Recommended Christian parenting books
- How to parent children:
- What the Bible Says about Parenting by John MacArthur: Start here
- Duties of Parents by JC Ryle: A classic book on parenting
- Sticky Situations – 365 Devotionals by Betsy Schmitt: Daily story and discussion questions to prepare kids for difficult decisions they’ll face. Book one for older elementary and book two for younger elementary kids
- Family Driven Faith by Voddie Bacham
- She Calls Me Daddy by Robert Wolgemuth
- The Most Important Place on Earth by Robert Wolgemuth
- Teaching children about God
- The ESV Illustrated Family Bible: Covers the major stories in the Bible using the ESV text
- Early Readers Bible: Utilizes the 100 most common words and adds three new words per story to teach the Bible and reading
- Disciplines of a Godly Family by Kent Hughes: Covers a wide range of topics such as family traditions, prayer and manners
- Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware: Outlines how to have a conversation about theological topics with middle and high schoolers
- Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland: Walks through the Gospel step-by-step at a level grade school children will understand
- Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade: Daily family devotions based on the Westminster Confession
- Grounded in the Gospel by Gary Parrett: Encourages the use of catechism to teach children the faith based on the Apostles Creed, Ten Commandments and Lord’s Prayer
- Family Worship by Donald Whitney: Short introduction to the topic of leading your family in a time of Bible reading, singing and prayer
- Family Worship by Joel Beeke
- Big Truths for Little Kids by Susan Hunt: Children’s catechism intertwined with a story, which prompts good discussions
- Teaching Kids about God: Age based (2-12) approach to developing a child’s faith
- Family Nights Tool Chest by Jim Weidmann: Several books that provide activities that tie together Bible lessons
- Long Story Short – Ten Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God by Marty Machowski
- Off the Record with Martin Luther translated by Charles Daudert: Luther’s students recorded conversations and his blunt discussions of a variety of topics are a way to engage high school students in doctrinal topics
- Come Ye Children by Charles Spurgeon
- Raising Masculine Sons
- Thoughts for Young Men by JC Ryle
- It’s Better to Build Boys than Mend Men by Truett Cathy
- Raising a Modern Day Knight by Robert Lewis: Specifically for boys staring in the elementary school years
- Boyhood and Beyond by Bob Schultz: He has a couple of other books on this topic as well
- Raising Masculine Sons: Randy Stinson’s message on the topic
- Teaching Christian history
- 5 book series by Mindy and Brandon Withrow: Peace and Peril (Ancient Church), Monks and Mystics (Medieval Church), Courage and Conviction (Reformation Church), Hearts and Hands (Awakening Church) and Rescue and Redeem (Modern Church)
- Biographies about Christian women
- A list of movies that teach Christian history
Recommended books with Christian themes to read to/with your kids:
- Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan: Ages 8+ because some of the dialogue is long. Great for promoting family discussions. YouTube also has a reading of the book that’s well done.
- Holy War by John Bunyan
- The Narnia Series by CS Lewis: Ages 6+
- Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolken: Ages 10+. Amazing use of the ring as a symbol of the sinful idols we create in our lives
- Missionary Stories with the Millers (and other with the Millers titles)
- Ten Girls Who Changed the World (Ten Boys as well along with other Ten Girls/Boys Who…)
- The Priest with Dirty Clothes by RC Sproul (also The Prince’s Poison Cup)
Christian magazines for kids:
- God’s World News: Several different magazines about the world and world events from a Christian perspective targeted based on grade
- Good Book Company’s quarterly devotions: Covers Bible themes and people over a 3-year cycle targeted to specific age groups
Online resources:
- Children’s Catechism: Simple Q&A format to teach children the basics of the faith through memorization
- FamilyLife Today: Daily radio program addressing a wide variety of family related subjects
- FamilyLife Culture Watch: Blog about how cultural issues affect the family
- Connecting Church and Home Conference: Free MP3s covering a variety of topics. Notes from the 2010 conference. Highly recommended
- Donald Whitney on family worship: The messages about family worship teach a simple model of read, sing and pray
- Family Worship articles: Several edited sermons on leading your family in a regular time of Bible reading and worship
- Family worship guide: 2 page overview of why and how to do family worship
- Worship songs: List of songs for use with family worship including some free MP3s
- Family worship lessons: 52 weeks of lessons for how to lead your family weekly
- Biblical Parenting articles: Sermons about parenting from historical pastors
- Parental Priorities series: Alistair Begg’s sermon series on parenting
- Six family habits: Brief article on habits to instill in your kids
- How to Pastor a Family: Recommendations on how to lead the family
- Family manifesto: Detailed outline of the theology of family
- Leading family worship: Video message from Joel Beeke about family worship
- Fathers as a refuge for children: Brief article from John Piper about protecting kids
- Marks of Manhood: Al Mohler’s list of 13 traits that we must build into boys
- Movie Guide: Rates movies for moral content and artistic quality
- Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: Beware of raising your kids with no depth in their knowledge of God
- Bible memory ideas: Verse lists and techniques for memorizing from Desiring God
- Theo: Very cool cartoon video series and iPad app
- Bible Memory app: Free iPhone/iPad app preloaded with popular verses for memory practice
- Becoming a Missional Family: Short booklet with ideas for how to teach kids about missions
- Should you celebrate Halloween?: Blog post that layout out the spectrum of opinions
- 10 Reasons Why Children Shouldn’t Ask Jesus Into Their Heart:
- Sports discipleship ideas: Audio and print resources about training Christian athletes