6 reasons more and more families are finally reading the Bible with their kids (and why it stopped feeling like homework)
If your child knows Noah and David but not what order they come in, or reaches for the tablet the second the Bible comes out, or asked you a question at dinner that you pushed to Sunday, this is for you. There is no trick in it. It is one Bible story a week, done at the kitchen table.
By Meredith, Proud of Christ · Updated October 2026 · 4 minute read
Almost every parent who writes to us tells the same story. Their child outgrew the picture Bible at five or six. The grown-up plans went over their head. The kids' devotionals were mostly "be kind" with a verse on top. And somewhere in there the parent started to feel like the Bible had become something their kid heard about on Sundays and nowhere else.
We've talked with hundreds of those families since The Bible in One Year for Kids came out. What follows are the six things that, according to them, made the difference.
1The real Bible reference is printed under every story, and you read the real verses
Most children's Bible books retell the stories in their own words and leave it there. Some add dialogue nobody can find in Scripture. Parents who are careful about this end up reading every book before their kids do.
This one works the other way around. Every week opens with the Bible story told short, for a child, and right under the title is the Scripture reference. Week 4 is Noah's Ark, Genesis 6:9 to 9:17. The activity on the next page starts with "Read Genesis 6:9 to 9:17, then..." and sends your child to those exact verses to find the answers.
It doesn't pretend to be the Bible. It points at it. The book says so itself on the first page: read the Scriptures in the translation of your choice, the summary only gives an overview. The story gets them in the door, and then the family opens the real Bible, whichever one is already on your shelf.
2One Bible story a week. Not a chapter a day.
Daily kids' plans die in the second week. The reason isn't the child. It's asking a seven-year-old to read three chapters before school, and then asking her to catch up on the two days she missed.
This book has 52 weeks and one story in each, 26 from the Old Testament and 26 from the New, in Bible order from Creation to the early church. Every week is the same three pages: the story, an activity page, and a hands-on object lesson with two questions to talk about. How the week gets spent is up to the family: the story on Sunday after lunch, the activity on Tuesday, the questions whenever everyone is at the table. Some families do all of it in one sitting on Saturday morning before cartoons.
If you miss a week, you open to the next one. Nobody is behind. There is no streak to break and no pile of chapters waiting.
3"God's Message" is written on the page, so you aren't improvising the explanation
Here's the moment most parents dread. Your child asks why God let the flood happen. You've been a Christian your whole life and you still don't have an answer that makes sense to a seven-year-old, so you say "that's a great question for Pastor Dave."
Under every story there is a short paragraph called God's Message. It says what the story means for a child's life today, in words a child can follow. Parents tell us they read it to themselves first, while the kids brush their teeth. Then they read it together.
You don't have to be a Bible teacher to lead this. You have to be willing to read a paragraph out loud, and to listen to what comes back.
4The activity changes every week, and there's an object lesson with things from the kitchen drawer
One week it's a quiz. The next it's unscrambling words, or true or false, or retelling the story in their own words, or a drawing. Week 21 is Jonah, and the page is a box with "draw Jonah inside the big fish" above it. Kids who shut down when something looks like schoolwork don't shut down here, because it doesn't look the same two weeks in a row.
Then there's the page parents didn't expect. Every week has an Object Lesson: a hands-on activity with a materials list of things you already have. Week 1 is a lump of play dough and a one-minute timer. Week 4 is a blindfold and a pencil, and your child draws a shape while you describe it without saying its name. The lesson underneath explains what it has to do with Noah, so you aren't the one who has to make the connection. This is the part kids ask to do again.
The pages are big, with room for the kind of handwriting a six-year-old has. The book is a hardcover with a spiral, so it lies flat on the table and two kids can see it at once. That matters more than it sounds: the older one reads the story out loud, the younger one does the drawing, and both of them answer the questions, usually at the same time.
On age: it's written so a child of about eight reads most of it alone. At five to seven, a parent or an older sibling reads along. Families with a twelve-year-old tell us the puzzles run young for them but the questions don't.
5Discuss It!: two questions at the end of every week, and the answers you wouldn't have heard otherwise
Every week closes with a box called Discuss It! and two questions in it, with lines to write on or to leave blank and just talk. Not quiz questions. Week 4 asks "Have you ever had to do something hard, but you did it anyway because you knew it was the right thing?"
Parents tell us this is where the book earns its place. An eleven-year-old who had started answering "fine" to everything put her fork down during the Joseph week and talked about a sleepover she hadn't been invited to. A six-year-old told his mom her favorite thing God made was Grandpa's dog, and then asked a question about heaven she wasn't ready for.
The questions work at the kitchen table. They also work over a video call. Grandmothers three states away read the two questions over the phone on Sunday night while the child holds the page up to the camera, and twenty minutes go by.
6By week 52 they have the whole Bible, in order, in their own handwriting
Ask your child who came first, Moses or Jesus. A lot of kids who've been in Sunday school since they were three will think about it like it's a trick question.
They aren't missing faith. They're missing the order. Nine stories from nine different Sundays, with no picture on the box.
This book goes the way the Bible goes. Week one is Creation. Then Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the kings, Jesus, the church. By the end of the year the burning bush comes before the Red Sea in your child's head, because that's the order they did it in.
And the book they did it in is full of their drawings, their answers, their handwriting at six or eight or ten. Parents keep it with the baby book. Grandmothers keep it on the shelf by the fridge. In December you have something that didn't exist in January: a year of your child with God, written in their own hand.
What a week looks like
Every week is the same three pages, so a child always knows where she is. Here is Week 4, Noah's Ark.
If you're buying it for a grandchild
It ships to you or straight to them. The part they keep is the note you write inside the front cover, so write one. And the Discuss It! questions at the end of every week work over a video call: the child reads the story during the week, you read the two questions on Sunday night, and the page comes up to the camera so you can see what they drew.
Grandmothers who have their grandkids on weekends keep the book at their own house. It becomes "Grandma's book," and by the end of the year it's full of drawings made at her kitchen table.
The Bible in One Year for Kids
- 52 weeks, one Bible story a week, 26 from the Old Testament and 26 from the New, in Bible order from Creation to the early church
- The Scripture reference printed under every story, so the family reads the real verses
- God's Message: what the story means for a child, written on the page
- A different activity every week: quizzes, unscrambles, true or false, retelling, drawing, writing the verse
- An Object Lesson every week: a hands-on activity with things from around the house, and the lesson written out for the parent
- Discuss It!: two questions for the family at the end of every week
- Answer key at the back
- Hardcover, spiral binding that lies flat, big pages for big handwriting
One book, a pair for two children, or together with the grown-up Bible in One Year.
Start their yearQuestions we get most
What age is this really for?
Children of about eight and up read most of it on their own. At five to seven a parent or older sibling reads along and the child does the drawing and the quiz. Families with a twelve-year-old tell us the puzzles run young but the questions still land.
Is it faithful to the Bible?
Every story carries its Scripture reference, and the activity page opens by sending your child to those verses. The story on the page is a summary for a child; the Bible on your shelf is the text. The book says it on its first page: read the Scriptures in the translation of your choice, the summary only gives an overview.
What Bible translation does it work with?
The one you already have. The book gives the reference; your family reads it in your own Bible.
What if we skip a week?
You open to the next one. Each week stands on its own, and nobody is behind.
I'm not a Bible expert. Can I lead this?
Yes. God's Message, the Object Lesson's explanation and the two Discuss It! questions are all written on the page, and there's an answer key at the back for the quizzes. You read them out loud and listen to what comes back. Most parents read God's Message to themselves first.
Does it work for two kids at once?
Yes, if they can share the drawing page. The older one reads, the younger one draws, both answer the questions. Families whose kids both want to write and draw on every page get one each.
Is it a real printed book?
It is. Hardcover, spiral binding, big full-color pages, shipped from the United States.
Another question? Email us at hi@proudofchrist.com.
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