Teaching the kiddos Scripture has always been a desire of mine, however a very sporadic thing in our house over the years.  Just in the last several months have I gotten really consistent with it.  And guess what?  Just like everything else, consistency is key.  I’ve discovered some methods that have helped us, so I thought I would share them with you. 

• Choose a time that will set your kids up for success.
  For us, this is lunch time.  I have the kids sit down at the table, and after I’ve given them their food and we have prayed, I start going over the verses.  Since they are eating (and hungry), they will stay seated long enough for us to get through our list. 
• Stick to the same time each day.
  Not only does this help your children know what to expect, which makes the time run more smoothly, but it also helps you make it into a habit.
• Start with one verse a week, and then add more depending on how it goes.
  A child’s age (and sometimes personality) will dictate how many verses he or she can memorize in a week.  My 5.5 year old can handle 2 or 3 in a week, while my 3.5 year old needs to do 1 or 2 a week.
• Incorporate various tools and senses until you determine which method resonates best with your children. 
  People are wired differently in the way that they learn, and pinpointing that with each child will help tremendously.  Some of the tools that we use are:

  Pictures – Great for Visual Learners 
  My dad is an elder at The Village Church in Highland Village, and he gave me a verse book that the children’s ministry produced a year or two ago.  It is actually a calendar, but I just use it for the verses and the pictures.  I’ve also made some of these in Word, and printed them for our use.

  Motions – Great for Kinesthetic & Visual Learners
  Sometimes I make up the motions for different words, and sometimes Maya will make up the motions.  Doing the motions helps kinesthetic learners remember the words, and it also allows me to give them cues when they get stuck.

  Songs – Great for Auditory Learners
  My kids LOVE to sing.  When I can’t come up with good motions for a verse, we usually try to come up with a tune for it.  For instance Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”  There are just too many words in there that I didn’t know how to act out.  For this one, we made up a song for it, which by the way gets stuck in my head all the time.

Since the end of November, Maya  has memorized 18 verses, Olivia has done 13, and Cooper, well, one for sure.  He’s only 25 months, though, so he won’t have to pick up his game for another 4 or 5 months.  🙂  

Verse Book

Here is a video of Cooper doing his verse in a song, and then the girls singing it so you can actually understand it.  🙂