Please find below a list of resources and links which may be useful in your for ministry with children under the age of five and their families. If you have come across other resources that have worked for you, please do let us know by emailing childrenandfamilies@elydiocese.org. We would love to take a look and add them to our list if we can.
As with all the resources we list, many of these are not produced by or endorsed by the Diocese of Ely. Please ensure that the resource is right for both your tradition and context before using. Whilst we try to monitor and update links to external sites, if you come across a broken link or a link that no longer works please do let us know.
Please get in touch with us on childrenandfamilies@elydiocese.org if you have any questions or need further help or support.
Don't forget to join our Under 5's Forum to share resources, ideas, encouragement and support on a variety of topics to help in your ministry with Under 5s and their families.
Resources for using with parents
Course
Starting Rite: Spiritual Nurture for Babies and their parents, by Jenny Paddison.
The Diocese has a number of Starting Rite Resource Hubs in different locations where you can borrow the resources to run this course.
Books
- Refresh: Introducing adults to faith through toddler groups by Caroline Montgomery
- Publisher: BRF (Bible reading Fellowship) (2023)
- ISBN: 978-1800392168
Links
- Parenting for Faith (Part of the Bible Reading Fellowship Ministries)
Bibles and other Bible based story books
- The Play-Along Bible: Imagining God’s Story through Motion and Play by Bob Hartman
- Publisher: Lion Children’s Books (2019)
- ISBN: 978-0745978307
Resources for running groups
Links
- Free resources for Under 5's from the Diocese of Blackburn
- An overview guide to the year using the Big Bible Storybook from the Diocese of York
- Diddy Disciples
- Little Seeds – using secular books to bring a Christian message to toddler groups from the Diocese of Worcester
- What a Wonderful World - toddler group curriculum from the Diocese of Leeds
- Playtime resources on a number of Bible stories from Care for the Family
- Bible Buds - Have a look at a free sample here: bible-buds-look-inside.pdf
- Little Worship Company - Note that some of their material is only available from the bigger collection of resources known as Raise Up Faith.
Books
- God’s Story for Under 5s: 36 Bible-based sessions for midweek and Sunday groups by Becky May.
- Publisher: Barnabas for Children (2016)
- ISBN: 978-0857463814
External Under 5's Ministry Networks, Conference and Research
- Talking Toddlers Network and Research
- National network of church-based toddler groups from 1277 Make Them Count
- Playtime National Conference 2025 from Care for the Family - Feltham, Saturday 20 2025 (10am-5pm)