need some creative ideas for a reluctant bible reader

Not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but try this link:

http://www.pennygardner.com/bible.html

Nanci,

I have no experience w/ Asperger’s so please take my reply for what it’s worth, if it is helpful. My ds6 LOVES to read the Bible on his own. He does it every, single night before bed, without fail. What triggered this sudden love for reading the Bible was that we bought him a Bible of his very own. It’s a backpack size Bible, very boyish looking, and he loves it. He’s had it for a couple of months now, and he still puts it back in its box when he’s finished reading. He is taking such good care of it, and enjoying being able to read it on his own. Perhaps if you allowed your child to pick out a Bible of his own, he would show more interest?

We didn’t tell our son that he had to read every night. He just started doing it because he so desperately wanted to read HIS Bible. 

Maybe that could spark an interest.

HTH,

Lindsey

Have you considered Bible reading on audio; esp. at night? A wonderful collection that really makes Bible reading more dramatic, like regular books, and read the way it should be is from George W. Sarris. He reads dramatically word-for-word from the Scripture, so it’s not dramatized Bible stories but the Bible read dramatically. It’s called The World’s Greatest Stories at http://www.worldsgreateststories.com/index.html

There are 6 Volumes currently. YOu can choose between the NIV or the KJV. I highly recommend them and I think it would peak an interest. Just be patient; you’re right; you don’t want to develop a bad taste in his mouth for the Scritpure. It’s better to take it slower so he can have positive connections with it than try to put him on an arbitrary schedule for his age and reading on his own. These CD’s are very intersting to listen to and you can directly show him in the Scripture from where the narrator is reading from. That may help.

Now, you may not want to actually put these on at night if he gets excited easily; my dd w/sensory dysfunction got overly excited by them at night so we switched to day listening. But finding a good straight reading for night time is also an option of getting the word into him in his sleep. I use a free online Psalms reading to go to sleep with sometimes, myself.

For dramtaic Bible stories, which will also create interest, it’s just not word-for-word; the ones by Nest is the way to go, the same people who do the Your Story HOur audios. The best price is from Library and Educational Services; they are having a special 1.95 s/h right now, too and if you subscribe to their newsletter, you can be updated on special sales on already low prices. http://www.libraryanded.com/store/2-45-Your-Story-Hour-10-Bible-Albums.html

HTH,

Rachel

My son hates to read and reads very slowly ~ so we had this very struggle as well.  I purchased the Egermeier’s Bible Story Book for him to read instead of his actual Bible.  This book is great.  It is not babyish at all and covers the entire Bible in chronological order.  I told the pastor’s wife at a church we used to attend that my son was reading and enjoying this book and she was surprised that I had stumbled across it because it isn’t that well known.  That church is a very conservative church and I was surprised to know that they actually gave the Egermeier’s Bible Story Book to adults just beginning their Christian life to read as a great book to help give them an understanding of Bible history.  It’s has many many stories that are never included in other children’s Bible story books and it is broken done into very readable short, well-written, engaging stories with a few full-color, full page illustrations.  I purchased my copy from Rainbow Resource.

Angie

Nanci,

Yes, my son is reading this book completely on his own.  His is now 10 year old; we purchased this in the middle of last school year so he began it just before turning 10.  He reads it very slowly.  He is expected to read from it every morning (sometimes an entire story and other times just a few paragraphs, especially if that particular story is on the long side) and is also expected to read from whatever chapter book that he is assigned for independent reading.  He is currently on page 139 of the Egermeier’s Bible Story Book (this is a 576 page book).  He doesn’t feel this is babyish at all and actually really enjoys the stories.  When we are doing our family Bible Study/Reading he will often tell us about reading that story from his book and will often go get the book to read from or to share any illustration that may be included for that story.  Remember, he claims to hate reading so 139 pages read independently and retained well enough to narrate and share is a huge deal!!!  He has a KJV Bible that he enjoys flipping through and taking to church, but at this point it is just too overwhelming for him to try to read from ~ especially for enjoyment of God’s Word.  The Egermeier book is helping him to spend time in God’s Word without feeling like he’s a failure at successfully reading. 

If you choose to try this book out, I hope your son will enjoy this it and find real reading success!

Angie

How exciting! We look forward to hearing about how much he enjoys reading his new Bible!

Nanci,

Im so sorry to hear your dissapointment with you sons current bible. Incase you are in search of another; When my ds was your sons age, we purchased him the “Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible” by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut to begin reading on his own. He LOVED this Bible, which is a continuous narrative. Here’s a bit on the text from Baldwin Books..

A book which stands in such honor as the Bible no one can afford to neglect. It is everywhere quoted, referred to, written about, preached from, and every one who would be considered as intelligent must have some acquaintance with it. And the time when one can most readily obtain a familiarity with the Bible is in early life. Those who in childhood learn the Story of the Bible are fortunate, for they will never forget it. Wise parents tell the Stories of the Bible to their little children, and both parents and children find them the most fascinating of all stories. “David and Goliath” is more interesting than “Jack, the Giant Killer;” “Joseph and His Brothers” will compare favorably with “Whittington, Lord Mayor of London;” the battles of Joshua and David are as wonderful as those of “King Arthur and the Table Round.” The Bible is a veritable “Arabian Nights” of entertainment when parents are themselves familiar with the stories and [9] know how to tell them. No book is so delightful to children as the Bible.

But the parents who are not thoroughly informed, or who do not possess the great gift of story-telling, find difficulties in the path of teaching the contents of the Bible to their children. Here is a great Book with masses of matter interesting only to students, as history, genealogy, details of law and customs of worship, psalms, prophecies, proverbs, epistles—how shall a selection be made appropriate to childhood? There are Oriental forms of speech, antiquated, unfamiliar, sometimes unacceptable to the taste of the age. The Stories of the Bible must be chosen with care, some statements must be explained, and some allusions must be omitted. There is need of a “Child’s Bible,” if children are to be interested in the Book of Books.

The writer of this work has been for many years a Bible student, a Bible teacher and a helper through the press, of many who are instructing the young in the Bible. He has long felt the need of a Book of Bible Stories, different in some respects from any work that has yet appeared. With this conviction he has undertaken the preparation of this work, which after patient labor and many revisions is now submitted to the public. In its purpose and plan its distinguishing features are the following:

1. The aim has been not merely to make a selection of the most striking and interesting among the stories contained in the Bible, but to tell all the principal stories in their connected order, and in such relation with each other as to form [10] a continuous history. Whoever reads this book will find in it not only “Stories from the Bible,” but also the “Story of the Bible” in one narration. He will follow the current of Scripture history and biography.

2. This Bible Story, though continuous and connected, is arranged in the form of a series of Stories, each independent of all the others and treated separately. Every Story has its title; and an effort has been made to give to each a striking title, one that will arrest the young reader’s attention. A child or a parent who might hesitate in undertaking to read through the history in the Bible, may open almost at random and find a Story. Here are one hundred and sixty-eight Stories, each one complete in itself, while together combining to form one narrative. And with each Story is named the place where it may be found in the Bible.

3. Special care has been given to the language of this book. I have endeavored to make it childlike without making it childish. Every word has been carefully chosen and there are few words in these Stories which a child of ten years old will not readily understand. Whenever it has been found necessary to introduce any word outside the realm of childhood, as “altar,” “offering,” “tabernacle,” “synagogue,” “centurion,” etc., it is carefully explained, not once only, but a number of times, until it becomes familiar. Doctrinal and technical terms have been everywhere excluded, and in place of them plain, familiar words have been given.

4. Inasmuch as the book is designed to lead the young reader to the Bible itself, and not away from it, the language [11] of the Bible, or a language somewhat like that of the Bible, has been employed. For the same reason I have refrained from adding to the Bible record any imaginary scenes or incidents or conversations. I wish every child who hears this book read to feel instinctively that it is the Bible, and not a fairy-tale, to which he is listening. When he grows older and reads these Stories himself for the first time in the Bible itself, I would not have him feel that he has been misled, or taught that which is not contained in the Word of God. The Bible stories are made plain, but they are not rewritten or changed.

5. In my opinion many books for children containing stories from the Bible are greatly marred by the evident attempt to interject a body of divinity into them, to make them teach doctrines which may be right or may be wrong, but are not stated nor hinted in the Scripture stories. Some excellent works have occupied much space here and there in trying to put into childlike language and to connect with Bible stories the deepest and most mysterious doctrines, which theologians find hard to understand. Others contain many moral reflections and applications which may be useful, but are not contained in the text of the story. I have sought to explain what needs explanation, but to avoid all doctrinal bias, and not to be wise above what is written. Only in a few instances where the New Testament warrants a spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament story has an application been given, and then in the simplest and fewest words. It is my confident hope that all denominations of Christians may feel at home in the pages of this book.

6. In the management of the material, the paragraphs are short, and according to the modern manner the conversations are generally printed in separate paragraphs. The results of recent knowledge in Bible lands and Bible history are used as far as is suitable in a book for children. Where the Revised Version is a manifest improvement upon the Old Version, it has been followed, as bringing the reader a step nearer to the thought of the Biblical writers.

7. Many of the engravings have been designed expressly for this book, and both the subjects for illustrations and the pictures themselves have been prepared with great care. The publishers have not allowed, in the book, scenes of blood or such as would be repulsive to people of taste. There is a realism in some modern views of Oriental manners and customs, which may be accurate, but is not pleasing and does not promote reverence. We have sought for pictures representing action and life, rather than those of ruined cities and squalid modern villages which may represent the Holy Land of to-day, but give no conception of the country and its people in Bible times. The pictures and the stories with them are designed to make the Word of God real to the young people who read these pages.

In the hope that this book may be an aid to parents and teachers in imparting Bible truth, and to children in learning it, with an earnest desire to increase the interest in the Sacred Narrative, these pages have been prepared and are sent forth into the world.

You can read sample chapters on the website

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=hurlbut&book=bible&story=_contents

This is our favorite childrens Bible by far!

Blessings, Heather