Love them, and point them to Jesus.
While this motto didn’t specify any actual details, it was helpful to refer to our ultimate purpose when we were making decisions. We wanted to love our kids and point them to Jesus.
Recently, one of our kids told me we did two very impactful things as our kids were growing up:
- We sought to be intentional in our parenting decisions. Not only did we discuss our thinking as we were setting family rules, we also talked about the biblical basis for each decision. When we changed our household rules, we talked about why and what the biblical basis for the change was. Often, changes had to do with our children maturing and growing. Certainly, Scripture never changes, but sometimes our thoughts on how to apply it to our lives at a given time did.
- We apologized when we sinned against our children or against each other. We repented, too, when we were off-base with how we spent our own free time, or some other personal issue. We modeled for our kids an attitude of willingness to repent and change. We also explained what Scripture said about our sin.
This was humbling to hear, but such a blessing.
Raising our kids has been a joy. The tween years were full of drama, excitement, and a lot of growth. I think it is so important to be intentional about the time we spend with our kids during those years, and I commend these books as a way to both prepare yourself, and to help your children grow in faith and wisdom.
What is a Tween?
The word tween, synonymous with preteen, refers to the vitally important span of time between the ages of 9 and 12.
Tweens are no longer little, but they are not quite teens. Their bodies are going through significant hormonal and developmental changes, and their brains are rapidly changing from the grammar stage to the logic stage. Tweens move from rapidly and excitedly collecting facts and memorizing information to connecting facts and applying logic. Sometimes that logic isn’t entirely informed with truth. After all, tweens don’t yet have a lot of experience in life.
Parenting tweens can be emotional and sometimes draining. It can also be an exciting and exhilarating time. Raising tweens is certainly an incredibly important phase of parenting.
Tweens are:
- Developing their knowledge of God and his Word
- Making decisions about their own character and integrity
- Building the basis of knowledge they will carry into their teen and adult years
- Nurturing relationships that will inform who they become
- Exploring who God made them to be and how they will interact with his world
- Establishing a real relationship with the King of the World
Writers and publishers refer to these years (the ages of 8-12, specifically) as the middle grade years. I love writing for middle grade kids, knowing that what they read can make such a profound impact on their development. How much more important is the time you, their parent, spend discipling them–loving them, and pointing them to Jesus!
The tween years are a vital time in the life of your kids. With a little preparation, you can show up in an impactful and purposeful way.
Best Books for Parenting Tweens
These are my favorite books on raising tweens… and to use as a family with your tweens. I hope you will invest in them for your family, as well.
Books on Parenting Tweens … for You
You’ll want to have a plan for the tween years. These books will help.
1) Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible by Danika Cooley (Bethany House, 2021)
Of all the books and curriculum I’ve written, I feel that Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible is the closest thing to my heart poured out on a page.
Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of research, customer feedback, and parenting my own kids that went into it. But, more than anything in this life, I desire to help families disciple their children for Christ in and through his Word. This book is my effort to help you understand both the how and the why of your discipleship and teaching the Bible.
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible is meant to be used throughout your parenting years, from the littles through the teens. A lot of the specific tips, strategies, and tactics in the book apply directly to the tween years, so you’ll want to pick up a copy if you don’t have one already.
You’ll learn:
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- How to overcome major concerns about teaching the Bible to your kids.
- To successfully develop a consistent family Bible reading habit and plan.
- How to interpret and apply the Bible rightly.
- Skills for hosting meaningful Bible discussions with your kids.
- To be prepared to answer tough questions.
- Age-appropriate ways to share the gospel.
- To prepare for tough and busy days with unique ways to focus on Scripture.
- Tips and tricks for making the Bible fun and engaging.
- Tools for Bible memorization.
- To structure Bible activities and discussions to your child’s God-given strengths.
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Packed with useful information and with practical application in each chapter, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible is the tool you need to equip you to join a generation of parents committed to teaching their kids God’s life-giving Word.
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible | Table of Contents:
- Introduction: You Can Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible
- Part One | You’re the Leader
- Making the Bible Approachable for Your Kids
- A Good Start to a Strong Finish
- Finding Time in an Age of Hustle
- Part Two | Faithful Reading
- Who Wrote This Thing, Anyway?
- Keep the Message in View
- A Library of Books
- Profitable Discussion
- Part Three | A Daily Walk
- Reading the Word Together
- Hide the World in Your Child’s Heart
- Praying the Word Together
- Study the Word When You’re Not Feeling It
- Conclusion: Reaping Fruit from a Living Branch
This is a guide that may change the course of your parenting. You can help guide your tweens through Scripture, more than once. You don’t have to take my word for it, though. You can actually read the introduction and the first chapter in the reader below.
READ | Introduction: You Can Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible and Chapter One: Making the Bible Approachable for Your Kids
Learn more about Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible
Purchase it at: Amazon or an autographed copy from Thinking Kids Press
2) No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope by Hal and Melanie Young (Great Waters Press, 2018)
The tween years are delightful. After all your children are growing and learning. They also come with hormones, body changes, new activities and challenges, bullying, and character issues. The tweens are so much easier to navigate if you are intentional and you have a plan!
No Longer Little is the very best tween parenting book I’ve read, and it’s written from a grace-filled, Christian perspective.
Now, if you’ve read anything by Hal and Melanie Young, that won’t come as a surprise. The parents of eight–six boys and two girls–are frequent homeschool conference keynote speakers. I love how they wrote anecdotes from their kids, as well as stories shared with them by other parents, right into the text. Their advice is both relatable and practical, referring often to Scripture and sometimes to historical examples.
Whether you are in the midst of the tween years, or you’re not quite there yet, you will want to grab a copy of this excellent book.
No Longer Little | Table of Contents:
- Getting Bigger: Hormones and Body Changes
- The Rollercoaster: Emotional Upheaval
- Brains Turn to Mush: Why School Goes Awry
- Many a Conflict, Many a Doubt: Spiritual Questioning
- The Awakening: Sexuality and Virtue
- Social Struggles: Overcoming Awkwardness
- Media, Gaming, and Discernment: More Than Amusement
- Conflict at Home: Family Relationships
- Transitioning: Youth in the Bible
- Celebrating Growth: Coming of Age Ceremonies
- Producer, Not Consumers: Work and Stewardship
- The Next Big Thing: High School and Beyond
The first time you find your tween in the hallway, staring at the wall, you’re going to want to read (and reread) No Longer Little. You’ll understand what’s happening to your beloved child–and you’ll know what to do about it.
Purchase it at: Amazon
3) Faith That Sticks: 5 Real-Life Ways to Disciple Your Preteen by Tricia Goyer and Leslie Nunnery (Moody Publishers, 2025)
Every family is different, but God made all our children to be human. There is nothing you’ll face while parenting tweens that you can’t get through by following good, biblical advice.
Reading Faith That Sticks is like sitting down with a couple of girlfriends for some good, old-fashioned mentorship.
While Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible systematically addresses the tactics and strategies of teaching the Bible to your kids, Faith That Sticks is down-to-earth advice on how to develop relationships with tweens that give you an open door to disciple them. The authors give advice on how to help your kids establish good spiritual disciplines, and how to discuss what they’re learning, then apply their new knowledge to their lives.
Like my husband, Ed, and myself, and like Hal and Melanie Young, Tricia Goyer and Leslie Nunnery are both homeschool moms. They have each worked intentionally to raise their ten and four children, respectively. Tricia Goyer is closing in on being the author of over 100 books, and she and her husband, John, have both bio-kids and adopted children. Leslie and her husband, David, are the founders of the popular Teach Them Diligently homeschool conference.
Faith That Sticks | Table of Contents:
- Part 1 | Understanding Preteens and What They Need
- Beyond Mood Swings
- Engaged Parenting in a Digital and Sexual World
- Together Through Trials
- Part 2 | Components to Building Faith That Sticks
- Prayer
- Fuel the Fire
- Bible Reading
- The Ultimate Guidebook
- Discover Truths Together
- Conversation
- Talk About Anything and Everything
- Active Listening
- Intentional Spiritual Conversations
- Service
- Serve with Heart
- Relationships
- Branch Out
- As You Build a Legacy
- Create a Positive and Welcoming Home Environment
- Keep the Flame Alive
- Prayer
Faith That Sticks is an encouraging look at what it means to raise children for Christ, even when the daily challenges of tween drama and emotions threaten to interfere. I think you’ll find this an edifying read.
Purchase it at: Amazon
Books to Use with Your Tweens
Parenting books are important. Here are two resources you’ll want to use with your tweens.
4) Bible Investigators: Creation by Danika Cooley (The Good Book Company, 2024)
I wrote Bible Road Trip™ as a tool to take kids, from preschool to high school, through God’s Word, cover-to-cover.
I also think it’s important to teach our kids how to study the Bible on their own. The tween years are a wonderful time to introduce our kids to proper hermeneutics, the rules we use to interpret the Bible correctly. We want them to know biblical doctrine. It’s important they understand the main themes of the Bible: who God is, who we are and why we need a Savior, God’s great plan for salvation, and Jesus’ commands for his followers.
We can teach our tweens all of that in a fun, engaging way that grabs their attention and helps them remember what they’ve learned.
Bible Investigators: Creation is a puzzle-based Bible study. With 272-pages of learning, puzzles, and fun activities, the study is designed to help your kids become amazing independent Bible investigators–observing, interpreting, and applying God’s Word as they learn what the Bible teaches about Creation. The book is a great tool to allow kids to begin the exciting journey of exploring the doctrine of Creation, while giving you tools to initiate conversation about what they’re learning.
Bible Investigators: Creation contains six sections:
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- Introduction: You Are a Bible Investigator!
- Section One: God Created Everything in the Beginning
- God Created All Things Out of Nothing Genesis 1:1-2a; Jeremiah 4:23
- Every House Has a Builder Hebrews 3:4
- God Created the World for His Creatures Isaiah 45:18
- It Was All Good Genesis 1:31a; 1 Timothy 4:4
- God’s Works are Wondrous Psalm 145:1-13
- Section Two: The Story of Creation
- Let There Be Light! (Day 1) Genesis 1:3-5; 2 Corinthians 4:6
- The Sky Above (Day 2) Genesis 1:6-8; Jeremiah 10:12
- Soil and Potatoes (Day 3) Genesis 1:9-13; Psalm 104:14
- Time for the Universe (Day 4) Genesis 1:14-19; Psalm 104:19-23
- Creatures That Swim and Fly (Day 5) Genesis 1:20-23; Psalm 104:16-17, 24-25
- Beasts of the Earth and People (Day 6) Genesis 1:24-27
- Section Three: God Made Me
- God Gave Me Life Job 33:4
- God Formed Me Wonderfully Psalm 139:13-16
- God Gives Everyone Life and Breath Acts 17:24-28
- God Created Me for His Glory Isaiah 43:6b-7
- Section Four: Our Creator God
- God Is Eternal Psalm 90:2
- God Is All-Powerful Psalm 33:8-9
- God Is Uncreated Psalm 102:25-27; Revelation 1:8
- God the Father Created Genesis 1:26a; Jeremiah 32:17
- God the Son Created John 1:1-3
- God the Holy Spirit Created Psalm 104:24, 30; Genesis 1:2
- Section Five: God’s Good Creation Gifts
- Every Good Gift Is from God James 1:17; John 3:27b
- God Blesses Us Genesis 1:28-29
- God Gives Us the Sabbath Genesis 2:1-13; Exodus 20:8-20a, 11
- God Gives Us Work Genesis 2:15; Proverbs 28:19; Colossians 3:23-24
- God Gives Us Marriage Genesis 2:18-24
- Section Six: God’s Great Salvation Plan
- To Disobey God Is to Sin Genesis 2:16-17; John 14:15
- Adam and Eve Sinned–And So Have I Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 3:23
- Jesus Paid for Our Sin Ephesians 2:4-9
- Believe in Jesus and Confess Belief Romans 10:9-10
Each section, or unit, has four to six lessons, each with a teaching, notebooking spaces, and three Bible verse puzzles. The book makes a great six-week unit study on the doctrine of Creation!
Bible Investigators: Creation can be used as a semester of homeschool Bible, as a morning devotional, or as a fun activity in the car. The book is a substantial, exciting journey through God’s Word for your 8-12 year olds.
Learn more about Bible Investigators: Creation
Purchase it at: Amazon or an autographed copy from Thinking Kids Press
5) Shorter Catechism Devotions: Timeless Truths for Today by Robert D. Cathcart (Christian Focus Publications, 2025)
Catechisms are a wonderful way to help tweens learn the basics of the faith. Drawing on systematic theology, they present biblical truth in a question and answer format, with verses that demonstrate the reality expressed in the catechism.
English and Scottish Reformed theologians wrote the Westminster Shorter Catechism in 1646-1647, finishing it the year before the Reformation ended in 1648. It was intended to help families disciple their children in Scriptural truth, and covers important issues like:
- Who God is and how we should relate to him
- How we love and serve God, individually and as the Church
- The Ten Commandments applied to our lives today
- The Lord’s Prayer and why each phrase matters
Robert D. Cathcart, who holds an MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary and a DMin from Erskine Seminary, serves as the pastor of Friendship PCA in South Carolina. He and his wife, Sarah, have four children. He writes hymns, too.
Robert has done a wonderful job of putting together a devotional that allows families to go through the Westminster Shorter Catechism daily, learning more about what the questions mean and how the answers apply to our lives today.
Shorter Catechism Devotions Format:
- Shorter Catechism Question and Answer
- Explanation | A short devotion explaining the theme with relevant verses
- Challenge Questions | 2-4 questions to help your family discuss the lesson
- Prayer | A prayer using Scripture verses to address the theme
Catechisms can feel rote, but Shorter Catechism Devotions avoids that pitfall by sharing engaging anecdotes, valuable discussion starters, and relevant explanations tweens will enjoy.
Purchase it at: Amazon
(Need a catechism tool for your younger kids? Check out my reviews on: A Year of Bedtime Theology for short daily devotions, or the Sound Words curriculum for Kindergarten through Second Grade. Both are excellent.)
Well, friend, those are my best recommendations for books that will help you point your tweens to Christ. Don’t delay… grab two, or five, of them today!
Bible Resources for Your Kids
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Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible
You want your kids to learn and love the Bible.
You want to teach the Bible…
As parents, we deeply desire the best for our kids. We look for the right schools, we make them eat right and exercise, and we get them involved in extracurricular activities. We take our job as parents seriously.
But are we also putting our time and energy into
teaching them the Bible? Giving them the life-changing, soul-nourishing words of Scripture is not only doable, it’s an essential part of parenting kids for Jesus. And the good news is, studying God’s Word as a family doesn’t have to be difficult!
2 Timothy 2:15, ESV, says:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Our job, as parents who love Jesus, is to help our kids become approved workers, unashamed and rightly handling the word of truth.
The good news? Teaching the Bible isn’t hard. Your family can learn the Bible together.
…and you can!
A Crash Course in Teaching the Bible to Your Kids
Danika Cooley’s book, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, will give you the tools and confidence to study the Bible as a family. It will help you identify and overcome your objections and fears, give you a crash course in what the Bible is all about and how to teach it, and provide the guidance you need to set up a family Bible study habit.
You will finish this book feeling encouraged and empowered to initiate and strengthen your child’s relationship with the Lord through His Word.
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible will equip you with everything you need to know to teach the Bible to your kids!
Grab the autographed Reformation Family Bundle!
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