As parents, we often know what we are looking for but do not know where to start, or which resources are good. Below are a variety of resources and their location to help cut back on search time. Please note that not all books have a Christian emphasis, but rather can be used as tools to help our children in biblical principals, or to navigate our ever changing world.
Need a resource you do not see listed, please email Kristen and let her know. Have a great resource you would like to share? Let Kristen know and she can add it to the list.
Apologetics:
Talking To Your Kids About God:In a friendly, parent-to-parent voice, Natasha Crain identifies 30 specific conversations about God that parents must have with their children, organizing them under the categories of the existence of God, the science of God, the nature of God, believing in God and the difference God makes.
Talking To You Kids About Jesus: In a friendly, parent-to-parent voice, Natasha Crain will walk you through essential topics on Jesus’s identity, teachings, death, and resurrection. Each chapter clearly explains what skeptics are saying and provides a concise, easy-to-understand response you can discuss with your child (one that can be tailored for any age).
Mama Bear Apologetics: This mom-to-mom guide will equip you to teach your kids how to form their own biblical beliefs about what is true and what is false. Through transparent life stories and clear, practical applications―including prayer strategies―this band of Mama Bears offers you tools to train yourself, so you can turn around and train your kids.
Baptism
Bibles:
With all the different types and styles out there, choosing a bible can be difficult. To help ease some of that frustration, there is a large collection of bibles to try out available in the Church Library.
Types of Bibles: a general overview of the different translations, to help choose a version the works best for you!
Biblical literacy:
Books of the Bible Reading Caterpillar: As your child reads through a book of the bible, they track the chapters by colouring in different circles on the caterpillar.
Day-To-Day Bible (at the link, or in the office): Read your way through the bible with this kid friendly, daily reading bible.
studylight.org: take your bible study to the next level! dig into commentaries and word studies to help further your understanding.
Biblehub: commentaries, bibles and word studies all in one place!
Blue Letter Bible: Similar the studylight.org and Biblehub, a tool to help deepen your understanding of scripture.
Bible Study:
For adults:
The Bible Project: Take your bible studies deeper with these quick easy videos, studies, and overviews.
The Overview Bible: deeper learning to expand your study time.
Bible Gateway: access many translations, compare them all in one location!
For Kids:
Discover 4 yourself series:19 devotional books that get your kids not only reading about a passage but actually digging in. This series works through an inductive bible study method that helps them learn to decipher what each passage is talking about.
Kids of Integrity: Kids of Integrity is a set of free lesson plans that will help you coach your kids with confidence and a clear sense of direction. Suitable for ages three to 10, Kids of Integrity is designed to be flexible. It’s up to you which lesson to start with, and how many ideas from each lesson you’d like to use.
Blessings:
The Blessing (small group study and book available at office or Library):Children of every age (including adults) long for the gift of “the blessing” — the unconditional love and approval that come from a healthy relationship with their parents.
Devotionals:
Indescribable: (Has 2 options available 1 for littles, and one for grade school) Easy, quick devotional with amazing facts, and hands on activities (depending on the book).
YOUVERSION: while the this bible app is great for reading the bible, it now contains a short devotion for your kids to listen to. Watch it while eating breakfast, hanging out at a sports event, or in some down time. It’s short, its applicable and its for kids.
KidZ at Home, spiritual practices: devotional style. Great for all ages and stages.
Kingdom Family Devotional: The family virtues–based devotional provides 52 separate topics, one for each week of the year, and five devotionals within each topic that will guide devotional times Monday through Friday. Topics range from the basics of the faith―such as salvation, spiritual warfare, prayer, forgiveness, and discipleship―to essentials of living as followers of Christ: money, prayer, family, friends, and priorities.
The Kingdom of God Bible Storybook set: Read a bible story and then dig into the word with questions. Appropriate for multiple ages.
Discipleship:
Family Discipleship 101: This small group study teaches the HOW to realistically start talking about faith at home in a way that builds their relationships with each other and with God.
Habits of the Household (book): Discover simple habits and easy-to-implement daily rhythms that will help you find meaning beyond the chaos of family life as you create a home where kids and parents alike practice how to love God and each other. Visit their website to find additional resources.
Parenting for Faith: This website if designed to equip and encourage parents in their journey of discipline and building into their child(ren)’s faith journey.
Resilient: Child Discipleship by Valarie Bell. “Resilient Child Discipleship focuses on three key areas, essential for shaping long-term faith: Belonging – Highly relational ministry led by a loving and caring adult Believing – Deeply Scriptural ministry rooted in the truth of God’s Word and the power of the gospel Becoming – Truly experiential ministry, designed to move kids from simulation to real-world application of faith-based living”
Talk about: Costs 5.99 USD/month. Conversation starts and topics to help deepen your child’s relationship and understanding of God.
Grandparents with Purpose:
Discipling Your Grandchildren: With an assortment of actionable ideas–from pragmatic tips on how to better connect with your grandchildren to fun, age-appropriate activities
Grand Monday Nights: A webcast hosted by The Legacy Coalition. Topics covered are relevant to Grandparent in our current situation with Practical ideas and information on how to be a more intentional Christian Grandparent.
Grand Parenting: Grandparenting gives you a biblical foundation for investing spiritually in your grandkids, walking you through the principles of influencing them for Christ–from sharing with unbelieving grandkids to discipling them into a mature faith.
Power of a Praying Grandparent: Stormie Omartian offers powerful suggestions to help you do just that as you: pray for your grandchildren to be healthy, protected, smart, kind, wise, godly, and obedient so that they do not stray into enemy territory, pray for yourself to be a powerful praying Grandma or Grandpa who understands what your grandchildren are facing in this world today and how you can best cover them spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically, pray for your grandchildren’s parents to be led and enabled by God so they can be the wisest, most patient, and loving parents for their children
Grief:
Heaven:
Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn: Intended for kids ages 8–12. It addresses the difference between the present Heaven, where we go when we die, and the New Earth, where we will live forever with Jesus after he returns. Discusses common questions about Heaven, like: Can we be sure we’ll go to Heaven instead of hell? How can we know what Heaven is like if we’ve never seen it? Will we have real bodies in Heaven? Will we actually see God? What happens to us the second after we die?
Tell Me About Heaven by Randy Alcorn: Ten-year-old Jake struggles to understand his grandma’s death. But as he spends two weeks at his grandfather’s home, he is able to receive answers to his questions about Heaven.
Internet Safety:
Family Life Review of Various Filters
Needhelpnow.ca: Removal of inappropariate phtotos and help with dealign with the aftermath
Netsmartz: NCMEC’s (National Center For Missing And Exploited Children) online safety education program. It provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children be safer online with the goal of helping children to become more aware of potential online risks and empowering them to help prevent victimization by making safer choices on- and offline.
Sextortion: an organized attack against youth that manipulates them to give financial or image based payment to stop the sharing of inappropriate photos.
Lament Prayers:
Teaching Children How To Lament: By Exploring the deep. This blog post includes a template of helping our children to practice lament.
Teaching our Children to Lament: A blog post by Megan Hill.
Missions:
Parenting:
Grace Based Parenting Series: Grace Based Parenting is not another manual full of impossible standards; rather it is a new map for learning to see ourselves and our children through God’s limitless tenderness – to raise our kids the way God raises us.
It’s Just a Phase, so don’t miss it (available at office): From birth to graduation, our children are constantly changing and growing. This book, breaks down the stages and looks at the wholistic child (spiritual, physical, emotional), and helps you as parents navigate each stage.
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles that can radically change your family: In the midst of folding laundry, coordinating carpool schedules, and breaking up fights, many parents get lost. Feeling pressure to do everything “right” and raise up “good” children, it’s easy to lose sight of our ultimate purpose as parents in the quest for practical tips and guaranteed formulas.
Raising Critical Thinkers: A guide for parents to help children of all ages process the onslaught of unfiltered information in the digital age. Julie Bogart offers practical tools to help children at every stage of development to grow in their ability to explore the world around them, examine how their loyalties and biases affect their beliefs, and generate fresh insight rather than simply recycling what they’ve been taught.
Podcasts:
Risen Motherhood: exists to encourage, equip, and challenge moms to apply the gospel to their everyday lives.
The Big Life Kids Podcast: a growth mindset podcast that shares stories of kids who overcame adversary, teaching children to dream big and set goals.
The Holy Post: Join VeggieTales and What’s in the Bible? creator Phil Vischer and co-host Skye Jethani (author, speaker, pastor) for a fast-paced and often funny conversation about pop culture, media, theology, and the fun, fun, fun of living a thoughtful Christian life in an increasingly post-Christian culture.
Pornography:
Covenant Eyes: For those seeking to break the chains of addiction to pornography in their own lives, the life of their spouse or child.
Good pictures, bad pictures (available in the library, or at the office). For more information, check out the links for preschool/early elementary or grade school students.
Prayer:
Imaginative Prayer: When we lead our children through guided times of imaginative prayer, they can experience a connection with God that transcends mere Bible knowledge or doctrinal content. This unique resource provides six units of weekly guided imaginative prayer, themed around core topics: God’s love, loving others, forgiveness, God as king, the good news of God, and the mission of God. Each unit has six sessions, providing a yearlong experience of spiritual formation for children ages five to thirteen
Journey to the heart: Centering prayer is a way to help children (and adults) quiet their souls before God. By creating a secret word between them and God to help them focus, children (and adults) and invited to spend 6 minutes just listening and enjoying the presence of God. This book contains a clear step by step process to help children quiet their minds, and souls to listen to God.
The Examen Book: Examen Prayer invites children to reflect on their day. In doing so are directed to look for the things they are thankful for, and emotions that they felt. They then bring these to God inviting him to help them see him through the emotions and events. This book is wonderful starting point.
Safety
Scripture Memorization:
Music is an excellent way to commit scripture to memory without even knowing it. Check out these 3 great artists to help bring scripture through song into your home:
Sex and Sexuality:
7 lessons to introduce your child to Biblical Sexuality: The Talk is a series of 7 studies, all anchored in the Scriptures, that helps parents to talk meaningfully with children about sexuality. The Talk was written for parents to read with children ages 6 to 10 years old. The study supplies elementary-age children with foundational truths about sexuality at a level they can understand.
Intoxicated on life Resources and videos to help lead discussions and teach out children about biblical sexuality, puberty and relationships from a biblical perspective.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Gender Identity: In this biblical, practical guide, he offers parents wisdom and answers to their biggest questions about gender, equipping you to: critically engage gender theory from a Christian view, initiate honest, informative dialogues with your kids, model biblical conviction with civility and compassion, recognize early signs of gender dysphoria, navigate relationships with those who identify differentlyGender identity is a defining issue in our children’s generation. This practical guide is your go-to resource for reliable, kingdom responses on these critical topics.
How to Talk to You Kids About Sex (Vimeo video)
She deserves Better: Data-driven insights about how to raise a woman who is resilient, knows her strength, and has the discernment skills needed to make good choices. By reframing (and sometimes replacing) common evangelical messages to teen girls, this book will equip you to raise a girl who can navigate the difficult waters of growing up while still clinging tight to the God who created her on purpose, for a purpose.
Spiritual Formation:
Becoming A Spiritually Healthy Family(one copy in office): unpack the 6 common dysfunctional parenting styles that we fall into out of habit, and how to get back on track with this grace-filled guide on focusing on God as 1st in charge.
KidZ at Home, spiritual practices: devotional style. Great for all ages and stages.
Spiritual Disciplines for Children by Vernie Schorr Love. This book provides the tools caregivers and those who work with children need personally—and the tools they need practically—to guide children in Christian spiritual formation using twelve spiritual disciplines.
War and other violence:
5 ways to support your kids during scary times It can be hard to know where to start, check out this article to give a basis on how to start talking about the scary things going on in the world today.
How to talk to your Kids about War: This article breaks down the tough conversation of war into age appropriate levels.
What To Say To Kids When The News Is Scary: A non-christian article that looks at helping our kids walk through all the scary news out there.
Worship:
Teaching Kids Authentic Worship (one copy available in office)While designed for churches, this book not only teaches about authentic worship, but contains 52 practical ways to draw your child(ren) into worship.