Draw and Tell Bible and Saint Stories

I am not the world’s best artist. As a matter of fact, my idea of drawing people usually involves a whole lot of “stick” lines, and perhaps a set of triangles put together to make a bow, as well as some eyelashes, to indicate which of those stick figures is a girl.

Because of this deficit in the area of drawing, I was thrilled when I was in a religious book store one day and found these fabulous books – Bible Stories to Draw and Tell and Draw and Tell Saints.

For every story in the books, there is a step-by-step simple drawing for the reader to draw as they read. For instance, in a story about The Creation (from Genesis), it shows you that you read, “A long, long, long time ago there was nothing, nothing except GOD.” When you read this, it shows that you draw a single circle. The story progresses, and for each passage, it shows you what to draw next. At the end of each story, you are left with the drawing that you have worked on throughout and a question to ask the kids. For instance, with this story, you end up with a drawing of faces of a boy and a girl. And, at this point, the story has progressed to the point when God made people. So, the question to ask the kids is “What do you think God made?” (And the answer is people.)

Each book has a number of stories in them. The Bible Stories book includes 25 stories — starting with And It Was Good (A Creation Story) and ending with He is Risen, with all of your favorite Old and New Testament stories in between.

The Saints book includes 17 stories — Archangels, St. Blase, Blessed Damien of Molokai, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Joan of Arc, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, St. Juan Diego, St. Julie Billiart, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Mark, St. Nicholas, St. Patrick, St. Peter Claver, and St. Therese of Lisieux.

We really love these books, and have such a fun time drawing them up on our dry erase board. The kids enjoy hearing the stories in a unique way, and I enjoy feeling like I’m not a drawing flunkie.  Another bonus of these books is that the drawings are simple enough that older siblings can do religion instruction with younger siblings through these stories as well.

Do you have any untraditional ways to teach religion to your kids?

-When Angie isn’t drawing eye lashes on stick figures, she can be found writing about faith, family, and household management at Many Little Blessings.