Morning Bible Class In Our HomeSchool

 In tandem with the Thursday Four Moms posts (see the right sidebar), I've decided that each Saturday I will post about a subject from our school schedule.  I'm just going to work my way down the schedule and share some of what we do, resources we use, and some of the reasons we include that subject or those resources in our days.  Next week I'll cover reading and literature.  Today, I'll start with...

Bible study: Formerly we were using Suffer Little Children (and the teacher's manual), which I do like and have used with my four oldest Progeny.  Currently we're using some materials based on Our Spiritual Heritage from JCS publications.  We switched (just for a while) because this is what our congregation uses in Bible classes, and I particularly like the timeline materials and the teaching tips for mapwork.

I use each of the above items for the same reason- they are solid, meaty, focused on the Bible, not fluffy crafts and feel good stuff.  They mostly leave the application up to the Holy Spirit.

Okay, honestly, this is what is SUPPOSED to happen every morning, but it does not happen each and every morning as I would like, and I hope that posting this here is what it will take to get my back in gear.  I do not feel as guilty about this as I might, because  this is in addition to Sunday Morning and Wednesday evening Bible classes, which at our congregation are very, very meaty (which is why we let these two children attend age segregated Sunday school for the first time in their whole lives this year).  It is also in addition to a family Bible study here in our homes on Tuesday nights with a couple other families where we are working through the Old Testament stories.  We started in Judges and are now in 2nd Samuel there.  And right now it is in addition to a father/son Bible study my husband does most evenings with our son, and the repeat Bible stories everybody is hearing again and reading and rereading to the little boys before naps and bedtimes, and some other things as well (see below).

We are all supposed to be reading a Proverbs chapter each day as well, but that does not always get done as I would like, and I do feel guiltier about that, even though the 11 year old has now read through Proverbs more times than I know.

Memory work:  This takes five minutes. We have some basic memory drills- not verses, but things like the names of the 12 tribes, the names of the 12 apostles, the ten plagues of Egypt in order, the Ten Commandments, the fruit of the spirit, days of creation, the names of the judges, the books of the Bible, etc.  Now, with my two youngest children we were done with all of this except the names of the Judges, and the 12 tribes.  With the two little boys here most days, we are reviewing this again.  We have songs for almost of these to help with memorization.

We also do not do all these things at once.  With my own children we started with the creation songs.  After they learned that, we learned the books of the bible.  We worked on the Old Testament song three days a week, the NT two days until they'd learned the NT (Usually first, because it's shorter).  Then we did the apostles two days a week and the OT three days.  Then we did the Ten Commandments three days a week and the fruit of the spirit twice a week.  About once a week we'd review one of the things we'd already memorized.  That's why it only takes about five minutes a day- we're only doing one thing each day, and we sing it once or twice and that's it.
Sometimes instead of this sort of memory drill, I will ask them to draw a map (using memory tips and tools from Our Spiritual Heritage) or review ideas like "In the beginning, God had a plan.... God chose one man to be the founder of His special family and that man was... and He told him from you and your family will come a great blessing.."  If you're familiar with OSH, you'll follow me, if not, you should consider it=). (they do not pay me for saying that)

Why do this stuff?  Well, it just helps, I think, to have this stuff down as the framework for other things.  It's not as important to know the 12 tribes of Israel as the ten commandments, perhaps, but it sure doesn't hurt, and I think it helps kids to feel comfortable around the Bible and Bible stories when they have some of this stuff under their belts.

Here are some of the things we do for this part of our morning (or sometimes afternoon):
Days of Creation songs- we don't use these, we use the one I've used for nearly 30 years.  I just don't know how to tell you the tune to this one:
The Days of Creation

Day one, day one
God made light when there was none,
Day one, day one
God made light when there was none.

Day two, day two
God made clouds and sky of blue
Day two, day two
God made clouds and sky of blue

Day three, day three
God made grass and flowers and trees
Day three, day three
God made grass and flowers and trees

Day four, day four
God made sun, moon and stars galore
Day four, day four
God made sun, moon and stars galore

Day five, day five
God made birds and fish alive
Day five, day five
God made birds and fish alive

Sixth day, sixth day
God made animals and man that day,
Sixth day, sixth day
God made animals and man that day.

Day seven, day seven
God rested in his heaven
Day seven, day seven
God rested in his heaven.

Songs to learn the books of the Old Testament

 To learn the apostles

Page 4 of this PDF file has a good song for the Judges of Israel

Ten Plagues song, by the Allards (we change the lyrics slightly to reinforce the counting- 'blood in the water made the Nile so vile, first plague in Egypt land, Not exactly Pharoah's style, first plague in Egypt land...')

The Ten Commandments (this is also not the one we sing, but I couldn't find the one we know, and I do like this one set to a slowed down version of Ten Little Indians)

The fruit of the spirit song we know is one we know from an old tape, and I couldn't find another one online that I really liked.

Memory Verses:   This should take about five minutes, but it often runs into fifteen or more because certain people around here get silly.  We now use the index card memory system found here.

I hope that I do not need to explain why Christians should be memorizing scriptures.

When it actually does take us about five to ten minutes, it works like this: For the newest memory verse, we write it down on a white board and read it aloud together.  Then I erase all the one letter words and we read it aloud again.  Then I erase all the two letter words, and we read it aloud again (inserting all the words I've erased).  Then I erase the three letter words... and so on.  I usually erase the reference last.  It's kind of funny by the end, because the kids are staring at a perfectly blank whiteboard and saying the old verse as though they are reading it.  We do about one new verse a week because after five days of this, they know the verse.  After eliminating all the words and reciting it accurately, each day we review three other verses, following the system linked above.

So we're only reciting four memory verses a day.  What takes us ten to fifteen minutes is that the two youngest Progeny like to be the ones to write the verse down and then erase the words, and apparently they cannot do this without a lot of drama, discussion, and distractions.  Plus, the little boys are usually sitting in for all of this, and they have questions or commentary to share as well- which may or may not be deep, closely related to the subject at hand ("how do you know God forgives you when you've done something bad?"), or along the lines of "Why don't you keep a fish in your bathtub?".


Sword Drills:
Then we have what we call sword drills for those who can read and need to work on their ability to flip to passages of the Bible fairly quickly (in our congregation pulling out your Bible and looking up all the references the preacher cites as he cites them is expected).

That pretty much explains why- it's important for Christians to be familiar with their Bibles, to be able to find references comfortably and with ease, without embarrassment, and quickly. You never know when you might find yourself confronted by somebody misusing and abusing scripture, and it's just good to be able to spend more of your time on the word itself rather than on the physical act of laboriously looking things up in the table of contents every time you have to find a verse.

This also takes ten minutes or less, and how long it takes depends on how much time I think we have.  I can ask them to look up two verses or ten, or twenty.  Here's how:  Right now the two youngest Progeny, ages 11 and 14, sit down with their Bibles in hand, hunched over, and ready to go.  I pick a verse reference from thin air, they race to reach it first.  Whoever reaches it first gets to read it aloud, but that child has to wait for the slower child to catch up, so the slower sword slinger can get some practice in reaching the goal.

Did I say I pulled references from thin air?  Well, not so much, actually.  Sometimes I use their memory verses.  More often, I pull out my laptop and look up "Bible verses about ..." and pick a timely topic.  I then choose verses based sometimes on what they say, and sometimes on where they are found, as the point of this exercise is developing familiarity with looking up passages in the Bible.  For this reason, I really like this site:

Key verses to each book of the Bible

Because I can give them practice finding meaningful verses in Obadiah or Amos.

We also have looked up several of these verses recently during our sword drills:
Verses on kindness

If you're thinking we just looked up those verses because everybody in this household just radiates kindliness and tender regard for one another naturally so I wanted to reward them by showing them themselves in print in the Word, well, you are one of those merry eternal optimists, aren't you, always thinking the best of others regardless of the evidence?   Bless your little pea-picking heart.

And should one of your Progeny find himself displaying an unseemly pride or haughtiness over their ability to find the scriptures quicker than siblings, you might find a useful verse here:

The problems of pride and rewards of humility 

Not that something like this would ever happen in my house, of course.  It's just a sort of lucky guess based purely on an imaginary scenario, not personal experience, you know.  In case you're wondering if this use of the Bible will sour children on it and make them resent it, that's not what's happened here.  I mean, I am sure it wouldn't be...
No, seriously, the day I wrote this post I got to this point just after having directed a certain handsome young braggart to one of those scriptures during our sword drill, and when  he found it and read it he laughed so hard at himself he nearly fell off his chair.  He spotted the irony and took it as a good sport.

This concludes the portion of our school day we actually label 'Bible' on our schedule.  HOWEVER.... there's more.

HYMNS:
Later in the day, sandwiched between some math drills and history reading we have a break for hymn singing.  We usually are working on three hymns at a time.   .

Why include hymns?  I could write a few entire posts on this, but I'll try to be brief.
  The Bible says to.  When Paul and Silas were thrown in jail in the dark and locked in the stocks, they prayed and sang hymns.  I think they were able to do this because they already knew the hymns by heart.  Collossians 3:16 tells us to use hymns and Psalms and spiritual songs to teach and admonish one another, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.  You have to know the hymns to do this.

Hymns, more than praise choruses, contain deeper theological truths, and they put us in touch with Christians through the ages.

Jesus sang hymns.  In Matthew 26, verse 30, we read that when the apostles and Jesus had finished the Passover meal, they sang a hymn together.  According to my reading, that hymn was probably one of the Psalms- so the hymn they sang was over a thousand years old at the time.

It's fun!!

It's nice for the non-readers to learn the hymns they hear in church at home, so they can participate in the congregational singing (which I am sure you must have in your own congregations, yes?) in the worship services.

We pick hymns from the AmblesideOnline line-up and from the hymnals we use at church.



But that's not all.

Reading Bible stories to little people: In the afternoons before naptime our youngest two often are nearby hearing or they are the ones reading Bible stories to the little boys from this book:  101 Favorite Stories from the Bible, Ura Miller or others like it- but I really like this one for the little boys.  It's small, the colors are bright and cheerful, the paintings are historically accurate, the stories are accurate, but only take one small page, and it's a great way to familiarize kids like our little boys, who never heard the Bible stories until they started coming to us, with the classic Bible stories.

Further religious studies:
In the afternoons after science, our youngest two children also read a variety of books chosen to contribute toward their their thinking and behavior in the areas of spiritual development, moral character, and deportment:

Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends: Mondays
The Family Book of Manners (which is Christian based), Tuesday
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason: Wednesday and Friday
Teenage Years of Jesus:Thursday mornings
Boyhood and Beyond (the boy, naturally)
John, Son of Thunder by Ellen Gunderson Traylor The FYG reads this on Thursdays when she is at piano lessons. It's a tattered paperback copy I've had for nearly 30 years.  I don't usually like fictionalized accounts of Bible stories, but for some reason this one has always resonated with me.  Reading it in my late teens made me love Jesus much, much more, and that is what I want for my FYG, and all our children, including the ones who are not legally our children.

Three of these books are books we already had on hand- The Family Book of Manners, Ourselves, and John, Son of Thunder.  Any manners book would work as well for the Family Book of Manners, we use it because we had it.  Ourselves is outstanding and I recommend that to anybody and everybody (it's online for free).  I really, really like The Teenaged Years of Jesus with just a few adjustments on my part to line it up better with our understanding of theology.  Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends is cute, sweet, and funny, and I'm glad I have it, but we got along without it for our first five children just fine.  John, Son of Thunder meant a lot to me when I was 17 or 18, but sometimes it's not the book, it's where we happened to be at the point we met that book.  So maybe it won't mean the same to the FYG as it did to me, and maybe it wouldn't mean anything at all to you.

None of these extrabiblical things are enough to produce children with hearts for the Lord, of course.  They are tools, but they are only that.  What matters more, and can make that change with or without the books, is the grace of God, much prayer, willing hearts, and many real opportunties to practice and grow their faith and see their parents do the same.

You needn't copy us to achieve your goals here.  This is just meant to be an example of what we do, with some principles as to why.  I don't mind if all I accomplish here is to satisfy some idle curiosity, although it would be nice if something I said also helped somebody else springboard to something even better for their family.

Next Saturday:  Reading and Literature 

Since it is Saturday, you should check out the Saturday Review of Books

Pin It

Pin It