Devotionals for Kids that we play in the car

I decided before we began school this year that we would listen to something meaningful on the way to school. I drive my kids to and from school (not because we don’t choose to use the bus, but because we don’t have that option in our situation). I don’t mind driving them. It is 10 minutes to get to school. That means 10 minutes that we can fill with good stuff or 10 minutes for them to argue amongst themselves. I decided to be proactive this school year. From the very start of the school year we have been listening to devotionals each morning. I love doing our devotionals this way! We listen to 6-9 minutes (that is the average length of the podcasts), then I ask them a couple of questions about what we just heard, and finally I ask one of them to pray. We take turns praying. When asked to pray, if they haven’t volunteered earlier in the week I give them options.

I ask “would you like to say your own prayer or do you want to repeat what I say?” Sometimes they say their own prayer and sometimes they want my help. There have been a couple of times where each of my kids have said they didn’t want to be the one to say the prayer that day. That’s ok, I am not going to force them. I respond with “ok, we can try tomorrow.”

We started this year by listening to Podcasts. We tried a variety in the beginning. In the end our favorite (by far) was the Kids Bible Stories podcast by Jessica White. We had listened to all of her podcasts by January, so I went in search of another great audio devotional for kids. I wasn’t thrilled with any of the other podcasts. Either my kids didn’t like it, the voice wasn’t stellar (yes apparently we are that picky), or they had too few podcasts. I was looking for an option that we could stretch out over the next few months. If you know of a good devotional Podcast for kids please share it with me!

I looked on Amazon for kids devotionals that were available on Audible. I found a couple that are good! We are currently about half way through Jesus Calling for Kids. Next we will be listening to The Purpose Driven Life for Kids on Audible. Please let me know if you have any recommendations for devotionals on audible. Listening in the car to devotionals has been a great way to start our mornings. I highly recommend this if you have even a few mintues in the car with your child. Many of the chapters in Jesus Calling are only several mintues, so we are able to listen to several on the way to school. Listening to devotionals on the way to school gets my kids hearts and minds in the right frame. They are tuned into what God wants for their lives and how they should contuct themselves at school to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Will they always do things right? No, of course not. But it gives them a better shot at making a positive difference in the world by filling their mind with scripture and the love of God each morning rather than bickering and yelling and one another.

Give it a whirl for a month and see how it goes with your own kids. I can see the affect it is having on my kids and it is positive. As a matter of fact, if I haven’t started playing the audio devotional before we leave our driveway, one or more of my kids will remind me to play it. Its good material and relatable to children! My kids have short attention span, are fast moving, and are ready for fun type of kids. To sit and listen to a devotional in the morning…it better be good. The ones I have shared are good ones! I tested them on my kids and they approved, so they should work with other unruly children as well, lol.