By Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt, Harvest House Publishers, 2001.
Shovels, picks, and brushes. The dig site. Extracting the evidence. Sifting the soil. These are a few of the highly engaging and hands-on chapters Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt have included in their series of interactive, inductive Bible studies for kids: God’s Amazing Creation Discover 4 Yourself. Parents and students in elementary grades K-6 can join the inductive explorers and main characters Max and Molly along with their dog Sam and archaeologist Uncle Jake on a “treasure hunt through God’s Word” to learn about creation.
Arthur is best known as cofounder of Precepts Ministries International, which is a ministry dedicated to teaching children and adults how to study the Bible inductively. This is a practical approach to reading God’s Word in a systematic way to build the picture of the text through the details. Some of her best selling books include Jesus-Awesome Power, Awesome Love and Lord Teach Me To Pray. Arndt is the coauthor of this series and is a Precept leader who has worked extensively with Sunday school classes and Christian schools.
This particular study, God’s Amazing Creation, is a fun-filled way for young scholars to dig up the truth on how the world began. It helps parents show their kids how to discover answers to many of the important “why” questions related to creation: who created the world? how were the heavens and earth formed? what really happened at the beginning to bring everything–creatures, oceans, people, planets–into existence? This is a perfect Bible study for parents who want to teach their children how to discover for themselves how to study the Bible and dig out the truths about creation in the first five chapters of Genesis. This digging-for-truth Bible study was created for kids to do and to learn how God’s Spirit can guide and lead them too! It is the first in a series of ten inductive Bible studies for kids in the Discover 4 Yourself series.
Some of the interactive ways students dig up truths about the first awesome days of creation when God created the stars, the world, and mankind include reading passages from the Bible while using colored pencils to code them for the specific who, what, and where information in the texts. Kids are busy drawing maps, doing word puzzles, completing crossword puzzles, logging in their field journals about what they have learned and the definition of Hebrew words, and learning how to decode hieroglyphics like real archeologists. They get excited about becoming inductive detectives!
Parents lead their children through a series of read, discuss, decode, and interpret activities that can be done in about 20 minutes. As students complete the daily activities, Max and Molly, along with Sam, give them encouragement through the parallel story that is presented throughout the book about their archeological adventures with their Uncle Jake. This story is easy exciting to read and easy for children to relate to. It keeps them coming back enthusiastically day after day until the six week study is completed.
As a parent, I highly recommend this interactive series. My children were so excited for our nightly Bible time when we joined Max, Molly, and Sam to learn more about creation. I was kept encouraged by their enthusiasm. As I saw my children learn, I was reassured that I could teach them how to study their Bibles at a young age even though this is something that I did not learn how to do until I was much older. In spite of my teacher training, before using this material I was not sure how to teach my children how to read the Bible in a way that would give them a “sweet tooth for Jesus.” This Bible study on creation changed all that for me and for my family. We learned so much from this series about creation and how to study the Bible that we ordered more books from Kay Arthur’s series.
Parents can order this quality material with confidence knowing that their enjoyment of reading and studying the Bible with their children will be enhanced. Our fourth-grade son, Aaron, and I also enjoyed Digging Up the Past, Abraham- God’s Brave Explorer, How to Study Your Bible for Kids, and Wrong Way, Jonah. Our next family study, Jesus in the Spotlight, is on its way. In addition, for each of the books completed kids receive a congratulatory note card from Max and Molly. Aaron proudly keeps his cards and is reminded of all that he unearthed about creation and other topics he now knows about and loves. He is quick to share his new knowledge with his older siblings and friends. (An ATTA-Way goes to Aaron for leading the way in using this fun study and for setting an example for other kids his age in loving God’s word!)
In addition to parents using this book in their family Bible study times, this book on creation along with the other inductive studies would be an excellent tool for Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, and those preparing weekly studies for elementary aged children. Never has digging for truth been so fun!
