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Help! Scripture Memory
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I am really struggling here. We do the memory box and have been doing that for over a year. My biggest problem is my oldest (8 yo) is really gifted in memorizing. He has tons and tons memorized but my 6 & 4 yo are not anything like their older brother in that respect. I would have all of them say the verse at the same time and realized that my two youngers don’t know them and have been mumbling along with their brother.
I have verses that everyone memorizes and verses that just my oldest memorizes. So on the verses that all memorize, my oldest gets it after maybe two times and the others take much longer. We have verses that we have been doing for a year that my two younger ones can’t get.
I don’t know how to handle this. With my littles one, we can say the very 6 times in a row and they still can’t get it (on verses we have been working on for months). They are also too young to be able to read the words, so I can’t think of a review beyond what we do each morning. I am just beyond frustrated and don’t know how to handle this.
Any help or suggestions?
Thanks,
Jessica
Jessica. Read again the ages of your children. Now, you know this. Can they do the same math as the older child? Read the same? Do the same physical activities? THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. THEY ARE LITTLE. When my youngest was four, he knew ONE verse. Just one. And I was happy.
Do different things. If your younger ones take several weeks to get one short verse done, that is fine. Keep what you are doing with the older child. That is great. Let the others listen in as they like. But do a different activity with them. Choose a shorter verse, do it separately, and make it more active, and relax! If it takes months, it takes months. It won’t. Choose a verse and make up actions, or a song, or BOTH, to go along with it. Do it over and over, and then play games. Play a pop-up game. Assign one word from the verse to each little one. Sit them on the floor. Read the verse and when “their” word comes up, each child has to jump up and say it, then sit back down. Change the words you use to do this. Before you know it they will be learning, and you can eventually transition them to more sedentary ways to learn. Although you don’t HAVE to. I’ve done pop-up with high school kids. LOL It’s way to early to judge if they are going to be good memorizers or not. They are LITTLE! Don’t ever expect them to perform like the oldest one–not only is that not practical, it is damaging to the younger ones. They know when they are being compared and coming up short, and they will remember that feeling. Let them be individuals, and let them be the ages that they are. I love my teens, but I’d love to have a bunch of little kids on the floor singing scripture verses with me again. Don’t grow them up too fast!
Hi Jessica,
We do the scripture memory system as well. We have been on the first box for a LONG time! LOL! I am alright with that, though. I started with my oldest and my two littles sitting in when they were just 5 and 3. My littlest one got some and didn’t get others, but she HEARD all of them. Over and over. They are ALL familiar to her. And they are ALL beneficial to her. Some of the ones that I thought would be the most needed for her to learn, I would sing to a melody (though there are a lot of verses that are already put to music if you look for them) and she would catch on right away. We are almost done SB 1. I plan on starting box 2 right after but also keep using box 1 and I know that she will get them all eventually. The last thing I want is to make scripture tedious, hard or boring so that the real important treasures within are missed or are thought of in a bad light. Sometimes we stay on one verse for a long time before moving on and sometimes I move one quickly, depending on what I think is needed at the time.
All that to say, please don’t fret over this! Remember, “faith comes through hearing…” They are hearing and hearing and hearing. Sometimes, if the verse is reinforcing a particularly needed lesson or character trait that they are struggling with, take extra discussion time to talk about the meaning of the words used in the verse, think of real life examples, etc. and just RELAX, the important parts are getting done and (probably) more than you realize is sinking in. The memorizing WILL come, if they keep hearing it, it WILL stick. And it won’t kill your oldest to stay in a verse that he has memorized a little longer than he needs to, either. He can practice the very important disciple of meditating on a verse.
I think you should just keep doing what you are doing and don’t worry about it. : )
Just my 2 cents,
Miranda
Yup – we do scripture memory seperately (Started with different coloured cards for each child in the box – now we use ANKI).
Good advice so far. 🙂
My 2 cents? Teach the child, not the curriculum. In this case it means each child works on their scriptures to their own ability. You can still do the family work as you have been doing, as that is working well for your oldest, but perhaps you add a review for your little ones at bedtime as well. OR better yet let go of the expectation that they will master the verses at this time and rejoice that they are being exposed to Gods word and just let that settle into their hearts and minds over time. They will get to the point of memorizing well soon.
I agree with the caution about comparisons between children. Not only does it cause problems for the child who is doing “worse”, but also the child who is doing well can feel guilty or prideful or other negative things. It can also set up some very difficult sibling rivalry.
Your babies are doing OK- I think they just need time to percolate still. 🙂
Miranda, thank you for your input. I found it very encouraging. So thank you! Some days I am able to let it slide and realize that they are hearing God’s word over and over. There are many scriptures that I know that I can give you the general idea of what they say but not exactly word for word. But other days, I know I put so much pressure on them especially this one particular child, his younger sibling knows them better than he does. He has problems with narrations too and many times I attribute that you lack of paying attention which frustrates me.
I have to remember that my oldest is gifted in many areas and sometimes I think he is the norm and expect my other children to do as he does which is really unrealistic.
Thanks again and Suzukimom, I was actually looking for an android app that would let me do scripture, poetry and catechism as well. I will have to look into ANKI…thank you.
We have also split up the scripture review and just started using ANKI (thanks to Suzukimom’s recommendation). My DS(6) is quite good at memory work, but his big sister is faster at rattling off the verses (she talks fast and he has a bit of a stammer), so he just lets her do it. I find that if they are doing their own verses, DS learns much faster because he is doing the work himself. As the other posters have said, I think there is value in having the younger children hearing the verses before they are expected to memorize, but now that DS is old enough to be memorizing and reciting, I’ve split him off. I’ll do the same when DD(3) reaches school age, setting her up with her own profile on ANKI.
Joanne
Just wanted to add – MUSIC!! Music is a great way for kids this age to memorize scriptures. Find a good CD or download some scripture songs and let them listen to it in the car or while they play. It will get in thier hearts and stay there. And keep working on your scripture box, but make it fun with motions acting out the verses, if possible. The words by themselves are pretty abstract for kids that age – they do better with something concrete to connect the words to. Don’t worry – they will get it with time and the repeated exposure you have been giving them ;0).
We have been doing the scripture memory system but I am finding that they are not connecting the verse with the book and chapter location. So how do I get them to memorize the entire thing? Also I read a couple people mention ANKI. what is this?
Vicki
We say the book and chapter both before and after each verse to help drill it into our heads. Works for us. 😉
My kids have their own SMS boxes. It’s the only way my little ones will have the opportunity to learn verses that the older ones learned ages ago. Once a month isn’t enough to learn new verses or passages IMHO. We review together periodically, but not daily.
ETA – we say the reference before and after each verse or passage.
To correct the problem of forgetting verses that have moved into our “date” (1-30) slots, I periodically move those back to the “daily” or “odd/even” or “weekly” review spots. It makes it work for us — my goal is not to memorize 1000s of Bible verses, but to memorize all we can. So, if we need more review, it’s OKAY to move it back to daily and then have it jump through the hoops from there.
We, too, say the reference both before and after. Actually, it’s said three times:
- The person with the box says the reference.
- Everyone says the reference and quotes the verse(s).
- Everyone says the reference at the end of the verse(s).
Here’s a funny story that illustrates how that habit works. One day one of my daughters walked into my office, asking, “Mom, where in the Bible does it say, ‘ . . .’ ?” and she started to quote the verse. When she got to the end, she said the reference, just as we always do when reciting and reviewing. It kind of surprised her, and she got a sheepish look on her face, turned around, and walked back out.
I wanted to add – in our house, we take a LONG time to learn verses. I read the verse (or passage, and we typically memorize passages, not single or two verses) two times teh first day or so that we are studying that passage. Then, each day after that, we recite the verse just one time. My girls listen until they think they can say it. Then, they start chiming in. After I think they should have it nearly memorized, I do try to pay attention and tell them to participate, if I see their lips not moving. AFter close to a month, I start asking who wants to say it by themselves. On those days, the younger girls hear it a couple times per day — once for all of us, and once for each person who tries to say it by themselves.
My girls are 9, 7, 5, 3. I try to not pressure them, I want this to be natural, not a discipline-thing or something that they’ll remember Mommy getting all hot and bothered about. So, we work on verses for as long as I feel we need to. My oldest does usually have the passage memorized before anyone else, but she must still participate for as long as we are studying that verse. And really, she doesn’t complain. She’s usually the first to volunteer to say it by herself.
The goal is to hide God’s word in our hearts. How many verses is not so important. God will use whatever we have in our hearts. (Of course, we need to work at it consistently, but it’s not a race or anything that will tempt us to be proud.) Whether they know the reference is secondary in importance to knowing the verse. I’d rather my girls be qble to quote the verse and live the verse than know the reference and forget the verse!
🙂 I am so glad some brilliant person came up with the memory system — I would have floundered for YEARS trying to organize our memorization of Scripture.
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