A love for the scriptures can start at an early age – but the language of these ancient texts can be difficult! We have used a few different resources over the years to make the Book of Mormon kid friendly for our children. Here are some of our favorites that can help your child learn the stories of the Book of Mormon (as well as the Bible) from a young age. 
Book of Mormon for Kids
I often joke that Jack knows more about the scriptures than I do.
While it’s mostly in jest, I do think there is some truth it – that boy is a sponge and is often talking about scripture stories, Gospel principals, etc.
I’ve had some people ask what resources we have used to help teach our kids about the Gospel, Book of Mormon, and Bible, because they are impressed with how much Jack seems to know.
I feel like I’m bragging when I say that – but I’m impressed to! To be honest, I don’t know if we’ve done anything all that special beyond being consistent about using some of the resources below, having family home evening, and sending him to Primary. We are so grateful for him having such great teachers over the past few years.
A lot of it I think comes from his personality and his love of learning – as well as having such a sweet and innocent spirit.
But, I do think that some of the things we’ve done with Jack (and have started doing with Oliver) have been helpful, so I thought I’d share a few of our favorite “Book of Mormon helps” for kids.
Reading from the scriptures
I’ve seen the question asked in different Facebook groups, and ineveitably, there is at least one person who will say just to read from the scriptures because they need to understand the language.
Which I do agree they need to do – hearing the actual language of the scriptures is important.
So make sure you are taking time to read actually passages from the scriptures.
With that said, it can be difficult to keep their attention for long when they are young, and even as an adult I find it hard to understand the scriptures entirely. So I believe that combining reading directly from the Book of Mormon and/or Bible with some of the more condensed versions below are helpful.
I know people who swear by teaching their children to read primarily by using the Book of Mormon, which I think is an interesting idea. Since Jack has been learning to read, we have been having him try and read himself with us, and it seems to be helping!
Book of Mormon Stories for Kids
This is, by and far, our favorite. A good friend of mine suggested this a few years back and had rave reviews. She told me how her children learned so much and were constantly recounting stories from the Book of Mormon.
So I ordered this series (there are a couple of different books in it), and I would agree that this is one of the best children-centered Book of Mormon stories books out there.
It has all the stories from the Book of Mormon illustrated with fun pictures. It incorporates direct versus from the scriptures at times, and at the end it has a ‘recap’ so you can really drill in the principals being taught. I can’t recommend these enough! I have found them to be very helpful for me as well. Like I said, I have trouble understanding all of the scriptures at times, and these really do break them down.
Who’s Your Hero – Focus on the female heroines
Ites
I was first introduced to these at a Deseret Book event I attended when Jack was a baby, and we were given the Book of Mormon Ites book. Since then, we have also bought the Bible version.
It’s a great way to get to know the people of the Book of Mormon and the Bible – it talks about pretty much everyone mentioned in the scriptures, which I love. There are plenty of people mentioned that I had never even thought twice about before.
Each person has a two page spread with their story, their struggles, trials, and triumphs. It’s very in depth, and you can really learn a lot. Each person also has a family home evening suggestion, which is fun. Jack really enjoys this one.
I have a love-hate relationship with the Living Scriptures company, because I really disagreed with their business model, and I thought their company was run very poorly.
However, I watched all of these videos growing up, and I do believe they were an amazing foundation for my testimony of the Book of Mormon from a young age.
Sure, they can be cheesy, and they don’t always go over everything perfectly. However, they are engaging (I just love the music), and there are SO many. We’ve actually been watching the Bible ones to go along with some of our adult Sunday School lessons (at home, not during Sunday School), and it’s been helpful to me!
I love that they’ve finally released a streaming service which is so much more realistic and affordable for families. It had some glitches in the beginning, but it works really well now. It has all the Living Scripture videos for the Book of Mormon and Bible, prophet and church history documentaries, lots of those silly Mormon movies (like the Singles Ward and The Best Two Years), historical animated videos, and more. It’s just $9.99 a month with no contract.
You can get your first month for just $5 with my referral code.
Book of Mormon for Young Readers
This is a book we just bought from Deseret Book a few weeks ago, so we haven’t used it much. However, it has great reviews, and I’m really excited about it.
It’s a great resource for children who are getting a little bit older who you want to introduce more to the actual reading of the scriptures. It’s great to do with younger children who need a little more guidance, but it’s also an awesome resource for older children to use on their own to start to incorporate their own personal study into their lives.
It has paintings, thought prompts, hard word definitions, quotes, tips for applying scriptural references, etc. I can’t wait to get started with Jack on this!
My First Book of Mormon Stories
This is a simple board book that is perfect for very young children. I’ve started reading it with Oliver more so he can start to recognize and identify different scriptural people and stories.
This one is mainly just for fun, but Our Picnic Tree sells these really cute “scripture stackers”, which are basically scripture LEGO sets (just not associated with LEGO ;-). They have Nephi and the Broken Bow and the Nativity, as well as individual figurines that are pretty fun, too. They make for great gifts (and be sure to check out this post with some other great LDS themed gift ideas).
Chelsea says
These are awesome! We definitely need to get some of these!!