Guest Author - Terrie Lynn Bittner

Family Home Evening is a wonderful time to share the scriptures with children. Often our family scripture study is rushed because everyone is anxious to move on to the next activity. We are often more relaxed during family night, with no other activities planned that must be gotten to. When our children have questions, we can take our time and really think about what we are reading.

When we teach lessons to older children, we automatically include scriptures. When we teach little ones who can't read, we often leave them out. However, even the smallest nursery child benefits from hearing the scriptures read. Children learn language by listening, so they must hear the scriptures read again and again so that the language becomes comfortable and natural to them. When this happens, they enjoy their own scripture reading more when they grow up.

Make a point of opening the scriptures and showing the child what you are reading. I have a quad set, so I first ask the Sunbeams in my Primary class what they are. They are scriptures. Then I tell them I'm going to be reading from a book in the scriptures called the Bible. The Bible has two parts to it: the Old Testament and the New Testament. I'm going to be reading from the New Testament, which tells us about Jesus when he lived on the earth. I then tell them the scripture reference and have them repeat it to me. I show them where it is, and they are interested to note that I have the scriptures marked. This usually leads to a discussion of when you can and can't write in books, so don't be in a hurry to get to the scripture. You may want to buy an inexpensive missionary edition for your child to use at home and in Primary and teach your child how to mark it.

If the children are small, choose a single verse or the most important portion of the scripture to share. Read it through once and then go back and teach the children what it means. Define the words, then read it again, and tell the child what it means. Read it one more time and let the children tell you what it means. You won't want to do dozens of scriptures this way, but one central scripture repeated many times in a lesson and over the course of a few months will make the scripture familiar and meaningful to the child. If the scripture is part of a story, give the children some background, adapted to their age level.

Family Home Evening is a good time to teach children how to open scriptures and "read" them. Place a book mark in the scripture you want the children to learn. This can be a wide, blank piece of construction paper with the reference written on it. When you are ready to read, give the child the book and have him open to the page that has the marker. Show him the pre-marked scripture and help him read it by telling him the words, a few at a time. Afterwards, have him draw a picture on the bookmark to represent the scripture. (Remember that little ones often still scribble, and that's fine.) A child old enough to memorize short scriptures might be helped to memorize one over the course of several weeks. Then when that scripture needs to be read, he can be called
on.

One way to teach a preschooler to be comfortable with scripture language is to use it in prayer. Teach children to say Thee and Thou. You can even play by having children speak scripturally. "What did you do in school today?" "It came to pass that I had a test." Praise children for each scripture term used in ordinary conversation at dinner.

In the next few weeks, we will talk about ways to share scripture stories with children. As children become more comfortable with the people, places and stories of the scriptures, they will be better prepared to understand the words. As they hold scriptures in their hands and practice reading them, they will be better prepared to read scriptures in church and on their own.