Scripture Memory With Little Children, Part 1

This was posted on by .

Sarah asked me (Anna Marie) to write a post about helping little kiddos with Scripture memory. I don’t feel like I have any revolutionary ideas, or like we are pros at it, but I can share what we do right now.
 
In this post, I won’t go into reasons why we want to prioritize Scripture memory, but I highly recommend the free ebook download titled Whatever It Takes, from Scripture Memory Fellowship. We picked it up at a homeschool convention a few years ago, and it re-inspires me every time I read it!
 
This will be a two-part blog post series. Below you’ll find three of the ways we memorize (the final three later!).

Listening—this one seems to be key with our little ones. Their morning routine includes listening to an audio Bible (free here from Faith Comes By Hearing, or there are others available). They listen to Scripture multiple times a day with family and school Bible times, and we keep a memory passage on a whiteboard in our dining room that we repeat before most meals. Even the littlest kiddos chime in, attempting to quote with us. We are often surprised at how quickly they can rattle off enough to show that they can quote it, although for a two or three-year-old their speech/pronunciation ability seems to lag a bit behind their mental ability! In addition, Scripture Memory Fellowship has a tool called VerseLocker, which makes it easy to play selected passages of Scripture. It’s straightforward to use, and we really like it being able to “turn on” our memory passages to keep them in our minds.

Reading—this is (obviously) for those who can actually read. Joshua learned much of Jonah just by reading and working on it himself, combined with listening to an audio recording that we played a lot while working on other things.

Repeating—ties in with listening but is key! When we are working on a new verse, I will have the children repeat it after me phrase by phrase, usually various times through the day (especially breakfast), discussing it with them and trying to draw out things in each phrase to make it more memorable for them. We try to repeat verses a few times throughout the day when possible.

Sarah will be posting Part 2 in the next few weeks!

Anna Marie

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”
Psalm 119:0

22 thoughts on “Scripture Memory With Little Children, Part 1”

  1. Thank you so much. We are always looking for new ideas to memorize bible verses. This is very helpful.
    ~Anna from Germany

  2. Dear Anna Marie,
    Thank you so much for sharing, what a great post!
    God bless your sweet family.
    Much love
    Claire
    Xxxxxxxx

  3. Many years ago we began writing our memory verses on a white board above our kitchen table. We read/ recite before every meal and move on once everyone has it down. We take our time and don’t stress over having it memorized by a certain time. In doing this we have memorized multiple verses, chapters, and the book of James. It was an idea we got from the Maxwells and it has really blessed our family.

  4. I’m imagining how sweet it is to hear little voices repeat the Word. Thank you for sharing!

  5. Dear Anna-Marie and Sarah,

    Thank you for posting this. It is very inspiring for me and gives me motivation to prioritize Scripture memorization more during our days.

    Anna-Marie, that would be really helpful for me to hear the details of how you choose which verses you memorize with your children. Also: how do you practically keep track of which verses you are learning or have been learning?
    Please share if possible.

    Blessings from Europe,
    Anne-Laure

  6. Love it! Thanks for sharing! I am so thankful when people share resources. I’m definitely adding these to my list.

    We put a verse on our door and before the door is opened to leave or go outside, someone is supposed to recite the verse.
    We also love listening to our KING JAMES memory cds. There are 7 cds from Bible Truth Music and we have memorized a lot from those cds. Also, singthekjv.com has free cds.
    We just have them read the Word as soon as they are old enough and incorporate it in their everyday lives. It’s so exciting to them when they read a verse they know or recognize.
    But yes… Just singing or saying them over and over has been so helpful for us!
    Thanks for sharing! I look forward to the next post.

    1. I have a friend who can put Scripture to music that she does herself. It greatly facilitates their Scripture memory, and they remember it well.

  7. We use the scripture memory system from Charlotte Mason you get a box of note cards and tab dividers and label them Daily, Odd, Even, Monday-Sunday, and 1-31. Put a scripture verse in each divider, then read from each category. For example today is Tuesday the 18th so we’ll recite the Daily, Even (because 18 is even), Tuesday, and #18 verses.

    I have my school-aged child use the “daily” verse for handwriting practice each week. He copies it every day, first directly from the Bible then from memory later in the week. Each week I pick a new “Daily” verse and the previous week’s verse in the next less-full slot (we’ve been doing this so long that each slot has at least 2 cards). It has been great for our family! 🙂

    Jessica

  8. I have a lot of verses memorized because of cd’s with the verses put to music, growing up we would listen well we worked, and thus effortlessly memorize it.

  9. Thank you so much for the ideas! Even though I’m not married yet, I like to learn things like this for the future. I certainly will utilize these once I’m a mother!

  11. My mom helps Joyanna Joshua and Abigail memorize scriptures. They’ve done psalm 23 , 1 Corinthians 13, and Ephesians 6:1-3. It’s so cute to see them do their verses, esp Abigail (she’s 3) when she does psalm 23!! 🙂

  12. I’m not sure if you include typing in your homeschool, but http://www.memverse.com is a great tool to use for Bible memorization and typing practice. You can add single verses or whole chapters and even after the verse is memorized, the system periodically brings it up for a review.

Comments are closed.