Explore the Bible: Kids is a book-by-book study that encourages kids to dig deep into Scripture. In every study, kids explore the people, places and objects of the Bible in a historical context, but they also discover ways to compare them to modern-day life.
During each session, adults and students study the same passage of Scripture while kids study the same concept within the same book, incorporating narrative elements throughout the Bible for a rich, kid-friendly lesson.
Explore the Bible is the first resource of its kind to join every age group in a book-by-book Bible study—but there are a few other facts that you may find interesting.
1. Kids dig deep into the Bible with the interactive app.
Explore the Bible not only includes a magazine-style explorer guide for younger and older kids, it also features a free app (iOS or Android) with different sections for preschoolers, kids and parents.
Kids who learn about the story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41 will have an opportunity to see the scene come to life in the app when they examine a 3-D image of a boat that is historically accurate to the one from Scripture.
Some other in-app features for kids include:
Memory verse games
Words to know with audio pronunciation
Jigsaw puzzles that incorporate books of the Bible
Fun-facts about the Bible
An explanation about the gospel
If you're a parent, you'll find that the app can help you understand more about what your child is learning each week. It includes:
The Bible reading plan
The kid's weekly Bible story
The preschool weekly Bible story
The memory verse list
2. Kids see modern-day life connect with the Bible in weekly videos.
Each session features an engaging, host-driven introduction video, which helps leaders jumpstart the study and captures kids' interest for digging deeper into the Bible.
Each video is filmed on location with an emphasis on adding an element of discovery and illustrating the week's truth from Scripture.
Videos are 5-7 minutes, optional in the lesson and unique each week. Some of the videos on location from previous lessons include: a recording studio, gem mining, a fire station, a printing factory and a butterfly sanctuary.
3. Kids explore the Bible through object-based studies.
Each session of Explore the Bible: Kids uses object-based learning to help kids dig deep. This helps kids learn about different stories of the Bible from a rich, historical context and then compare them to modern-day life.
For example, kids learn how Noah's Ark stacks up to other famous ships, what a cubit looks like, the gigantic size of Goliath compared to an average sized dad and how the height of the temple mount in Jerusalem compares to other famous monuments.
This style of study is fun and interactive, but it also helps instill a foundation of biblical truth for each kid.
4. Kids engage with exciting historical content each week.
Because the studies for Explore the Bible: Kids are object-based, it is important to illustrate content that is historically accurate and trustworthy. Every image and fact in each study is meticulously selected and curated for the purpose of helping kids connect with the Bible and helping that text come to life.
Erika Scrimpshire, the research specialist for Explore the Bible: Kids, partners with renowned museums around the world in preparation for each study. Explore the Bible: Kids has used images and information from institutions like: the British Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, the Jewish Museum of New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
"It's my job to make sure everything on the page is historically accurate," Scrimpshire said. "If it's on the page, you can trust it."
Some items featured in previous studies include the oldest known parchment of the 10 Commandments, an ancient marriage contract and a sundial recovered from the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
"Kids really do dive into the Bible," Scrimpshire said. "It's not just a cliché. So we really try to help them dive into the world that they're studying."