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Well it took us a few years as a homeschooling family to read through this book, but I am so pleased with this resource that I must write a book review recommending it! First of all, don't let the amount of time it took us to complete it scare you away. Actually, the book can be completed in a few weeks time if that is what a family prefers. This book is not only a great resource for homeschool families, although that is what my experience has been, and will be what I share in this blog. I can easily see children's church ministries going through a lesson each Sunday, or families who want to supplement their kids' spiritual development during the week.
As all homeschool families come to find out, there is a lot of learning outside of school curriculum that happens through experience. As time went by, my homeschooling approach shifted as we grew and learned what works best for our family during Bible time in our homeschool. This is why something I love about this resource is how flexible it is. At first, we would go through a section of each lesson a day, and that is mostly why it took us a couple of years to go through the book. However, during the last couple of months, we would complete a lesson a school day, which worked better for us now that my kids were older and had a bigger attention span as second and third graders. The Attributes of God for Kids is a devotional book that caters mostly to kids ages 4-11. The writer, Lydia White explains in the preface: "...I went looking for a children's devotional describing the attributes of God. Having been strongly influenced by Tozer's book in my own life, I wanted something similar on a much simpler level." This resource has served as a great introduction to my kids of who God is, and it has been great to go through each attribute along with my kids and meditate on who God is. In my opinion, this resource is suitable for believers with varying opinions on secondary issues. The book is divided into two sections: God's Unique Attributes and God's Moral Attributes. It goes over 21 of God's attributes, so I would consider it as a homeschool mom to be split up into 21 lessons. It begins discussing an attribute with a short lesson that is very applicable to kids. It then transitions into three other sections: Listening to God, Talking with God, and Praising God. During Listening to God, a few Bible verses are provided that support the attribute, including a highlighted Bible verse that is chosen as the Memory Verse. My kids and I had fun creating hand gestures to help us memorize it.
What was a pleasant surprise in particular was how this book pairs well with another book that we already had in our home called "The Jesus Storybook Bible". Each lesson suggests a story in that book that goes with the topic at hand about the specific attribute of God. And I also enjoyed being able to read the actual Bible story afterwards, because it was referenced below it. I can see how a family who would prefer to only read the actual Bible passage instead can easily do so. It was a sweet moment when I would ask my children to repeat after me the short prayer provided below in the section Talking with God. I was able to pray these words for myself as well. The other creative surprise was learning about a new musical resource I would not have known about if not for this book! In the section Praising God, one or two songs from Seeds Family Worship are suggested to be played that go with the topic and Bible verses. What's extra great is that we were able to play them for free by going to their website. My daughter in particular very much enjoyed dancing and signing to these songs. It brought her and us a lot of joy. (And as a musician myself, my honest opinion is that the songs are not annoying, but are creative in melody, and the lyrics are Bible verses!)
Each lesson also provides a unique symbol to help kids memorize all of the attributes along the way. Kids can be tested at the end of each section of the book using these symbols if families choose to do so.
Now can you tell why I highly recommend this resource? Do yourself and kids a favor and add this book to your family's library. It is worth the investment!
"The Attributes of God for Kids" by Lydia White: