to laugh, and to beg their parents to spend time with Mrs. Poling!  

I recently shared the new slideshow I made and laminated to teach the gospel in images to our under 6 kids at church.  I don't think I've mentioned that to review and reinforce we put the laminated images on the floor and toss bean bags to them, and share what the image means when our bean bag lands on it.  And the kids after reading the different gospel books we have and reviewing- can tell the Good News- and repeat it.  I pray that we are helping to mentally tattoo these concepts into their long-term memory.  So that they can comfortably share how they know Jesus, and how they have His helper, part of God, the Holy Spirit, living in them, helping them bring glory to God.  

This is what whispering the Word to our children looks like for me... how do you whisper the Word to your kids, to your church family, etc.  

 

Bethany House Partner Review: Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible by Danika Cooley

I am one who has spent a lot of my adult life considering how to help kids learn and love the Bible.  I had super high hopes for this book, to be inspiring, expand my knowledge, my bag of tricks, my resources, my ideas.  Unfortunately, I think the book would be more appropriately titled how to help your kids learn the Bible or how to prepare as parents to teach the Bible as a Book and as a daily tool for your children.  

I think my struggle with the book comes from my philosophy to have less formal family bible study, and more interactions as a parent with an intentional biblical and gospel led discussion in life events, in helping my children with behaviors, with life challenges, and in the everyday world and way we do our life together.  I fear if it feels required, isn't well done, and isn't spurring our children to develop these good spiritual habits in their own lives, it can actually be something our children endure, not enjoy and love.  I prefer to transition and train children as they become readers to read and learn more independently and discuss it as they go, rather than daily bible family time. At certain times of the year, we do family Bible reading and discussion, just not always.  

This book to me, is written like a textbook, is very informative and prescriptive, but while it suggests that as a parent you consider your child's learning styles and help the global-minded child learn as well as the analytically minded child.  But she doesn't recognize that parents will have different teaching styles, and different levels of time to commit to their child's discovery of how to read the bible text well- noting its inerrancy, its infallibleness, and it's inspiring. 

The author suggests that maybe your church will clearly help you and your children discover these concepts, but expects the full burden is on the parents and that your local church choice will not teach the Bible well.  Yes, it is biblical that fathers are responsible for their child's biblical learning, but nowhere does it say that the father cannot use the church or para-church groups to support this instruction, to reinforce it, and build on the teaching from the home.  

The author homeschools her children, and integrates Bible as an educational class, as a family experience, and her children based on the suggestions in the majority of this book will leave her home with basic doctrine, theology, and an overview as the Bible as literature, the intent of the translators of the Bible, having spent time daily in the Word as a family, and the book implies as well as in assignments.  But primarily through activities as a whole family.  None of this is bad.  

But the book I suspect will overwhelm the average parent, especially parents who do not have a solid grasp of the Bible historically, the themes across each book, seeing God in every event in the Bible- and seeing who Jesus is and his appearances in the Old Testament prophecy, as well as the fulfillment of these in the New Testament.  I've had a year of intentional college-level Bible study, and that is beneficial to everyone- and I interact in a circle of alumni of this one year program- and if they were to read this book, I'm not sure that they would feel capable of meeting the suggested strategies suggested in the first part of the book without feeling overwhelmed.  The focus of the first two sections is really on how to teach it as a textbook.  With some fun ideas, she has used incorporated, but not emphasized.  

The last section of the book is focused on the daily walk and spiritual disciplines. This was the most practical and realistic part of the book, mentioning your intentional time may not happen daily.  The tone of this section is the most encouraging aspect of the book and has some practical ideas.  It even mentions AWANA nights, but more as an event that will distract from your priority and keep you busy.  So I know that my belief that these groups- with spiritually mature adults leading them, and often young people, and even other kids parents working with the individuals, reinforce and impact our children in their spiritual lives often more than our home routine.  Seeing other children, other youth, other adults enjoy and celebrate their accomplishments in memorizing the Word, the intention of fun games, and council time, to me only enhances and celebrates our goals as parents to help our children love and learn the Bible.  

As a resource and guide, this book is detailed- it references many excellent resources for parents to read for their own spiritual maturity, to think about how their kids learn, for fun videos to encourage spiritual development, etc.  These are woven well into the book, but I'd encourage any reader to realize that this author is a curriculum developer, you will note in her many references to her own curriculum for sale on her blog, that she will provide you materials to help your children through the Bible, and that she's spent years studying and training herself to help her kids love the Bible, but that she started overwhelmed, uncertain, and that over years of practice, planning, and thinking she's suggesting this is how it worked for her.  I just wish she'd left more room for how to get there, how it doesn't happen overnight, and how baby-steps of what you are learning in your own walk with God and study of the Bible, add up to a genuine showcase of your love of the Word of God, and your modeling through your choice to be in the Word impact your kids as much if not more than a daily family study time.  As well as the fact that in a busy life, you can choose from the menu of spiritual habits and reinforce different aspects and concepts that she has suggested.  You don't have to do everything that she models as her daily practice.  

I found all of her teaching points relevant, good things to think about, to learn, and ways to approach the Word of God individually and in discussions with anyone including your children.  But her emphasis on the academic aspects of the Bible- was greater than I would have shared, and might overwhelm most parents.  But she has an amazing appreciation and dedication to teaching the Word of God well and considering all the angles and layers of learning a student of the Word will gain in a lifetime of study.   So if that's what you are looking for then this book is for you.  

Thankful to partner with Bethany House Publishers and read a physical copy of the book. 

Teaching the Gospel through Visuals, my own lesson plans

I am a visual learner.  The longer I teach, the more visual I want to be, and the more it helps me remember the big goal and learning point.   

I also during the ongoing pandemic church season have been the main teacher of our children ages 2-6, and I know that to keep their attention, and to help them remember anything, this age needs to be actively engaged with motions and movement.  Plus, the youngest children in this group, have lived through a year of not going to programs, nursery, other homes, etc, and being asked to sit with a new adult, and listen, is completely a new experience, as well as a stretch for their developmental ages.  

I knew I was on the right track when parents started telling me, that Ms. Sarah or Mrs. Poling was all that their kids could talk about during the week, and when it came time for Sunday morning- they couldn't wait to see me!  And it's my greatest joy to be the 'celebrity' teacher to littles.  One thing I did for the first few months I made sure every week they had one simple but really neat thing to take home that reinforced our learning.  So we took home: fake coins, slinky plastic stretchy hearts, bouncy balls with hearts inside, glow in dark Jesus, finger puppets with holes to make the lame man walk, easter projects like gauze and Jesus to be wrapped and put in the tomb (a paper cup), 

So I have pulled out my thinking cap, and continue to employ as many tricks and techniques as I know to bring motivation to attend, joy in learning, active participation, and repetition, that keeps littles engaged with me for 15-20 minutes, and now they want me to do class for up to 40 minutes!  It's a wonderful problem to have the children wanting more class time, and we haven't been doing any crafts at all with sharing being an issue in the era of covid!  

Here are some of the images that I'm using-- and the easiest way to share my full resource is to share the googleslideshow that I created- to print for games, as a book, to view, and review.  

 

    

The Gospel Option H: Tales from the Truth: The Prisoners, The Earthquake, and the Midnight Song. By Bob Hartman

So I reviewed this book on June 1, 2020.  But I was able to read it aloud to children ages 2-6 in our series on the book of Acts a few weeks ago.  And I fell in love even more with this particular book because it hooks the kids with visuals, and repetition into the clear gospel message or the Good News from the book of Acts.  So I used the copy of the book images from thegoodbook website that can be purchased, they are still free today!

As we've studied Acts, once we taught the ascension of Jesus to prepare His Kingdom, Pentecost, and the birth of the Church, Peter and the Lame man walking, Peter and Cornelius dream, focused on the Holy Spirit's arrival for a season, then introduced Saul-Paul, and the Good News shared in jail, with this book.  

This book not only teaches the story from the book of Acts 16.  If you click on that link, you can hear the author Bob Hartman read it, and oh my, he does it so well, better than me?  well he does skip parts, but he's so good, you want to hear the whole book!  It ends with "you can tell people about Jesus too!"  and I had not emphasized this aspect of the book when I reviewed it a year ago.  But I tell you, as one who has spent the past five months teaching ages 2-6 children about the book of Acts (with a month off talking about Easter).  This book was the perfect transition to the real message for all of us, that comes throughout the book of Acts, sharing the Good News- the Gospel!  

It brings images to the gospel story, and a beautiful rhyming, easy to memorize phrase that makes the message of Good News, easy to repeat. On this first image below- I added a crown image because when I teach the littles, we talk about King Jesus or Jesus Our King, all the time- and we put our hands on our head with our fingers up to make a crown, and have an action to go with it.  Kids are active learners.  We also put our hands together and make wings that fly for the Holy Spirit (dove) symbol.    

This image reappears throughout the book- mostly with the phrase above, but toward the end, it also has the verse from Acts 16:31

So you can get the full idea.... here are some clips I pulled out of the book images, that thegoodbook company sells for those in ministry.  

Did that help you catch a pattern?  Do you think after seeing this throughout the book, and the teacher commenting on the images, little children would have a good ability to explain that the good news is: Jesus died on the cross for our sins, rose again so that we can have eternal life, and sent us the Holy Spirit to be our Helper?  I'm telling you.  With this as my jumping off point, and then several of the other gospel books that I have shared on the blog, my 2-6 year old kids who have attended little church or children's church.  Know the Gospel well.   I share what I built from this set of images to repeat and play games with in my next post!

So thankful to partner with the goodbook company and review their books, I had been buying them regularly and still do!  Happy 30th anniversary Good Book Company, your books are some of my very favorite ways to teach the truth to littles!  

Waterbrook Partner Review: No Journey Too Far by Carrie Turnasky

Sequel to No Ocean Too Wide by Carrie Turnasky 

I loved the first book and learning all about English home children who were moved to Canada and adopted or indentured to families willing to take them in. I remember thinking I can't wait for the next book. I enjoyed this book greatly. It starts 10 years later which wasn't quite what I had expected, but the story continued, I learned more about the home children, and it was satisfying to really learn about the struggles and strains of four specific children as they were recalled and shared from their young adult perspective. We learn more of all the McAllister's but the focus of the book is on Garth and Grace McAllister, and Emma and Rob other home children who came alongside Garth in his indentured servant life.

I like that the author was intentional and focused on Psalm 9:9-10 and integrated this concept throughout the book. Love is the crucial theme that overcomes so much and affects our very being and existence. Lack of love and acceptance can impact a person's life greatly, but the love of God can impact it beyond even person to person or family love. I appreciate this theme's development across the book, and the central focus on faith, spiritual development, and learning to appreciate God.

Thankful to partner with Waterbrook Publishing and read an advanced copy of this sequel. It is a pleasurable read.

Partner Review: thegoodbookcompany- Big Questions Series by Chris Morphew

Hear the Author share

Chris Morphew is a new author to me, but he is obviously an elementary educator, and I learned he lives in Australia.  These books are written by a man who knows kids well and should have a great appeal.  

What I like about the books:

• Using many engagement and teaching techniques, the author explains the answer to a common question.  Strategies like: story-telling, metaphors, questions, thinking aloud, and biblical connections and explanations. 
• I found the books easy to read, informative, great thinking aloud about potential questions, misconceptions, and wonders.  
• And there are illustrations of each chapter's title throughout the book.  Done in fun, engaging ways.  
• Each book is only around 80 pages of reading, which is well spaced, with breaks in sections, and makes an easy-to-follow read.  

What I wonder about the books?

• These are non-fiction biblical-centered books, so there is a certain reader that will love this style, but I doubt these books will appeal to every child that they are geared toward.  My 11-year-old girl looked at them and did not pick one up to read.  
• Are these more appealing to adults than their intended audience?  
• Will well-intending adults insist that kids read these? and forgot that there are multiple ways to discover the answer to these questions? 
• Could the style, the chapter divisions, and perspectives, be built into a more graphic novel, with a wider appeal?  how about a Bible study and more book-driven investigation?  

Thankful to partner with thegoodbook company and review this new tool for tween kids.