Big Truths for Little Kids

I was excited to receive Susan and Richie Hunt's book, Big Truths for Little Kids because I recognized her name (I have previously read Spiritual Mothering) and I liked the idea of teaching Biblical truths to my children and using little stories of other children to help make the points.

The primary purpose of the book, I would summarize, is to teach children the First Catechism and illustrate the principles with short application stories featuring children.  At the conclusion of each chapter and story there are discussion questions and a suggested prayer for the parent to share with the children. 

The idea of catechizing children, (via "a series of questions and answers that systematically teach a body of information") is popular in the homeschool community.  On the one hand I can see the merit in taking advantage of the grammar stage when children memorize easily to fill them with biblical teaching that they can fall back on later as they learn to reason, analyze, and apply in the dialectic and rhetoric stages of thinking.  On the other hand, I am more inclined to teach my children literal verses from the Truth of God's Word rather than teaching them man-written interpretations of that Word.

So in conclusion, while I appreciate the effort to provide parents with encouragement and resources to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, I was disappointed in this application of that idea.  I will not be using this resource based on the doctrine of men with my children as it seems safer to teach them God's Word directly.

I received this book from Crossway books in return for my honest opinion.