HOW DO YOU GET
KIDS TO MEMORISE BIBLE VERSES?
Have you ever been frustrated when trying to teach kids Bible
verses? Parents not helping? Kids bored?
Tips:
- If
the parents won't help revise the Bible verses at home, rather than
trying to teach a new verse at Church every week, choose 4-5 key verses
and reuse them during the term.
- Use Bible songs to teach the verses.
In 2009 we started a Pathfinder Club. Pathfinders is similar
to
scouts but with spiritual and Bible work, and one of the
requirements is that the kids memorise 6 verses in 6 months and get at
least 75% on a test of them. The difficulty for us was that
many of our kids were not academically gifted, in fact some of
them
could barely read and getting them to spend time memorising something
was
virtually impossible.
So this was our plan of attack:
- I recorded various kids and adults reading the Bible verses
including
the reference.
- I found songs for the Bible verses or made up little tunes
to sing them to which included where each verse was found.
- I
made a CD of the verses being read and sung.
- We played the CD when driving to and from activities.
- We played the CD as background music at
activities.
- We sang the Bible songs at Pathfinder activities.
- We did worships and Church services about the Bible verses.
- I
made up a PowerPoint game "Don't Forget the Lyrics - In the Hot Seat"
where the kids took turns to sing the missing words from the songs. -
This turned out to be extremely popular.
- We did karaoke with the songs.
As a result, all the kids passed their test including those who could
barely read.
Jump
forward to 2023 and I'm back in Pathfinders. We have been learning
a new song each week as well as singing all the previous ones, and I
have found that by learning all the verses in a row makes it easier to
remember them all - remember the first and the rest follow.
Inspired by the story of a family who each memorised parts of the
Bible so they could rewrite it when their Bible was
confiscated, my aim now is to be able to sing every single
pathfinder verse in a row by 2028, as well as other verses and chapters.
Click here to download Bible
verse songs
Click here to
go to our main website for more ideas and resources