by Donna | May 6, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
I will give a random list tomorrow of various things that I can remember our children doing for “personal devotions.” Some of these were “assigned” (if needed) and others were what the kids did themselves. Some of the lengthier ones were probably done later in the day as assignments. With chapter books, etc., we just encouraged the kids to do a “chapter a day.” Our experience has been that we need to look at things that we do in our family in the long-term. Everything doesn’t have to be done “right now.” “Slow and steady, steady and slow…that’s the way we always go…” (I will have homeschooled for thirty-three years, including when I started homeschooling my sister, when our homeschooling journey is over. I will have had “children” at home for thirty-six years by the time our youngest probably leaves home around twenty! It’s definitely going to be the long-term things, schedules, lifestyle choices, and daily relationships that make the difference in that lengthy period of time.)
Note: I do the same thing for my own “devotions” (which are usually spread out over three different periods of time—in the morning, another quick time of slowing down in the late afternoon/early evening, and at bedtime—a chapter from the Bible; a chapter from a discipleship type of book I am reading; a short prayer/worship time. (Oh, plus praying for my kids when I dry my hair—efficiency expert here!) This is not a spint—it’s a marathon that I want to run (and want my children to run) all of my life.
Once our kids were teens, we seldom told them what to do for devotions. We mostly just spot-checked with them to see how their morning times were coming along. I often pick up books for the kids for discipleship, etc. and sometimes assign these for school (or for devotions) as well. Tomorrow—random list…I do mean random!
by Donna | May 4, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
Over the past nearly year and a half of this blog, I have talked about how we developed morning routines for our children different times. (Go to PP 365 at blogpost and click on one of the “contents” links—schedules, chores, charts, etc. for more help in the “morning routine.” The morning routine will change your life! )
Once our children were old enough (ages three or four) to change out of their pj’s; tuck their pj’s under their pillow; put dirty clothes in the hamper; “make” their bed (i.e. lie in it completely covered up from head to toe and wiggle out of the bed while trying to leave the covers/sheets intact then smooth it all and fluff the pillows!); brush their teeth; and put their books (that they “read” in the mornings while waiting to be gotten up) away, we incorporated “personal devotions.”
For the little kids, this meant setting the timer for five minutes while “reading” a picture Bible/story Bible. I say “reading” because most of our kids were late readers rather than early readers, so they simply “studied” the pictures of these Bibles, often reciting the stories from memory or making up the story all over again aloud or in their heads. As the children grew, their “personal devotions” grew with them.
Just like the morning family devotions, we always kept the personal devotions short enough to actually do. (I have learned the hard way that if something is too difficult or lengthy for the time slot that it is put into, it will seldom stick.) Since we homeschool our kids, they usually have “Bible class” in which they complete Bible curriculum; read certain assigned discipleship type books; and/or read Bible with Mom during school, so the personal devotions were what each child wanted or needed through the years (as they matured in their walk with the Lord)—with some input/direction from Mom and Dad as needed.
Thus, these personal devotions could be as simple as a chapter a day from Psalms or a prayer journal/Bible scribing time that they themselves chose to do that maybe took thirty or forty-five minutes. In a couple of days, I will give some ideas for kids’ morning personal devotions for various age groups.
Thanks for joining us as we seek to teach faith and character “when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up”!
by Donna | May 3, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
Yesterday I mentioned the advantages of having the computer in the main areas of the home for general listening together of things (as well as for protecting kids from dangerous internet activity). I will spend much more time on protection later in our character training journey, but suffice it to say that having the computer in the main areas of the home, not allowing internet activity when a child is home alone, and not havng internet (or television) in kids’ rooms (ours do not use laptops in their bedrooms-they use those in main, high traffic areas as well) are all ways to start in the protection of our children from dangerous internet actiivity.
We have the i-tunes loaded on the main computer (our desktop) with uplifting music. Any one of us can click onto I-tunes and choose a song or series of songs to have playing aloud for all to enjoy. I especially like to do this first thing in the morning before or after the Bible has been played.
While we enjoy contemporary Christian music and choruses, we also have a large number of hymns on our i-tunes collection. We do not sing enough hymns nowadays! Sometimes we just listen to a hymn over and over (oftentimes with the words nearby) to help us memorize the words to one.
Music is an amazing vehicle that God uses to speak to His children–let’s use it in our homes first thing in the mornings too!
by Donna | Apr 28, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
Once things are underway in our home in the mornings, the kids have a tendency to put on the “listen of the time”—usually Adventures in Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Down Gilead Lane, Sugar Creek Gang, Father Gilbert, Your Story Hour, Focus on the Family radio dramas, or talking books (often Boxcar Children or Magic Tree House, though lately it’s been Little House books unless one of the older guys is manning the player, in which case it might be Les Miserable or Tale of Two Cities!). While faith and character are definitely included in many of those, especially Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Gilead, Sugar Creek, and Your Story Hour, I like to “do hard things” first. It’s easy to listen to radio dramas; it’s entertaining to listen to chapter books; but it takes work, brain power, engagement, and “putting on the mind of Christ” to do more devotional types of material.
Therefore, one of my favorite “listens” to put on in the morning is the Bible—either dramatized or not. We have had many of these through the years—and have many fond memories of them, like the time when Joshua turned twelve and listened to the entire Old Testament in eight weeks or when we have listened to an entire New Testament book during a family work evening. But clicking on a chapter or two in the mornings and having that playing in the background (super alternative to morning television or news radio!) is an uplifting, faith-building way to begin the day.
The link below is an awesome Bible listening link. If you have your computer in the main area of the home (another suggestion we have for families who want to protect their kids from harmful internet possibilities), you can “click” and listen to the Bible right in the main traffic areas of your home first thing in the morning!
Bible Gateway: Choose version and book of the Bible—then click the “speaker” to hear it on audio. A neat feature is that it has the text on the screen as well, so if you hear something you want to double check, you can look at the words as well. https://www.biblegateway.com/
The following link has “the Bible on one page”—click on the chapter of the book and you will go directly to it at the Bible Gateway. Then you click to hear it or read it—you may also change the version. This is a cool little page: https://www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm
by Donna | Apr 27, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
Yesterday I described how I enjoy daily or many-entried books with my teen boys (and actually, all throughout my parenting!). I mentioned a book yesterday that has a theme that I would like to elaborate on today: hymns.
We are not musicians/singers here. We have a couple who know a little about singing and can sing pretty well. We have two piano players, one drummer, and two dancers (Mom and Dad!). However, we are not what one would call a musical family.
However, to enjoy singing and worshiping God, we have found that being a musician or singer is not necessary! In addition to singing and listening to music most days, we have also enjoyed studying about songs and songwriters.
We are currently doing a book that I love called “101 Hymn Histories.” This books has 101 hymns (music and words included for each one!) and a one-age excerpt about each one—its author, its history, etc.
For example, did you know that one major thing that Martin Luther’s theses and the following reformation did was bring congregational singing out? Prior to that, the people themselves did not sing much. And did you know that his “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was the beginning of this? Do you know how powerful and moving the words to that song are? We do…we just read it today!
I will put links below to some “song books” that we have used. Happy singing!
*”101 Hymn Stories”– https://www.christianbook.com/101-hymn-stories-kenneth-osbeck/9780825434167/pd/34165
*”101 More Hymn Stories”– https://www.christianbook.com/101-more-hymn-stories/kenneth-osbeck/9780825434204/pd/34203?event=CF
*Then Sings My Soul” (our son, Jonathan’s favorite right now)– https://www.christianbook.com/then-sings-my-soul-volumes-1/robert-morgan/pd/5168 (two volumes listed there)
*”Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas”—we read from this one every Christmas!– https://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stories-behind-the-Best-Loved-Songs-of-Christmas/Ace-Collins/e/9780310239260/
*”My First Hymnal: 75 Favorite Bible Songs”—the one I used to do everyday with my toddlers– https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000T044UI/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0634056727&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1DXSNXV0QHW25YZ2P3EH
by Donna | Apr 26, 2011
I just cannot say enough good about our family’s new “read aloud” Bible for this year. It has excerpts from Lee Strobel’s books as sidebars and insets within the biblical text–so we read the couple of paragraphs about the passage that is referenced, then go right to the Bible passage (New King James Version) and read it. It is amazing!
Quick enough reads for 5-10 min devos–or on evenings that we have more time, we read a couple or few of the entries. I love not having to flip from a book to the Bible, etc. We love the “Case for” books–and love them even more having the Bible passage that it refers to right there in its entirety. Great for ten to twenty year olds! 🙂
https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Study-Bible-Investigating/dp/0310938945
