I know that is a silly title, but it works.
I want to buy my 5 year old a Bible that we can study together. I don't want a 'bible story book' but a real Bible. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
:-P
I thought sunday school here at Calvary Chapel Kelowna with a NKJV for ages 7-11 and some of the 7 year olds had a fine time understanding the passages.
I thought them about the resurrection of Christ and the establishing of the church.
The verse I went over was Acts 1:3 with words like: "infallible proofs"
I feel comfortable for small children to go through with KJV even, it just takes time to go over each word and paraprhase alot of passages.
A great little book to get is the "new england primer" read it online here:
http://www3.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/his341/nep1805contents.html
you can search amazon.com to get a copy for yourself.
Great suggestion, Greg, I started my kids at age 3 with the KJV, that's all they know and they still love IT. Their first verse was Ephesians 6:1. :)
(nah, no cartoons, no veggies, no pictures..only the precious Word of God)
Melissa,
I use the NAS in our home and my youngest daughter is 6. Having your children memorize Scripture is an immense blessing. You'd be surprised by how much they can absorb.
As a family we are memorizing the book of Jude (even the 6 year old) and after 2 1/2 verses they have retained the Scriptures for a significant period of time. We take it in whatever size segments that we need; there is no rush. I explain the verses to them as we go.
Greg mentioned the New England Primer. Back in the colonial days children learned to read using the Bible, which makes perfect sense. It is only in modern times that we have dumbed down the Scriptures and denied the ability of the Holy Spirit to teach our children His Word and hidden it from them with silly games and childish lessons thinking our children are inept.
My wife and I have 5 children ages 6 to 13; they respond to our level of instruction. If we treat them like imbeciles that is how they respond. If we treat them as really they are, as rational beings with an amazing capacity to learn that is how they respond.
Congratulations on not succumbing to the "story book" routine, but I'd challenge you to have your 5 year old meomorize a book of the Bible. May I suggest Psalm 23? (I'd start with a short book so that there is a relatively quick sense of accomplishment; so save Psalm 119 for a year or two.) The beauty of getting the Scripture into their minds is that when circumstances arise you can apply what they've learned. Maybe your little one becomes frightened and you can ask, "Who is your Shephard?" "If He is with us, do we need to fear?" And so on.
Pray together with your husband and ask the Lord to show you what character flaws need to be addressed with your child (anger, selfishness, etc.) and then have your child memorize a verse that condems this activity; when your child succumbs to this sin, simply ask them to quote their memory verse. The sooner they learn that the Bible is applicable to their daily lives the better!
Scripture memory can be practiced in the car, at the dinner table, before bed time, etc. "When you rise up, as you walk along the way..."
Blessings!
I would read to my children out of the KJV and NASB, and would only have then read one or two verses back to me accoring to there reading level, I would encourge them with new word a day and what it means, and to use it, when there little minds dont understand there little spirits do......This started when my oldest was 5 and in kindergarten and my 3 and 2 year old obsorbed it when playing on the floor
when in highschool studying shakespear wasnt all that difficult....
My daughter had many poems published and was on the newspaper staff and wrote articles for the school paper both in highschool and in college. All of my kids have a great vocabulary and a love for words.
you'll do great with your children, it also helped me memorize scriptures too.
Michelle
Thank you all for your suggestions. they are great! I am trying to teach them John 3:16 at the moment, but I want that to increase exponentially(is that right?) Even my almost two year old, will repeat it with me! I will look for the primer, that was really neat and I think the kids will have fun with it. Michelle, I thought the exact same thing, the children and I could memorize Scripture together. I use the NKJV usually, but for memorizatin, KJV seems to be best.
I knew I could count on my brothers and sister here to share their wisdom. Thanks again and God Bless you all!! :-D
KJV... we use it in our homeschool curriculum as well as in our family devotions. If they are using the KJV from the get go then later on they wont be complaining that they cant understand it. Besides, back in the day the KJV was considered the greatest example of English prose, and was used in the public schools as part of teaching English. Since the public schools have abandoned it our language has been dumbed-downed, and now people think the KJV is too hard to read. My kids can read it just fine.
Krispy
Krispy,
Are you saying I should use the KJV? I never thought I'd here that from you...just teasing. Thank you for your input. I agree with you that our language has been dumbed down and KJV isn't hard to read.
We use NKJV, but at times use NLT just because sometimes literal translations are a little advanced for their vocab. On the otherhand, what a great way to boost their vocab.
Talking about bible memorization, I've found my children learn to memorize best by song. I found a ministry that has chapters of the bible put to song and the results are dramatic! My 3 (now 4 year old) and 7 year old are learning chapters instead of verses--1 cor 13, beatitudes, Isaiah 53, Psalm 23 and a couple more. They now them word for word. They may know more than me, which prompted me to learn chapters as well. I wish they had whole books! That would be exciting to know a whole book. Here's the ministries webpage:
NLong,
Thank you for the suggestion. I will check that site out! Both my children love music, so it will be a great resource. :-D
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