I thought I'd share a few ideas for helping young children learn Bible verses, especially children who don't know how to read. Abbey (4) and Lizzie (2) learn verses this way, and it's a lot of fun!
- Make the verse into a song. You don't have to come up with a new melody; you can probably find another melody that fits the verse (something that they already like to sing). "I May Never March in the Infantry"; "B-I-N-G-O"; "Deep and Wide"; "The B-I-B-L-E"; and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" have easy melodies that can be adapted to fit a Bible verse.
- Write it in big letters and let them trace it. They may not be able to read it, but pretending makes it more fun.
- Let them bang something while they sing it--wooded spoon on a bowl, kabob sticks on the table, etc.
- Make a video clip of them playing their "instrument" while you sing it to them. My kids love to see themselves in a "movie," and they will gladly watch it a hundred times. (I have it looped so it starts over by itself.) They can learn their verse while I'm washing dishes or cooking supper.
- Little kids have little attention spans, about 1 minute for each year of their age. Let them have a lot of mini-practices instead of a long practice. As part of a practice, let them teach their dolls or each other!
This is one of Abbey's videos. It's definitely not professional, but it's just an idea how to make learning fun!
Hope you like these ideas! Do you have any suggestions for how you teach your children their verses? I'd love to hear from you!
Hannah Mix
Great ideas. I hadn't thought of some of those. I'll have to try them with Seth.
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