good bible for toddler

[emilyloohoo]

Hi all. I am wanting to buy a good bible for my 4 year old. I would also like to mention that I am a new Christian, so if there is a bible that would help me learn about the bible as well that would be helpful. I go to church every sunday and am starting bible study classes this sunday too. Thank you very much....God bless

 

[illudium_phosdex]

Right now, I'd say that an actual Bible may be a little advanced for a 4 year old, even an incredibly bright one. We got a set of those blue The Bible Story books by Arthur Maxwell for our two. It is a 10 volume set that goes through most of the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. The stories are easy to understand and the artwork is phenomenal.

When my two got a little older and could read somewhat themselves, I got them each a copy of the New International Children's Version of the Bible. It is written in a simpler fashion than the regular NIV so that kids can understand it. I've found that there are some things left out at times but it's a good start.

 

[ChildByGrace]

I don't know what age it's from but if you can get hold of a version put together by Max Lucado then it's really good. As previously mentioned an actual bble won't mean much but one that is made up of various stories from the bible is a good place to start.

 

[Traveller and Wiley]

Hi all. I am wanting to buy a good bible for my 4 year old. I would also like to mention that I am a new Christian, so if there is a bible that would help me learn about the bible as well that would be helpful. I go to church every sunday and am starting bible study classes this sunday too. Thank you very much....God bless

For you: the MacArthur Study Bible.

For your four year old: I don't really have a suggestion, as we've always tried to stay away from children's Bibles. The problem is that children's Bibles tend to reduce the Bible to a series of moral stories. A good example of this is the account of the flood. In the Bible, the flood is the expression of God's wrath on sin, while the ark represents Christ. This is crucial to understanding the Gospel. However, children's Bibles tend to make it just a moral story about a kindly old man who wanted to build a big boat to save all of the animals. They tend to portray Jesus as a Mr. Rogers-type character who tells people to be nice to one another.

If it were me, I would get the Westminster Shorter Catechism and start teaching them that, using an adult Bible, such as an ESV or NAS to show the scriptural basis for those things. It's also a good idea to read from the Bible to them and for them to see you reading the Bible.

Then, when they get some reading skill under their belt, you can start them reading simpler passages from the adult Bible.

This is what we did with our children and what we're currently doing with our three year old. It's worked out really well for us.

Remember, it's OK if a child doesn't understand everything. His natural curiousity will cause him to ask you what the word means.