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Family bible time with young children help:)
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I hope there isn’t a limit to posts per month, you all are just so helpful! I’m planning on “starting” SCM as soon as I get the right books for Module 1, but have questions about how family bible time actually looks, especially with young children involved. (I have 6 kids, 6 and under) Right now we read together on the couch after breakfast from a story bible that actually has quite a bit of detail. I let my 2.5 and 1.5 yr old roam free because it’s hard to read and train them to sit still at the same time. We then spend some time praying/singing, then start “school”. But once I get the Genesis-Deut. guide, then how does it look for most of you?
Do you read the daily passage at the table right after breakfast with every member of the family no matter how old? (or do you let the younger ones free)
I see the Child’s Story Bible as optional on the curriculum guide. If you are using a child’s story bible, at what age do you switch to the whole bible (and then do you read a story bible later to the younger ones?)
Then do your scripture memory after the Bible reading?
I hope those questions made sense, I guess I’m just looking for a broken down idea of how it looks in your home (and your children don’t have to be as young as mine, but suggestions with younger children and older children would be appreciated). Thanks so much!
Adrienne
We are not using module 1, but I can tell you how we do Bible in our house. My kids are 8, 6 and 4 so they’re not as young or as abundant as yours, but still quite wiggly 🙂 First I prefer to use the Bible, not Bible stories. In my experience, most children’s Bibles tend to come off as moralistic stories instead of delivering the whole message, or they leave out details that I feel are important. With one exception though, I have like Egermeier’s Children’s Bible in the past. I use a chronological Bible and I read to them while they are eating lunch. This works well for us because I am not a breakfast eater (mostly a coffee drinker) and I eat “brunch” about an hour before my kids eat their lunch. Since I don’t eat lunch with them I am free to read and they really listen! They’re not allowed to leave the table until we’re finished and we have time to discuss what we’ve read as well. It’s just been the best way for us so far. I’ve tried morning, evening and everything else in between but right now this seems to be working very well.
Adrienne,
I never had so many all young as you do, either, as I only had 3. But from infancy up, we always read the Scriptures as a family. We paid little attention to babies in arms or on blankets. Once they were big enough to sit and hold a book, we got them a special Bible picture book that was just theirs and that they could look at quietly while (and ONLY while) we read. We did have to train them to do this and be quiet, but it was so worth the effort. Then once they are about 3-ish, they always wanted to sit by me and “read” my Scriptures with me. Once that time came, we got them inexpensive scriptures of their own to look at, even if they couldn’t read all that much yet. We always tried to do something fun for them–one little guy we taught the wordl “Behold” to, and whenever it came up, whoever was reading would stop, and I’d point to the word, and the little guy would announce “BEHOLD!!!” and we’d all smile and go on with the verse. 🙂
Here is what we do at our house. After breakfast and morning routine (bed making, teeth brushing, etc.) we sit down togeater on the couch and read from our Childrens Bible. Then we read from Leading Little Ones to God, then we do scripture memory. My five year old listens and does his scripture memory. My 17 month old I am trying to train to sit on my lap quietly. To me this is important to train for occasions like church or waiting at the doctors or other situations that I would not want her running amuck(?). If you wanted to teach them to sit quietly and still, perhaps just start with the older one, then move on to the younger one when the first is sitting well. Just a thought. If its not important to you, then let them play while you read.
I too am curious when to switch to using the Bible and not a Childrens Bible.
I also wanted to know if anyone has the children do narration with bible study. I was thinking just once a week for the narration just to help them retain the Word and make it there own, but I am worried about it being just more school work and not relational. Any thoughts?
Ruth
We haven’t started Module 1 yet, but here’s what we do (and probably how I will handle it when we do start module 1 next year.) We have 3 kiddos ages 5, 2-1/2, and 9m.
We do hymns and Scripture memory at the breakfast table before we get up and start anything else. Then we stop, do clean up and chores, and then to our regular “school time”. In the evening before bed, we sing a worship song or 2 (DH plays the guitar, and since the more modern worship songs are more often sung at our church we thought this would be a good way to expose our kids to the songs they hear there as well) and then read from Catherine Vos’ Child’s Story Bible. Each of these “Bible” sessions take about 10 minutes, max, which is another key when they are this little I think. At this point during our ‘school time’, we aren’t doing any particular Bible stories since we prefer to do these all together as a family when DH is home so he can be a part of that as well. Also, by removing those items from our formal “school time”, we are more likely to continue with them during times of transition or school breaks – which I felt was important. And also, by doing these things with DH at home, it helps with there being an extra set of hands available for those really little ones that are still learning how to sit still! =) (Thinking mainly of my 2-1/2 year old, who is doing much better than he used to!) During our ‘formal’ school time, I don’t expect the toddler to sit still. (And the baby is often napping, or in her high chair with a snack.) I have some special toys that I allow the 2-1/2 year old to play with quietly near us, or he can choose to listen to the stories as well. When we move to the table for math and copywork, he likes to sit and color or play with magnetic letters. He really likes to be involved with us, so I’ve found that is the best way to keep him occupied while I’m working with DD5. I don’t expect him to sit quietly during this time, though.
Next year when DD starts first grade, we plan to use module 1. I imagine we will continue with our morning and evening family Bible times as I described above – with DH involved, and expecting even the little ones to sit quietly. I think we will do the module 1 readings as part of our “history” studies, since that is sort of the point of having so much Bible in the history modules, to see how the Bible narrative fits in to the rest of history (at least that’s how I see it, and why I was so attracted to the way the SCM modules were set up). This will be something we include in our regular school day, where I don’t necessarily expect the toddlers to sit quietly with the rest of us. They will still be hearing Bible stories and learning to sit quietly during our family Bible times.
Hope that helps somewhat!
Jen
I should have been more clear in my post:) My kiddos do know how to sit still since we have a home church, and it’s about 2 hours long, so we do our family worship(which is actually more of a training time for the little ones) in the evening with my husband(he’s reading through Judges right now in the “non-children’s” bible), or just myself if he’s gone. I guess I need to just either train the little ones to sit still in the morning as well, or do bible at another time when they are playing quietly with something else. Thanks for all the great ideas so far, it helps!
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