The Science of Reading meets God's Word. For the littlest people and those who love them.

You have probably noticed that Christianity looks different depending on who is teaching it.

There is much to disagree on in our polarized world. Different denominations emphasize different things. Different cultural moments pull the faith in different directions. Different traditions add layer and nuance, we debate with one another over it all.

Our program was designed for all God’s children. We pull from the ancient, agreed-upon, unchanging truth that Christians across every tradition and every century have held together. The faith that has always belonged to every child, in every family, in every century.

Check out how your own traditions fit into our theological arc below:

Our Theological Foundation
Seven Levels. One Arc. Theologically Complete at Every Stage.

Reaching holds Scripture as the ultimate authority for faith and practice. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed serve as the ecumenical floor the ancient consensual summary of what Scripture teaches that Christians in every century have held together. Children deserve honest, direct, beautiful access to God from the very beginning. Beginning with Beloved for ages two to four and continuing through six reading levels to age twelve, every level moves through a different dimension of what it means to know God and they all hold together.

Reaching holds Scripture as the ultimate authority for faith and practice. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed serve as the ecumenical floor: the ancient consensual summary of what Scripture teaches that the whole church has held in every century. The creeds derive their authority from Scripture and point back to it.

0Beloved
1Wonder
2Belonging
3Brokenness
4Jesus
5Love
6Mission

Select any level to explore or open them all below

Level 0
Beloved
Jesus Loves You Right Now
Ages 2-4
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"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are."
1 John 3:1
The Big Idea
Before a child can read a single word, they can know three things in their body before they know them in their mind: Jesus loves them specifically and personally, their feelings are real gifts from God with meaning, and their words are sacred. Beloved is formation at the root working at the age when the brain is most open and the foundation is being laid for everything that follows.
What Your Child Receives
Five board books read in the lap. Thirty formation cards for the parent. Hand-painted wooden peg dolls for play and prayer. Three tactile objects: a smooth stone, a tea light, a soft cloth. A parent guide grounded in theology, social emotional learning, and early speech development. Delivered as The Beloved Box, a quarterly subscription.
Read Alongside
Matthew 19:14 Jeremiah 1:5 Genesis 1:27 Psalm 46:10 1 Peter 5:7
Prayer Forms Talking to Jesus · Bringing Feelings to Jesus · Words as Prayer · Praying by Name · Breath Prayer and Stillness
Level 1
Wonder
God Made Everything Good
Pre-K / Kindergarten
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"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
Genesis 1:1, 31
The Big Idea
God is the creator of everything, and everything he made he called good. The child reading these books is part of that good creation. They are made, known, and held. This is where everything begins not with rules or requirements, but with wonder at a world made by a God who bent down personally to form it.
What Your Child Learns
God made me and the world around me. Everything I can see carries the mark of the one who made it. Rest is holy God himself rested and called it good. Creation speaks, and when I stop and look, I am already doing something prayer-like.
Read Alongside
Psalm 19:1 Psalm 104 Colossians 1:16-17 Genesis 2:1-3
Prayer Form Noticing Prayer stopping, looking, receiving the world as a gift
Level 2
Belonging
Made in His Image
Grade 1
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"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them."
Genesis 1:27
The Big Idea
Every person every single one is made in the image of God. Theologians call this the Imago Dei. It is not earned and cannot be lost. It is the ground of every person's dignity. When your child learns to see God's image in others, they are learning one of the most important things a human being can know.
What Your Child Learns
God knows my name specifically not just that I exist, but who I am. No one is outside God's love. Jesus consistently stopped for the people everyone else walked past. How I treat another person is connected to how I see God in them.
Read Alongside
Psalm 139:1-18 Isaiah 49:15-16 Luke 15:11-32 Matthew 25:40
Prayer Form Praying for another person by name
Level 3
Brokenness
The World Is Not the Way It Should Be
Grade 2
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"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
Lamentations 3:22-23
The Big Idea
Something went wrong. Children already feel this they do not need to be told. Reaching gives them language for it: the world is broken, grief is real, and God has not walked away. Lament is not the opposite of faith. It is one of its most honest expressions. The Psalms model this for us throughout.
What Your Child Learns
I am allowed to bring the hard things to God my sadness, my confusion, my honest questions. God came looking in the garden when things went wrong; he is still coming looking. God's faithfulness does not depend on circumstances being good. Even the darkest morning has new mercies in it.
Read Alongside
Psalm 22:1-2 Psalm 46:1 Genesis 3:8-9 Romans 8:22 Revelation 21:5
Prayer Form Lament bringing what is hard honestly to God without pretending
Level 4
Jesus
The Word Became Flesh
Grade 3
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"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
John 1:14
The Big Idea
God did not stay far away. He entered the world he made fully human, fully God and he knows what it feels like to be tired, afraid, and grief-stricken. Jesus wept at a grave. He calmed storms. He prayed in agony in a garden. He stayed on the cross. He rose. Everything is different because of that. The cross was not an accident. It was love chosen freely.
What Your Child Learns
Jesus is not a distant idea. He is a person who lived, felt things, and knows what my life is like from the inside. Because Jesus rose, the worst thing that can happen is not the last thing. When I pray, I am talking to someone who is alive, who has been through death, and who is on the other side of it.
Read Alongside
John 11:35 Hebrews 4:15 Philippians 2:5-11 Romans 5:8 1 Corinthians 15:20
Prayer Form Speaking directly to Jesus to a person who is present and alive
Level 5
Love in Action
The Upside-Down Kingdom
Grade 4
▼
"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8
The Big Idea
The kingdom of God operates by a different logic than the world. The greatest serves. The enemy is loved. The neighbor is whoever is in front of you right now. Small acts of love done in the name of Jesus are not wasted they are seeds of the new creation. The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus's description of what a life formed by that kingdom actually looks like.
What Your Child Learns
Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God. My neighbor is whoever needs me right now. I am already salt and light not someday, now. Even the small things I do for others, done for Jesus, are not too small to matter. Not one act of love is wasted.
Read Alongside
Matthew 5:3-16 Luke 10:25-37 Matthew 5:44 Matthew 25:40 1 Corinthians 15:58
Prayer Form Praying before an act of service offering small things to God first
Level 6
Mission
Here Am I, Send Me
Grade 5
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"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me.'"
Isaiah 6:8
The Big Idea
The story is still being written, and the child is part of it. They are not too young, too ordinary, or too small. God has always called people who did not feel ready Moses, Jeremiah, Mary, Isaiah. The response God is looking for is not confidence. It is availability. And the promise that accompanies every call is the same: I will be with you.
What Your Child Learns
I am sent not someday, now, into the ordinary places of my ordinary life. I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, people who ran their portion of the race before me and are cheering me on. God is making all things new, and what I do in love today is not wasted. It is a seed of that new creation.
Read Alongside
John 20:21 Matthew 5:13-14 Hebrews 12:1-2 Revelation 21:4-5 Acts 1:8
Prayer Form The prayer of availability here am I, before you know what you are saying yes to
The Floor
What Every Level Stands On
Reaching holds Scripture as the ultimate authority for faith and practice. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed serve as the ecumenical floor: the ancient consensual summary of what Scripture teaches that Christians across every tradition and every century have held together. The creeds derive their authority from Scripture and point back to it.