How I Teach My Kids About Christian Heroes

The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)

There are so many courageous and inspiring Christian heroes who have left an imprint on my life. Ever since I was a teenager, I loved reading memoirs and biographies by admirable Christians, from missionaries like Elisabeth Elliot to women who experienced tragic concentration camps during WWII like Corrie ten Boom. And I remember seeing either this exact painting above, or one very similar to it, as  in an art book as a middle-schooler and being awed and even a bit afraid at the courage it took to be a Christian. 

As a mom, I want my children to be inspired by heroic Christians who did not cower under fear or oppression when evil was all around them. I want them to see that God is good and mighty, even when hard things happen all around us. I want them to see men and women who didn't give up when they faced unimaginable difficulties so that they can see that they also can grow to be brave and empowered by God to do great things for Him. 

The Charlotte Mason curriculum I am following for homeschooling my first grade son (Ambleside Online)  has a book assigned for Christian history called Trial and Triumph. It gives biographies of different Christians, many of whom were martyred for their faith. Polycarp, Blandina, Constantine, St. Patrick, Monica and Augustine are some of the assigned chapters. Although I plan to eventually dive into this book and I am sure it is a great resource for later years, its lack of illustrations and child-friendly language regarding the atrocities these heroic martyrs faced is what led me to creating my own schedule for introducing Christian heroes. Since my three-year old would also be around while I was introducing these mini biographies, I wanted to be aware of both of my children's sensitive nature and not give way too much detail regarding the death of some of these people. I also wanted to engage in a way that they receive best, which is through engaging, adventurous stories aided by great illustrations. I wanted these stories to stick with them in a way that wouldn't terrify them, but would embolden them to grow in courage, faith, and so many other virtues that reflect God's character and goodness. 

So, this year, and possibly next as well, I have been choosing which of the Christian heroes we will study and using the resources of my own choice. I have chosen one Christian hero per month that we’d learn about throughout the year using age-appropriate resources for my preschool and elementary-aged kids. Here are two resources we’ve loved that I recommend wholeheartedly. Then I will share how we do it. 

This series of biographical cartoons by Torchlighters are high-quality and engaging. They dive into the story of the Christian hero and don’t shy away from difficult parts of their stories, yet there isn’t anything scary or graphic in the stories. Even in death scenes (Jim Elliot being murdered by the Auca Indians and Corrie ten Boom’s gruesome treatment in concentration camp) are appropriate for kids (although a parent may want to pre-screen the video to make sure they're comfortable with the details). The videos are thirty minutes long and I found many at my public library as well as through Hoopla, which is similar to Libby. Our church has a library and I found many there as well. And I just found a playlist (linked below) on YouTube with the videos too. The Torchlighters website is a great resource and has free student guides in pdf format that have enhanced our studies greatly. They seem to be geared towards elementary to middle-school kids, with coloring pages, word searches, interview questions, decoding messages, and other activities that appeal to various ages. The coloring pages were great for my preschooler, while my 1st grader was able to do several other pages as well. I saved some of the more advanced pages in case we revisit those specific people in future years. 

So far, we have watched the videos and used the student guides for these Christian heroes: 

• John Bunyan 
• Jim Elliot
• Corrie ten Boom
• St. Patrick of Ireland
• Gladys Aylward 
• Eric Liddell 

And these are ones we will get to in coming months:

• Richard Wurmbrand
• Harriet Tubman
• John Newton
• Augustine
• Amy Carmichael
• Perpetua

HERE is a list of the Christian heroes they have videos about.

HERE is a YouTube playlist of many of the Torchlighters videos

This series, published by The Good Book Company, includes picture books appropriate for preschool and elementary-aged children. We have read only two in the series so far — Corrie ten Boom and Gladys Aylward— but I plan on continuing the series. They have a free, printable 3- page student guide to further dive into the hero’s life story. I've liked using those. The books are delightfully illustrated and give a good amount of information for children.

HERE is a YouTube video of the author reading Corrie Ten Boom's story 

HERE is the activity pages for Corrie Ten Boom

Other people in the series include C.S. Lewis, Joni Earekson Tada, Fanny Crosby, Susanna Spurgeon, John Knox, Queen Elisabeth, and others.

Other Books We've Used

Here are a few other stand-alone books I have used to supplement our resources from above. 

How We Do It

Back in August, before starting our homeschool year, I planned out one Christian hero per month for the year. I moved a few around, but for the most part, we stuck to the schedule.  I basically started off with the heroes I was familiar with and admired the most (like Corrie ten Boom and Elisabeth Elliot) and then looked on the Torchlighters website to see which other ones I thought we'd enjoy learning about together. I  tried to pick both men and women from different time periods, but mostly, it ended up being people that I was at least a bit familiar with in some way.  

Saturdays are usually our Christian Hero Day during our afternoon tea time (which happens at 3:30pm, right after Quiet Time). I either read a picture book or pull out my laptop to show the Torchlighters video. If there’s time and interest, I pull out a student guide from either of the above resources and we fill out a page or two. But if not, I save the study guide for the next week. I’ll sometimes find photos of that person to see what they really looked like in real life since the resources above are animated and illustrated. Sometimes we’ll act out certain scenes that were most adventurous and other times we have organic conversations that happen throughout the week when something reminds us of that hero. I don't always have a Saturday afternoon that is available for discussing our hero of the month, but if I have 2-3 Saturdays that month that we can either read, watch the Torchlighter's video, or work on a student guide about that hero, I feel like we have a good grasp on that hero's life story. 

I have a timeline (eight pieces of paper taped together and a long line with marks for different years) for my 6-year old to write in different dates and people he's been learning about in homeschool, so we add our Christian heroes in there too. It's interesting to see when their lives intersect with one another (my son was amazed that Corrie ten Boom and Jim Elliot were alive at the same time).

My son has been remembering the main parts of the Christian hero's stories and he will find common themes and similarities between them without me always mentioning them, like when he noticed that  Eric Liddell, Gladys Aylward, and Jim Elliot were all missionaries or when he realized Corrie ten Boom and Gladys Aylward were both affected by WWII.

I would love to hear if you have any resources you recommend for learning about Christian heroes.