Happy New Year! We’re launching a series here on the Minno Life blog to help your family learn the whole Bible this year – with Buck Denver and Friends. You can stream the whole What’s in the Bible? series on Minno, and blogger Jess Wolstenholm will chronicle a volume each month with discussion ideas and activities to go along with each volume. First up for January – Genesis! 

 

After all the craziness of the holiday season, our family welcomed the opportunity to slow down and have a quiet “movie night” with our friends Buck Denver, Sunday School Lady and the whole gang. We popped popcorn and added a few healthy snacks (our typical family movie night fare) and settled in to learn all about how our Story began…In The Beginning.

One of my favorite aspects of the What’s In The Bible? series is the fact they don’t skip over any seemingly complex, yet very important facts about the Bible. Volume 1 begins by explaining the pieces and parts of the Bible as well as Bible history. More than merely teaching kids to memorize the books of the Bible, the DVD explains the books, their authors and origins.

I have been very interested in the idea of Bible literacy for my children and this has gotten us off to a great start in learning more about the practical side of what the Bible is and where it came from. We don’t want our kids to simply learn and recite Bible stories and their details. We want them to understand the whole Story…where it came from and why it’s being told.

As we moved into stories of the Bible, the kids became even more engaged because after all, kids are all about stories. Learning about Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the Tower of Babel through various songs, flannel board presentations and regular What’s In The Bible? teaching shenanigans definitely piqued their interest.

We’re looking forward to continuing our discussions about the Bible and the stories in Genesis this month. We’ll be using the What’s In The Bible? activity pack for Genesis to add some fun elements to our conversations. Download the pack full of coloring sheets, games and discussion ideas in the store.

What we found in Volume 1 – In the Beginning:

• Introduction to What’s In The Bible? – characters and content

• Explanation of Old and New Testaments

• Overview of the authors of the Bible

• Bible History

• Creation

• Adam and Eve

• Noah’s Ark

• Tower of Babel

As we guide our family through the history of the Bible and Genesis in Volume 1, here are a few things we are keeping in mind:

• Younger kids (like my 3 year old) may not respond much to the historical, technical information. That is to be expected. Still, we are planting seeds in his heart and who knows … we may be shocked at what he remembers and recites back to us later.

 

• Kids love stories. We are taking note of each Bible story that is shared and finding a lesson to teach through it that can be applied to the lives of our kids.

 

• When talking to our kids about sin, we are reminding them that first and foremost they are created and loved by God. While we want our children to understand they were born with a sin nature (and where that came from) we don’t want them to adopt an identity of sin.

 

• We are praying and asking God to lead our conversations. We are committing to carry conversations about each story into our daily interaction throughout the month.

 

Four discussion ideas we’ll be using this month:

1. Creation – Talking about God’s greatness and how he created us each uniquely according to his plan. Focusing on the fact that    Creation is the “Once upon a time” of the Story…of their life.

2. Adam and Eve – Sharing how much God loves his creation. But because Adam and Eve disobeyed, we now deal with sin and    consequences.

3. Noah – Focusing on how much Noah must have trusted God to obey his crazy command to build a massive boat and gather the animals. Noah was faithful and he obeyed God’s plan to protect him and his family.

 

4. Tower of Babel – Explaining how the people wanted to bring attention to themselves by building the tower. Their pride was getting in the way of their relationship with God. We want to help our children understand the idea of pride: thinking of themselves as more important than another, for example.

 

What an exciting journey we are embarking on. What a privilege to share the greatest Story ever told and help our children understand their place in it. I hope you plan to join us this year.

Have you shared What’s In The Bible? Volume 1 with your kids? What has been your greatest takeaway?

 

Continue learning with Walk Your Family Through the Bible: Exodus.

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Jess Wolstenholm is an author, blogger and freelance writer. Co-founder of the popular blog, Grace for Moms, Jess became passionate about discipleship through simple faith tools when she began to navigate the spiritual development of her own young children. Following the loss of her mom to pancreatic cancer in 2012, she’s focused on continuing the legacy of faith started by her wonderfully imperfect parents. When she isn’t writing, you can find Jess teaching kids at her home church or taking notes for the local PTO. She lives outside Nashville, Tennessee with her amazing husband, Dave and their two miracles, Hope (8) and Joshua (5).