Tips for having devotional time with little children and teaching them about the Bible.

Morning Devotional Time with Little Children

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My morning devotional time with my kids is the most important part of our day. This is when we read the Bible, pray together, memorize scripture, and more. If we do nothing besides have our devotional time one day, I would count the day as a success.

Morning devotional time books set out on table.

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As a homeschooling mama, I love that I don’t have to rush my three children out the door each morning for school. Instead, our breakfast time has become the pinnacle of our day. Even though my children are very little and it’s often chaotic, I’m committed to a few morning habits that I can expand on as my kids get older.

Prepared breakfast plates for kids with cut up muffin, fruit, and multivitamins

Prep breakfast

First, I prep their breakfast the night before (meaning I actually put it on plates and in the fridge). Then I can just grab it in the morning and put it on the table for each of my kids.  I am currently making a large batch of these healthy muffins (I just leave out the chocolate chips) for my kids every few weeks, which makes breakfast prep fast and easy. Side note: I just got a mockmill to mill my own flour and I LOVE it!

Wheat berries, mockmill lino 100 grain mill and Kitchen aid mixer sitting on counter.

Clean up the night before

I also do my best in the evening to unload the dishwasher if needed, clean up all the dishes from the day, fold any laundry, etc. so that the following morning feels fresh. I have found that the less work I need to do with these things in the morning, the better our morning goes.  Read more about five helpful morning habits here. My kids are five, three, and one years old, so their attention span is SUPER short!  I try to make the most of the time they are eating breakfast because that is the easiest time to get their full attention.

Morning chores

I’ve also learned that it works best for my family if everyone goes downstairs to the kitchen at the same time.  Otherwise, my three year old would go down, finish breakfast, and then I’ve lost any breakfast table time with her.  So my kids know that we brush and floss teeth, get dressed, make beds, wash faces, comb hair, and put dirty clothes in the laundry room before going downstairs for breakfast.  With little children, it works really well to have that structure.  My kids definitely know what to expect each morning.

Bible study and books set out on kitchen table.

When we get downstairs, I already have their breakfast plates on the table with healthy muffins, fruit and their multivitamin.  I also have their Bible, my Bible, and the other resources I use on the table ready to go.  We sit down, they start eating, and I immediately start reading from my Bible (well maybe I grab my coffee first…).

Bible reading

I have LOVED The Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible.  The illustrations are absolutely BEAUTIFUL and it is very accurate to the truth of the actual Bible.  We go through the Bible readings and study that correspond with Classical Conversation’s Bible memory work.  I have used the Foundation’s Bible Study by Driven By Grace and love it! 

The Childrens Illustrated Bible and Bible study to use with small children.

So backing up a little… I start with reading a short (and I really do mean SHORT, like 1 or 2 verses) of my Bible that matches with the Bible study reading.  In the future, I hope to read more of my Bible, but as I’ve mentioned before, my kids’ attention spans are short.  I like to start reading from my Bible to show my kids that the same stuff is in my Bible as theirs. 

Then I read a portion from The Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible (TCICB). In the Foundations of The Bible study, Lindsey has matched the stories from TCICB that go along with the Bible study and Bible memory work for that week.  If there aren’t enough Bible stories for each day of the week, then I find others that go along with the theme.   After I read, I try to ask my kids a few questions about it to see how much they understood.  My five year old is pretty sharp at this. 

A great Bible study to use with small children and a hymnal with children's Bible songs.

Then comes my kids’ favorite part, SINGING HYMNS!  I stumbled over this gem of a book called My First Hymnal by Karyn Henley and it is AWESOME!  I let my kids each choose a hymn to sing and I sing it for them (sometimes they join in).  I love that they are learning hymns and the ones in this book are fabulous for kids.

The 24 Family Ways

After singing, I go over the Family Way (from Sally and Clay Clarkson’s 24 Family Ways) we are learning about that week. We also work on memorizing the Bible verse that goes with that Family Way . 

I also have found songs that match with each Bible verse that I play after we eat breakfast.  The songs I use are mostly from Steve Green’s CDs. Songs are amazing for helping children memorize the Bible. Download my matchup of the 24 Family Ways with Bible verses and songs from my Resource Library.

24 Family Way Devotional plan and books.
The 24 Family Ways set out on the kitchen table.

After we talk a little bit about the Family Way of the week and the Bible verse we are memorizing, I take some time to pray for our day and my husband often joins us. By this time, I do one of two things: 

Devotional books

If my kids are still eating, I read to them from a devotional book: either this My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts or Big Truths for Little Kids, both by Susan Hunt.  I’ve matched the chapters from My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts to each of the 24 Family Ways. Like I mentioned earlier in this post, you can download my matchup of the 24 Family Ways with Bible verses songs, and devotional readings from my Resource Library.

Bible study

OR, if the kids are both done eating, we start on the actual Bible study part of the morning.  We usually don’t do this for very long, but I am starting to form the habit now, and I hope that we can expand on this time as the kids get older.

Devotional books to read with small children.

For Bible study time right now, it just looks like me giving my kids one of the activity pages from Lindsey’s Foundations Bible study activity book, and me trying to talk a little about the corresponding Bible study from the teacher’s guide.  Sometimes this lasts 10 minutes, sometimes 5, sometimes it doesn’t happen, but my goal is to begin the habit.  If my kids are in the mood, I also have the 24 Family Ways Coloring book where they can color the Family Way we are talking about that week. 

Little girl working on 24 family ways coloring book to learn about Biblically based values to live by.

Math time

Does this sound like a lot? Remember, each of these things are done for a few only a few minutes. After this, we do our math.  My five year old is starting The Good and the Beautiful math. While she is working on this, I have my three year old play with some of the math manipulatives, color, or look at some books. The one year old is usually eating some crumbs under the kitchen table at this point.

Little girl working on The Good and the Beautiful math at the kitchen table.

Read together

After we finish math, it’s reading time!  If the kids are hungry again (sometimes they are even though they finished breakfast 30 minutes ago..), I read while they eat a snack or we cuddle up on the couch.  This, again, is a habit I’m trying to cultivate.  Right now, we usually read one or two books and then they go play for a bit.  My hope is that we have longer and longer family reading times as they get older!

Our morning time is always chaotic, but it’s also the most valuable part of our day!  One of the reasons I am SO thankful to be able to homeschool, is that we don’t have to rush out the door each morning. We can take as much time as we want to in the morning to these things. Read about the other reasons WHY we homeschool here. Also read our story about how God led us from private education to homeschooling here. Now that it’s summer, my kids love going to play outside after we have our reading time. I’m so thankful they have the freedom to do that!

Do you do any kind of morning devotional time with our children? Share below in the comments anything that has worked well for you.

Blessings to you on this homeschooling journey.

Morning devotional time books set out on table.

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