Simplify - Children's Bible Time

Some of you know that I tend to overdue things (I know that's an understatement).  Yes, its true.  For some reason I think that I can't do things unless it involves 7 different steps with crafts and 4 different books.  I have tried several things for the kids as far as Bible goes.  I have tried a Circle time technique where we sing hymns, do some coloring/writing and various other things but I don't tend to stick with them long because it is a lot of work for me and the kids aren't overly thrilled.

Now, this past December when I did the Advent/Jesse Tree with the kids - it was easy, it was consistent.  The kids did not let me miss a day.  They enjoyed it.  They learned things about the Bible and they retained it.  I wanted to keep the momentum going so I was searching for books that were simple.  They didn't require a lot of prep and where the kids would be interested.  I read a lot of reviews for a lot of books and finally decided on this one.  I rented it from the library to try it out before I bought it, but so far we really like it.  It is called "One Year Bible for Children".

My husband and I do it together after dinner or before bedtime.  I also made a prayer box.  I used an old wipes container.  You have probably seen this a lot of places, but I took our Christmas cards from last year and put them in the container.  Each  night at Bible time the kids each pick one out and we pray for that family (or person).

 I just hot glued some fabric and ribbon to the box so it didn't look like a wipes container - nothing fancy.



Lastly, to stay on track with Bible memory for the kids, I use the "My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts".  I type it up on a piece of paper and print it out and put it on the fridge and we go over it several times a day.







I am using this as my memory verse for the week too.  The book sometimes uses half the verse for the kids but I use the whole verse for myself.

 

The last thing I need to work on is maintaining the memorizing for myself and the kids.  I have seen this system so I am thinking of using that with a three ring binder and every week I just put the verse from the fridge into the binder so that we can go over it.  I will work on that next week.  If someone has a suggestion as to how they retain their memory verses I would love to hear that.  For me, I just try to go over a page of my verses at a time and my Bible study girls just randomly ask me them but right now I'm not doing too well at that!

This is what we are doing right now.  It is working for us.  You know how I know it is working for us because we are doing it!  I would love to hear what everyone else does.  Leave a comment if you would.

I just know that if things are fairly simple they will get done.  I want the kids to learn and I want us to memorize and this is getting the job done.