Subscribe to my #Write31Days project to keep up with this month’s posts and get a free review copy of my Kindle book (Nov 2015), 31 Days of Great Books to Read to Your BIG Kids!
Each post in this series has two parts: the Great Book, and tips on how to read that Great Book to your kids!
These aren’t great books like everyone knows The Sorcerer’s Stone is a great book, or my son thinks Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a great book—these are Great Books. Classics. Books not necessarily written for children, but read voraciously by children from the time each was written…up until now.
We’re ruining reading for kids with stupid ideas like Close Reading and AR tests and iPads. I’ll explain why you should never ask a kid the theme of a book, never make (or let) them write a book report, and never, ever, ever set a timer for your kids when they read as we go through this series, but let’s get right to it and weed out the faint of heart on Day 1:
Why You Should Read the Bible to Your Kids
It doesn’t matter what religion you belong to—if any; if you want your kids to be well educated, they have to know the Bible.
There are many better reasons for reading the Bible, of course, but this recommendation for today’s Great Book speaks to those who think they—and their kids—don’t need it, don’t believe it, don’t have time for it…insert excuse here. Hopefully, it will also remind those of us who do believe in and follow the Bible that we are responsible for sharing it with our kids!
The Bible is the only religious book in this #Write31Days project, but every one of the other 30 books references the Bible—dozens, if not hundreds of times! If your kids don’t know the Bible, they can’t understand the references that are woven into every great work in Western literature!
Any child who does not have a solid understanding of the stories, people, places, and concepts in the Bible will have a hard time in college. The answers to this questionnaire, sent to English professors at America’s most prestigious universities, should be enough incentive to make you start reading the Bible to your kids every day—after all, today’s elementary education program is all about “college and career readiness”! [Edited to remove snarky comment.]
How to Read the Bible to Your Kids
- Get a good Bible. Not an abridged children’s Bible, or one of those Hey, Dudes, you should like, totally launch those nets on the other side Bibles. Yes, all Bibles have the same message, but classic literature references the King James Bible, because that’s what people read before Amazon existed to offer us forty-six versions of the Bible. A kid who can read the King James Bible can also read Shakespeare. The version we read from every day is this New American Standard Bible.
- Read it. You can read the Bible to your kids any way you like; here are two ways we do it:
- From the top: If you’re not interested in answering some very uncomfortable questions, feel free to skip over things like Genesis 19. (Though if older kids ask why God would destroy two cities, “Genesis 19” is a pretty good answer.)
- Best of: Google “100 Bible stories everyone should know” and you’ll find lots of helpful lists like this one.
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What’s your favorite Bible story?
