Teach Them Truth

Sharing my…..

My oldest son is in first grade.  We are in our second year homeschooling.

Let me just say to moms of beginning readers: Bless You.  Bless Us All.  We are saints.  Our patience level is beyond compare.  If we want to torture our enemies, just send in a beginner reader and have them read a new passage.  My son.  Oh how I love him to pieces.  He drives me to crazy town during reading time.  This week we were reading the story “Stone Soup.”  He kept calling it “rock soup.”  I would look at him.  Correct him.  Then a few minutes later, he would call it “rock soup” again.  That night at dinner, Jason asked him what the name of his story was.  He replied, “Rock Soup.”  I had to get up and leave the table.  I couldn’t even.

Teaching him to read is important.  Actually, a great book to use is Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (affiliate*).  We used it last year in kindergarten. One of my teacher friends even uses it with her small groups.  It is a great resource and it is amazing!

My honest moment: I struggle at teaching them truth.

I live out truth in front of them (hopefully). I want to have more structure when I teach them truth though.

I was very intentional last year in Kindergarten about incorporating Bible stories in our curriculum.  This year I have been slacking.  I justified it with two reasons.

Reason One: We have so many subjects in addition to math and phonics.

Reason Two: My children get Bible stories at church and memorizing scripture through their AWANA program.

I know, bad reasons.  And I want to do better.  This week I’ve decided that I want to be more intentional about teaching the truths of God’s Word.  We will go back to what we did last year: learning the catechisms.  What is a catechism?  They are simple question and answer responses that children memorize to teach them truths from God’s Word.  The catholic church is famous for their catechisms, but in our protestant communities we’ve lost sight of the value in them.

Here is an example:

Q: Who made you? A: God made me. Scripture: Psalm 100:3; Gen. 1:27

Q: What else did God make? A: God made all things. Scripture: Acts 17:25; John 6:29; Psalm 33:6-7

Each question has a specific answer that the child must memorize.  As we started this last year, I did not let him answer the first question with just “Me” – I made him say, “God made me.”  The purpose of the questions are to teach them truth.  I do know what him to memorize the “right answer” – I want him to memorize the phrases, because THAT was the truth.

As we began this school year, I failed to start back with our catechisms.  The beauty of home schooling is that you can start any time you want.  This week we have began them again.  He has remembered a few, but as we say them more and more, he will begin to memorize them again.

 I found a great Printable Resource for Q/A Catechisms

Although reading, math, spelling, and handwriting are important, I must remember….

Proverbs 1:7 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

When I teach them truth I am helping to lay a solid foundation for the rest of their education.

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Make sure to check out Keri from Living in This Season to read her honest moments.