We are instructed to think about Father God and his word continually. His word is full of life and having a relationship with him and obeying his word brings blessings. The scriptures tell us to talk about them with our children when we rise up, when we walk along the way, and when we go to bed so they will know who he is and all the mighty works he has done, they will honor him and will love him too.

“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Dueteronomy 6:1-9

Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, parents can forget to follow these instructions and weave the word of God into their daily activities as the busyness of other day to day challenges can get in the way. Kid Niche Christian Books offers a bible study called “Weave Your Word In Me – Part 1” by Susan Case Bonner that can help parents teach their kids about building a deeper relationship with Father God.

Weave Your Word In Me – Part 1

Bible Study

36 Lessons

Answer Key

Illustrated

77 Pages

Ages: 4th – 6th Grades

Retail $20

Weave Your Word In Me Part 1 helps kids learn who Father God is, build a relationship with him, think about the wonderful things he has done, and learn how to pray to him daily from their heart just as Jesus did. It is designed for kids in 4th – 6th grades (Tweens). This is the first part of a 2 part bible study series. Part 1 contains “God the Father” and “God the Son” and Part 2 contains “God the Holy Spirit” and “What God Wants”. Part 2 is available for $20 as a separate purchase. A bundled set that contains both Part 1 and Part 2 together is also available for $30.

The Lessons (72 pages) + the Answer Key (5 pages) + Free Enrichment Activities on the website make up this Bible study curriculum. This Bible study use scriptures, prayer, plus a variety of other methods to develop the thought process about the topic. Various methods used include scriptures, prayer, pictures, charts, definitions, drama, drawings, fill-in-the-blanks, illustrations, matching, sequence, multiple choice, and true or false type questions. There is a place to write down your prayer at the end of each lesson. Every prayer begins with “Dear Father in heaven…” and then have a different focus depending on the focus of the lesson.

Lesson include:

Part 1: 36 Lessons

God the Father: 14 Lessons

1) God is our heavenly Father. He likes us to talk to
him. Talking to God is called prayer.

1 Meet God the Father
2 Where God Lives
3 Our Listening God
4 Talking With God
5 The Name of God
6 The Greatness of God
7 Two Types of Pray-ers
8 An Encounter With God
9 True Humility

2) God loves and cares for all people.

10 God Loves All People
11 God Shows Kindness to All
12 God Loves Children
13 God Highly Values Us
14 No One Is Too Bad for God to Love

God the Son: 22 Lessons

3 a) Jesus’ Early Years and Preparation

15 Jesus’ Birth
16 Jesus’ Childhood
17 Jesus’ Baptism
18 Jesus’ Temptation

b) Jesus’ Ministry on Earth

19 Jesus the Teacher
20 Jesus the Healer
21 Jesus the Leader
22 Jesus’ Lessons in Faith
23 Jesus the Miracle Worker
Background Information
24 Jesus’ Identity Revealed
25 Jesus the Giver of Life
26 Jesus the All-Knowing God

c) Jesus’ Betrayal, Trial, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Return (Jesus’ Sacrifice and Reward)

27 Jesus’ Betrayal and Arrest
28 Jesus’ Trial
29 Jesus’ Death
30 Jesus’ Resurrection
31 Jesus’ Ascension
32 Jesus’ Return and Reign

4) Anyone who receives Jesus as God and Savior
becomes God’s child.

33 Rejecting or Receiving Jesus
34 The Benefits of Receiving
35 What Jesus Is Preparing
36 The Receiving Criminal

Part 2: 44 Lessons (sold separately)

God the Holy Spirit: 16 Lessons

What God Wants: 28 Lessons

When I received my Bible study, it came unbound and printed on brightly colored heavy duty paper. It is hole punched and ready to be inserted into a binder of your choice. I chose a bright colored 3 ring binder with a clear pocket on the front and I put the provided cover page in the clear pocket of my binder and added the hole punched pages inside. It was that easy and looks very nice. I also added a pencil case (not pictured) with a highlighter, pencils, and gel pens too. This study can be done at home or slip the binder and bible into a bag or backpack to take on outings too.

This study is flexible and can be used in a way that fits best with your schedule. It could be used for the whole school year for 36 weeks doing 1 lesson a week, or 1 semester for 18 weeks if done with 2 lessons a week, or finish in 12 weeks if doing 3 lessons a week, or work on it every day and complete it even sooner. It is up to you how fast or slow you want to proceed.

Each lesson is filled with colorful illustrated pages, large print and large places to write your answers.

The author has done a nice job of including scripture in each lesson and getting kids to think about it and write down answers. Lessons are short and are usually only 1 to 3 pages long. Some lessons include additional background information for a mini history lesson. At the end of each lesson are a few questions that vary in style from fill in the blank, to multiple choice, to true false, etc. At the end of each lesson is also a place for the kids to write out their prayer regarding what they learned in the lesson and how it applies to their life.

The Answer Key for questions in each lesson is found in the back of the study and is compatible with 6 different Bible translations: KJV, ESV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, NABRE.

The study can be adapted to other translations though the Answer Key won’t reflect the exact wording as it does with the 6 translations it covers.

The main component in Part 1 is a prayer guide that helps kids learn who God is and how to talk with God. It helps kids understand the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray in the scriptures. The bible study uses both the Lord’s Prayer and another prayer written by the Author called “My Whole Self Before You”.

At first I was somewhat put off by using “another” prayer as a guide for a bible study. At the beginning of the study, it compares the “The Lord’s Prayer” vs “My Whole Self Before You” prayer, and seems to indicate that they have basically the same meaning. This bothered me at first because I was taught not to put my own spin on the scriptures, and not to add or take away from scriptures. Jesus taught us how to pray and that is enough. We don’t have to “tweak” it.

My husband and I discussed these points in depth. Sometimes praying can seem repetitive and even Jesus said we should not repeat the same things over and over (like chanting) that we have memorized and we should speak from our heart. So I decided to press on and after digging further into the bible study, I realized that the “My Whole Self Before You” prayer is an example to teach kids how to pray to Father God in their own words and by learning how to pray, they also build a relationship with him. It is not intended to replace the Lord’s Prayer Jesus spoke (even though at first it seemed to be indicating this), but instead the Bible study follows the blueprints of what Jesus prayed and helps kids see through a step by step process that they can also pray following his blueprint.

The actual blueprint for praying is honoring God first, and thanking him for his blessings in our life and his provision, and asking him to forgive us, helping us to forgive others who have wronged us, ask him to guide and direct us, and keep us from harm, and acknowledging that he has all authority, power, and dominion forever. Praying with this method, in our own words from our sincere heart, brings us closer to Father God and builds our relationship with him.

I had originally intended to use this study daily with my 10 year old as a supplement to her other studies. She is at the “Tween” age and this was written for kids in 4th – 6th grades. However, she wasn’t so excited to work on it by herself. Even though the lessons are manageable, there is reading and looking up scriptures that involves even more reading. Reading is not her thing right now. She is a slow reader and she would rather do other things. Some of my kids would jump at the opportunity to read and explore. However, she is an audio visual learner and she doesn’t enjoy reading very much at this young “Tween” phase she is in. I hope that one day soon she will enjoy reading, but for now, she doesn’t prefer it. She does like hearing others read, she likes audio stories, videos, and social interaction and she absorbs a lot from those methods.

There are some additional learning videos and enrichment activities with hands on learning available on the website that she has jumped at the opportunity to do and has enjoyed.

Enrichment Activity 1a & 1b: The Potter

Enrichment activity 1c: Jesus Prays To Father

Enrichment activity 2a, 2b, and 2c: Emerald Rainbow and Northern Lights.

We did two versions of this activity. One version was a freehand style painting of the Northern Lights using watercolors and wax crayons as directed in the activity. The second one was a pre-printed page we found online of the Northern Lights as seen from Canada.

So I decided after digging into the first couple of lessons with her, to change things up a bit and make this a weekly Bible study for my whole family. I spent some time reading through it before I read it aloud to my husband and kids. I am glad I made this choice for our family. It got Dad and big brothers in on the discussion with the younger ones and we can all learn from each other and my Tween is benefiting even more from doing it this way than when she was doing it alone.

I tucked the bible study into my travel bag and took it with us on our weekly road trips. We are using it as a study and discussion tool. I read it aloud to my family and then have one of them read the bible verse(s). Then I asked them the questions and have more discussion. We waited to do the enrichment projects until we were home to reinforce the message. I was surprised how deeply our discussions as a family have went on these trips. This has been a great study tool.

We got all the kids involved in the enrichment activities. They love hands on learning and Unit Studies are our prefered method and this Bible study plus the enrichment activities is like a great big Prayer Unit Study. The kids have enjoyed learning about what a potter does. It helped them understand how our Father God is like a potter and we are his clay. We watched the suggested video on Youtube, and then the kids got out our playdough and pretended to be potter’s and created their own creations. All six of my kids really enjoyed this activity and talked about how their life is like clay in Father God’s hands.

Jesus Praying in the Garden: We don’t have stained glass or similar items, though I saw a tutorial on making your own “shrinky dinks” or “light” catchers by staining / painting plastic and heating it in the oven and it comes out looking similar to stained glass and we may try something like this soon. For now we printed out the page and some of the kids used paints, some used crayons, etc. to finish it.

Another brother used colored pencils enjoyed quiet time outside alone with Father God contemplating yielding his life to Father God as Jesus did.

Another one of my sons wanted to draw his own sketch of the picture. He spent some quiet time and sketched free hand the picture of Jesus praying in his sketch book.

Northern Lights activity: We watched a video and also looked up information on Wikipedia. Then my kids used various methods: watercolors, water colors with wax crayons, and sketching with charcoal pencil and colored pencils, to create their own Northern Lights or Emerald Rainbow pictures.

An upcoming enrichment activity the kids are looking forward to making soon is prayer boxes. We have collected some altoid tins already and plan to print out some scriptures about praying on small cards that are business card size so they fit in nicely, and put in a pencil and small note pad. We also plan to make a bigger version with a metal cookie tin. For these large tins we plan to put in items that help to study your bible such as a highlighter, book mark, pen, as well as a nice notebook that can be used as a place to write down prayers and journal about bible study. Both of these types of boxes will reflect God’s promises about prayer. So when you open it, you can pull out a scripture and read it and be reminded that God loves you and hears your prayers. These will make a wonderful activity for kids and wonderful gifts to give away too.

There are several suggested activities that relate to the Bible study lessons and way too many enrichment activities to mention. You can take a look yourself on the FREE Activities page of the website.

I believe it is important to point everyone, and especially kids, to Father God. The prayer opportunities at the end of each lesson in this bible study tie it all together and are my favorite part because they build the relationship with the Father. These lessons, enrichment activities, and prayers teach kids to take time to talk to Father, honoring him, thanking him, and reaching out to him from their heart.

About the Author:

Susan Case Bonner is a woman who wears many hats. She is a wife and mother, and over the years has been a Homeschool teacher, Author, Sunday School teacher, Chapel Speaker, Conference Speaker, Christian Education Director, and is a graduate of Columbia State University.

Susan says she believes “boring” and “Bible” don’t belong in the same sentence. She is excited about her faith and wants to share it. She has developed this bible study and a website full of enriching activities such as topic related activities, puzzles, projects, music, art lessons, and videos from the web, that help bring the bible to life for kids.

I found these videos with Susan Case Bonner on her Youtube channel discussing the book with the poem she wrote for younger children “My Whole Self Before You” (which this bible study for Tweens was based on):

And this one:

Be sure to check out more Books and Bible Study Resources by Susan Case Bonner available at Kid Niche Christian Books. In addition to the FREE Enrichment Activities, she also has a blog with tips for using the curriculum and support for homeschool families. She has Bible Study Curriculum products for kids of all ages, including books for younger children, for Tweens, and Teens, as well and the Whole Family too.