Family Devotions, Bible Study, and Teaching Children About Jesus
The Watering Place: Come and be Filled with Encouragement for Homeschooling.
Homeschooling Encouragement Article by Wynne and Harriet Yoder
Here is another in our series on teaching Christianity to
your children. Studying the Bible, doing devotions, and praying as a
family isn't hard once you get started. If the Lord has planted this idea
with you, He will make the way for you to accomplish it. Start small and
add more as everyone gets with the program! Here are the links to topics
on this page:
Bible Study Devotions
Praying With Your Children
Scripture Memory
Choosing the Reading
Choose a book of the Bible and read a chapter a day. My
children love Daniel, Ruth, Jonah, and Revelation. Genesis is a good place
to start. You can always alternate between the Old Testament book and the
New Testament. You can also add one Psalm and a chapter of Proverbs.
Same Bible
If you want your child to read some, take turns! When you
share reading, it helps to have the same Bible translation. When our children
were younger, we purchased inexpensive award type Bibles for the purpose of
having the same translation and the same page numbers! It's easier for everyone
to keep up and take turns with reading.
Bible Atlas
Use a Bible atlas to locate the places you read about, if
applicable. Use an atlas that is appropriate for the ages of your children. Or
you can have one for each child at his ability level.
Prayer
Open with prayer. You can pray aloud yourself, ask for a
volunteer, choose someone, or go around the circle and ask each person to pray.
Ask the Lord to bless the reading of Bible.
Click here for more about prayer!
Review
Before you start the day's reading, ask your
child(ren) to tell you what you read about yesterday This encourages retention
of the material, You can prompt or ask questions to jog the memory.
Read Aloud
Read Bible passages aloud. It is amazing how daily
Bible readings can follow along with real life. For example, Wynne had
been reading Revelation to the children. During that time, they watched
the "Left Behind" videos. Our little boys saw things in the movie that
their father had read about that day!
Ask Questions
Ask questions about what you just read.
Let your child narrate back to you. You will be able to tell how
much he understood. Encourage the children to answer in complete sentences.
The Word Does not Return Void!
Keep in mind that devotions don't have to be a super
spiritual to be spiritual moments. The word does not
return void! You are planting seeds and it may take time to see results.
Keep Little Hands
Busy
Various Bible coloring books are available. Or you can
encourage your child to draw what you are reading about on plain paper with
crayons or colored pencils. I made felt boards by sewing two different colors of
felt together with a piece of cardboard between the layers to add stiffness.
The children used these to make pictures on the felt during times when I wanted
to keep them quiet. Purchase precut felt squares and cut them down to fit
into the large zipping baggies. Cut the excess felt from each square into
various shapes. Cut the cardboard about 1/2" smaller than the
felt squares. Sew a straight stitch about 1/4" from the edge. If you
don't sew, you can use a hot glue gun, following safety precautions. Store
them in a large baggie.
Need More Structure
There are excellent children's Bible
studies available for purchase if you want more structure.
Explain to the children that praying is our way of talking with God and that
God hears our prayers and answers them.
If you are new at this and haven't prayed with your children before, it
might be good to lead the prayer yourself for a few days before asking them to
pray
It is ok to prompt small children or reluctant older children if they don't
know what to say. For example, ask them to thank God for something.
One sentence is just fine for starters.
Remember it gets easier with practice!
Consider keeping a family prayer journal.
Suggested Prayer Topics
Pray for the physical and spiritual needs of your family.
We take prayer requests before we pray and assign a request to each person.
This helps children to learn to think about others.
Pray for extended family/church family/neighbors/the
nations. That's a lot but the Lord will lead your prayer time.
When we are having a bad day, we stop what we are doing to have a prayer
session to get our hearts right with God. Usually we start with repentance
prayer with everyone included. Typically a bad day involves bad attitudes
and unrepentant hearts, but it is also very likely that the enemy is throwing
lots of fiery darts and prayer builds up the shield of faith to quench them.
(See Ephesians chapter 6).
Start small! Think about verses that changed your walk with the
Lord. It is much easier to teach what you have experienced. Once
the children are used to learning verses, you can start learning passages.
Encourage your child to memorize scripture passages such as:
The Ten Commandments
The Lord's Prayer
The Beatitudes
The 23rd Psalm
The spiritual warfare chapter--Ephesians 6
Rewards It is ok to give prizes for remembering Bible verses.
It is encouraging to everyone. Again you can start with small rewards
such as special privileges, little prizes, or treats. One summer we
told the children we would go to our favorite amusement park when all of
them learned 1 Corinthians 13. Each of the older children teamed up
with a younger child to practice the verses. Even our two nephews who
were visiting memorized it.
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Copyright © 2000-2009 Wynne and Harriet Yoder, All rights reserved
Lamp Post Publishing, Inc.
1741 Tallman Hollow Road
Montoursville, PA 17754
800-326-9273
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www.LampPostPublishing.com
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