Three Christmas Books I love to Read with My Kids

I know Thanksgiving is next week, but I'm thinking about the Christmas books I want to read to my kids this year. It's always fun trying to decide which ones we'll enjoy together as a family. Here are a few of our favorites, and I want to know which ones you love, too.

The Velveteen Rabbit: I realized the other day when I picked up a copy at Kohl's that I hadn't introduced my younger two to the story. And the older two didn't remember it. Time to remedy that. The story begins with Christmas, but is really a story of so much more including the power of love. How a stuffed animal becomes real through the love of a little boy. I get sentimental just thinking about the story.

Courageous For Teens

Raising godly teens and tweens is a challenge. Whether you're a young person who wants to grow in your faith or a parent trying to lead your young person as they mature, it can be tricky to find books that will help in that process. Courageous for Teens is one of those books.

The book intertwines scenes from the movie Courageous with scripture and profiles of Bible characters who lived with courage. Abraham movign to a new land. Ruth moving to a foreign land. Add many of your favorite Bible stories to the list. Each chapter then ends with five application questions and each section ends with a page of recap. For example "Joshua found courage through...", "Gideon gained strength by..." When the teen finishes this book, they will have examined courageous faith, leadership, priorities, and influence.

It's a book the teen can tackle alone, in a group, or with their parents. It's easy to read and grasp the concepts. Then the challenge begins of applying those to your life.

Beginner Bible iPad app

While this is a bit younger than the target audience for most items I review, my kids have enjoyed this app so much, I had to share it with you. If you've got an iPad and kids, then you're probably like me and looking for new games that they can enjoy but teach something of value at the same time. This app does that. 

The Beginner's Bible app lets your kids interact with Bible stories, bringing them to life with the fun stylized illustrations. There are six stories on the initial download: Creation, Adam & Eve, The Snake, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babylon, and Abraham finds a New Home. The app will read the stories to your child. Kids and interact with the pictures, adding elements like flowers. Then there's the play feature that allows kids to color pictures, build puzzles, etc. There's even a fruit ninja style game. 

My kids enjoy it. I like the content, so it's a win-win.



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