BJU Press Blog

Family Bible Time: The Habit Families Need Most

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Family Bible Time

The most important pattern we can establish in our families is a consistent Bible time together. From the time our children can communicate until they leave home, we must be continually teaching them God’s Word. Deuteronomy 6:6–7 exhorts, “And these words . . . shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” All throughout the day we should be bringing up Bible conversations with our children. Every opportunity we have, we are to point them to Christ. But it’s important to schedule a specific time during the day to put aside everything else and gather as a family to study God’s Word and pray together.

Why Family Bible Time

It’s a time to learn more about our great God! It’s a time to teach our children how to effectively study God’s Word. It’s a time to share close fellowship in the Bible and prayer. Maintaining this mindset will help keep us from viewing devotions as a chore or duty. If we are passionate about God’s Word, it will encourage our children to get excited about it as well.

When and Where

Try to have your family devotions at the same time and place every day. We like to have our family devotions in the evening, just before bedtime. Usually it takes place in our daughters’ bedroom on one of their beds. Perhaps mornings or afternoons work better for your family. Whenever it is, try to have everything done and put away before devotions so no one will be distracted.

What to Read

Scripture itself is always the best choice! Choose a book of the Bible to read through, such as one of the Gospels or the book of Proverbs. Depending on your children’s ages, you can read just a few verses or an entire chapter. Recently our family started reading through the book of Psalms.

How to Get Everyone Involved in Bible Time

Every family member should be engaged during family devotions. One way our girls participate is by taking turns reading Bible verses aloud. If your children are too young to read, you can involve them by asking them simple questions about some of the verses you read. After reading a psalm, my husband asks our daughters specific questions about what we just read. For example, from Psalm 1 he asked questions like these:

“What does the word blessed mean?”
“How do we delight in the law of the Lord?”
“What does it mean to meditate?”
“Why does God compare the righteous person to a tree?”

After discussing the passage, we sing some songs together. We quote a memory verse and then close with prayer. We like to use “prayer sticks”—craft sticks with names of loved ones, missionaries, and church members written on them. We keep them in a jar and each of us draws one prayer stick and prays for that person or family.

Let’s make family Bible time the most special part of our day!

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Jennifer is a pastor’s wife and mom of two young girls and loves homeschooling them. During her own twelve years of being homeschooled, Jennifer developed a passion for reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and relishes writing during her free time.

Encouraging Silent Reading

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encouraging silent reading
We are thrilled to announce that Reading 2, a new Distance Learning course taught by Mrs. Walker, is now available! Mrs. Walker has also recorded a few online support videos to give you tips on guiding your child’s reading. Find out what she has to say about silent reading in the videos below.

Why Is Silent Reading Important?

A primary focus of your child’s elementary homeschool education needs to be his ability to read silently. Reading silently is something that all of us do every single day. Imagine how tedious it would be if we were required to read every product tag, highway sign, blog post, and book out loud! But what is the value in teaching your child to read silently? Why is it worth it for him to learn it?

Practicing silent reading skills will enhance your child’s speed, comprehension, and focus in reading. It will activate his imagination and allow him to visualize what he is reading in his own mind. Reading silently will also enable him to engage with what he’s reading. If he has engaged with the content, he will be better able to discerning the author’s level of skill in writing and to discover the author’s intended message. Then he can ask meaningful questions and work to understand the material at a depth he can discuss with you instead of merely repeating back to you what he has read. Finally, reading silently will clear away distractions for your student and help him fully focus on what he’s reading. The more he is able to focus, the more he will get out of what he reads, and the more obvious the applications for his life will be.

In an age when the volume of information is constantly increasing, your child needs to be able to fully understand the content in front of him so that he can evaluate it from a biblical worldview. Training your child to read silently will empower him to work through the large amounts of information he encounters on a daily basis.

What Is Sustained Silent Reading?

Sustained silent reading involves giving your student large blocks of time to dedicate to reading silently. Scheduling times of the day for your child to do nothing but read will clear away the distractions and help your child engage with the content in a meaningful way. Sustained silent reading will also lengthen your child’s attention span, which will enable him to process large amounts of text into applicable truths for his life.

So how can you get your child ready for sustained silent reading? First, be intentional with what you put in front of him. Give him a selection to read that he will find both easy to understand and interesting. Also, make sure you’re available to help him with any difficult words and answer any questions he has. You can also include topics in the selection that cater to your child’s specific interests. Maybe he has specific genres he prefers or certain topics he likes to explore. Giving him things to read in those areas will encourage him to learn more about the things he already loves. Finally, you could set aside a designated spot in your home for him to read, such as a reading nook or a special chair. This way, your child will always know that any reading done there will be both peaceful and focused.

While advertisements and social media typically give us shorter messages, your child can definitely expect to encounter larger amounts of writing in everyday life. Creating long periods of time for your student to read silently will enable him to handle and process larger chunks of information.

How Do You Assess It?

Every skill your child is learning should be measured so that you know how he is growing. But silent reading can be a difficult skill to measure. So how can you evaluate it?

BJU Press Homeschool has provided numerous tools for assessing how well your student is doing with silent reading. Each worksheet contains several components to help you get a feel for your child’s strengths and weaknesses in reading. They provide a goal for your child’s reading—which will help him read both proactively and reactively. The worksheets contain a series of comprehensive questions to make sure your child is thoroughly understanding what he reads. Finally, the worksheets will build up to more difficult questions to stretch your student’s critical-thinking skills, appropriate to his reading level. The ability to measure where your child is with reading silently will help determine where your student needs to grow and encourage him in areas where he already excels.

Hopefully these videos have made it clear why silent reading is such an important practice for your student! And be sure to check out the new Reading 2 course and its exciting amusement park theme. If you purchase the online course, you will have access to it immediately; if you choose DVDs, you can expect your order to ship by August 1. Happy reading!

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Matt recently graduated with an MA in communication studies and currently works as a freelance writer. He attributes the wild variety in his current opportunities to the exploration his parents gave him through the homeschooling experience. He enjoys theater, the gym, and choral music and will rarely say no to a cold glass of sweet tea.

STEM Activities and Real-World Learning

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stem activities and real world learning
Have you ever considered how no single career your child could pursue leads back to just one subject? An artist draws on knowledge gained in both math and literature classes, a historian uses skills learned in science class as well as in heritage studies classes, and an astronomer needs strong foundations in both math and science to be successful. Even as a writer, I find myself drawing on skills from all subject areas to do my job well. That’s why interdisciplinary studies—studies covering several subjects—are so important in education. And STEM in particular is a big deal for parents and teachers alike. Let’s take a closer look at the world of STEM learning and what your children get from these activities.

What Is STEM?

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. You might also hear it called STEAM, which simply adds Art (or the arts) into the mix. But STEM and STEAM aren’t all that different because design is an inherent part in every such activity. STEM activities require students to use their knowledge in each area to complete a task or to solve a problem. For example, consider this activity for building a better thermos. Designed for high school students, the exercise is similar to an insulation experiment in Science 5. To complete it, students need to know something about heat and energy, they need to use technology resources to craft their container, they need to understand principles of engineering and design to make their container practical and functional, and they need math skills to measure the components and test the container.

Why Include STEM Activities?

STEM activities are a chance for your kids to apply otherwise isolated skills to real-world situations. In other words, it’s the reason your students have been learning all those weird math formulas and science facts. It’s one thing to learn how to calculate the surface area of an object in math and to understand how different materials and sound waves interact in science. It’s quite another to apply that knowledge to designing something to amplify sound coming from a small speaker. But doing STEM activities goes beyond simply applying skills.

STEM activities also help your children to understand what they can do. As Christians, we are called to be responsible caretakers of God’s creation. How can we take hold of that responsibility? What can we do for the world? The simple act of creating something that is useful and serves a purpose can help children to understand what they are capable of doing as human beings created in God’s image. God didn’t create some people to be geniuses who solve all of the problems and the rest of us to muddle through as best we can. God has given each of us tools to accomplish His will—whether in caring for His flock or His creation. STEM activities help your children to see how—through study and a bit of hard work—they can do some pretty cool things.

Does this mean that now you have to go and find a whole bunch of STEM activities to add to your lesson plans? Not at all. Chances are, many of your science and math activities already include elements of STEM, even if they’re not labeled as STEM activities. Just take the time with each activity to let your students learn everything they need to.

Loving My Neighbor with a Strawberry Cobbler

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loving my neighbor with a strawberry cobbler
I love to cook, and I especially love to bake. But a while back, I found myself in a quandary. I had three guests in my house. One was on a grain-free diet. Another was vegan. And I had no idea what to make for dessert. I had some fresh fruit in the house—including a large container of fresh strawberries—but all my usual strawberry dessert recipes had been ruled out. How could I possibly make a dessert that had no eggs, no dairy products, and no grains of any kind? Did such a thing even exist?

Showing Love with Food

People all over the world use food to nurture relationships with each other. Many of my own relationships have been built and maintained over a shared meal, a shared plate of cookies, or even a shared table at the local coffee shop. Food is an important tool that we as Christian homeschool moms can use to show love to our neighbors.

But, as I realized that afternoon in my kitchen, sometimes cooking for other people can get complicated. I’ve been blessed with a husband and children who can eat just about anything I care to cook. But many families in my church and some members of my extended family deal with food allergies and other dietary restrictions on a daily basis. How could I love my neighbor when they come to my home? By caring enough to adjust my cooking to fit their needs.

That afternoon, I managed to substitute my way through a strawberry cobbler recipe in order to meet the needs of my guests. To be honest, it wasn’t awesome, and I probably wouldn’t duplicate it even if I could remember the recipe. But it wasn’t a disaster. And it said “I care” in a very tangible way that went a long way toward making my guests feel welcome. In that sense, it was a very big win.

Cooking for Others with Dietary Restrictions

Here are a few tips that I’ve learned about caring for people with dietary restrictions.

  • Before you take someone a food item or have people over to your home for a meal, ask if there is anything that they can’t eat or don’t prefer to eat or if they are on a specialized diet (such as paleo). That way, you can avoid any potentially awkward moments.
  • Read the ingredients lists on food labels. Some items have ingredients that you would never expect. (Bottled salad dressings and other sauces can be particularly tricky.)
  • Pay attention to how recipes work. If you know what each ingredient contributes, you’ll find it easier to figure out substitutions.
  • Encourage your kids to eat whatever you fix, especially if you have guests in your home. I fix vegan meals on a fairly regular basis now, and my four young daughters eat whatever is placed in front of them. It’s their way of loving our guests and making them feel welcome.

And here are a couple of my favorite variations on the classic strawberry pie that are tailored to meet some specific dietary needs.

Best Books for Vacation

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best books for vacations
Is your family taking a trip this year? Whether it’s a weekend at the beach, a cross-country camping trip, or a visit with family, your kids will need some books to keep them occupied along the way. During the summer, encourage your children to read what they enjoy—for the sheer love of the story! For your next vacation, check out this list of books that they won’t be able to put down.

A King for Brass Cobweb (ages 6–7)

Filled with lush, beautiful pictures, A King for Brass Cobweb by Dawn Watkins is just right for early readers who need plenty of engaging visuals with their text. Large print, simple words, and delightful characters make this adventure perfect for reading aloud or independently.

The Mice of the Herring Bone Series (ages 6–7+)

What’s a better vacation book than a swashbuckling tale of pirate seadogs and clever mice? Mice of the Herring Bone by Tim Davis is the first book in a set of five seafaring tales that are sure to delight any child who’s ready for chapter books!

The Nick Newton Series (ages 9–12)

This lighthearted, futuristic adventure series follows the antics of an inventive boy from the country of Thauma. Nick Newton Is Not a Genius by S. E. M. Ishida is an excellent choice for kids who are into science and technology since it blends a love of STEM with a fascinating mystery. The second book in the series, Nick Newton: The Highest Bidder, is a fun, encouraging novel about friendship, persistence, and applied creativity.

Brave the Wild Trail (ages 9–12)

Is your family headed westward to cattle country or south to Florida? Milly Howard’s Brave the Wild Trail is a historical cowboy adventure set in the South, featuring the bullwhip-wielding Florida Crackers who used to drive herds through the Florida wilderness. Vicious outlaws, wild animals, and other dangers of the trail will keep your kid glued to the page.

Beyond the Smoke (young adult)

Winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award  in 2009, Beyond the Smoke by Terry W. Burns tells the tale of a young cowboy traversing the Wild West after his family dies in a Comanche raid. The choices that he makes along the way determine the kind of man—and the kind of American cowboy—he will be.

False Coin, True Coin (young adult)

In this historical fiction novel, False Coin, True Coin by Lois Hoadley Dick, a young girl faces the perils of seventeenth-century London. As the daughter of a jailkeeper, Cissy meets the Christian hero John Bunyan when he was imprisoned for preaching Christ. She also meets a young outlaw who steals her heart. Making the right choices is not easy for Cissy, especially when peril, plague, and persecution confront her at every turn.

You can purchase these novels and lots more books for vacation from the Journeyforth website or on Amazon. Explore the available titles with your kids and have them make a summer book wishlist. Happy reading!

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.