Teach Kids to Begin the Day with God

One of the reasons we’re currently homeschooling Luke is because we want to help him build a solid foundation in the Lord, as early as now. We try to do this in different ways and one of those is by making sure we always begin each day with God.

Daily Homeschooling Routine

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Our daily homeschool routine starts off with these 3 things:

1. Prayer: Quick but personal (no memorized prayers!)
2. Devotional: We read a page from his book
3. Worship: One short song that he gets to pick

And that’s it! The routine is done. We then proceed to either playing, reading or doing other activities. Simple right?

The routine is intentionally quick and simple to make sure it holds his attention. But at the same time, we always try to make it fun! The sole goal is to always remind him that everything is from God and that we do everything for Him.

Choosing Your Materials

I believe that having the right materials is crucial; they have to be engaging to your kids BUT (most importantly,) biblically sound.

As all kids are different, I’m sure that the materials that will be most effective for each family will also vary. With that said, I want to share some of the materials that I personally love using with Luke and those that I’ve found to be effective for him.

Materials: Devotional Books

These two devotional books are our current favorites. I’ve seen other devotionals that were labelled for his age but ended up confusing him. These two are so far the only two that I’ve found that are perfect for him (he just turned 3.) The lessons here are applicable to him and theologically sound.

Daily Bread for Preschoolers:

Highly recommended as a first devotional, this book is short, simple and easy to understand for toddlers. The book tackles a wide variety of topics that are suitable for their age. Plus, the illustrations are cute too!

But because it’s simple, you sometimes have to get a little creative and provide some additional questions or thoughts to extend the discussion. Great for young toddlers. As for Luke, I feel that he will soon “graduate” from this book already. *Sniff*

ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt:

I initially thought this would be too heavy for my 3 year old because the passages per day were relatively long (and the pages were text-heavy) but I was pleasantly surprised to see him totally engaged. Each page focuses on a Bible Verse and is explained through a story. They learn what the verses mean and how they apply it in their lives.

My slight beef about this book is how there are times that the explanations of the parents in the story can sound too much of a lecture or even a rebuke. So sometimes, I skip some sentences or change up the wordings a little bit. There are also occasionally situations that he can’t relate with yet so I have to do a lot of explanation. Haha. But this is why I recommend this book for older toddlers (3.5-5 would be perfect) Other than that, I like this book.

Tip: Read the passage alone first before reading it out loud to your child, so you’re prepared.

*I purchased both these books at Amazon.com and just had them shipped.

Materials: Songs

There are countless reasons why worship is important in our walk with the Lord but one of the reasons why I wanted to incorporate worship through singing in our routine is because it reminds us of God’s grace and goodness. Don’t you find that that’s true when you sing praises to God?

At the same time, it also allows us to check our hearts and gives us an opportunity to be repentant.

I have a Spotify playlist full of Sunday-School type songs but believe it or not, Luke sings with more feelings (lol) whenever we play “grown-up” worship songs (His long-time favorite is “10,000 Reasons”. Haha.)

Somewhere in between though are these albums I highly recommend:

• The Praise Baby Collection: A collection of hymns that are soft and soothing. Purchase all the albums, I promise they’re worth it! I initially used these as background music when Luke was a newborn but up until today, we’re still playing it!
• Rain for Roots: Big Stories for Little Ones: Modern folk original songs that are beautifully sung. I first heard these as a sample and loved it so much I just had to purchase it. It’s not available in Spotify so I purchased it here as a digital download.

Homeschooling On-The-Go

You might be wondering if we keep this up whenever we leave the house early or whenever we’re not home and the answer is, YES! In fact, I really advise it because the key here is to be consistent.

Honestly though, it’s much easier than you think. With prayer, you can do it anywhere. With worship, you can play songs on your phone. And with devotional, all you need to do is make sure you have a book (or even just a passage!)

Practical tip: Consider leaving a devotional in the car at all times so that whenever you go out early or have to go on a road trip, you’re always ready!

Tips:

Whether you’re homeschooling or not, I pray that this article has encouraged you that teaching kids to begin the day with the Lord is easy to do! We only need to be intentional about it!

Here are final tips I’d like to share:

• Be consistent: Make it a habit! Sometimes, Luke would be the one to remind me that we’ve forgotten “prayer box!”
• Make it quick, simple and fun!
• Make sure everything is relatable to them without compromising God’s Word. Remember that God’s Word is powerful and we don’t need to change, add or subtract anything! (Deuteronomy 4:2 says “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”) But of course, make it understandable for your little one!

May these words serve as a guide for your family:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words that I give you today. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re at home or away, when you lie down or get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)

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If you wanna see similar articles, check out posts tagged HOMESCHOOLING.