You get a big bonus during today’s podcast: the WHOLE family joins in! Yup…I figured instead of me just talking about how we teach our kids scripture and memory verses…I’d let you listen to part of the process! :)
Months ago, I mentioned a little activity we do as a family called “Repeat-Afters” and several of you have asked for more details. “Repeat-Afters” have been a part of our family life since all of our kids were little bitty, as a way to help them learn scripture. We love this family tradition, which takes place usually during lunch or dinner time.
I hope you enjoy this…especially listen for the nice “whistle by Malachi” at the end of our little family session. We almost edited that out, but what fun would that be? :)
Grab some laundry to fold or kick back for a few minutes while you enjoy our new podcast!
Heavenly Homemakers Podcast #10
Please share some of the things you do as a family to teach scripture to your children!
Beautiful!! Thank you for the gentle reminder of the importance of speaking scripture into our babies daily. It really does help us become better at parenting too! Only question is do you ever give chapter reference? If yes what age do you introduce this along with actual scripture? thanks & God Bless ‘
We don’t usually give the scripture reference…not sure why. I guess because we feel like the words are what we really want to focus on. When we’re originally teaching the verse to them, we read it from the Bible and tell them where the verse is found, but haven’t found it to be “as important” to memorize that part. The older boys know how to look it up if they want to find it specifically in the Bible.
Great podcast!!!
When my children were growing up & we were memorizing Scriptures:
We had little cards for our memory verses and we put them up on the fridge, and on each bathroom mirror.
We also would each draw a picture of how we pictured the verse to look. :D
We try to use the Children’s bible for our little ones and if possible do a project or an art relating to the verse or story. It works really well with my little ones.
Emily @ http://www.savingwithaplan.com
I love this. We work on verses in the morning each day, but this would be a great way to review in a fun way as a family. It is amazing to see how scripture can be helpful with disciplining and how when they’ve already got the verse memorized, it’s that much easier. With three boys of my own, I’m constantly using, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger, ” as try to diffuse problems. Or Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another…”
This is great! We have some family members that use another idea to encourage their children to memorize scripture in a friendly competitive way. They put a memory verse on the mirror in the bathroom that all of the children use. Whoever memorizes that scripture first and recites it perfectly to a parent, they get $1. It has been a good experience for their family!
This sounds great. My son has keratosis or some type of bumpy, dry elbows. Would love to give this a try.
Precious!
Would love to win the Made On kit, thanks!
Oops, just saw this was the wrong place to post for the giveaway…sorry!
Hi. Thank you for the encouragement in this area! It was so sweet to listen to your husband and you leading your children in learning God’s word. What a blessing for them!
We use Memlock cards for our scripture memory. This is a scripture memory system which has the verse on back and a picture to jog your memory on front which I got on ebay a few years ago for about $30.00 and it has over 600 verses! We put the card with the picture facing out along with the verse written on a piece of paper in a protective sleeve for everyone to read. Guess where we keep it? Right above the water filter on our refrigerator – of course we all stand there at least three times a day to fill up our water glass and now we fill up our minds with scripture too!!
They see the picture and read the verse for a week and then we all quote it together and a new one goes up.
Thanks for letting me share. God’s blessings to you and your family.
My husband and I don’t have any children yet, so I was tempted to skip over this section (I visit your site more for the recipes and posts relating to food more than anything) but decided to listen anyways. Thanks for modeling good parenting habits before us all- I hope to remember this practical advice when God does bless us with children! Thanks!
Thank you for the giveaway,I hope we can win this time.
I catch your blog every now and then, and enjoyed listening to your repeat afters, although was wondering as well why you don’t have them memorize the references, but saw your reply on that question already. We homeschool and have an 8, 6 and 2 1/2 year old and when they were very little used Desiring God’s Foundation Verses to memorize (little cards with a picture on one side). They have worked really well. The kids are also a part of a Sunday School where they memorize scripture to music which is also very helpful. Sometimes, I have Bible Trivia with the kids where they get an m&m each time they answer my questions correctly based on what they’re learning. This morning, though, I found it very fun to do the repeat afters of their foundation verses instead. And I gave them 2 m&m’s if they could give the reference. :) They really loved it and so did I because it was a new way for them to recall scripture other than the normal “say this after me…” It also let me know what verses we really need to be working on more. Thank you.
Wonderful, I’m going to use this with my children tonight!
This was very encouraging to hear. I have three boys and I have been looking for ways to memorize scripture without it being part of “school”. Now when you first started, did you just use one verse over and over or did you have a handful that you rotated? My boys are 7, 8, & 9, do you think I should give each one of them a verse to repeat or should I have one for the whole family to use for the week? I’m sorry for the questions, but this seems like such a genius way that I can’t believe I’ve never come across it before.
When we first started, we (the parents) did just one verse for them to repeat after us to learn. Once we got that one down, we kept doing that one but added in a second one. Then we just kept adding them until now we have a nice bunch of verses we rotate through, adding new ones whenever we feel they are ready.
I began teaching my 7 year old daughter in a similar way. We live only 5 minutes from her school, so I would say the scripture first then we repeat it together 3 or 4 times while in route to school. We focus on one scripture all week and move on once we have memorized it. I think maybe I was teaching her very short scriptures in the beginning. Now I try to teach her scriptures that are a bit longer like John 3:16 and Jerimiah 29:11 and she is doing well. It bring me such joy to hear her recite scriptures. I want to try repeat afters at breakfast time. Thanks
Thank you for a great tip. My boys are older – I wish I had been doing this years ago, but it’s never too late to start, is it? I also help with a Bible Release Time group, where our school children are allowed to leave public school for an hour a week for Bible Instruction. We strongly emphasize memorization, and I’m going to share your podcast with the other volunteers as another way we can help the children memorize. They are grades 3-5 and some of them don’t hear God’s Word any other way – others hear it at home and at church. Thanks for the encouragement and the help!
We right schripture on a sticky note and memorize and talk about it on the way to school in the mornings. This reminds them ofit through out the day and also keeps them from wanting to listen to the radio! Try it! It works!
I pick a verse about every week or so (I have a 4 year old, 3 year old, and 9 month old). I actually put the verse to a rhythm with clapping or simple hand motions. My boys love learning scripture this way. I am starting to incorporate more verses directly related to their behavior, such as, “Children, always obey your parents for this pleases the Lord.” Colossians 3:20. haha
I’ve found that a great Bible commentary is extremely useful in explaining our memory verse to children in plain and simple terms. To remind us of our current memory verse, we have a large chalkboard in a high traffic area in our home.
I’m a fanatic about the “address” for scripture. I always made my kids say the address first then the verse then the address again. It’s not near as effective when teaching someone about Jesus if all you can do is say its in the bible somewhere. When you know book, chapter and verse and can flip right to it you are much better off. At the very least you should be able to get ‘to the barn door’ as a good preacher friend said and know the book and approximate chapter. Just one of my hang ups. I don’t dare tell my kids that some parents don’t have their children learn the address. Lol!
This was a great podcast! This is a very nice and simple way to teach my children scripture! Thank you so much!!! I just found this today in 2016 and isn’t it funny that God leads you where you need to be at the time you need it….. 5 years later!!!