Since I have researched about the different homeschooling curriculums, I have accumulated a number of Catholic children’s bibles recently. Most of the ones I am reviewing are for older toddlers and up, but a couple would be appropriate for a young toddler or even a baby.
We were blessed to received one of the Catholic children’s bibles I am discussing as a baptism gift for our oldest. I began reading the stories to her as a young baby. She received Bible Stories for Little Ones as a gift. This bible is Catholic and the stories are simple enough for even a baby. If you think they are too advanced for your baby, you could start with pointing out characters and things in the illustrations and working up from there. My only critique about this book is there is a question or two at the end of each story that is very cheesy in nature. In my opinion, the questions do not correlate to God or to the message of the bible story. They are developmental questions like where is the medium-sized fish? It is just an unnatural jump to me as all the other words are relating to the bible story and then all of a sudden the text switches gears and asks random questions about the illustrations. I would love to hear if any of you have better suggestions for Catholic children’s bibles for babies.
A Catholic Child’s First Bible is the next Catholic children’s bible I recommend as the next level up from the first bible. It is part of the core curriculum for preschool with Mother of Divine Grace .If any of you know of any bibles in between the first and this one, please let me know in the comments. This bible is a good transition from the first bible above to a more advanced bible. The stories are still simple, but more advanced than before. There are illustrations with each story and each story is only one page. The pages are also very little. Even my two year old loves reading from this bible. There are not too many stories in this bible and you will get through it quickly.
New Catholic Picture Bible is one of the supplementary books in the Mother of Divine Grace preschool curriculum. I owned this Catholic children’s bible before beginning to purchase a preschool curriculum. At the time, I was looking for a more advanced bible than Bible Stories for Little Ones. However, it proved to not be a good transition book as it was too big of a jump. Although most of the stories are only one page, the language is more advanced and the pictures are not as young kid friendly. The illustrations are beautiful. When I tried transitioning my oldest to this book, she was three. Now that she is four, she can understand the language better and the illustrations are more interesting to her. We took a break from this book, but once we finish up with some of the other bibles, we will return back to reading this one.
My Big Book of Catholic Bible Stories is part of the core curriculum for the Mater Amabilis preschool curriculum. It is a very comprehensive Catholic children’s bible and has more advanced language. Most of the stories are two pages long. It is appropriate for a four year old, but some of the supplementary material is a little too advanced for this age. For example, after most of the bible stories, there are suggestions to read portions of scripture that relate to this particular reading as well as a paragraph or more from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I think it is wonderful this book has these suggestions. However, it is probably too advanced for most four year olds. It would be great to continue with this bible through the years, especially when the child is mature enough to understand the scripture readings and catechism paragraphs associated with the bible story.
The Children’s Bible is another supplementary Catholic children’s bible from the Mother of Divine Grace preschool curriculum. This is probably the most advanced bible I am mentioning here, mostly because the stories are much longer. Many of the stories are several pages long with small print. The illustrations are beautiful, the bible covers many bible stories and the stories are more comprehensive than the other bibles mentioned above. Currently, I am reading a story from this bible every night to my children. They are both able to listen, so that is a good sign!
One last thing I want to mention is in the Charlotte Mason method (Mater Amabilis curriculum), one method is to use the unabridged bible with your children so as not to water down the bible. I love the concept of this, but I would love to hear from you guys if you have applied this with young children and if it worked? Let me know in the comments!
