The Parable of the Sower for Kids.
The parable of the sower is the story Jesus told about a farmer scattering seed on four kinds of ground, and about the four ways a person's heart can receive what God says.
Retold by Hannah Whitford · Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23 · Updated September 2026
The Story of The Parable of the Sower for Kids
This is one of the first parables Jesus explained out loud, which makes it one of the easiest to teach. Children can picture every part of it: a path worn hard by feet, a thin layer of soil over stone, a corner of the field gone to thorns, and good dark earth where the grain grows taller than a child's head. The pictures do the teaching, and the question underneath them is a gentle one, not a scary one. What kind of ground is my heart today, and what would help it be good soil?
“Behold, a farmer went out to sow.”
Matthew 13:3
“Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Matthew 13:8
“What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit, and produces, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Matthew 13:23
Quotations from the World English Bible (public domain). Read the full passage together in your own family Bible. The reference is Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23.
Dear God, thank You for planting good things in us. Please make our hearts like good soil, soft enough to listen, deep enough to hold on, and clear enough that nothing crowds You out. Help us to hear what You say and to keep it. Amen.
The parable of the sower teaches children that God's word is always good seed, and what changes is the ground it lands in. Hearts can be hard, or shallow, or crowded with worry, or soft and ready. The good news is that the ground of a heart is not fixed forever. Soil can be broken up, cleared and made ready, and that is something a child can do, one small choice at a time.
- 01Every part of it is something a child can picture: a hard path, a stony patch, a prickly corner, and rich dark earth.
- 02There are birds in it, and small children will happily watch the birds all the way through.
- 03Jesus explains this one Himself, so nobody has to guess what it means.
- 04The ending is generous rather than scary: one seed comes back a hundredfold.
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Matthew 13:9 · WEB
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Take this story to the shelf.
A beautifully illustrated Bible storybook that presents every story as part of God's great rescue plan. Perfect for bedtime with its gentle, lyrical storytelling.
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Books that pair with this story.
Hand-picked after careful research, the ones we recommend most alongside this story.
Ages 4-8 yearsThe Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
by Sally Lloyd-Jones
A beautifully illustrated Bible storybook that presents every story as part of God's great rescue plan. Perfect for bedtime with its gentle, lyrical storytelling.
Ages 2-6 yearsThe Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories
by Zondervan
Classic Bible stories retold in simple language with bright, engaging illustrations. Short stories perfect for winding down before sleep.
Ages 5-12 yearsThe Biggest Story Bible Storybook
by Kevin DeYoung
A beautifully illustrated storybook that presents the Bible as one continuous story. Rich illustrations and thoughtful storytelling.
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The kind of things parents wonder.
It is about a farmer who scatters seed across his field, and the four kinds of ground it lands on: a hard path where birds eat it, rocky ground where it springs up and then withers, thorns that crowd it out, and good soil where it grows a hundred times over. Jesus explained that the seed is God's word and the four grounds are four ways people receive it.
Conversation starters.
Questions to ask after you read together. No right answers, just good conversation.
The seed was good every single time. So why did some of it not grow?
What do you think makes a heart hard, like the path?
The thorns were not bad seeds. They were just other things growing. What kinds of things crowd God out for you?
How could someone get their soil ready?
Teaching this story.
- 01Read the parable first with no explanation at all, the way the crowd heard it, and let your child guess what it means. Then read Jesus' own explanation from Matthew 13:18 to 23 and let them find out how close they got.
- 02Name the four grounds out loud together as you go: path, rocks, thorns, good soil. Four is a number small children can hold, and the whole parable hangs on it.
- 03Ages 4 to 6 do best with the pictures alone. Ages 7 and up can handle the meaning of the thorns, which is the hardest part: worry and wanting things are not dramatic, they just crowd everything else out slowly.
- 04Resist turning this into a test of which soil your child is. Jesus told it to a crowd, not to one child. The useful question is not 'which one are you' but 'what would help this soil be good?'
Four Cups, One Seed Each
Fill four clear cups: one with hard packed dirt pressed down flat, one with a thin layer of soil over pebbles, one with soil plus a few dry twigs and weeds, and one with good potting soil. Plant a bean seed in each, water them all the same, and set them on a windowsill. Check them every day for two weeks. The parable will explain itself, and your child will remember it for years.
Scatter and Sweep
Give your child a small bowl of dry beans or birdseed and let them walk across the yard or the kitchen floor scattering it the way a sower did, with a wide swing of the arm. Then look together at where it landed: on the mat, under the table, in the corner. Ask which places a seed could actually grow, and which it could not.
Everything you need in one place.
Written for a parent at the kitchen table or a Sunday school helper with twenty minutes and a box of crayons.
Ages: 4 to 9. Preschoolers follow the four grounds as pictures, and from about seven a child can hold Jesus' explanation alongside the story and see how the two fit together.
Read together: Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23 (WEB)
- Four clear plastic cups and a marker
- Potting soil, small pebbles, a few dry twigs or weeds
- Four bean seeds and a small watering cup
- A bowl of dry beans or birdseed
- Paper and crayons
The four-cup field
- Label four cups: PATH, ROCKS, THORNS, GOOD SOIL.
- Fill the path cup with soil pressed down hard and flat, the rock cup with pebbles under a thin sprinkle of soil, the thorn cup with soil plus dry twigs and weeds, and the last with good loose potting soil.
- Plant one bean in each, water all four the same amount, and put them in the same window.
- Read Matthew 13:3 to 8 aloud while your child does the planting.
- Check them together every day for two weeks and write down what each cup is doing. Read Matthew 13:18 to 23 on the day the difference becomes obvious.
Sowing by hand
- Give your child a bowl of dry beans and take them outside, or clear a stretch of floor.
- Show them the sower's swing: walk forward, arm wide, let the seed fly rather than placing it.
- Walk the length together, then stop and look at where the seed actually landed.
- Sort out loud: this one is on the path, this one is in the gravel, this one is in the grass.
- Ask why the farmer in the story did not just put every seed in the good part. Then read verse 8 again and count what came back.
If the conversation stalls
Short model answers for the questions above. They are a starting point to offer if a child shrugs, not a script to read out.
The seed was good every single time. So why did some of it not grow?
Because of the ground, not the seed. That is the whole point of the parable, and children usually get there on their own once they have said it out loud. Jesus never says the farmer sowed badly.
What do you think makes a heart hard, like the path?
Traffic, mostly. A path is hard because so much walks over it. Not understanding, being too busy, or hearing something so often that it stops landing will all do it. Verse 19 says the word is snatched away before it ever sinks in.
The thorns were not bad seeds. They were just other things growing. What kinds of things crowd God out for you?
Verse 22 names two: the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches. For a child that usually looks like worry and wanting. Let them name their own, and name one of yours too so it is a shared answer, not a quiz.
How could someone get their soil ready?
The same way a farmer does: break up what is packed hard, clear out the stones, pull the weeds. In practice that is asking questions until something makes sense, coming back to it, and making room. Soil can be worked, which is the hopeful part.
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These Bible story retellings are based directly on Scripture and written for children ages 3–10. Each page includes its Scripture reference so families can read the original passage together. Content is reviewed by the Childhood Bible Stories editorial team.