I’ve always enjoyed doing Bible lessons with my girls since Sophia was very small. She liked when I would read or tell a story and draw things out on a dry erase board, cut things out of construction paper or act things out with toys or stuffed animals.
Last year, most weeks we began our school time with the Bible Stories from lifehopeandtruth.com the girls LOVED the coloring pages. And if there was a story we wanted that wasn’t on the website we would print a coloring page from a Google search, or make our own! We did those once a week or so and supplemented other activities related to the story the other days of the week (such as acting out the story with toys, songs, hymns, memory verses, writing out definitions, researching some aspect of the story. Here is a little book we put together about Esther).
The stories are really well written and easy to follow for my (then) seven-year-old. We would do some extra things around the Holy Days from the EEI manual, and when we got to the New Testament we did a bit more improvising since there were fewer stories than the Old Testament, which worked out well when new baby came along and we went into survival mode!
The girls bound their coloring pages into a book so they could keep them. They still enjoy looking back through them!
I decided to switch things up a bit this year. After some prayer and thought, I decided to just start reading the Bible for our Bible Time in the morning. So we borrowed Daddy’s zippered KJV Bible (the zipper is AWESOME! Protects the pages from getting disheveled by little people). And I pulled out our Harmony of the Gospels by A.T. Robertson.
I read aloud a short passage from the Gospels, and Sophia likes to do the reading aloud from the Old Testament most days. We also started narrating after each one. Karen Glass has an excellent book called Know and Tell which has been really helpful in getting started with narration. I was curious to see how they would like the change and so far it has gone really well! I thought they would be put off by certain things like genealogies, but they LOVE the unusual names, sometimes even getting those uncontrollable giggles. I love hearing their perspectives and discussing questions and ideas they bring up. I didn’t expect our 5-year-old to understand so much. Even our 2-year-old chimed in today with, “And Jesus told the lady not to go outside without Mommy or Daddy.” Not exactly sure where that came from, but she was very excited to “tell us about” what we read.
Here is one of Sophia’s narrations from Genesis:
I’m still trying to figure out the weekends. I wanted to make sure the Sabbath is distinctly different from our regular school days, so we don’t do our usual reading. I started a Sabbath cupboard, but aside from church, I haven’t gotten into much of a routine. I’m thinking it’s the perfect time for EEI lessons, but alas, I haven’t taken the time to plan for it (not my greatest strength!) so I need to just start doing something! The monthly study guides have been a huge help for me in the past, so perhaps I’ll get one of those going again. (You can find them here as well as a ton of awesome additional activities, games, & crafts!)
I put some special books, maps, toys, activity books, games & puzzles in here for exclusive use on the Sabbath. I thought it might help distinguish the time, especially for the littlest ones. The girls love doing Scripture writing with Dad, so maybe that would be a good thing to get going on the weekends. We often like to read Psalms on Friday night, and a few years ago we did the A to Z coloring pages, which the girls really got into! Daddy would print it out and then we would all guess what the letter would stand for. I’m pretty sure I was usually wrong!
As with any of the things we do, I like to keep in mind the purpose of it all. I heard this Scripture quoted recently in a helpful podcast about memorization and thought it was the perfect “why” Scripture to keep in mind:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
In all that we do, let us strive to help our children get to know God and cultivate their relationship with Him! I like to remind myself that it’s a process and it takes time. It doesn’t all come at once, but over a lifetime, here a little, there a little (Isaiah 28:10). We’re planting seeds, watering, tending, and one day God will give the increase! He will do His work, we are just His willing helpers!
I hope this little glimpse into our little world can serve as some value on your journey with your little ones. If you are looking for specific ideas, just let us know and we’ll do our best to help!
2 Responses
Love it!! Oxoxo
Thanks! 🙂