Last week I watched two mums exploring the Bible with their sons. They were fulfilling their biblical responsibility for the spiritual education of their children – and it was great fun!
Bekah and Susie have two children each. They knew they wanted to read the Bible with their children from a young age, and also to help them grasp the big picture of the Bible storyline. But they couldn’t find anything to help them do this. So they wrote it themselves. The result is Bake through the Bible – a 20-story Bible overview for toddlers, supported by cooking activities.
The idea is simple, but also brilliant. There’s a retelling of the Bible story – carefully written at the right level for pre-schoolers, while also staying biblically accurate – followed by a prayer. Then there’s a fun (often messy!) baking activity to do together. While you bake, there are some simple discussion questions to reinforce the meaning of the story. And when it’s time to eat, there’s one final question to pull it all together.
Susie and Bekah made Creation Cookies with their sons Joshua and Simeon. Watching the boys with their hands in the bowl mixing the dough was brilliant – they obviously loved it – then rolling the dough, pressing in the cutters and decorating the final cookies. And quite a lot of eating of the dough. All the way through they chatted about the wonderful things God made, as they cut out trees, stars, ducks, people, cows…
We filmed them doing all of this, with Joshua and Simeon turning out to be natural film stars. It was so great that I kept wanting to join in rather than stay behind the camera.
So was it just fun? Or did it help these young boys grasp something of the wonder of the creation account? I’ll leave the last word to Joshua (aged 2):
Susie: “What must God be like if He made all these wonderful things?”
Joshua: “Amazing”
Job done.
Alison Mitchell is a Senior Editor at The Good Book Company, where she has worked on a range of products including Bible-reading notes for children and families, and the Christianity Explored range of resources. She is the best-selling author of The Christmas Promise and the award-winning Jesus and the Lions' Den.