People often ask me what I think are the best Bible resources for their young kids (3-8 yrs). Most of them are shocked when I tell them the Bible. I guess they were thinking of Veggie Tales, or something along those lines. For some reason many parents assume that kids are incapable of understanding and appreciating the Bible in and of itself. Instead of reading the Bible, they carefully select a handful of Bible – substitutes. Sadly, their substitutes often lack real substance, and serve more as entertainment. This post contains affiliate links. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.
Take Veggie Tales for example. Veggies Tales is really funny and it does, in its own way, portray Biblical truths. The problem is that they have very little to do with the actual Bible stories. The other day my daughters were watching Veggie Tales and the video was supposed to illustrate the Biblical parable of the lost son. You can probably tell from the title “The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s,” that it did not do justice to Christ’s parable. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying Veggie Tales is bad. My kids love the shows and watch them often. However, we use them for family entertainment and not a substitute for real study in God’s Word. Having said all that, I will give you a “Bible” resource that I think can greatly enhance your kids’ Bible studies, as long as it is not used to replace the actual Bible.
My Favorite Bible Resources for Kids
The Bible resource that I like best is called the Animated Bible from Nest Learning. They have an awesome DVD collection that I feel is 100 times more valuable than “Veggie Tales” or any other such Bible DVD series. I prefer the Animated Bible because the DVD’s are accurate, realistic and entertaining. By accurate, I obviously mean that they follow the Biblical stories without adding a lot of extras. I also like how realistic the actions, language and graphics are. Many kids’ DVD’s are so concerned with being silly and exciting, that they transform the characters into unrealistic superior heroes or the other extra extreme of silly clowns. The problem with this is that it makes it hard for children to decipher between the fair tales that they watch and the Biblical accounts.
When my children watch a Bible series, I want them to understand that the video is depicting real characters and historical events. The Animated Bible Stories looks and acts “real.” Finally, my kids love these DVD’s and that is also important. No matter how real to life the DVD set is, it would have little value if my kids never wanted to watch it. But they do. In fact, when we first got the Animated Bible Stories my kids watched it everyday. I usually don’t allow that much TV, but they were learning so much about the Bible that I gave in. And it has paid off. My kids can recount Bible stories and characters better than many adults. So, if you are looking for Bible resources, I highly recommend the Animated Bible Stories. It is better than any other children’s Bible series that I have ever come across.
Abraham and Isaac Animated Bible Story
If you have Bible resources that you would like to recommend, please leave a comment. I am sure that there are other great resources that I am not aware of, so I really would love suggestions.
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*Affiliate links are included. However, no compensation was received for writing this post. We purchased the Animated Bible with our personal funds and loved it!
I’m definitely right with you about the Bible being the best resource and that even young kids can do well with listening to it being read. Sometimes I’ll pick up a book at the library to supplement what we are reading, but that is definitely a supplement, NOT a substitute. One resources I really liked (and my kids LOVED) was Ken Ham’s A is for Adam. They have made the original book into a curriculum of sorts and we used it at the beginning of the year when we started out Genesis. Thanks for your recommendation, I’ll go watch the trailer now.
Thank you so much for this post and link. I totally agree with you on what you wrote about the difference between trying to tell a biblical truth, compared to actually telling the bible story.
I will definitely look into this dvd and thank you again for telling me about this.
Hanneke
I totally agree! I’ve started for the first time just reading the Bible with my kids, and I figured they would only be able to handle one chapter at a time, but they surprised me and ask me to keep reading most of the time. I stop and ask questions to make sure they are paying attention and are learning something, and they can almost always answer me. It’s just amazing! We don’t watch Veggie Tales anymore – portraying Jesus as a Giant onion is blasphemous in my humble opinion – but we really like the NEST videos. One consideration for younger or more sensitive viewers though…a little girl I know has had nightmares for years from one of them – I think Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness.
Blessings,
Jessica.
Jessica,
Yes, I definitely have mixed feelings about Veggie Tales. I like a few of their videos that teach Biblical principles, but not the ones they do about actual Bible stories. If you are going to teach kids Bible Stories, I just feel they should in some way resemble the real thing.
Check out goingthroughthebible.com. It is a a five year study through the Bible directed at children that includes a weekly Bible story broken down into five daily lessons that consist of a 3-5 minute video. There is a daily Bible reading, also, that you can listen to together as a family (one chapter a day). If you become a member, you can download daily printables to go with each lesson for a minimal cost.
I enjoyed reading your post. I hadn’t heard of the series and am going to look into getting it. I have a lot of the Beginners Bible videos. I actually downloaded them from youtube and I really like them. I didn’t know if you had heard of them. Thanks again for the post.