Teaching the Bible to young children

Tags: children, education, pre-shool education, abacus, Bible, family

Here are just a few tips for teaching toddlers that I found effective with my daughter.

Teaching the Bible

Concerning teaching the Bible to young children, we have two methods ‘on the go’ at once as a family. The first is our family Bible reading time every day which is not what I want to focus on here. The second is my own personal teaching of the little children.

Repeated Daily Stories

Firstly, have a general idea of what you want to teach them. I decided to start from the beginning with the Book of Genesis and work my way through. Let’s say you start with Genesis 1 intending to work your way through the whole book of Genesis with your child. Work out the first story you want to tell – the creation week. This will be your daily story with your child for the next month!

I found this method of daily repetition of a single story to be much more effective than galloping through story after story. Remember it will take a lot of repetition with a toddler for a story to just begin to seep in to their understanding. This method also made things a little more reasonable for me, in that I didn’t need to prepare a new story for my daughter every day. You can even just sit down with your child and read the plain text to them (what could be better?!) and afterward try to explain it to them at a slow pace with as much action and expression as you can muster, or illustrate it for them with drawings, or show them pictures from a book as you go through parts of the Bible text at a slower pace; all of this will serve to increase their understanding of what you are trying to convey.

I really recommend as much as possible sticking to the text of the Bible itself, rather than reading Bible story books, which can contain wrong ideas or simply mistakes in deviating from the text. When you teach a short text and repeat it every day for a month, or until you feel that it’s time to move on, illustrating with pictures and actions as much as you can, the child gradually begins to understand the Bible narratives and the text itself seeps into their sponge-like mind from their earliest years. Remember that Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him the Scriptures from his childhood.

Deuteronomy 6:7

When the Lord gave the Torah to the children of Israel, He instructed that “These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

If this was God’s instruction to Israel concerning the Mosaic Law, how much more should it not be the case for believers who have received a far greater revelation and light shining forth to us in the pages of the New Testament! Note that the Lord instructed the Israelites to talk of His words and His commands to their children when they sit at home, when they walk by the way, when they lie down and when they rise up. It is good if Christian parents see it as their duty to speak of the Scriptures and our Sweet Lord Jesus with their children throughout the day.

To give some practical examples, if you take your toddlers with you in the car to do grocery shopping, while you are on the way, review with them the story you are currently studying with them in your daily story time. You could go through ‘retired’ stories too as a great way to strengthen the child’s memory and knowledge of those narratives. Involve the children by asking them to supply the details, especially of old stories they are familiar with. If you take your children out for a walk, talk to them about the Lord and the Scriptures as you walk on the way, or as you give them a bath at home, or if you’re eating together with your children while your husband is at work. Whenever you can, if you see an opportunity, even if you don’t feel like it, just ask God for the grace, remember your duty and start. The children will love this! Even if they don’t, this is your duty before the Lord and the children must learn to respect God by listening to you in a respectful manner.

This is one of the best things I remember about my own mother and one of the most effective ways in which she nurtured me in the faith. She always spoke about the Lord and how she loved Him and all He had done for her, and about the Bible, about His prophetic plan for Israel and the world, she would sing simple spiritual songs with me – while we were doing the dishes, while we were in the car, while we were going for a walk. She talked of the Lord all the time with me. Thanks Mum – you’ll get your reward in heaven!

Fill in the Gaps

When you are citing verses with your child, simply omit some key words and wait for your child to supply the missing word. “In the beginning …” (let your child supply ‘God’) “created the …” etc. This is a great way of getting young children to learn simple Scriptures. Don’t push them and when they can’t remember the omitted word, just supply it for them, and enjoy the verses. They will quickly be put off the ‘game’ if they feel under pressure or if they feel that they are not doing very well at it – so vary the level of difficulty according to your child’s age and ability and you can always omit more words as your child gains confidence and needs more of a challenge. The verses can be part of the narrative that you are currently teaching your child or other key verses that are important for them to learn. If you are sticking to the Bible text and repeating it during your repeated daily reading session, your child will get to know whole chunks of text without even realizing that it’s going in. Then you can omit some key words from the narrative as you have confidence that your child might know them already. This can involve the child in the reading before they can read the text for themselves.

Teaching your child the Bible daily will also increase your child’s vocabulary and language skills, their understanding and their knowledge of true world history; most importantly, Bible learning can make your children wise unto salvation. It’s the best text book you could ever have.

What if my child doesn’t like reading the Bible?

My daughter was in this category. My husband simply told me that she should not have a choice when it comes to the Bible, that this is my duty before God to teach her. One thing that helped tremendously in her interest in the Scriptures was my getting rid of all the secular books that she loved and was bringing me to read to her all the time. She loved the Winnie the Pooh books and every book that wasn’t a Bible book. They were far more interesting and colorful. So many times when I sat with her with the Bible, she would tell me ‘no’ but I would firmly tell her ‘yes, we will read the Bible’.

Your child must not get their way in this matter. Their salvation is at stake. When my daughter was objecting to the Bible and preferring secular books, I used the opportunity when we moved home to get rid of all of her secular books, apart from a few that I kept hidden away. A friend at the same time gave me the most wonderful gift of a whole set of beautifully illustrated Bible story books with watercolor paintings depicting many of the Bible narratives. The set is called ‘Guideposts’ (or ‘The Lion Story Bible’ in the UK) and you can find the hardcover versions second hand in Ebay and other forums or see the Amazon page advertised on the side which shows one of the re-printed paperback versions of this set – you can find the whole paperback set here on Amazon. I really recommend these books, just for their beautiful watercolor paintings of so many of the Bible stories. Again, I recommend sticking to the Bible text itself while your child sits with these illustrations by their side.

So now that her only books were lovely Bible books and her only reading time with mummy (which she loved) was Bible reading time, it made her treasure these times much more and even look forward to them. She loves those books now!

When you feel uninspired

Some of my daily stories with the children have been lovely – exciting, and we would act some parts out, or have beautiful illustrations from books; the children participated and enjoyed the stories. At other times the daily reading has been a bit on the dull side – not that the text is dull, of course, but some texts don’t have a lot of ‘life’ for little kids and I had no actions or illustrations to offer. When this was the case, I simply kept reading through the text with them once each day and explaining it as best I could, and telling them about it on our daily walk. That was it. I didn’t feel I had anything so special to give them. So if you also feel you can’t make the Bible interesting for the children, read it to them anyway. It will drip into their minds every day and will bear its own fruit in its own due season. Remember that the Word of God itself is living and active and sharper than a double-edged sword – the Holy Spirit can apply His Word even to the heart of a small child. So don’t be discouraged if you feel you don’t have what it takes, as I’ve many times felt this way. If you have a copy of the Scriptures in your home and you are able to read it aloud, then you have all that it takes. So don’t be discouraged, but press on!