Joshua’s House

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.