I have to say this is not an original idea. My mom used this technique with us growing up. I've just modified it since my kids are in Awana, a structured Bible memory club.
As an Awana leader I notice that a lot if parents aren't working with their children to learn their memory verses at home. And I understand. While it's noble to say that parents should be helping their kids memorize scripture, the truth is that it's really hard to find time for the amount of drill necessary to make it stick, especially when you have a non-reader.
I've been writing their verses on index cards and putting them at their places at the table. Since we eat meals together, this is a great time to review their verses each day. Growing up, we read/said our memory verse as soon as the prayer was over, before we began to eat. I'm not quite that consistent, but I've found that having the verse in front of us reminds me to have the kids say it a number of times through the week. Usually before the week's end, they can say it by heart.
I usually write 3 at a time and paper clip them together. Index cards work better than keeping their Awana book on the table (where it might get damaged), and if I do several at one time, it's easier to not get behind.
It only takes a few minutes for me to copy their verses, and then a minute or two each day. This takes so much intimidation out of the idea of scripture memory! Absolutely painless!
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8 comments:
Thanks for the ideas.
I expect our kids will be in AWANAs or something like it as well.
My favorite was memorizing verses set to music. While Steve Green's Hide'em in Your Heart are good, they don't since the references with the song, so you memorize the verse, but not where to find it... When I was little mom got these tapes and books somewhere and I loved them. The were called GT and the Halo Express. There are stories on the tapes that I still love , but the best part were the songs! All of them were catchy, and they sang the references. I have no idea how many Bible verses I can recite now because of those tapes. I have only been able to find them in one place on the internet, and the people didn't respond to my inquiry. I'm still looking. If anyone finds these let me know! I want my own copy. (after 8 kids in our family mine were destroyed. lol)
Oh yea, and mom always made us index cards too, and we'd put them up on the fridge and other places we'd see them daily.
~Erica
I don't know if I have told you before that we are in AWANA. We are actually members of our area ministry team (and I am Cubbies Director). AWANA has been a tool the Lord has used in an awesome way to quickly mature a family who already was in the midst of parenting before even being saved.
I'm not sure that everyone realizes that AWANA goes all the way through High School, and the High School material is a wonderful discipleship program. Every week there is a Bible study covering serious topics, and during the four years the students read the entire Bible.
Bless you for committing to teaching your children the Word!
rebecca,
My experience has been that it is hard to find a church that does the high school part of AWANAs. Around here, one church I was with went through 6th grade and the other went through 8th.
I love scripture memory songs too. I have Hide 'Em in Your Heart (got it for my oldest babes' first Christmas) and we love it...I haven't heard of the Halo Express tapes though.
Rebecca, I seem to remember that you mentioned Awana once before. I worked in Cubbies for 3 years. They are my absolute favorite age. I felt like God wanted me to move on to Sparks this year, but I kind of did it as an obedience thing, not because I wanted to. My heart is really in Cubbies!
I don't think I know of any churches that have Awana through high school either. I would love to see our church go there one day. Scripture memory is so important.
MBR, that is true here as well. It's so unfortunate, and my reason for bringing it up, that AWANA is replaced by random stuff that isn't as fruitful. Do you think people just don't know about the high school programs?
Actually, just this year the jr high went to Bible study format as well.
(CG, I hope it's okay. I sort of feel like we're having a conversation in your home without including you, but you are definitely not excluded!)
Rebecca: Converse away! :) One of the nicest things about blogging are the conversations, I think. I don't mind at all.
I think it is that it is hard to get high schoolers interested in doin AWANAs. Everything I can think of I was part of growing up changed when high school came around. They even let me be in our neighborhood swim team when I wasn't there all week to practice just because I was in town on the weekends and willing to SWIM. they had so much problem covering the high school age groups.
At that age, kids really start focusing on what they want to do for college, etc. There are more activities through school. and even the church youth group is often more active. AWANAs falls at the bottom of the list just like other childhood activities.
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