Ideas to Engage Children in Bible Study

I am a Sunday School Teacher. In our class we teach 4th Grade children. We have 2 other teachers. One of the others is my wife, and the other is an male Engineering professor. I work in computer field as a Systems Analyst, and my wife works in Education as a Teachers Assistant.

This month I am not teaching, so I am the assistant. I get to observe and learn technigues by watching. The interesting things I watch for are what gets the children to listen. A few weeks ago, while I was teaching, things were getting difficult as far as the classroom focus. I began drawing the lesson on a white board we have in the class. The point is, this helps some kids understand the lesson better. We were studying how the Israelites knocked down the walls of a city, so I drew the method that was in the Bible story on the board. The students began to understand better. I began to get questions about how they did it, so we took the class outside and played out the scene ourselves.

Why does this work. It is not just a lecture. We added some key things that got the children engaged. The class heard the words. They saw how the words worked in action, and then we did it by taking action. Now if you think about it that is how we learn many things. We may read a book to learn about something. We then may draw up a plan to do it ourselves. Finally we take action by do something like the plan. This is a good example of how God teaches us. He gives us the knowledge. He tells us how to do it, and then he asks us to take action.

I encourage you to think about methods like this to teach your children the Bible. Don't just tell them, but give them the full picture and actions that go along with accomplishing the plan or lesson. I think you will find you will get more interest and more results.

In God's Love,
Greg

copyright 2009 Gregory Johnson