Bible Fun -- Summertime Fun!

Disclosure: I was given copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Yesterday I shared a book about the importance of adding fun to our lives and the start of my new series--Summertime Fun. For our first Summertime Fun I thought I would share some fun resources for fun with the Bible. Since Hazel goes to a Christian school, I know during the summer there will be less church and Bible time for her, so I wanted to make sure to give her some resources to keep up with her Bible time. To start we are sharing two of Marcia Goldlist's The Bible in Rhyme. Marcia emailed me e-copies of Enjoying the Book of Esther and Enjoying the Book of Ruth. 

Now I have to say that I read Enjoying the Book of Esther to Hazel and found it not very easy to read aloud. It misses a bit of rhythm to me. However the rhymes and details of the stories are wonderful. Hazel loved it (as she does any version of the Esther story). The time put to make the stories flow with the rhymes is obvious. I just wish the stories flowed a little better. I was also amazed by the details that were put into the stories including things like Naomi's husband and sons' names. I'll be honest I didn't remember ever hearing/reading them. I found the details with the rhymes a little difficult to understand the story, but Hazel knows the story of Esther so well that she could follow it for the most part. I do not recommend these books for younger children, however it is a fun version of the stories for older children and adults.

Hazel enjoyed the Christmas Journey Storybook so much that when I saw The Bible Journey Storybook I knew she would want it!! These books allow the child to actual act out and play with the stories of the Bible--talk about Bible Fun! This book is by Juliet David and Simon Abbott.

The pages of the book have pop-ups to illustrate the stories. This book includes Noah, the ark in the desert, King Solomon, Joseph (Jesus' earthly father), the story of the friends lowering their ill friend through the roof, and the story of the disciples fishing. The pop-ups can be viewed like you are reading the book or unfold them like I have done in the picture above. On the other side of the pop-ups are the actual stories as well as pictures of the characters and extras that the stories come with.

There is also an envelopes filled with pieces for the child to play with the stories. One of the best ways to really get the stories is to play with them and let them become your own. The pieces even have stands to play with them.

The back side of the pages explain a bit about the characters and extras as well. There is so much packed into this fun book!!

To keep Hazel learning the Bible as well as some other activities are these four great Bible Activity Fun books by Tim Dowley! Hazel got started right away on the Bible Kings & Queens Activity Fun. She of course went to work on the pages with Queen Esther. All of the books have mazes, spot the differences, dot-to-dots and more!

And of course all the pages are black and white so she can color all of them.

I love how they give the Bible verse for the kids to look up to see where the puzzle comes from. The one above is from Bible Animals Activity Fun. Great Bible Stories Activity Fun and The Story of Jesus have similar activities and are wonderful. I know these four activity books will keep Hazel very busy this summer and keep the Bible stories fresh in her head. How are you adding fun to your summer?