Bible Study Resources for Families

At our house, Bible study is a big deal. It’s part of our daily routine. In fact, it’s the most important part of our routine. But, I’ll be honest. It wasn’t always this way.

In years past, my husband and I had done a poor job of implementing family Bible study. One reason was because we hadn’t found a Bible study we liked. Another reason was because we hadn’t been disciplined enough to stick with a particular study.

This left me feeling frustrated and convicted. I knew God wanted us to study the Bible with our children, so late last year I prayed, asking God to make our family Bible study a success. God answered my prayer by giving me the idea for the year long Bible Reading Project.

Thanks to the Bible Reading Project, our family is reading and discussing a chapter of scripture every day. JT and I are excited because our daily scripture readings provide lots of points for discussion and spawn a myriad of questions from our girlies. In order to answer their questions accurately, JT and I use a variety resources to help the the girlies better understand what they’ve read.

*Please note: Many of the materials are expensive, so we couldn’t purchase them all at once. Though we own each of these resources, we don’t use all of them every time we gather for or prepare for study. This list represents what we own, but you should use only the materials that best match your needs and fit within your budget. 

Betty Lukens Through the Bible in Felt: This is a wonderful resource we use to reenact Biblical events. Before you begin your study, set up the background on the felt board and add the Bible figures as you share the event. It’s an awesome tool for teaching my wee one, but my older girlies love it as well.

Betty Lukens Through the Bible in Felt Teacher’s Manual: This is to be used with the felt board. I sometimes have one of my girls read the story aloud while the other two girlies use the felt board to show what is happening.

Bible Teacher’s Commentary: Before I begin teaching a new book of the Bible, I like to familiarize myself with it. One of the tools I use to do so is the Bible Teacher’s Commentary. This is a great way to gain an overall understanding of each of the Bible’s 66 books. Each book of the Bible is explored with a Study Guide and a Teaching Guide.  The commentary also features an outline for each book of the Bible and offers Links to Life, questions to be used to encourage discussion and further study. (If you want to explore a book of the Bible verse by verse, use the Zondervan commentaries I mention below.)

Children’s Ministry Resource Bible: My church’s Sunday School Director introduced me to this book a few years ago and I’m so thankful she did! In addition to the entire text of the Bible, The Children’s Ministry Bible also includes footnotes, lesson outlines, discussion questions, memorization tips, and articles.

Focus on the Family Dinner Devotionals: If JT wants to expound upon a certain topic, he often looks here first. Focus on the Family, one of our favorite ministries, offers a few short devotionals based on the following topics: Wisdom From the Bible, Faith and Trust, Family, Salvation and Witnessing, Love, Following Jesus, and Building Character. We love these short, kid-friendly devotionals.

GLO Bible: This is JT’s go-to resource. The Glo Bible is an interactive Bible full of awesome features. You can read the Bible with Glo, but you can also check out the atlas that allows you to explore the Biblical world, or study the timelines that show where and when events occurred.  If you’re looking for more specificity, use the topical or Biblical lenses to explore or search for specific passages of scripture.

How to Get into the Bible: If you need a child-friendly book that gives an overall description of a particular book of the Bible, How to Get into the Bible will not disappoint you. It features kid-friendly pictures and large print and introduces each book of the Bible using timelines and topics such as Starring Roles, Plot, Author and Date, On Location,Big Scenes, and Famous Words.

Then and Now Bible Maps Deluxe Edition: This is one of my favorite resources ever! This book connects current day locations with those of the Holy Land using Biblical overlays. It was useful during our study of Acts and will be useful as we explore the life of Daniel later this month.

What’s in the Bible: Phil Vischer of Veggie Tales fame has launched a new video series to help children learn more about the Bible. The series has 13 volumes and explores the books of the Bible. It’s a perfect series for children who may be outgrowing Veggie Tales but still love puppetry, jokes, and song.

Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary Volume 1: Old Testament: I LOVE THIS COMMENTARY and I am always amazed by what I learn while researching passages of scripture. If you need Old Testament background information about a particular passage of scripture or need a better understanding of a scripture’s context, this is the book to use. This is what I read ahead time to make sure I’ve got a proper understanding of the chapter of scripture I’m teaching the children.

Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary Volume 2: New Testament: Specifically for the New Testament, this book provides the same benefits as its Old Testament counterpart.

Here’s an additional online resource….

Bible Study Using the SOAP Method: Many times I like to add a written component to our Bible study. This post I wrote for the website, Christian Homeschool Moms, describes how we dig more deeply into the scripture by writing about what we’ve read.

Family Bible study doesn’t have to be overwhelming or complicated. All you need are the Word of God and a few tools. I hope the resources I’ve shared with you today will help bring your family closer together and cultivate a love for God and his Holy Word.

photo credit: Daniel Y. Go via photopin cc

 

© 2014 – 2015, Andrea Thorpe. All rights reserved.