Thursday, July 30, 2009

A great kids devotional!

I had been on a quest to find a devotional to use with Rebekah to have a more "formal" way of teaching her about God. So, I looked around a bit, and read some online reviews etc .Anyway, I had been hearing about "Leading Little Ones to God" on the home school circuit for quite a few years and had been waiting for Rebekah to grow up a bit to use it. I kind of thought it was for the 6 - 8 year old age group.Well, it's not cheap here in Australia so didn't want to rush into it. Anyway, one day out of the blue a few weeks ago, I decided to search ebay and guess what, to my surprise there was one on sale for $2.50 and the postage was going to be $5.50. It had been on sale for quite a while would you believe with no takers. The "buy it now" option also had "make an offer" beneath it, so I gave it a shot and offered $1.50 (which was accepted) bringing the grand total to $7.00!! What a bargain! This way I thought if it's a dud atleast I haven't spent $30 to $40 getting it through Koorong.
Well, you can imagine my surprise when I opened up the book and started to read the first chapter! I was amazed at the gentle, non-condescending, sweet yet intelligent way the author Marion Schoolland has written the book, presenting God to our little ones.......honestly I browsed through some of the more "modern" ones and nothing comes close to this! I cannot speak more highly of this "older" devotional.
She starts of with a secion on "Looking for God" and slowly progresses through the different stages of finding God to then what happens when we become children of God and how we need to live etc.
At the end of each chapter there is a scripture reference and a hymn to be sung (we just read the hymn out aloud and Rebekah thinks it's a poem:)). Also the prayer at the end is in old English which you don't really need to use as you can make up your own or edit it on the go. By the way the book itself is not written in older English, it's just the prayer for some reason - hmm things have changed in how we pray these days hasn't it!
Beautiful book! If you are looking for one for your kids I highly recommend it. By the way, I would say you could use it from the age of 4 upto 7 or 8 years old.
Just thought I'd post this in case my huge list of followers were looking for something like this, yeah right!
BTW, I am so excited about this book I found another reasonably priced second hand copy recently and am going to give it to one of my friends from church to use with her son. I am going to see her today and can't wait to give it to her, can you tell how much I love this book???

8 comments:

Amy said...

Thanks for this! We were just doing our devotionals today with the kids and I was thinking we need a new book. The concepts in this one are too abstract for little ones, I think. I'll check this out.

And good on ya for scoring a bargain! :)

Jeanne said...

We used this for Jemimah too. For me it was an easy choice - it was the book my mother used with me!! I still remember the words to some of the old hymns and choruses to this day - although we are not a hymn singing denomination my mum must have sung them to me anyhow!!

I agree with you - it is one of the best there is.

We used it when Jemimah was 4. She was probably too young, in hindsight. I think Rebekah is a better age, in fact. What a bargain!

I found a wonderful used book shop in Ballarat last night. You'll love it when you come to visit in in-laws!!

Joyfulmum said...

I need to find out more about that used bookshop in Ballarat for sure Jeanne.
And Amy, I can lend the book to you to have a look at if you like:)

Sarah said...

That is really exciting! It's such a great feeling when you purchase a book you have been looking at for ages at a bargain price. We have just started a new devotional but I am going to put this one on my 2010 boolist.
Thanks for sharing!

Jill said...

I'm so glad you reminded me of this book. I'll be adding it to my list! God bless!

A modern day Essene said...

It is such a lovely book, I use it with my own Dear Children. Such a bargain too! Don't you just love it when things like that happen. x

Skye said...

We are using at the moment. I have 4 children 9 and under. It is working really well for us and the end of the reading we pray and each child gives thanks. It is such a precsious time and a great way to start the day.

Richele said...

I had heard of this book but had never seen it. It is really great to get a review from you and the agreements from the others. I'll be on the lookout for it.