Bibles for Children

[pjdobro]

I thought I would get your input on the best Bible to get for my dc. They have had little New Testaments with Psalms since they were little and my dd has a NKJV that was given to her at church, but they haven't ever had a regular, special Bible of their own. Of course we've read the Bibles for children that were used in LHFHG and also in the emerging readers and still have those, but they don't have a regular version Bible of their own. They are both good enough readers now that I think they will be able to read a regular Bible on their own. They have been borrowing mine quite a bit lately while reading Scripture Sleuth. I usually use the NIV for our scriptures for the week so I was thinking of getting a NIV Adventure Bible for each of them in a nice cover, engraved with their name for their birthday. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with various translations and versions for children? I had hesitated getting a regular Bible for each of them until they were reading at a high enough level. Both of my dc are reading at a pretty good level now. I haven't tested them recently but in our DITHR books, they are both reading books that are around 6th grade reading level. I know my dd can read at an even higher level than that, but that is probably about the max level right now for my ds. I'm thinking the NIV might be the best choice for that reading level and it's the version they are used to hearing in our memory verses. Any thoughts?

[Samuel'sMommy]

We got DS this bible for Easter last year. He loves it! I know you were talking about the NIV adventure Bible, but I think most of the extras in these two Bibles are the same, just the translation is different. I think it's a great Bible for kids. DS loves to take it to his room and sit down and look through it. We use it anytime we need a Bible in LHFHG and I am teaching him how to look up the scriptures on his own. He really likes that and being able to show Daddy that he can find his memory verse later.

http://www.christianbook.com/adventure- ... ew=details

[momtofive]

Patty, one other thing to consider is if your children will want to be carrying these Bibles to church or not. If so, you may want to go with the version that your church uses, so they would be able to follow along easily. I know a lot of churches provide Bibles to use during the services, so maybe this won't be a problem. Our son just turned nine and he's begun following along during the sermon. It's so great to see him paging through the truths in God's Word!

We like to have NIV Bibles for the kids, to get used to reading their Bibles for the first times. We also use ESV at our church and don't find it to be hard to read, either. So, I don't know if I've been any sort of help, just thought I'd mention what we do for ours that are about the ages of your children.

Blessings on your Bible hunt!

[pjdobro]

Thank you all for your suggestions thus far. I'm glad to hear Stephanie that you are liking the supplementary items in the Adventure Bible. I thought it looked nice from what I had seen in samples. I like the idea of perhaps giving them the Bible for Easter as well. I had been thinking their birthday, but I'm getting anxious to get them their own Bibles and Easter is before their birthday.

Lisa, that is a good point to consider that I hadn't really thought about. The church we've been attending uses NKJV at least in Awanas. We had gotten our dc materials in NIV though since we were more used to that. It's difficult because for years my dh and I had NIV Bibles. When I started doing Precept Bible studies, I started using the NASB. My husband recently decided to get an ESV and I still have my original KJV from when I was a girl. So we have several different translations around. I really like the NASB, but I haven't found one geared toward children in that version nor have I seen an ESV children's Bible. I was thinking that the reading level in the NASB or the ESV might still be a bit beyond their reach as well which is why I was thinking the NIV might be a good choice.

[pjdobro]

I thought I would let you all know what I finally decided to do in case anyone else is pondering this. I did a little research as to the reading levels of various translations and went to a Christian bookstore to view many of the Bibles in person.

I ended up deciding on the NIV translation for several reasons. It is roughly a 7th grade reading level so even though it is a bit of a stretch especially for my ds, I thought my children could read it fairly well now. Some of the other translations like ESV, NASB, and NKJV were at a higher reading level so I thought it might be a bit much for them at this point in time. I looked up several translations online, had my son read the various ones, and he was most comfortable with the NIV. We have been using the NIV translation for most of our Bible memory verses as well so I thought it would be more consistent for my dc to have a NIV translation.

I looked at the various formats and decided on the NIV Thinline Bible for Kids. It is 8 pt. type which is still big enough to not be intimidating but it is a nice thin Bible. The print is clear and easy to read. It's set up in a 2 column format and the Words of Christ are in red. It has nice maps and a concordance. It doesn't have any of the fancy devotions or extras in it, but I decided something simpler might be a better choice. Some of the extra things that are included in some Bibles can make it more difficult to find passages. I showed a few of the samples to my son online and he didn't like the cluttered look of many of the extras. As I looked at some of the Bibles that were marketed to tweens, I felt a little uncomfortable with some of the topics that they were discussing. It was just a bit too old for my dc and I thought when they get a bit older, they might feel those things are a bit too young. So I decided on a plain version that I feel will grow with them. I really loved the purple butterfly cover on the girls Bible and the brown circle design on the boys. Both of these should grow with them and not seem too young for them even when they are teens. At least that is my hope. I had their names engraved on their Bibles and I'm looking forward to giving them each their special Bible on Easter.

I decided that one can never have too many Bibles and while I was looking I came across the Treasure Study Bible. It's a kids version of a Thompson chain reference NIV Bible. It has fun treasure hunts that one can do throughout on different topics. It also has some nice study information on each book of the Bible. It's bigger and hardcover so I didn't think it would be a good choice for my dc to carry to church. It also has that extra stuff that could make it more difficult to quickly locate a particular passage, but I really liked it. So I decided that it would be an excellent addition to our school books. I now have a nice study Bible for my dc to use as a reference.

I'm really happy with the choices that I made for my dc now, but in retrospect, I would have gotten them their own Bible sooner. I wish I would have gotten them the NIVr Adventure Bible a couple of years ago. That would have been a nice one that would have been at a reading level they could have handled about the time they were reading or about to finish the emerging readers. The format and style of that Bible would have been fun for them at that time and I think would have had them digging into the Word a bit more. I probably still would have been getting the Bibles that I'm getting now or fairly soon, but I think they could have benefited from having their own Bible at their level sooner.

Just thought I would share how it all came out. Thank you all for your input!