Bible Time

  I should be leaving the house in about 15 minutes and still have two cakes to iced but I felt like a good old fashioned blog break.  We've had a semi-productive morning.  We got the house tidied (no real cleaning but it is neat) and then did our Bible time and colored a dozen eggs (paper eggs) for our Resurrection egg lapbook.  I really thought we'd finish that today but coloring all those eggs took forever.  You'll see why if and when we ever get the lapbook done and I post pictures.  I love our Bible time now and try not to ever miss it.  We start by listening to hymns from "Hymns for a Kids Heart."  The book includes classic hymns and a story about the author, a devotional, a Bible verse and a prayer.  I try to do one every other week or so.  We read the info and then listen to the hymn and try to learn at least the first verse.  So far we've learned three hymns--"Holy, Holy, Holy" "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" and "My Father's World."  We now listen to two a day so we don't forget ones we've already learned.  After our hymn singing (also known as a "joyful noise"), we read from the "Day by Day Kids Bible."  It's broken up into 7 minute readings straight through the Bible.  If you do it everyday you can read the Bible in a year.  We've been working on this for well over a year and are only on May so we obviously have not been consistent but we are now!  It is written at a simpler level and I really think my kids are getting a lot out of it.  There is a chart in the middle that lines up Israel's and Judah's kings along with the prophets.  The king gets a blue crown if he was a bad king and a yellow crown if he was a good king and some are half and half.  Joe is especially interested in this part--who's good and who's bad.  He also is interested in the prophets and at one point I told him they were all good.  Then the other day he asked me if Jonah was so good, why did he disobey God?  We've had lots of short talks about Jonah.  He asked to read his story again today!  So, today I read him the Egermeier's version.  Anyway, after that reading, we pray and then I read whatever book we are reading aloud at the time.  Usually a YWAM's biography of a Christian hero.  Right now we are on David Livingstone.  These are scheduled in the ECC curriculum that we are using.  In between the biographies we read some other read aloud usually of my choosing.  After that reading sometimes I will take some time to read some picture books to the kids, especially if I have some out from the library that go with something we are learning about.  All of this takes about an hour and when we are done everyone gets a 10 minute break before we head to the FL room for Math.  It has taken me years to get a Bible time going that we all enjoy enough to not skip more than half the time. 

Time to go ice some cakes and then off to the park for playtime and a birthday party!