Kirch Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Please bear with me as I try to pin down some thoughts/questions that are zooming around in my brain! I'm struggling to get a plan in place for what we want to do for Bible study/discipleship. I feel like we need to be worshiping together--my mental image of this is something along the lines of reading a passage of scripture (not long--my boys are 5 and 7)--perhaps in the context of reading through a book, discussing it, singing, and praying together. Again, my idea of this has it happening in the evenings, before bed. But I'm also feeling like we need to include Bible study as a part of school--I really like Bible Study Guide for All Ages and have been planning to get it as soon as finances allow. All that, every day, though, seems like a bit much to take on. Another possibility would be to have our family worship time in the mornings to start our days and use the passages we'd be studying in BSG. That would be streamlining things a bit (as well as giving the boys ONE thing to focus on--hopefully that focus and the repetition would help with retention). Then maybe that could seamlessly transition into our school day when we pull out the worksheets/timeline, etc. with BSG. Thoughts, ideas, suggestions? I'd love to hear how other families teach and disciple their kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 This is what we do... For school, the boys and I are currently using Rod and Staff's second grade reading/Bible curriculum as a read aloud. We read one lesson a day. We have 'bible study' (what we call it :001_smile:) every evening, as a family. Dh (with my input if I have a suggestion) picks a book of the Bible, (right now we are reading through Hebrews) and we read it. I'd guess we usually read anywhere from half a chapter to a chapter and a half per evening. It really just depends on the text. As dh reads, he explains to the children what the scriptures mean. I add to the discussion as I like. The children ask questions as they have them; and they usually have a LOT. :D I don't really know how long this takes, I guess I've never timed it. Maybe 20 to 30 minutes? We don't have a set time we do it. It's whatever time works in the evening between dh getting home from work and the boys going to bed. Prayer and singing are things that happen frequently in our home. We don't have a set 'plan' for those, really. We all siing songs whenever we want to, either individually or as a family. We do have prayer before each meal and at bedtime, but we also pray at lots of other times. For example, if someone in the family is hurt or sick, we pray for healing for that person. Our Christian beliefs *are* who we are, IYKWIM. Dh and I constantly have opportunities throughout the day to discuss the Lord, our beliefs, etc. with the children and each other. It's the natural 'fruit', if you will, of who we are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Biblical literacy matters to us culturally, and in this regard, I will just say this: I WISH we had been more "formal", more "schoolish", more "serious" about it when they were little. They do NOT magically pick things up. If you do not address it as a serious study area, at least somewhat systematically (with a certain plan and sequence of which texts you want to cover, what to draw their attention to, which texts to compare, etc.), with the same priority as you address English or math, there is a possibility you will have a rude awakening at some point upon realizing that your children do not know some elementary things (in terms of chronology, connections between isolated stories they know, how things fit into the big picture, etc.). I have had that happen and I am not "light" on academics in any way. But, I have totally neglected it, naively thinking that they pick it up. They do not, just like they do not "pick up" math or physics. If this is an area that is *important* to you, give it its due importance and include it in your formal studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I always liked the idea of something formal when my kids were younger, but anything I chose never lasted. It didn't take long for me to embrace that approach; for us, it worked best to keep things mixed up. We did Bible time early in the day. Our activities ranged from a daily email devotional to a free online Bible curriculum to taking turns formally reading scripture out loud--meaning standing and speaking clearly in an effort to promote public speaking. Other times, we just used our AWANA practice time as our Bible time. During each December, we'd read one of the Jotham/Ytreeide books. Changing our routine seemed key to keeping my kids--and me--interested and engaged. I'm in no way discounting or minimizing the impact of family Bible time, but looking back, I think the biggest impact on my kids' faith was seeing us try to live out what we believe. We've been far from perfect, or even good, but listening to dh and me talk about how God is working in our lives, whether it's in conversation with our kids, discussing with each other, or sharing with friends seems to have been just as important as learning and understanding the Bible and its history. My kids know some of our struggles and can see God's sovereignty--and they apply it to their lives as well. (At least so far!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lluv Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Biblical literacy matters to us culturally, and in this regard, I will just say this: I WISH we had been more "formal", more "schoolish", more "serious" about it when they were little. They do NOT magically pick things up. If you do not address it as a serious study area, at least somewhat systematically (with a certain plan and sequence of which texts you want to cover, what to draw their attention to, which texts to compare, etc.), with the same priority as you address English or math, there is a possibility you will have a rude awakening at some point upon realizing that your children do not know some elementary things (in terms of chronology, connections between isolated stories they know, how things fit into the big picture, etc.). :iagree: Completely. I think even if one is a regular church goer, but doesn't devote time to actual study of the bible and church doctrine, you risk not really knowing what you believe and/or why you believe it. We've just started our daily devotional: Leading Little Ones to God (one chapter/day). I'm really enjoying LLOtG even though it is a pretty old book that uses KJV, I just use my own Holman bible for the scripture. It really breaks down truth for little ones. For each chapter there are discussion questions, related scripture, a suggested bible reading, even a hymn and closing prayer. We also read out of the Day by Day children's bible. I'm also going to start separate scripture memory using the CM method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicAnn Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 We have a once a week formal Bible study, from a book. Then each day Dd and I pray together. We have scripture memorization, and then we read from our Bible studies book. We also have a daily text book that we read each morning. it isn't too in depth, and lasts about 5-10 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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