It's been a couple of weeks since I linked up with Rebecca, at Mom's Mustard Seeds. Today I just had to write about what has been going on in our house for the past several days, because it is very exciting to me to see my children learning to love the Bible so much.
To go along with Rebecca's theme today - REST - I have to preface all of this by saying we are trying to make a concerted effort to not do as much this year. We are limiting extracurricular activities and just keeping what we feel is valuable for all of us. In fact today, my daughter was given the chance to take a Spanish class (for free!) and she chose not to do it, because she said she didn't want to become too busy. I was proud of her.
Each morning we sit at breakfast and have a devotion. We are using a new book, and I think it's just perfect for my nine and six year old. In addition to a Bible verse and short anecdote each day, my kids have come to see this as our "calendar time" - we look at the date and our calendar at the same time.
After our devotion we read a larger portion of the Bible. Since the beginning of the year, we have been working our way through the book of John. My daughter's Sunday School teacher issued the challenge to read through the book in the month of January, and sent a reading plan to the children. We finished John today! Today my daughter started to mention how conflicted Pilate seemed when Jesus was to be crucified - observations like these show me she is now thinking more deeply about the Bible. The stories are no longer STORIES to her, and I love this. I also love how much I am getting out of our readings together - seeing the stories through my children's eyes makes them fresh and exciting for me. What a gift.
We read out of The Discover's Bible for Early Readers. I highly recommend this Bible. I find myself reading from it even when the children aren't around, because I like the simple way it is presented. It is not, however, babyish by any means.
After our Bible reading, we work out of the scripture box. I have posted about this before, and it has been one of THE best things we have done in our homeschool so far. Our whole family is committing verses to memory this way - hiding them in our hearts.
Today after our readings, we were looking up the text for a children's sermon I'm helping with this Sunday. We got out the storybook Bibles each of my children have and my daughter sat down to read to my son - all of a sudden, my son was running upstairs to get his Noah's Ark and act out the flood story.
They spent half an hour together, reading stories and acting them out. This WOULD NOT be possible if I didn't homeschool. I can't believe I ever thought it was ok that my children had to leave God out of their school days! Thank goodness I saw the light!
I'm trying to be intentional about giving everyone in our family enough REST - I think this rest leads to a deeper yearning for and understanding of the Bible, and just for happier families in general. I believe REST is what is lacking in our society today.
Do you have a Bible time/curriculum that you just love, or something that your kids just can't do without? Let me know!
