Devotionals?

[Tracy]

I have read about a lot of you that start your mornings with a devotional, and I really like that idea. I am just trying to figure out how it will best work for our family.

 

Our family already does a scripture study together at bedtime. Right now, we are learning a hymn and then reading a children's Bible story and then reading parts of that story directly from the Bible. Then we say a family prayer.

 

DH is a teacher and has to be out of the house before the children wake up, so I can't change our family devotional time to the morning. And we are in Year 1 of TOG, so we are reading a lot of Bible stories with that program. Would it be overkill to start the day with scripture study, too? Maybe we should just sing a song, read one inspirational verse and have a prayer together?

 

I would appreciate any thoughts you have. My kids are little, so I have to keep it simple.

[ELaurie]

a brief time for prayer sounds lovely.

 

You're already doing plenty to teach them God's Word.

 

If they are memorizing Bible verses, you could have them recite their verses in the morning too.

 

:001_smile:

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

Depending on your preferences and leanings another possibility we incorporated for a bit at the start of our days for a brief change was listening to "Uncle Charlie" on Keys 4 Kids ( or something like that - it's on the radio and online) - there was some Scripture, a story and a discussion of the Biblical principle. During the brief time we incorporated it my 4 yo brought up what he'd heard the day before to discuss it, ask questions and tie it in with what he'd been hearing in Sunday School so I figured it had some worth ... It was quite a heavy discussion. The singing the program starts with was terribly goofy IMO. Each to their own though : ) It was endurable lol .. Or skippable :)

[Sweet Home Alabama]

We've done several things for devotions. We tried a book called Gathering Around the Dinner Fable which was a lot of fun..... some more than others. Don't let the word "fable" fool you. These were Bible verses applied to stories that we could discuss.

 

Last year, we used a Bible story book and read Bible stories! That was great fun!

 

This year, each of my kids is reading his/her AWANA verses outloud to each other and to me followed by my reading the Bible selection from Biblioplan Ancients. We started in Genesis, and we've enjoyed several interesting bunny trails.

 

The longer we homeschool, the more inclined I am to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. Somehow, as good as Bible studies are, it is precious to guide children in such a way to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself in a more natural way.... To ask the children, "What do you want to read today?" Or, "Is there anything especially meaningful to you in this verse(s)?

Even begin to teach intercessory prayer. We have not really tried this. But, the act of waiting expectantly on the Lord to guide our devotion time makes this beginning of the day very special.

 

I love devotion time and tend to enjoy it a little too much. One of my kids told me that if I would just keep devotions to 10-15 minutes we would be able to finish school on time!!! Those bunny trails can be great fun!

[achristean]

Like you, we do scripture study at night (with a hymn and prayer). But I've also enjoyed our morning devotional. I've kept the "study" part to night time because that's when dad can be there with us and we can study as a family. Our morning devotionals are a little different. We rotate who's in charge. The person in charge tells us what they've learned from their own personal scripture study (or they could tell you what they learned from the night before at family scripture study); then that person leads us in the pledge; then we recite something we've been working on (we've memorized the beginning of the Declaration of Independence; the Gettysburg Address; some important scriptures; poems; etc - something uplifting); and then they say the prayer. Each of the kids gets a turn to be in charge. (Those that aren't in charge get to help make breakfast) I think it's been a great way to start our day.

[Staceyshoe]

It looks like our kids are about the same age.:) We don't do as much at night as you do--just a Bible story and prayer. In the morning, I play 2 songs for the kids and let them dance around and have fun with it. I choose a hymn and a kid's Bible song. Then we read a super quick devotion (2 minutes--it's just a paragraph). I say a quick 2-3 sentence prayer of praise and gratitude. All together, it takes about 10 minutes. The boys LOVE it! When we first started, I thought it was awkward and not working well. I was ready to quit when they started asking for it. Now they always remind me to do it and look forward to it so much.

[TXMary2]

You sound like you are doing plenty, but a brief moment of prayer time or a worship song in the morning wouldn't be unreasonable. We do a devotion out of one of two devotional books- either Devotions for Boys or Sticky Situations. It always allows for a great discussion or good questions.

[MissKNG]

 

Jesus Wants All Of Me

[BettyL]

We start our school day with listening to the dramatized Bible on CD while we color in special coloring books saved for this occasion or create with clay. It's a fun way to get focused for the day. When we are done listening to a few chapters we talk about what we learned from the text then pray. It helps to get our day started on the right foot!

[Tracy]

Thanks so much for your suggestions. We ended up doing a children's hymn and a prayer and then the Pledge of Allegiance. I didn't think my 2yo would have any interest, but he jumped in and tried to sing and say the Pledge. I think it helped that we did it on the floor. Anyway, we had a great first day, and I feel confident that it was, at least in part, because we started on the right foot.