Title: Jesus was a Refugee Written by: Andrew McDonough Series: Lost Sheep Books Published by: Sarah Grace Publishing Price: £5.99 Buy from: Malcolm Down Publishing Useful for: parents of children age 3-10 years old Best bit: Beautiful re-telling in the first person – Jesus and Joseph write their own story, explaining how they had to escape … Read more
Title: Bethlehem Town Written by: Andrew McDonough Series: Lost Sheep Books Published by: Sarah Grace Publishing Price: £5.99 Buy from: Malcolm Down Publishing Useful for: parents of children ages 3-10 years old Best bit: The fun, quirky, colourful pictures and well-rhyming text, describes the birth of Jesus taking place in a house, which from what I’ve … Read more
I don’t know about you, but I have friends who help me in different ways. There are some amazing friends who came to my house a few weeks ago to help tidy and clean when we had an inspection coming up. I have friends who always sincerely ask me how I am, whether face to face … Read more
Title: The Christmas Mystery Written by: Jostein Gaarder (author of Sophie’s World) Published by: Orion Children’s Books Useful for: parents of children aged 7–11 years old Best bit: The story is clever and beautiful, mysterious and fascinating, a treat for adults and children alike, with 24 chapters exploring the birth of Jesus, making it perfect … Read more
We’ve been celebrating Shabbat each Friday for 12 years now. We love it, and couldn’t imagine our week without it. If you’ve not come across Shabbat, it’s a traditionally Jewish ritual Friday night meal with prayers and blessings. Our two children, ages 4 and 5 join in with the songs, the actions, and some of … Read more
I’m really keen on reading the whole story of Easter from the Bible every Easter. However, as I’ve mentioned before, I think it’s hard to find a Bible which is accessible for children who are early readers, around age 5-7 years. They are moving on from children’s Bibles, wanting more depth and more stories, but … 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
Meet children at their level I’m a big fan of using toys to tell Bible stories. Since the Easter story is one of the hardest to share with children, using toys is one way we can make it more accessible. One of the great things about using toys instead of a book is that you … Read more
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found I’ve had to re-learn how I connect with God since becoming a parent. I know God’s the same, but my life with young children is very different. I’ve found God is very gracious, and meets me wherever I am, but I have found some things have really helped … Read more
We need to stop stopping children’s play. We need to help other adults stop stopping children play. We need to step back, to watch, be led by them, and let ourselves play more. Daddy Pig (Father of Peppa) is an expert at everything. He is a skiing expert, a fishing expert, a boat driving expert, … Read more
It’s December, the last month in what has been a pretty dreadful year in many ways. How do we celebrate Christmas? In order to work out our answer to that question, I’ve got three questions (I’ve put each in three different ways – make your choice!): What is your family like? / What do you … Read more
