There are many facets of teaching children the Scriptures: the transmitting of academic Bible knowledge, modeling & Bible application during daily life together, teaching them to pray and how to study the Word on their own, teaching them what being “devoted to the Word” means in the context of church-life, and probably many other things — all important. Our job is SO big! This post is certainly not about all those things :^), it is on one thing the Thorburn family has been doing, one method for systematizing Bible teaching for numerous children of different ages. Having an over-all plan to systematically teach the Bible also gives us a “jumping off place” for the daily-life, 1:1 teaching that comes along the way as well. We currently call it “Bible Time,” and in our house it happens at 6 AM around the table during our “Bible/Breakfast” time slot. If sharing the specifics of what we are doing helps someone else in forming their own plan, great.
I should clarify that we want to teach straight from the pure Bible and not so much out of Bible story books. God has said His Word is sufficient and we want to make sure we don’t transmit any other message. Without a plan, this mission can get really rough. On top of the obstacles of battling our own laziness and character issues which can get in the way of consistency, the Bible is big, deep, sometimes filled with chapter after chapter of violence (read Judges lately?), chronologies, and the sheer number of people and true accounts of history can be tedious and overwhelming to navigate, especially with very small children. We once spent about three years in Genesis, explaining and learning every little thing verse by verse. Oh, it was rich and we had a ball! Then a new child came along and we felt lost.. how do we re-teach to the younger child (and future children) all that we’d just taught, and still keep everyone else going forward? And, if we kept teaching in that same manner, once we got to the book of Nehemiah (which in reality would take more years than we have to raise the children), would our children remember anything from the three years in Genesis? We needed a system to cover it all from the Bible and make it stick, with an easy way to review, memorize, etc. We also want our children to find all of Scripture familiar and have a time-line view in their heads of how different aspects interrelate, what came first, second, etc. This gives a foundation for future learning and growth in the Scriptures.
Enter Veritas Press Bible cards. We use them as our framework for teaching through the Bible, not exactly as VP recommends. We study Scripture, not the cards — the cards are like our visual post-it notes through the Bible, to tell us what to study next, what to memorize, giving us a way to review, etc. They are guideposts/a framework/markers. Any plan that keeps you systematically teaching the pure Word to your family is worthy of consideration. Veritas Press Bible cards cover a timeline of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. In all, there are 160 cards, each covering a different Biblical event or person in chronological order. Each 5X7 inch card front includes the name of the event, a good picture (often famous works of art of that event or person–perfect for memory association for the smaller children!), and the Biblical reference. For instance, card #42 is: The Ark Is Taken Into Captivity / I Samuel 4-6. On the back of each card is the estimated date and a summary of the event. It also contains a little box with resources listed w/page numbers for finding more information. The Bible cards also come with optional worksheets for various age-levels to print out freely. These, and memory songs for all the card titles and references are available on CD ROM or in a book form w/song CD. The memory songs are perfect for little kiddos. Your three year old may not understand all that is taught during Bible Time, but they can be collecting a huge catalog of effortlessly-memorized information, as well as a sweet taste in their mouths for Bible Time, to draw upon a year or two later.
Wouldn’t you love to be able to recall 160 events in biblical history and the place to find them in Scripture? Think how useful it would be to have these things stored in your memory when processing history lessons, when hearing preaching on any subject, or when processing Biblical truth in any other context — you’d have chronological reference points of how God had worked in history in 160 people/events, and you’d know just where to go to find them! On this framework we can easily recall the great works of our Creator and praise Him.
So, at 6 AM, a typical scene in the Thorburn home is this: Jesse grabs the “Bible bin” as everyone sits down for breakfast. We pray together. Rich grabs the lesson plan binder, goes to today’s plan & pulls out the card we are working on. “Ok kids.. we are starting card #41, Samuel, The Last Judge Of Isreal, I Samuel 2-4.” Rich reads the summary on the back of the card, and then asks Jubilee to read I Samuel 2 aloud to us. We all follow along. After she is done, we all discuss it. The Bible reading and discussion, and memory of the event w/reference is the priority of Bible time. Rich keeps things moving along. If I have listed a supplemental resource, he pulls it out of the Bible bin, turns there or asks one of us to do so. If it is a short children’s Bible commentary on the event, we read it, if it is a picture of the region, we look at it, and if it is a list of questions, he asks them. If there is a worksheet/activity for that day, he passes it out when we have about ten minutes left. Till Bible Time is finished, the older kids may be looking something up in Scripture and writing about it, and Benjamin might be drawing a picture, and often Rich and/or I are working with the younger children during that time. Some days we have “review days” scheduled, where we flip through the cards while the children shout out the event/person and its reference in Scripture, and where we will randomly pick a few cards and ask the children to tell us everything they know, or go over that event in detail again, or how this applies to their own lives. It is amazing how much they can retain!!!
The planning of a year of Bible training is not overwhelming. I take approximately one weekend a year, gather my Bible, the next 32 cards, and extra resources. I just go card by card (really, event by event/person), read all the Scripture, and write up what we will do day by day to cover the Scripture & instill each event. Some cards take 2 days, some take up to 2 weeks, depending upon how much Scripture we need to cover w/ the event. I make sure everything we need is printed, labeled, and in the Bible bin so we aren’t fumbling on a daily basis. Whatever plan you choose to systematically teach Scripture to your children, this is a God-ordained, proper use of our time, creativity, money, effort, etc. — it is a primary duty for which we should try to become increasingly skilled and equipped!
Every time a family rotates through the five sections of Bible history, the children absorb it with fresh, more mature, experienced eyes. Meanwhile, they haven’t forgotten all about what they learned before because of the memorization piece. This system is great for parents who don’t have much of a background in Bible knowledge as well. It has been the best we have used thus far, and we are more excited about it every year! There are many good ways to go. The point is, anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ needs to be teaching their children the Scriptures. This is more important and will yield more fruit than academic success, sports training, or any number of things that we might take the time & effort to plan and do. “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also!” God will bless our efforts as we seek Him and rely on Him, regardless of our weakness or the obstacles that seem to be in our paths. He is faithful and loves to show His greatness, despite us. Let’s press on together.