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Little Way › For parents and carers

A guide for parents and carers

You do not need to be an expert. Children learn faith mostly from time spent with someone who loves them and is honest about what they know and do not know.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

How to use Little Way

  • Sit together. These pages work best read aloud with you beside the child, not handed over as a screen.
  • Keep it short. Five calm minutes beats thirty tense ones. Stop when the child stops.
  • Ask, then listen. Each page offers one question. “I wonder…” is a good start. There is no wrong answer.
  • Say “I don’t know.” It is true, and it teaches that faith and questions can live together.
  • Let them go at their own pace. Skipping a day, repeating a favourite or stopping for a week is fine.

The four age bands

  • Ages 3 to 5: tiny stories, simple words, things to do with hands and voices.
  • Ages 6 to 8: stories, short readings, kindness and honesty.
  • Ages 9 to 12: big questions, fairness, friends, and what matters.
  • Ages 13 to 17: honest reflections, written for them to read alone.

About the words

Bible verses are from the King James Version (public domain). For younger children, passages are sometimes retold in simpler words. These retellings are always labelled Paraphrase, and they are not a replacement for the Bible itself. Jesus is never pictured with a face; we leave that to the child’s imagination.

Everything on Little Way is meant to be warm and gentle. It is not about fear, and it does not set out to frighten or shame a child into belief.

Hard questions

Children ask about death, why bad things happen and whether God is real. You are allowed to take time before you answer, to say what your own family believes, and to say that wise people have wondered about these things for a very long time. If your family has a pastor, priest or trusted elder, they are good people to bring in.

Screens

Use these pages alongside the rest of your family’s screen habits, not on top of them. There are printable sheets for children who would rather have paper.

If a child is in immediate danger: if a child is in immediate physical danger, has a medical emergency or is being harmed, call 911 (US) or your local emergency number. For an emotional crisis or thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 (US Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). Outside the US? Find a free, confidential helpline at findahelpline.com. These pages are not a substitute for professional or pastoral care.

Little Way is made by Arrenite. Some of its content is made with the help of AI tools; see the AI disclosure. Questions? Contact.