Lutheran Religion Class Resources

Description

Ready for a whole lot of Lutheran religion class resources? There are many ways to raise children in Scripture! People have done it for ages. This page compiles Bible options, Bible reading plans, suggestions for pre-readers & family resources, and curriculum, memory work, and hymn of the week options. (The product is a download of this same information.)

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Lutheran Religion Class Resources

Bible Options

First things first: there are a lot of Bible options! Here is a link to the CPH Bible choosing guide. It lists the CPH Bible for early childhood, early elementary, upper elementary, youth, and then The Lutheran Study Bible with all its extra notes.

There are also many children’s books of Bible stories that can be put to good use. The Golden Children’s Bible is another common resource.

Bible Reading Plans

Just so you know, The Story Bible is broken down into 140 sections, which would give you one story a day, five days a week, for 28 weeks. That’s pretty good for ages 3-8! Great for devotions at home with younger ones!

Bible reading plans:

• CPH (Scroll down to the bottom to the very bottom to download five options: one year, two year, Bible narratives, chronological and daily lectionary)
• Ambleside Online has 216-day reading plans, spreading Scripture out over 6 years.

Pre-Readers & Family Resources

Pre-readers benefit from a devotional life that helps them to learn and recognize what they also say at church. Common memory work for prereaders includes the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed, although some can even start memorizing parts of the catechism, such as the 10 Commandments.

Here is a link to one guide for Devotions at Home. You may also be interested in something like Around the Word or Lambs at Pasture. Those are nice because they include a weekly Bible verse and hymn. You can sign up and they email you a PDF once a week.

Another thing very handy for children between the ages of 2 and 12 are Kids in the Divine Service. (Here is an article about them, including a table of content). They were originally designed as a weekly bulletin insert, so you can either download them seasonally here or order it in book form here. Although you download them by season, the weekly page addresses parts of the liturgy, sanctuary, and Divine Service, too.

ABC-themed books are common. If you’d like Lutheran ABC-religion-books, here you go:

• Easter ABCs is for preschoolers.
• My Little ABC Liturgy Book (and coloring book!) is great for preschoolers and early elementary ages.
• Our Faith from A to Z has basics for younger kids and more for older. Good for discussions.

(One popular non-Lutheran, religious ABC book is Big Thoughts for Little People: ABC’s to Help You Grow. It isn’t Lutheran. It isn’t perfect, but it has been very helpful in introducing topics and, perhaps more importantly, cultivating serious religious conversations with little ones.)

Here are some other great pre-reading books:

• Kloria hymn books
• The Story Bible!
• Colors I See in Church
• Things I Do in Church
• Things I See in Church
• Things I See at Baptism
• Things I Hear in Church
• My Church Words Book

Here are phonic-skills books:

• The Hear Me Read Bible
• The Hear Me Read Bible: Level Two
• CPH also produced the Phonic Bible Stories series by Claudia Courtney, although they may be out of print.

Here are coloring pages:

• According to Your Word: Draw the Liturgy and Draw the Catechism
• Bethesda: Welcome to My World: An inclusive coloring book from Bethesda Lutheran Communities
• Free coloring pages from CPH

Lutheran Religion Class Curriculum Options

Most existing curriculum for Lutheran religion classes were written for schools or Sunday schools. These can be tailored for homeschool use. Here’s a link to CPH’s educational options by grade level. Along those lines, CLC has a complete Sunday School program that can also be tailored.

Having said that, Wittenberg Academy offers their own free curriculum for grades Kinder through Sixth, including religion. “Wittenberg Academy at Prayer” includes a psalm, hymn, Learn-by-heart catechism, verse of the week, and a weekly Bible story. (They also incorporate religious education into their online classes for sixth and higher.) I know Wittenberg also has an online chapel weekly, although I’m not sure when one begins “attending” that.

There is also Concordia Catechetical Academy and its resources. Go here to look at their “Congregation at Prayer” material for the year. (This organization will also be mentioned on our upcoming catechetical resource page.)

At the same time, there are some Lutheran Bible story/workbook combinations. CPH offers these:

• 120 Bible Stories for ages 8-12 with activity book
• One Hundred Bible Stories for ages 8-12 with activity book

There is also My First Catechism, My First Catechism Activity Book, and My First Catechism Activity Book Answer Key for children ages 6-10. The content is structured around the Catechism but each lesson teaching a Bible story and applies it. FYI, this uses an older NIV translation.

Exploring God’s Word with Maps may also interested you. It’s for ages 8-14.

Many Lutherans use Memoria Press religious material, occasionally rewording an explanation or renumbering the commandments. These exist for third grade and older. They are nice because they include memory work, geography, and vocabulary, although students learn a slightly-simplified King James.

Others appreciate the simplicity of focus in Ambleside Online‘s directed readings.

Memory Work Options

Memory work can be great or it can be daunting. Folks used to memorize entire books of the Bible! At the same time, most of us have never learned to do anything near that. Still, Lutheran homeschoolers often do their best to memorize Scripture, the Small Catechism, and often hymns.

There are graded approaches, in which certain verses are tied to an age. There are topical approaches, in which you memorize the Ten Commandments for example. There are also memory routines that build in review of previously learned material.

Here is Memory Work for Lutheran Schools and Homes if you want a rigorous graded program. (This PDF uses New King James Version, although you can follow references and use whatever version you prefer, such as the English Standard Version.)

Memory Routines or Programs

• Here is a link to a Charlotte Mason style memory routine.
• On My Heart: Lutheran Memory Work Program is another system with downloadable material. It includes the books of the Bible, the Small Catechism (though not the CPH version), and 60 common Bible passages.
• Scripture Box is a digital, Alexa-friendly memory box.

Free memory flash cards:

• Small Catechism Memory Cards – Concordia Publishing House
• Small Catechism Flash Cards – Concordia Publishing House

A list of exercises and educational memory games for the catechism.

Rev. Galen Friedrichs put together this: Student Memory Work Worksheets for Youth Bible History Old and New Testaments: For use with Youth Bible History. He has all sorts of books and booklets.

Hymn of the Week?

If you’re interested in learning or memorizing hymns, again, you have so many options.

Historically, the hymn sung right before the sermon is called the hymn of the day or the chief hymn. It reflects the theme of the readings and makes a great hymn of the week, especially since you’re likely to sing it again in about a year. (If you like German, kernlieder is the term for “core hymns.)

Around the Word or Lambs at Pasture are FREE daily devotions that include a weekly Bible verse and hymn.

You could work your way through one of CPH’s children’s hymnals, like My First Hymnal or One and All Rejoice. Truth be told, children’s hymnals have been popular for the last hundred years. You could even check to see whether you could borrow one from your congregation.

LutheranHomeschool.com also offers a list of 35 Suggested Lutheran Hymns compiled from other resources.

In the Works

I’d love to link to a list of religious vocabulary! Let me know if you develop or discover one. Otherwise, I’ll slowly get to it.

Another page for Catechetical Resources is coming.

Another page for Confessions Studies is coming.

Another page for Church History is coming.