HomeSchool Thursdays

All about Bible Class

For several years I’ve really struggled with Bible Class…..what to do and how to do it.  Part of the struggle was finding something that we ALL could do together…..from 9 year-old  down to a 2 year-old.  I wanted something simple with little to no teacher preparation (hey, just being honest).  And given the 7 year age gap between my students I needed something that was short….but could hold the attention of my wiggling 2 year old.

So this year, I decided to use Susan Hunt’s My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts.  And I cannot say enough good things about this little book!  Each letter of the alphabet has a Scripture verse.  For example:  The letter A is Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away wrath.”  Below the verse is an explanation of that verse……. what is a soft answer, what is wrath etc.

I love the explanation part.  Sometimes we get so busy just memorizing, memorizing that we forget to understand what exactly we are learning.  And if you don’t understand something, you can’t apply it to your life. 

And that’s the second part that I really like about this book……the verses are all very applicable to any age……from a 32 year old mommy to a 2 year old toddler!

The third section is a short story about Missy and Bill.  The story helps to illustrate how the verse can be lived or applied.  It’s a great for getting the attention of my kids and provides a good “opening” for discussion.

So I’ve used My ABC Bible Verses to make Bible class at the School of Smooches super simple:

Day 1:  We repeat the verse and reference…..over and over several times.
Day 2:  We repeat the verse and reference and talk about the meaning.
Day 3:  We repeat the verse and reference and read the story.
Day 4:  We repeat the verse and reference and review past verses.

But God can use simple in ways we could never imagine!  Many times I’ve heard my kids remind each other of these verses……”remember ‘a soft answer?’  I think you need to be a peacemaker (Blessed are the peacemakers….)”.  And it has opened up many discussions about our attitude and our treatment of others.