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Growing with God – 90 Devotions for Kids

With the start of school just around the corner, things around our house are beginning to feel a little hectic for me. There are lots of things to remember, supplies to gather, lessons to plan, and new schedules that need to be put into place.

Starting the school year off right is definitely important, and we want to begin with a routine that helps us grow as a family. One thing that we include in our day’s schedule is a devotional time, so that we are not only learning together academically, but spiritually as well.

Beginning the School Day with Encouragement

 imageA few months ago, I purchased 90 Devotions for Kids to read with the kids before starting school. This devotional from Adventures in Odyssey includes short challenges and encouragement from familiar AIO characters {and is fun if you try to read bits in their voices!}. It has been a devotional that all of our children have enjoyed and a great start to our mornings.

90 Devotions for Kids is geared toward kids ages 8 to 12 and covers fourteen different topics including salvation, discipleship, prayer, faith, forgiveness, giving, witnessing, and worship. The topics are broken up into seven different devotions with a weekly themed verse to memorize.

Each devotional includes a daily Bible verse, an example of the topic in action, daily challenges, and wise words from several residents of the fictional town of Odyssey. Fans of AIO will love  the time spent with familiar friends and those who haven’t listened to an episode will find 90 Devotions for Kids a great addition to their devotional time.

If you are looking for a devotional that is packed with truth and lots of fun, and one that will help you and your kids take a break together for Bible reading, prayer, and conversation, 90 Devotions for Kids would be a great addition to get you going this year. And really – you don’t have to wait until the first day of school. You can start now and get a bump up on the school year and have daily devotions already built into your routine! {and that’s a great thing!!}

What routine or habit are you hoping establish this year with your family?

Related Posts

 

Jolanthe Signature

This post has been a part of the A.C.T.S. Summer of Service series from Adventures inimage Odyssey. AIO is prompting children {and families} to serve others around them, both near and far. Children can win some GREAT prizes, including a missions trip to Costa Rica!! You can find out more details at www.whitsend.org/acts.  Families can also download:

Printable Prayer Cards – FREE Download

The ladies in our small group have been reading a book together, A Praying Life by Paul Miller. When we began the section on prayer cards, I wanted something colorful to have in my hands during the day – a visual reminder of the prayers on my heart and something that I could carry along with me. Most importantly, I want to be able to see when and how those prayers are answered.

Printable Prayer Cards copy

 

 

In A Praying Life, Miller suggests different topic areas for prayer, so these cards are color-coded based on those different areas of prayer. You can quickly find a card to add a prayer request and begin praying. Since our family sponsors children through Compassion International, I also added cards for those requests as well.

 


 

I’m using the cards to write out specific requests and Scripture reference. If i need additional cards, I can print off a new sheet. There are verse and quote cards that I’m using to divide the different sections.

Compassion Prayer Card

The image above gives you a sample idea of how I am personally using the cards for one of our Compassion children. I’d encourage you to add specific verses to each card and write down when you see answers to prayers as well.

The cards to great if they are printed on cardstock. The corner of mine are hole punched and they are on a jump ring {similar to a key ring}. Each card is 3”x5” in size when cut apart, so you can also add them to a file box if you prefer not to use a jump ring.

Printable Prayer Cards

 

 

Do you have a prayer help to keep track of your requests? I’d love to hear what works for you.

 

 

This file was created to share with you free of charge, but I ask that you do not host these files on anywhere other than on your personal computer. If you would like to share the file with others, please direct them to my this post.

ABC Bible Verse Posters ~ Free Printables

After I shared the ABC Bible Verse Flashcard Printables with you all, I received many emails asking for ABC Bible Verse posters – a larger version of each flashcard and Bible verse.

Here they are!!

Bible Verse Posters


Each of the ABC Bible Verse Posters will print off 8 1/2” x 11” in size and has the same verses that are in the ABC Bible Verse Flashcard Printables {all NIV but one}. You can hang the posters around your room, and then print off a copy of the flashcards to have handy.

Our family enjoys the music from Seeds Family Worship and many of the verse cards are from songs that you can find on the albums that Seeds has available. Their cd’s are not only easy to sing along to, but even the adults can enjoy them {I frequently find myself singing along with them!}.

—————–> Download the ABC Bible Verse Posters <—————–

Hope these are a help to you and your family!

More Helpful Bible resources

Elementary Bible Verse Printables

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Our older kids {as well as the younger ones}, still like having printables to help them study their verses. The picture cues and hands-on help with puzzles have really helped them remember Scripture.

Each year when our kids participate with a local church program, we’ve used these Bible verse printables to help them in their learning. The printables typically include an 8 1/2” x 11” page, cut-apart verse strips and puzzle cards, and also 4” x 6” verse cards {a smaller version of the 8 1/2” x 11” poster page}.

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We slip our 4” x 6” cards into a small photo book {usually $1 at Walmart}. The verse strips can be taped or glued together or you can put them in the correct order using a tabletop pocket chart.

Elementary Bible Verse Printables

Today, I am sharing the elementary Bible verse printables ~ so far there are over 70 verses uploaded!! I’m adding more verses as we work on them.  Here’s a little peek at what the full Bible verse printables look like along with the word puzzles and strips for kids to get a little more ‘hands-on’ practice.

Bible Verse Printables

You can find all of my Bible resources for kids on my website along with all of my Bible Verse Printables.

Illustrating a Bible Verse

Illustrate a Verse dotted

Another help that we use each week when memorizing a verse is illustrating the verse that we are learning. Our kids draw a picture in the top rectangle that represents the verse to them, then they write the verse out on the lines below. During the week when they recite the verse, we check off one of the boxes at the bottom of the page.

Helpful Bible Resources

Here are a few other resources and links to help you in your Bible memorization:

 

What's in the Bible Coupon

Esther Bible Study for Children ~ Grapevine Studies

This post is our honest review of a product that we received for free. All opinions expressed are solely mine.

Last year when we first started using Grapevine Studies for our Bible time, I had no idea how much our children would grow to love it. Although the stick figures seemed so simple they made it even better because every one of the kids could participate.  We were able to focus on key points in the Bible lessons and use simple illustrations to enhance our learning.

Esther Bible Study

We’ll be starting off our year using the updated Esther Bible study with the kids. The story of Esther is one of my favorite Bible stories, so I am very excited to dig into it deeper with the kids.

What’s included in the Grapevine Esther Bible study

As you study the book of Esther in these nine lessons, you and your family will follow the life of a young girl who becomes the queen and saves her people through her courage to follow God. You will also learn more about the celebration of Purim and see how it became an annual holiday for the Jewish people.

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  • The multi-level teacher’s manual has lesson notes, timelines, full-color stick figure drawings, vocabulary terms, a map, lesson goals & key points, memory verses, as well as review questions & answers {ebook $8.95, 3 ring punched $16.95}.
  • The student book includes lesson pages, timelines, a map, verse memorization and more {ebook $8.95, printed $10.95}. In addition to the teacher and student books, you will also need a Bible, colored pencils, a whiteboard {or large paper} and colored dry erase markers.

How We are Using the Esther Bible Study

We are dividing the lessons up over a 4 week period. At the beginning of each lesson we review anything from prior lessons. The kids take turns reading the accompanying Bible passage {we use the NIrV Discover’s Bible} and then we all complete the drawing to go along with the passages.

Grapevine Esther-1

I use our large whiteboard easel and our pack of Expo dry erase markers so all the kids can see the pictures. As I read and we talk about the lesson, the kids copy my drawings onto their lesson pages. The figures in the lessons are all color coded, so the kids can visually identify the characters in the story {i.e. the king is green, Vashti is orange, etc…}.

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  • Four-square layout for the studies ~ this feature saves a lot of paper space and ink on printing.
  • Multi-colored stick figures ~ the variety keeps the kids really involved in the details of the drawings, even though the drawings are based on stick figures
  • The ebook works PERFECTLY on my iPad ~ Teachers can save more paper and ink by using the ebooks on laptops or iPad. This feature has changed my opinion of ebooks!!
  • It is multi-aged focused ~ I love that we can use this with all of our kids {ages 5 – 11}. The visual aspect helps the kids remember more about the lessons and the fact that we can work together as a family means a lot to me.

If you’re interested in any of the other studies and levels from Grapevine, you can download sample lessons from many of their other studies here. They have a variety of studies including Old and New Testament, the Resurrection, the Birth of Jesus, the Life of Joseph, and Biblical Feasts.

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Ready to buy? Click here to check out the Grapevine studies!

The Honest Truth ~ Teaching God’s Word

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This post is a part of my 10 Day of Teaching God’s Word series

At this moment I have a mental ‘to do’ list of things to share with you all for the rest of this series. More printables. Additional resources and helps. At the moment though, I am really feeling the need to put that aside.

The honest truth is that I have a household of children needing my attention before I head out of town this weekend for a conference. Children that need to be snuggled with. Cookies to bake and batter to lick off spoons. A soccer ball to kick around with my boys. {There’s most likely a load of laundry that needs tending to as well}.

Then, in just a short week, I will be headed to Africa with Compassion International for over a week. That means, I also have a husband that I need to lavish some attention on ~ since he’ll be alone with said children. He’s going to need all the encouragement I can give him! {smiles}

In short, I need to lead my kids by example, love on my children and live out the Word of God to my family.

And honestly ~ I am ok with that. Because ultimately THAT is what the entire point of this series has been ~ teaching God’s Word and living by example.

Thank you all SO much for following along with the series these past ten days. I truly pray that you all have found some useful resources and helps to use with your families. There will be more to come in the upcoming weeks and months, and {if you haven’t already} feel free to browse through the posts below from the series.

So today {and every day!!!} go live out who God has called you and created you to be ~ a wonderful parent to your kids!

Other Posts in the 10 Days of Teaching God’s Word Series