Title: Breathe – child’s guide to Ascension, Pentecost and the growing time Author: Laura Alary Illustrator: Cathrin Peterslund Published by: Paraclete Price: £14.82 Good for: Families with children aged 4–11 years wanting to explain and connect with the stories of Ascension (Jesus returning to heaven) and Pentecost (the Holy Spirit comes to Jesus’ friends) in a simple … Read more
Here’s a really simple, fun and meaningful Easter activity – an Easter story treasure hunt. It’s created to work with your family at home or as part of a group or service – anywhere you want to have fun while exploring the Easter story together. You can source your own pictures, but to make it … Read more
I find it really sad that in our culture, Valentines Day has become just a way to celebrate romantic love. In many languages (including those in the Bible), there are multiple words for ‘love’, demonstrating the different types of love and different types of relationships which involve love. The most classic passage in the Bible … Read more
Title: Comfort in uncertain times Author: Rachel Turner Cover illustrator: Rebecca J Hall Published by: BRF Price: RRP £8.99 Kindle edition also available Good for: parents of children age 3-12 years Best bit: I love Rachel’s re-tellings of these 15 Bible stories – you can hear her voice as you read them Worst bit: Because of … Read more
Title: At home in Lent Written by: Gordon Giles Published by: BRF Price: £8.99 Useful for: young people and adults Best bit: a simple, daily three page read for each day in Lent, each taking a different every-day item as its theme Worst bit: as a big fan of audio books, I’d love an audio version to … Read more
Title: Dave the Donkey Author and Illustrator: Andrew McDonough Published by: Malcolm Down Price: £5.99 Useful for: children age 3-8 Best bit: Fun re-telling of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, death and resurrection from the view point of the Palm Sunday donkey! Worst bit: Very fast re-telling, with few details of the Easter story – for … Read more
We’ve celebrated Passover in our home for a number of years now, and each year it’s different, as we adapt it around who will be there. We tend to have a big feast-like meal interspersed with parts of the service (seder). We include elements which we use each week in our Shabbat meal, for example … Read more
In the summer, lots of families have more flexible time which you could use to do a treasure hunt style Bible exploration. Create a simple treasure hunt by choosing a series of locations, depending on the age of your children and the time you have available, and hide a section of the story you want … Read more
Here’s a simple version of an ancient practise: Use a breathing prayer to ‘chew over’ a Bible verse. This is less of an understanding exercise and more of a feeling, meditative one. If you’ve found a verse that jumps out at you or is particularly meaningful to you at the moment, this might be something … Read more
This is a simple activity using pinwheels to think about God’s Spirit being like the wind and to pray using them. This is a great one for under 5s, but everyone might enjoy this very tangible way to pray. What do I need to begin Pinwheel Prayers? To begin, you will need a pinwheel! Perhaps … Read more
I wish I could tell you how to stop your children fighting. There’s probably something good about children developing social skills in the home and feeling safe so not restraining their behaviour to please others. But honestly, less fighting and arguing in our home would be quite nice! However, I do have an idea. When … Read more
Title: How to pray – a guide for young explorers Author: Pete Greig and Gemma Hunt Illustrator: Patrick Laurent Published by: Hodder Price: RRP £10.99 available from Eden for £8.36 Good for: Children, young people and adults age 7+ especially those who like visually interesting books and not big blocks of text Best bit: Brilliant internal design … Read more