What do you think?
Rate this book
Leading Little Ones to God
Written in a sprightly, conversational style, Schoollands stories, as Moody Monthly has said, are told with clarity and simplicity unusual in Bible story books. Parents and teachers will find the book ideal for nurturing in very young Christians a personal relationship with God.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
49 people are currently reading
701 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
December 4, 2015
I read this aloud with David last year in Kindergarten, and I will probably do it again in a few years with Elanor is older. It's basically a Systematic Theology for kids. I did feel like the tone was sometimes condescending, and occasionally the theology is moralistic/focused on good behavior and not as grace-based as I would like. In those cases I would ad lib what I wish the book had said instead :).
January 26, 2023
I love this book and how it is organized. We used as part of our evening devotions with 5 & 6 year old and found it inspired many questions from the kids. We will probably be starting it over again 😆
August 6, 2025
Highly recommend for family devotions.
March 5, 2017
Two stars looks a bit harsh but I am following the Goodreads definition - 'It was OK'. I wasn't reading it with kids and I wasn't reading it as slowly as it was meant, so perhaps I am not really in a position to judge, especially when I see so many other people have rated it highly and claim to have used it effectively with their children. I was just reading it to get a feel for it.
For me the book didn't really work. The chapters felt too brief, the narratives too uninteresting, the writer's thoughts too disjointed and her line of thinking hard to follow. Where a really engaging Biblical narrative could have been delivered to engage the child's interest, a story was summarised in a few brief sentences which didn't really hold together very well. If I was a child I am not sure that I would have been able to follow what was going on in many of those narratives. To me as an adult they didn't seem to make much sense.
The manner of speaking felt very patronising, aimed at very young children, and yet at the same time the words being used, the concepts being taught, felt like they were way over the heads of such young children, and not clearly explained, the words not clearly defined. I can't imagine a young child being able to follow it very well.
The book was arranged rather like a systematic theology. Again, for me that didn't really work. The narratives didn't follow on from one another. You just jumped around from one Book of the Bible to another in no particular order with a very brief narrative each time - never enough narrative to be engaging and to make a child want to hear another Bible story. I would rather have had the narratives following on from one another in chronological order, linked together, so that they gave a clearer picture of Biblical history and the sequence of events. I did wonder if the book was written with the assumption that the children being taught were already very familiar with all the main Bible stories, and that all that was needed here was to bring out Christian doctrine in a more systematic form, without the need for telling them the full stories in great detail all over again.
I'm not writing the book off as a complete waste of time, but I personally think it is unusable in its present form, but it could work as a basis for parents to prepare their own lessons, to rewrite the chapters in more comprehensible language, in fuller detail and with a more flowing style, and in a more engaging form.
The questions posed in the 'Something to talk about' sections often had me stumped. Based on the very short piece of narrative and teaching just read to the child in each chapter, I wasn't sure how the child was meant to be in a position to answer, or even to understand, some of these questions being asked - and I wondered how many parents would even feel capable of answering them correctly.
The prayers written with thee's and thou's now feel very dated. The hymns might generally be well-known ones, but they didn't always feel suitable for young children to sing, either because of the vocabulary used, or because of the sentiments supposedly being expressed/professed by the singer - which oughtn't to be sung by an unbelieving child.
Maybe the book would just act as a useful tool to inspire thoughtful parents as to how to best try to introduce Christian doctrines to young children in a manner they might be able to understand, and provide suggestions as to which Bible narratives could be used to do it effectively. This book is a good starting point for preparing lessons but I can't imagine I would ever use it exactly as it stands. But then it feels right that parents should put effort into preparing lessons for their own children, and shouldn't just rely on other people's works. Parents need to get into the habit of preparing lessons for their children if they are to get into the habit of having regular and sustained family worship.
For me the book didn't really work. The chapters felt too brief, the narratives too uninteresting, the writer's thoughts too disjointed and her line of thinking hard to follow. Where a really engaging Biblical narrative could have been delivered to engage the child's interest, a story was summarised in a few brief sentences which didn't really hold together very well. If I was a child I am not sure that I would have been able to follow what was going on in many of those narratives. To me as an adult they didn't seem to make much sense.
The manner of speaking felt very patronising, aimed at very young children, and yet at the same time the words being used, the concepts being taught, felt like they were way over the heads of such young children, and not clearly explained, the words not clearly defined. I can't imagine a young child being able to follow it very well.
The book was arranged rather like a systematic theology. Again, for me that didn't really work. The narratives didn't follow on from one another. You just jumped around from one Book of the Bible to another in no particular order with a very brief narrative each time - never enough narrative to be engaging and to make a child want to hear another Bible story. I would rather have had the narratives following on from one another in chronological order, linked together, so that they gave a clearer picture of Biblical history and the sequence of events. I did wonder if the book was written with the assumption that the children being taught were already very familiar with all the main Bible stories, and that all that was needed here was to bring out Christian doctrine in a more systematic form, without the need for telling them the full stories in great detail all over again.
I'm not writing the book off as a complete waste of time, but I personally think it is unusable in its present form, but it could work as a basis for parents to prepare their own lessons, to rewrite the chapters in more comprehensible language, in fuller detail and with a more flowing style, and in a more engaging form.
The questions posed in the 'Something to talk about' sections often had me stumped. Based on the very short piece of narrative and teaching just read to the child in each chapter, I wasn't sure how the child was meant to be in a position to answer, or even to understand, some of these questions being asked - and I wondered how many parents would even feel capable of answering them correctly.
The prayers written with thee's and thou's now feel very dated. The hymns might generally be well-known ones, but they didn't always feel suitable for young children to sing, either because of the vocabulary used, or because of the sentiments supposedly being expressed/professed by the singer - which oughtn't to be sung by an unbelieving child.
Maybe the book would just act as a useful tool to inspire thoughtful parents as to how to best try to introduce Christian doctrines to young children in a manner they might be able to understand, and provide suggestions as to which Bible narratives could be used to do it effectively. This book is a good starting point for preparing lessons but I can't imagine I would ever use it exactly as it stands. But then it feels right that parents should put effort into preparing lessons for their own children, and shouldn't just rely on other people's works. Parents need to get into the habit of preparing lessons for their children if they are to get into the habit of having regular and sustained family worship.
April 5, 2018
3rd time through this one, it’s my favorite for the 4-8 year range. Illustrations are blah.
August 11, 2023
We enjoyed this book for our family worship time. Great short lessons for young ones.
May 12, 2025
Love this book! We read it for homeschool and did a few lessons a week. It provoked a number of important conversations with my son.
June 7, 2023
I’ve read this one through 3.5 times in my years as an elementary school teacher and now as a mom of young children. I think every Christian family should have a copy and am considering gifting it more often!
May 28, 2009
On the plus side of good.
July 11, 2024
The book was a little young for my children as we didn't get started on this book because we still needed to finish up other studies first. It was a good review though of what we pretty much already knew and still provided us with good conversations in a few areas at a simpler level. We enjoyed reading the associated hymns with each lesson, going over the discussion questions, and the closing prayer. The book did a good job combining lessons with each point being discussed, like the nature of God, the fall of man, even touching on Revelation a bit.
The only thing that stood out to me was when the lesson was talking about Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai and his face being extremely bright. The author accidentally associated the radiant face incident with a different time Moses went up, according to the Bible, or combined them in the lesson. We simply looked that up and read about the two different times Moses went up that the author was speaking about and discussed how it actually occurred. Technically the author wasn't wrong, it was just associated with the wrong event, so that was an easy thing to find and let the kids know about.
Overall, this is an excellent introduction to the teachings of the bible for children.
The only thing that stood out to me was when the lesson was talking about Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai and his face being extremely bright. The author accidentally associated the radiant face incident with a different time Moses went up, according to the Bible, or combined them in the lesson. We simply looked that up and read about the two different times Moses went up that the author was speaking about and discussed how it actually occurred. Technically the author wasn't wrong, it was just associated with the wrong event, so that was an easy thing to find and let the kids know about.
Overall, this is an excellent introduction to the teachings of the bible for children.
June 26, 2024
I read through this book with my 3 and 5 year old before bed. It truly is a Systematic Theology book for kids. It covers many different topics, in fact, I’d say it covers all the main topics of Christian beliefs. The chapters are brief, but thorough, and there is included reflection questions, a hymn, Bible verse, and prayer at the end of every chapter. I was amazed that almost every night, my children and I would have the sweetest conversations, sparked by this little book. At times, this book did err on the side of a moralistic view that says “we’ve got to be good little children to please God”. But that’s the beauty of reading through it with your children. Because you can always remind them of the gospel and the grace God has shown us in that. We can never be good enough, but because of Christ’s work on the cross we can be forgiven and accepted as righteous before God. What a gift! Overall, I am very thankful for this book, and plan to read through it again with my children in a couple years.
May 12, 2021
A book we have used a couple of times in our evening family devotions. The first time we used it was when my older daughter was 4 years old. This doctrinal and devotional book has helped us teach our little one the things that she and we ought to know about our Creator God. Neatly crafted with lessons that are systematically and thematically arranged in different sections, the author has used very simple and realistic illustrations. The questions at the end of each chapter have helped us have meaningful conversations with our daughter. Memory verses, Bible passages prove the authenticity of the words. There is a meaningful song to sing (we sometimes substituted with songs we knew well) and finishing with a prayer for each lesson to be applied in our lives. Highly recommend to parents of young children.
December 4, 2022
My biggest issues with this book:
Boring. So many better resources that are not boring. However, the bigger issue for me is how often this resource talked about how following God makes you happy. It doesn’t. You will not be happy just because you obey God, you may hate it sometimes and do it begrudgingly…still obedient, but not happy. I feel as though this really pushed that if we are good little Christian’s we will be happy and good people and I cannot subscribe to that type of ridiculous thinking! The Bible itself talks about despair and sad was and mourning. Jesus himself wept and mourned and asked for another way. Was Jesus not being godly and obedient because he felt sad?? Absolutely not. Can there be peace and joy through trials and hardship as a believer. Absolutely. But following and knowing Christ doesn’t make you “happy and good.” That is poor theology in my understanding.
Boring. So many better resources that are not boring. However, the bigger issue for me is how often this resource talked about how following God makes you happy. It doesn’t. You will not be happy just because you obey God, you may hate it sometimes and do it begrudgingly…still obedient, but not happy. I feel as though this really pushed that if we are good little Christian’s we will be happy and good people and I cannot subscribe to that type of ridiculous thinking! The Bible itself talks about despair and sad was and mourning. Jesus himself wept and mourned and asked for another way. Was Jesus not being godly and obedient because he felt sad?? Absolutely not. Can there be peace and joy through trials and hardship as a believer. Absolutely. But following and knowing Christ doesn’t make you “happy and good.” That is poor theology in my understanding.
Read
June 17, 2022What we used for our Bible devotional for a while. This book was part of the Sonlight Curriculum and while I hadn't planned to purchase it, when I found it on clearance at Half Price Bookstore, I decided to pick it up. I love how systematic they are in teaching kids about God's attributes, what he has done for us, and how we are to respond. Each day is broken up into a short section that gives a scriptural basis for the day. There is also Bible memory verses, hymns, prayers, comprehension questions etc...I have been really happy with this rather old-fashioned book. And the kids like it and are getting it.
July 12, 2021
I abandoned this one about halfway through. I was looking for a children's book of theology with short chapters I could read to the kids before school while eating breakfast. In that regard, the format of this was good, but something about the way things were explained just didn't sound like ME. I found myself reading through it beforehand and then explaining the topic in my own way. It wasn't a bad resource, but ultimately wasn't able to hold my attention. We are now working through The Ology, which accomplishes the same thing but in a better way, I think.
August 7, 2017
Excellent. 83 short daily discussions, in 14 sections, for parents and children to read a page or two each day together for two or three months. Includes short bible references to read each day. Thoroughly biblical and gospel centred. Unlike many children's books of this kind, this one includes clear presentations of who God is, how man sinned, why we need Jesus to to cover our sin, and why we must repent and come through Christ for forgiveness. Has pleasant inobtrusive illustrations.
February 17, 2019
Fantastic devotional to read as a family. As an adult I learned and was reminded of important Biblical truths! I will definitely repeat this in a few years. There are 82 (I think!) readings so it took us awhile to get through but it's worth it! I do wish the language and possibly some of the hymns would be updated. I wouldn't try this unless you have a little one who is at least 4, or 3 and a really good listener!
February 22, 2023
We thoroughly enjoyed this book as went through one entry a day during morning prayer for the past few months. We loved the beautiful language of the KJV and very pleasant illustrations. Our 2, 4 and 7 year old were all engaged. Theology didn’t match completely with our family’s, but a really lovely devotional read that we will most definitely read again. Any small issues we had were great discussion points.
January 7, 2019
There were some things about this book that I loved, but there were other things about this book that my husband and I struggled with. Their theology on the trinity, and the Sabbath was different than ours. I also didn't like the bible version they used in their verses very much, but this not as big of a deal as their truth on the trinity and the Sabbath!
January 27, 2021
Thorough in explanation. My kids didn't particularly enjoy or connect with it from the way it was written. But it boiled our walk of faith down into easy to understand bite size pieces very well. So although a bit dry, it did it's job. If I could, I'd give it 3.5 stars. Why doesn't good reads allow that?? ;)
August 4, 2022
This is my favorite devotional to read daily with young children, and I have tried a bunch. I like it because it is different than the often very overtaught Genesis Bible stories, but still not too hard for little ones to understand and answer the questions. They are learning so much about God. We read one every night after supper.
December 6, 2017
I just couldn't finish this book. In fact, my son finished it by himself. I just couldn't stand the format, the writing or anything else about this book. There are much better works to teach children Bible teachings - this book was not it.
My son, liked it well enough.
My son, liked it well enough.
March 10, 2018
This was a bedtime read aloud. I'm pretty sure I went though it with J a few years ago, and then the girls last year. We most of it but didn't finish. I just read the main text and skipped the questions, hymns and memorisation passages. Would be worth a re-visit I think.
August 20, 2020
3.5-4? We used this to structure family worship the past few months. Really liked it for the most part. There were a few things we re-worded and some of the music was impossible for us to find the music for so we did our own hymns.
February 24, 2025
One of my staples to read again and again with the kids at breakfast time. I think this is the 4th time I've used it as my morning devotional with my children and I just love the unknown hymns that are included in the daily readings!
August 15, 2017
great book to read aloud with young children. thank you, Amy W, for loaning me your copy!
January 2, 2019
This book has been instrumental in leading four of my little ones to God.
February 2, 2021
Beautiful book that I read to Selah
February 12, 2021
This is not my favorite of the theology books that I've worked through with the kids--I don't love the frequent use of "being good" language, but overall, it's solid and age-appropriate.
March 14, 2021
I was sad when I finished going through this book with my kids. So many great conversations inspired on by this book. A great doctrinal overview.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews