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.
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