My favorite part about homeschooling is being able to teach my children the bible. We typically begin our school day with praise and worship. I firmly believe the bible verse Matthew 6:33 “33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” I have found that my day goes better when I put God first. I want my children to understand that life is better when you start it with worshiping the one who gave you life. Here is what I typically do with my children for praise and worship. Below is the exact order of how we have praise and worship at our house.
- Sing– Begin by singing praises to the Lord. I do not have rules for singing. The key is to make it fun! Philippians 4:4 say, “4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” You want your children to associate praising God with fun. The only rule you should have for praise and worship is one that encourages participation. I like to say to my children before we begin, “It’s time for praise and worship. You can sing, dance, or play an instrument. We’re not playing with toys right now and we’re not using the instruments as toys.” I give each child a chance to select a song for us to sing. If a child chooses a song that is not a church song, sing it anyway. For example, they may ask to sing, “Mary had a little lamb.” Go ahead and sing it if you have time. Remember, you want your children to associate God with fun, so sing it, and then get them back on track with a church song. On days when we have started behind schedule we sing only one song. I try to pick a song that will go with our topic for the day. If they are going to learn about Noah, we will sing “Who Built the Ark.” If the bible character doesn’t have a song about them I use a song that is about the lesson. For example, if we are learning about prayer, we will sing “It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer…”
- Pray– Always invite God into the bible lesson. Ask God to help you teach the bible to your children in a way they can understand. I like to have my children take turns praying. When they were younger I would assign them a specific day of the week for them to pray. Now that they are older I simply ask them, who would like to pray? I still make sure they each get a turn weekly but they no longer need an assigned day of the week. Try not to correct their prayer. Their prayer may not make sense to you but God knows the meaning of their prayer. The bible says in Romans 8:26 “26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Realize that in time your child’s prayer will begin to make more sense to you. Your child will get better at expressing themselves as they participate more often in prayer and as they hear you pray.
- Lesson Time-
- The more prepared you are for the lesson; the more interesting you can make it, and the more focused your children will be on the lesson.
- Use a children’s bible, preferably one that has pictures for each story. Really young children will appreciate this and surprisingly even older children enjoy being able to look at pictures. If you are going to use a picture book for older children make sure that you know the bible story well, so that you can give them more information than what is given to you. I like to read the bible story first and then put the story into my own words. Sometimes I even have the children act out the bible story.
- Some days we take a break from reading the bible and watch Veggie Tales or just play bible trivia. This allows me to see how much they are really learning and its fun for them.
www.christianhomeschoolhq.com Challenge: Make time daily to teach your children the bible. It can be as simple as reading them a quick bible story before bedtime. In my next post I will show you how to create your own bible lessons. Creating your own bible lesson is great because you can focus on the character traits you want your children to learn!