•My First Handy Bible (The physical book has sold almost 2 million copies)
•The Angel Bible (FREE DOWNLOAD)
•Parables of the Bible (The Sheep that was Found, The House on the Rock, The Son who Came Home, The Coin that was Lost)
•Stories of the Bible (creation, Noah’s Ark, Christmas, Easter) (Each book app regularly costs $2.99 or all 4 books for the discounted price of $9.99.)
Tips and More Review:
First I checked out the app's story about creation. The animation is cool and I think would capture young kids' attention. (Ok, it captured mine, too, lol.) Nice illustration too.
Plus in the creation story there's a "new" character: a cute little caterpillar that pops into different scenes and asks kids all kinds of different questions interspersed during the story.
You could use these questions by encouraging your kids to answer them out loud, or in writing if they are older. If a short answer, they could just say what they think. If longer, you could pause the Ipad story and give them time to elaborate or think about their reply. Some of the questions are simple, such as whether the child sees a certain object in the story. Others have to do with morals, which of course would make a great base for discussion, debate, or a journal entry later.
Another use for the Ipad stories would be as a kicking-off point to capture kids' attention about the story, since many kids are visual learners and just soak up technology nowadays. Afterward or the next day, you could all read the story from your own bible or have the child do so if old enough. Perhaps you could compare the versions. Or ask the child(ren) to tell the story in their own words (perhaps even tape that!)
It's great that you can record your voice, or the child's voice, reading the stories too. You can make it into a Reader's Theater by taking turns reading different sentences, characters, or words! Consider using different voices to bring the "characters" to life even more, like a radio dramatizati on. You could even figure out ways to add sound effects (research how the first radio show sound effects artists did it, like banging pots and pans for thunder, for instance.)
Perhaps you could include music. Let the child(ren) choose. Classical? Christian contemporary? Or a song you write yourselves? Make your own music with instruments you have or make yourselves? (Especially instruments highlighted in certain stories.)
Another way to use the app is to watch/read or listen to the stories, and then either act out the story (or parts of it) exactly (or close) to the way the app did it, or have the kids improvise or act to your own (or somebody else's) script about the same story.
You could have the kids wear suitable costumes you can either make (think construction paper and cardboard props such as a big first sun you could make rise. Or old towels or fabric or gowns for a King's robes, for example.) I spent years gathering a big bag of costumes and prop items with which to act out bible stories and lessons. For instance I have some great fabric with white and burgundy str.ipes that seems perfect for a robe Joseph might wear
For those learning to read, handwrite, etc., use words or sentences from the stories and make flash cards (Use index cards and bright markers, perhaps.) Or write sentences on your chalkboard, if you have one. Or, of course, put them into a writing program on your Ipad, or on your computer to print them out neatly. Zaner-Blosser has a handwriting practice app for IOS, for instance.
You can also make copywork sheets using sentences from the stories. Either make your own from scratch by using lined paper and skipping enough lines for the child to write the word or words too.
You could also consider listening to, and reading the apps stories first yourself alone. You can choose elements from the story you want to highlight, and write down quiz questions you want the child(ren) to answer either out loud or in writing. I enjoy putting questions from videos and other things we've watched onto individual index cards, with the question on one side and the answer on back. We have used these to play "games" like our own version of Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit. You can vary the difficulty of the questions depending what age(s) of children you are working with. For instance for a young child who can count (at least a little) you could ask how many tigers did God ask Noah to put into the ark?
Noah's Ark is one of the stories on both the free Children's Bible app and the Famous People of the Bible app. As you probably know, I am partial to Noah's Ark art and stories of all kinds, of course, since God led me to name my youngest son Noah and we've collected Noah's Ark items of all kinds from since before he was born. (Guess what mural I created and painted on his bedroom wall, lol.)
This particular story has fine illustration on the app. Not a ton of animation included in this story, but enough to keep it interesting. Nice and colorful plus some really cute animals. Here's a screenshot:
"These stories have already been sold, in printed form, in over 8 million copies in more than 110 languages and countries. (See the list in the App.) It is still reprinting 300,000 to 600,000 each year.
This app contains 24 books for younger kids. It has 16 pages per title with beautiful color illustrations. Take a look at the free sample book with the video. Hear the story read aloud or record your own voice, translate it to another language, or retell your own story.
click the link.
