Joshua’s House

Gather some paper and cut it into strips about 1-2 inches wide and about four inches long.  Write one word from your memory verse on each piece of paper until you’ve written out the whole verse.

Mix up all of the pieces of paper you used and work to see how fast you can put them all in order.

Try racing against some of your friends.  Can you do it in under a minute?

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Draw a picture on a note card for each memory verse word, or of each tiny section of the memory verse.  When your child knows what part of the memory verse goes with each picture, have her put them in order.

It’s so easy to quickly read though the Bible without ever realizing that God is actually talking to us.  Here are three questions to help you dig a little bit deeper to find the true gems of God’s word.  One of the great things about these questions is that you can use them no matter where you are reading in the Bible.   Answer all three questions on a sheet of paper.

What can I learn about God?
What can I learn about me?
What should I do about it?

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

After reading with your child discuss some of the answers to the questions with them.  Doing this will help them learn to detect the answers to these questions naturally when they begin reading for themselves.  For example after reading about the widow who gave at the temple you might say:

Even when we don’t have much to give, God appreciates our small gifts when they are given with our whole heart.  He loves us and is happy when we serve Him (answer to question one). Sometimes it’s hard for me to give with a willing heart.  Do you ever have a hard time giving with a willing heart (answer to question two)?  Why don’t we pray and ask Jesus to help us serve Him with a willing heart.  We can check in on each other this week to see how God is helping us (question 3).

Don’t forget to end with prayer.

Do you know the difference between a Bible paraphrase and a translation?  The goal of a translation is to look at the original language that a document was written in and then to write it as accurately as possible in another language.

A paraphrase puts the text in the authors own words, often in an attempt to make the meaning more clear for himself.  So a paraphrase may be easier to understand, but also less accurate.

Today you get a chance to write your own paraphrase of a chapter of the Bible.  Choose one of the chapters you have been reading and write the whole thing in your own words.

What will you call your paraphrase?

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Use shorter passages, or have the child tell you what happened in her own words.

Want something harder for older children?

Challenge your child to write a paraphrase of a whole book of the Bible.  When he is finished, have him share it with the whole family.

Today your assignment for the New/Old Testament Gazette is to write about everything that has been happening. What are the events? What are the prophets saying? What is Paul writing about?  You might want to review what you read to make sure you don’t leave anything out.

You can download your very own newsprint to use here.  Draw an image for your story too and don’t forget to include a caption!
Have fun.

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Make sections on a piece of paper and let your child draw a picture and write a sentence or two about each part. (If she is not old enough to write, you can just let your child draw the pictures.) You may choose only a few of these questions and tailor them slightly to the story your child is reading.

1. Who was in this story?
2. Where did it happen?
3. What happened?
4. When did it happen?
5. Why did it happen?
6. How did it happen?

Want something harder for older children?

Encourage your child to be a real detective.  All good news articles answer the important questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how.  Encourge your child to use all six in his article.

In this activity, we are going to make a bit of a mess.  Once you’ve chosen your memory verse, write it out a few different ways.  First, write it with no punctuation, capitalization or spaces.  When you are done, it will look something like this:

goddidextraordinarymiraclesthroughpaulacts1911

Once you have that one written out, write your verse again, but scramble every third word.  This one is a bit tough, but when you are done, it should look a bit like this:

God did aaedinorrrtxy miracles through alup. Acts 19:11

Now do two more—one that has no vowels and one that has no consonants.

Gd dd xtrdnry mrcls thrgh Pl. cts 9:11

_o_    _i_   e_ _ _ ao_ _i_ a_y   _ i_a_ _ e_    _ _ _ ou_ _    _au_.    A_ _ _ 9:11

When you are finished lay the four verses in front of you.

Set a timer and see which one you can unscramble the fastest.  Record your times.  You can even see if you can beat your parents or your siblings.

Do this activity every day for a week to get faster and faster at it. You can even start to time yourself to see how long it will take to make the puzzles.

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Say the memory verse with your child, and let her fill in the missing word.  If you are able, you can even draw one picture for each word in the memory verse on a notecard.  Practice laying them out with your child.  Take some of the pictures away and see if she can still say the verse.

As you’ve read the Bible throughout the years, I’m sure you’ve noticed that different people often react differently to the same situation.

Turn your paper upside down and draw a big “T” on it. (This will make two columns on the top part of the page, and one column on the bottom.) Draw a box at the top of the two columns on the top half of the page. Draw yourself in one of the boxes and one of the people you read about this week the other.  Below each picture box write how the person responded to his/her situation and how you would respond differently to the same circumstances. At the bottom of the page, where there is just one column, write the ways you would respond the same.

Are there any lessons you can learn?

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Draw lines on a piece of paper to separate it into four quadrants.  Let your child draw one thing a character from the story did in each box.  For example, if you just read about Daniel in the Lions Den, they may draw Daniel praying in his room, Daniel being thrown in the lion’s den, Daniel praying in the lion’s den, and Daniel coming out of the lion’s den alive.  For each picture they draw, have your child draw a happy face for the ways she would like to act and a frowning face for the ways she wants Jesus to help her not to act.

Did you run into any questions while you were reading?  Maybe there were some puzzling words, or you want to know what else the Bible says about something you read.

Let’s find out what the Bible has to say!  Look around your house for a concordance.  You may even have one in the back of your Bible.  If you can’t find one, you can go to biblegateway.com.

When you find a concordance, look up a word that relates to your question.  Read at least five of the verses that are
mentioned.

What did you learn?  Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper to make to columns.  Write “Verses I Looked Up” on the top of one column and “What I Learned” on the other column.  Record your discoveries.

Modifications

Want something that will work for family worship?

Choose a topic that you want to look up together.  Let each family member look up different passages, recording their answers on a piece of paper.  When everyone has looked up the assigned verses, come together as a family and share what you’ve found.  What can you learn from all of the verses collectively?

Want something easier for younger children?

Younger children will have more basic questions, and may need help looking up answers.  They can also get used to using a concordance by helping you look things up.  For example, if you are looking up the word “Dove,” you can have your daughter help you by saying the alphabet.  You may ask questions like “What letter does D come after?”

Want something harder for older children?

If you have a child who is especially interested in this type of Bible study, challenge him to fully research a topic using his concordance.  You can also combine this activity with the exploring the margins activity for some really in-depth Bible study.

Think of all of the people you heard about as you studied the Bible this week (or even just today).  Choose one - any one - but once you pick a character you can’t change your mind.  Write that person’s name down on the top of a piece of paper.  On that same paper, answer all 20 questions about the person you chose.

1. Why did you choose this character?
2. Where is this person mentioned in the Bible (what verses)?
3. Is this a major character or a minor character?
4. Is this person a man or a woman?
5. Was this person rich or poor?
6. Was the person young or old in the story?
7. What role did this person play in the story?
8. How are you like this person?
9. How are you different?
10. What do you think he/she did right or wrong?
11. Was he/she faithful to God?
12. Would you have acted the same or differently than this person?
13. How?
14. How did this person respond to those around him/her?
15. Why do you think this person was included in the Bible?
16. Did this person allow the Holy Spirit to work through him/her?
17. What questions do you have about this person?
18. What questions do you have about what this person did?
19. What lessons did this person learn or teach someone else?
20. What can you learn from this person?

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Choose just a few of the questions that are appropriate for your child’s age.

Want something harder for older children?

For a bigger challenge, have your child write a book about the character they choose for 20 questions.  He can make a story book and illustrate it, using one page for each question.  (This activity might work nicely for a pre-writing exercise).

This is a memory trick you’ve probably already heard of before, but it provides a lot of fun and is a huge booster to memorizing scripture.

Set your memory verse to music .  Maybe there is a tune you already know that fits well with your verse, or maybe you can make up your own tune.

You can also do a rhythm instead, like in a nursery rhyme.  Even if there is no tune, having a rhythm will make a huge difference—think of Humpty Dumpty.

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Provide younger children with memory verse songs that are already written.  You can find some great resources in our online store.  If you’re working on a particular verse and you can’t seem to find a song that is already written, sing along to a familiar tune your chlid already knows like “The Farmer in the Dell” or “Jesus Loves Me.”  You may even have fun making up hand motions for the song.

Sometimes when we read the Bible, we come across passages that seem totally relevant to us.  Maybe a Bible character is going through circumstances similar to ours, or maybe there is a Psalm that seems to say just what we are feeling.  If you come across a Bible passage like that, you can pray it as your own prayer.  As you read over the verses again, repeat them to God and add things that apply to you specifically.

Modifications

Want something easier for younger children?

Praying in relation to things happening in the Bible can be a difficult concept for young children to grasp.  One way to start them on this journey is to pray with them every time after reading the Bible.  For example, if you are reading about creation you might have a prayer like this with your little one:

“Dear Jesus, thank you for creating the earth.  Thank you for the trees and the birds and the food you gave us to eat like yummy strawberries.  Help us to take good care of the things you made, just like you asked us to.”

Then, give your little one a chance to thank Jesus about some of her favorite things from creation or to ask God questions about some of the things He made.

Want something harder for older children?

Psalms are simply records of some of the prayers of David and other men of God.  One of the great things about taking the time to craft a Pslam is that it requires you to slow down and really think about what your writing.  Challange your child to write a psalm about lessons he’s learning as he studies the Bible.