Audio Bible Resources for Kids

I don’t know about you, but our family spends a lot of time in the car. Whether it’s going to school, activities, playdates, or other family things, the time in the car just adds up. When our family first moved to Sydney, I was overwhelmed by all the time in the car. Prior to our move, our family discipleship time was in the morning at breakfast. We had (what seemed like) endless time to eat, discuss, pray, memorize scripture, etc. It was my favorite part of the day and I felt like it got ripped from me. But what was added to our day was a whole heap of time in the car. So, instead of wasting that time away, I decided to be intentional with it as a family. If we were going to have a half-hour drive to school, we were going to use it well, we were going to reclaim our time and use it to invest in our relationships with one another and with God.

I began to see the time in the car as time to invest. We were all stuck there, we might as well use the time with a captive audience to discuss the things of God, to pray together, to memorize scripture together, and to process through our days. I started researching audio Bible resources for kids and other audio resources to help lead this time. We have used many different things over the years now, but I thought since a new year of school has begun here, it was the perfect time to share some of these resources with you.

A word of caution before you begin: this sounds all nice and pretty, doesn’t it? Perfectly planned discussions to start our day and build into our family. But lets be realistic about this- the time is never that perfect. There’s the kid with the bad attitude, the “she touched me!” coming from the backseat. There’s the day where you have no desire to do anything intentional and just want to drive. There’s the times where the kids answer “I don’t know” to every question you ask, no matter how obvious the answer is. And then there’s the day that you have a rich, encouraging, life-giving discussion to start the day.

Be encouraged- it is WORTH IT everyday, no matter how hard it might seem one day or how successful you might feel the next. Each day that we choose to invest deeply into our kids, to pour God’s Word that is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16) into them, is another day that God uses to shape their hearts toward His heart and His praise. So, even when it’s hard, stick with it. God calls us to be faithful and HE will do the work in their hearts (1 Corinthians 3:6-8).

Here are some of our family’s favorites (by the parents and the kids!) that we have found helpful so far. I’m sure the list will be edited and grow over the years, but this is where we have started for now. Another note: this is ONE example of what this time has looked like for us, but every family is different. My prayer is that this will encourage you to find the time to invest deeply and intentionally into your children a love for the Lord and for others whether that is in the car, in your house, while you walk, or wherever you are.

7 Audio Bible Resources for Kids and Family Discipleship:

1. Biblica Kids Audio New Testament – This one is my favorite by far! This adaption of the New Testament includes 8 weeks of audio through the New Testament books of the Bible. Each day is a 10-15 minute episode. What I love about this one is that it is a great bridge from a children’s Bible to the real words of the Bible. The episodes are an overview but still use sections of scripture, so you are still getting the words of the Bible. The length is also great and the kids enjoy the different voices of the narrators for each book of the Bible. It is a great resource to immerse them in scripture and is even free!
   
2. The Reformed Kidcast –This one is the kid’s favorite! It is a podcast done by a dad and his two kids as they talk through the catechisms. There are 27 episodes, each hitting on a few of the catechisms. If you’re new to the term catechism, the catechisms are simply questions and answers summarizing different doctrines of the Bible. These are great for learning Biblical theology and understanding different principles and doctrines of the Bible. We love how much fun the dad and his kids have talking together, learning together, and laughing together as they work through these different truths of scripture.
   
3. The New City Catechism – The kids LOVE this one because each catechism is put to a song which makes it easy and fun to memorize. I appreciate that this has put the catechism into 52 questions and answers, one for every week of the year, instead of the over 100 that the other catechisms have. It feels more manageable to try to finish it. You can get an app for this which includes the question and answer, a verse to go along with it, a commentary (may be a little long for kids depending on their age, but worth a try!), a prayer connected with each, and a song to help you memorize it. You can also choose the kid version which is a little shorter than the adult version.
   
4. The NIrV Little Kids’ Adventure Audio Bible – We purchased this from amazon and we really liked it. It is read by kids and easy to follow along. If you’re unfamiliar with the NIrV, it is similar to the NIV Bible translation, but it is a readers version, so easier to read for early readers and is easier to understand for young kids or even ESL purposes as well.
   
5. The Jesus Storybook Bible or your favorite children’s Bible – Many of your favorite children’s Bibles have an audio Bible version, so these are great to have too, especially for the younger ones. It is even nice to have the physical book with you so they can follow along and look at the pictures as you go as well. Our favorite storybook Bible is the Jesus Storybook Bible as it does an excellent job of connecting the big picture of the Bible with Jesus at the center of every story from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
   
   Check out our other favorite children’s Bibles by age HERE!
   
6. Praying together – This extended time sitting together is a great chance to pray together as well. We use a few different apps for this that the kids can use to pray through as we drive. To pray for family and friends, we use the PrayerMate app. You can enter who you want to pray for and sort them to pray for different people each day. We also spend time praying for the world and the persecuted church. We like to use the Voice of the Martyrs app which gives you a people group to pray for, a picture, and one simple prayer request. The Unreached of the Day app by the Joshua Project is great too, but has a little more information so can be overwhelming if the kids are doing the reading, but this is still a great resource that I love to use.
   
7. Scripture Memory and Character Development – My last thing to add here is just simply spending this time doing scripture memory and discussing what the verse you are memorizing has to say. There have been times where we have memorized verses specific to character issues we are all struggling with and other times where we have memorized a chapter of scripture together. You can check out how we have done this by getting my free 5-week plan for memorizing and meditating on scripture with your kids HERE! We have also worked through the Topical Memory System at times. This is a great resource for memorizing verses by topic. Either way, it opens the door for discussing the Word of God together, applying it to our lives, and provides accountability for hiding God’s Word in our hearts together.

Whew. That was a lot, but I pray that it is a helpful list of audio Bible resources for kids to give you a variety of ways to reclaim your time as you go throughout your daily travels together. We also love audio books for other times of traveling, but that is for another post! What are your favorite, simple, and practical ways to get God’s Word into little hearts and invest deeply as you travel through your day?