SKL Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 My kids are 4/5 and we've read through a couple of children's Bibles. Right now I just re-read a few random pages each night, but the girls are ready for the "next step." I'm wondering if reading from the KJV or similar version would be do-able. If you are a Christian, when did you / will you make this transition with your kids? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 We've always read a 'real' bible with our kids. We have enough NKJV bibles that everyone can use one for family bible study time each evening. We either decide as a family or dh picks what book we'll read, and then we read a portion of it each night and discuss. Once we finish the book, we pick a new one to start. I'd like to encourage any ladies who are wishing to start a family bible study. You don't need anything special; just a bible and your family. Pick a book and start reading a bit each night. Talk about what you read. Explain it to your children. It's not hard to do, but it won't be a habit unless you start. :) Dh 'runs' bible study at our home (in that he reads the passage and does most of the interpreting/explaining for the children), but I participate in the teaching of the children as I feel led as well. It truly is a blessing to our family. My boys usually want to read 'just one more chapter, please Daddy'. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maus Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 My kids are 4/5 and we've read through a couple of children's Bibles. Right now I just re-read a few random pages each night, but the girls are ready for the "next step." I'm wondering if reading from the KJV or similar version would be do-able. If you are a Christian, when did you / will you make this transition with your kids? The LDS church uses the KJV. We've tried (lots of room for improvement here) to read at least one verse straight from the "grown-up" scriptures a night. So they've been exposed to the language of the KJV right from the start. We've also used children's Bibles, because they help the children grasp what's going on. My son was seven when he announced to me he didn't want the children's material anymore. "Just read the real scriptures, Mom." I'll be reading along and think he's fallen asleep and he'll suddenly comment on something he's just grasped. My daughter, on the other hand, who is now seven, just announced a few months ago, "I like when you read the real scriptures, Mom, because they are boring and I fall asleep quickly." :glare: So, it depends on the kid, I guess. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 My daughter, on the other hand, who is now seven, just announced a few months ago, "I like when you read the real scriptures, Mom, because they are boring and I fall asleep quickly." :glare: Gotta love that honesty!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 We tried it but it didn't go over well and used to feel like I'm settling using the NLT (New Living Translation). However, my girls enjoy listening and even the 3 yo can understand what's being read and will comment on something later that she heard during "bible time". We have read them bible stories and sang bible songs since they're little. My 3 yo loves our time reading this... http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Storybook-Bible-Every-Whispers/dp/0310708257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318789409&sr=8-1 I would say go for it, if it's too frustrating for them (it would be for me and I've been reading the Word for a while) then don't feel bad using something else. Just do it :) I cannot say how much it has added to our lives! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I started reading the nasb Bible to dd very early. Not sure exactly what age...maybe 2. I had a curriculum at the time that came with a story book but referenced the verses it came from. I would read the verses...the the story. Obviously the animated children's story version was more engaging and interesting for her but I think it helped her to know where the stories were coming from. We also started memorizing short verses at about the same time. Now at 6 she reads proverbs daily and other books when we are covering them for lessons. I can't remember where we got the idea but she gets up every morning and reads the proverb that corresponds to what day of the month it is. I.e. today she would read Proverbs chapter 16. I'm trying to get her in the habit of daily reading. She's actually more consistent at this point than me...which is convicting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I just wanted to add, doing it late at night before bed is awesome. My kids ask for more to delay bedtime. Ok with me. And we do it in my bed, snuggled in with lots of laughter. Not what I used to picture in my head as family devotional time! I felt I needed a curricula, plan and tools, even knowledge. Nah, God will meet you right there! with just His word and willing hearts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicAnn Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 We never used a children's Bible. Dd sits with us in meetings (church) and she hears the speaker read from the real one, and retains a great deal for her age. It's not so important to me that she understand every word at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetMissMagnolia Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 ds is 8 and has just been going to church for about a year (long story) we're still going through the kid's bible but I bought one that we're going to go into when he finishes reading this one--I think it's called the adventure bible-alot of the kids at our church have it..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicAnn Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'd like to encourage any ladies who are wishing to start a family bible study. You don't need anything special; just a bible and your family. Pick a book and start reading a bit each night. Talk about what you read. Explain it to your children. It's not hard to do, but it won't be a habit unless you start. :) Dh 'runs' bible study at our home (in that he reads the passage and does most of the interpreting/explaining for the children), but I participate in the teaching of the children as I feel led as well. It truly is a blessing to our family. My boys usually want to read 'just one more chapter, please Daddy'. :001_smile: I so agree with this. We read the daily text, then we read a story from our Bible story book and look up the corresponding scripture. Sometimes I pick a section that I think we need help with and we read that too. We also include a family meeting into this time. We talk about the upcoming week, gratitude about the last week and things maybe weren't that great. Occasionally we play a game or do a family craft. It is really renewing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalknot Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 My older child began reading the "real" Bible on his own in the middle of his second-grade year. I don't know what version he has. He reads it on his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Inna* Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 My oldest has this Bible - http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Bible-Early-Readers-NIrV/dp/0310715474/ref=pd_sim_b15 We read it as a family at bedtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 We used the New American Standard, from the beginning. Never a children's book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Go ahead and start reading the real thing. Choose an easier translation like the NewLiving or the ESV. Read small portions aloud, with expression. As their own reading abilities develop, you can have them read individual Bible verses to you while they're little, and then longer portions as they grow. They can do verse-by-verse Bible study guided by you once they read comfortably. They can do Bible study on their own in 3rd or 4th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 We tried it but it didn't go over well and used to feel like I'm settling using the NLT (New Living Translation). However, my girls enjoy listening and even the 3 yo can understand what's being read and will comment on something later that she heard during "bible time". We have read them bible stories and sang bible songs since they're little. My 3 yo loves our time reading this... http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Storybook-Bible-Every-Whispers/dp/0310708257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318789409&sr=8-1 I would say go for it, if it's too frustrating for them (it would be for me and I've been reading the Word for a while) then don't feel bad using something else. Just do it :) I cannot say how much it has added to our lives! Settling? Really, the NLT is a valid translation. Its predecessor, the Living Bible, was a paraphrase written by one man, Ken Taylor. He felt his own inadequacies as a scholar keenly and once his publishing company had the resources, he commissioned a team of scholars to write a valid, scholarly translation. That translation is the NLT. It is every bit as accurate, and wonderfully more readable and user-friendly. So it's not settling at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tntgoodwin Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Here is an interesting article regarding the NLT: http://www.bible-researcher.com/nlt2.html I had a NLT I used for personal study and Bible class in high school - this would be the first edition, by the way. So my concerns may have been rectified by the second edition. The one concern I particularly noticed was in Bible class, and we were reading alound, from various versions of the Bible, and it was in the New Testament, and there was a list of sins, that pretty much corresponded with the fruits of the Spirit, if I remember right. The NLT ommitted one of the sins (either witchcraft, or murder, or something like that, I don't recall which). I was bummed since I liked how readable the NLT was... But I decided after that to go with a more literal translation. I am a big fan of the ESV now. The NASB is also great, and I have heard good things about the accuracy of the NKJV. Like I said though, I am not familiar with the 2nd Edition of the NLT, so maybe it fixed some stuff. And I figure a paraphrase or less literal Bible that gets read is better than a perfectly accurate word for word translation that doesn't get read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 We haven't got to reading the 'real' Bible as yet (except for looking up the odd quotation), and my eldest is 8. However, the main reason we do Bible is for the cultural literacy element. So I figured they don't need to 'grownup' versions until they are old enough to be coming across Biblical references in their general reading. If we were a Christian family, though, I would definitely be pushing to get them onto the real thing as early as possible, the reason being that IMO the kids' versions we've seen tend to teach them lots of the main stories and a few main ideas, but do not by any means do justice to the Christian faith as there just isn't the depth. Of course, you can easily do both: have a structured or semi structured reading of whatever version your church uses but continue with kids' adaptations for fun and bedtime reading. My 3yo has a set of board books where each book outlines a Bible story from the point of view of an animal - Daniel is about the lion who missed lunch, the prodigal son is told by a pig, etc - she loves these but also knows that they are derived from the relevant Bible stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staceyobu Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 We started the Long Story Short with my six year old this year. It gives passages to read out of the Bible. I bought a NIrV for DD because the reading level is supposed to be lower and the vocab a bit easier. She had started to tell me "I've already heard all this" every time we picked up a children's Bible. So, I decided it was time to bump her up to something a little more difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 It really varies with the kids. One I started reading formal scripture language when she was 2 1/2. She did pick up a scripture story book to follow along with pictures, but she was listening to me read aloud. 3ds is the latest of all. he's 6 1/2, and scripture story books work much better - he does have ld's though. but we just did chap 6 in sotw - and I was amazed at how much he repeated back to me. (but he really liked the egypt chaptersr, so we'd been reading about Joseph who was sold into egypt already) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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