My two children were baptized a couple years ago (aged 4 and 7). One of the commitments made during this rite is the responsibility to teach (i.e., disciple) the child in the meaning not only of their baptism, but of the core elements of the faith — the Creeds, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, etc. It is an easy responsibility to renege: a commitment (like so many others) that is easy to kick down the road. Ah, ‘they’re not quite ready yet!’; or the quite useful ‘soon, but first let’s get through this busy season’. And even, when trying to begin, where to start? Sure, the Lord’s Prayer is a useful introduction — requiring some effort in conveying the meaning of the thick King James’ English — but where to go from there? How to design an environment where this information can be conveyed outside of the typical ecclesiastical context?
I don’t have any simple answer (lone anecdotes rarely keep ships afloat), unfortunately, but I have a description of the steps that I — well, I would like to say ‘followed’, but in truth these were more a series of stumblings and accidents. So, here’s a short overview of my stumblings and accidents trying to adhere to these solemn commitments.
First, my wife had done an excellent job of adding to our homeschool curriculum two storybooks relating to the Advent and Easter/Lent. I wouldn’t say that I found them particularly attractive — they often presented the stories in (in my opinion) a long-winded and disconnected fashion, like a children’s text written by adults to appeal to parents rather than the child. From a child’s perspective, I find this approach somewhat akin to telling Aesop’s fables: disconnected moral tales without any larger, overarching purpose or history. Still, it was a start and (my talent with excuses being what they are) might have been the only extra-ecclesiastical instruction they ever had.
Well, by accident I stumbled on N.T. Wright’s God’s Big Picture Bible Storybook and purchased it. Perhaps this was a way in? It gave me a curriculum to work with, and I invited the kids to join me on our sofa. Each story has two pages: the left has the title, a reference to its location(s) in the Bible, and then a section which connects this story to a larger context (i.e., ‘what else in God’s big story links up with this?’); the right has a beautiful illustration connected to the story. The stories are short, easy to read, and were readily comprehensible to both my kids.
After I read the reference and title, the three of us alternated reading paragraphs aloud. I’d then ask them to tell me what they noticed in the picture. Finally, we’d quickly visit the ‘links’ section and might peak ahead. Later, when we’d already read the story, we’d see if we remembered the prior story that was ‘linked’ to and I might read some of the more significant lines to refresh the memories. The kids would also reflect if there were any other ‘links’ they might add.
For example, one of the stories is ‘Promises and Warnings’ from Deuteronomy 28 which can be summarized by: obey God and things will go well with you; disobey God and you will suffer exile. The ‘links’ at the bottom connect it to ‘Exile!’ (i.e., when Jerusalem falls and the Temple is sacked) and ‘Jesus Goes into the Desert’ (i.e,. the Temptation). The ‘Exile!’ story further connects with ‘The World Goes Wrong’ (i.e., Adam and Eve’s sin and expulsion from the Garden), and many other stories ‘link’ back to these.
I very quickly found several ‘gaps’ in my children’s knowledge that all my great prior efforts had failed to fill — neither was quite sure what Genesis was… Oops. And why should they know? I decided that we should at least know the name of the book we were reading from; order seemed important; and learning the whole Pentateuch was a bit challenging in one sitting. We settled on two books per day. For my kids, the effort was trivial. ‘Genesis, Exodus’. Then, the next day: ‘Leviticus, Numbers’ — and then we’d say all we knew. For harder portions are where they started to ‘fall behind’, we’d skip adding new ones for the day (or days…).
The whole session would take about 15 minutes — maybe 20 if the passage was longer and we were nearing the end of our long memory passage. After the Old and New Testaments, we added their divisions (i.e., ‘Old Testament, Torah, Genesis, Exodus, …, History, Joshua, …’) and then the Apocrypha, discussing what exactly that was. We then went through the kings of Israel and Judah (in order, no years). Also, when we transitioned from one topic to the next (e.g., OT -> NT), we didn’t recite the old topic on a daily basis anymore. Instead, on our (mostly) weekly ride to and from church, the kids would go through the prior categories so that these ‘learned’ memorizations could we weekly rehearsed.
I wasn’t sure what to do after the kings (in fact, I hadn’t been sure what to do after the Biblical books — it only took a little over a month — so the kings was somewhat reflexive). I stumbled across the (in retrospect quite obvious) idea that memorizing Scripture would be a significant activity, and, so long as I focused on the smallest chunks at a time, it would prove relatively effortless for my kids. I didn’t like the idea of the pithy memory verses which are tossed around in their decontextualized state — their meaning, as, e.g., the many OT quotations in Paul’s own writings, requires carrying along the larger context and story.
The Ten Commandments came to mind — I recalled the commitment made on their day of baptism — but not just the list. Why not the Scripture itself? So, they’re (well, we’re) nearly done with memorizing Exodus 20.1-18, in small chunks with visual aids (I think I’ll write down this process in a separate post).
What has been the result? To knowledge, my kids’ familiarity with the Scriptures has grown substantially, particularly in how the various historical elements relate to one another. The ‘Storybook Bible’ reading times have also not been a burden either to myself or them — a mere fifteen minutes and if we can’t fit it in (i.e., the reading or memorization) on a particular day, we have no problem skipping. They seem to largely enjoy the process, with some trepidation when we get close to the end of a memorization chunk and they know that there’s a long list of books to recite. That said, it has come to be one of the anchoring points of the day, a regularity to eagerly anticipate and to provide routine and continuity from day to day. The biggest controversies (unsurprisingly) are who gets to read first (we now alternate) and who gets to recite the memory exercises first (the person who didn’t read first).
For myself, I am impressed how much can be gained from small daily investments, but I’ve begun to wonder where to go next. I think the ”Storybook Bible’ is worth revisiting, especially to read the Old Testament passages and watch them get linked forward (this was harder to do when the latter stories hadn’t been read yet) and to continue listening to my kids as they suggest (sometimes insightfully) other ‘links’ and connections. I think we might take a break, however, and make an attempt to read through the New Testament together. I found Wright’s translation as a separate volume (without the ‘For Everyone’ series commentary) and will probably start there (he does a good job translating the otherwise challenging Pauline corpus). My focus will be on digesting reasonably brief, manageable chunks, encouraging them to think about and discuss the material. I also have some ideas on additional sections of Scripture to memorize: the Beatitudes or the Good Samaritan (a favorite passage of my son).
Again, this is not intended to be prescriptive, but more of a tale of one’s stumbling into what now appears a reasonable approach to integrating biblical study into the lives of one’s children. If you have other suggestions or recommendations, I would enjoy hearing them.