Since our son Jack was born eight years ago, we have both loved reading to our children. I feel like it is so important to read to your children for many many reasons, but for me personally, I loved reading growing up. I still love getting engrossed in a good book that makes me feel like I do not want to put it down. From the time our children were babies, I have been excited for the days when they can read themselves. And now that Jack and Eva are both able to read, I see how important it has been for us to establish a good relationship with reading and books.
Before 2020 changed a lot of things in our world, the local libraries in our area had wonderful story times. Between the libraries in our area we were able to go to 2-3 story times a week! It always felt like an opportunity to get out of the house and do something fun, but also educational. Often times we would turn it into a playdate and meet friends there. It was such a respite for me as a young and busy mom where I could connect with other moms but also a time for our kids to nurture their own friendships. Unfortunately, a lot of the story times did not return with the same enthusiasm they had prior to 2020. I also worry that our world today is so secular and defined by culture that I do not feel confident our worldview would align with the stories being read.
I feel that this makes it all the more important to build a big library for our kids at home. We purchase books for the kids as much as we can, often it is as simple as adding the book to an Amazon cart and grabbing it. Sometimes we will find a used book sale at a library (which happened when we were in Prescott this summer!), or we often will look at Goodwill for books. The great thing about buying books at a good price is that we do not have to worry if they get ripped or worn out. And to be honest, I would rather a book get worn out or ripped than not, because that tells me that my kids are opening them and using them.
I believe that when parents are intentional about reading to their children they will get to see many benefits. There are times when everyone is feeling upset and overwhelmed and the solution for that is all of us sitting on the couch to read a story. It does not take much time for everyone to calm down and feel better, and it also brings us back into connection because we start talking about the story. This also helps us bounce back from the overwhelming emotions. When we intentionally read to our children they will learn the story from a very young age, I have found that this helps them “read”on their own before they know any letters or sounds. Our twins read books all the time; for them it is looking at the pictures and telling the story. It also gives your child a quiet activity by looking at the pictures in a book, again I have found they are more inclined to do that with stories I have been reading to them for a long time. They can see the picture and remember the story we have read over and over.
We read all kinds of books to our children but I would say the majority of our books are children’s Bibles or Christian books. We feel that it is so important for us to have many different children’s Bibles because the kids are drawn to different ones on a different days. I'd also like to note that we allow our kids to highlight and color in their Bibles. The first time I saw Eva going to do it, I went to say NO! But then my husband reminded me that she see's us doing that and is learning from us. As I stated earlier too, with children books will get ripped or worn out so having many Bibles for them prevents any worry that they will destroy one and then we have to replace it. We have many different Christian books as well because it has helped our children understand that the people in the Bible were real people with real struggles, just like us. I am going to share below 3 of my favorite Christian books and why.
- Princess Stories: Real Bible Stories of God's Princesses: I love this book. These are two page stories that go through all of the women in the Bible starting with the Old Testament and working through the New Testament. Each story starts with a little rhyme and ends with a few questions. They are so relatable and understandable. There have been times in my own Bible studies or readings when I am able to recollect or recognize a name because I have read their story to my daughter from this book. I was older when I found my own personal relationship with Jesus and reading the children’s Bibles or books to my kids have always helped me feel like Scripture from my ESV Bible (or any translation) is less intimidating. This book also tells the stories of women whether they play a large roll in the Bible or a smaller role which I think is just very cool. If you have a daughter, I would highly recommend reading this to her starting at a young age so that she learns about the women in the Bible as role models in her own life.
- Bible Belle Books: Another girls book series we love in our house. The stories in these books are geared towards older kids, I would say school age, however the twins are four and enjoy the books as well. Kids younger then that probably wouldn’t stage engaged, as they are longer stories. However these books are relatable because they have a main character, Rooney, who goes through very normal situations girls face today and the story then uses a women in the Bible to teach Rooney about prayer or strength, or other good character qualities. When our daughter started PreK a few years ago I remember walking into school with her using the Bible Belle books to talk about Abigail being brave in the Bible. It has been so helpful to use both of these books as references for our kids to guide prayers and actions in our days.
- Daily Grace Co Books: I will highlight a few from this website however I feel very confident that any book you get from this website will be very good. We also love the coloring books from this website! Sophia Learns to Pray and God Listens When I Pray are both wonderful books about prayer. God Cares How I Feel and Created With Emotions are great for learning emotions. These books point you back to scripture and gives verses that go along with each emotion. I have to be honest, as an adult there have been times when I have read these books and it has helped me pray through or understand my own emotions. We also have used these books to direct conversations about emotions with our kids. I remember a time with one of our kids where they were sent to their room to separate them from everyone else, we then used the book to talk through some of the emotions and pray the scripture that went along with it. The book helped the both of us navigate something that has been a struggle. I really could go on and on about how many books we have from this website and I love all of them, but I will just encourage you to find out for yourself. Daily Grace often has wonderful sales too, so you can always wait until you see a sale to stock up. They make great baby shower gifts too!
I am recognizing that two of these three books are geared towards girls and that is probably because we have three girls and one boy. I will have to do another post with some of the books we have for Jack, but Jack enjoys listening to the Bible Belle books and all of the Daily Grace books too. While the Bible Belles are geared towards girls, he can relate to the stories and is still being directed towards the Bible. Often times I find him reading the emotions book from Daily Grace on his own!
I grew up knowing who God was but it was not a personal relationship, I did not grow up knowing the stories from the Bible well enough to understand that they were people I could relate to. I did not grow up knowing that I could pray to God whenever I wanted and however I wanted; I didn’t grow up knowing that prayer was just talking to God. One of my biggest convictions as a mom is giving my kids something that I did not have, and I have found that using books and Children’s Bibles equips them with the ability to pray and the ability to know the people in the Bible were real and that they can be looked up to; especially today.
