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I've been thinking the last couple of days about helping my 8 yo with developing a quiet time on his own and was ready to ask you ladies about it. Today Carrie posted asking for our input on this very thing. I love that you're including this in your guides, Carrie! So, here's my question for you gals. (I so appreciate the godly wisdom that I can get from you great ladies!) How do you go about training your kids to have their own quiet time with the Lord?

I love the Bible study in Bigger. Then...the progression to Preparing to doing a quiet time individually weekly. Then...a quiet time independently next (but still Bible study with mom included). Do any of you start individual quiet time sooner? I'm just looking for ideas and wisdom and ways to encourage my 8 yo.

Thanks!
Kathleen

Kathleen,
My son is 6 and he started his quiet time this summer. We are using what another homeschool mom shared with us. "Morning-Time Devotions" for children ages 4 and up: Each set of 4 cassetes. Each side has a story, Bible verse, song and prayer (sorry I cannot finde the link!). Thy Word Creations http://www.rtol.net/jonathanmeyer/thyword/ICor13.htm(which are illustrated Bible chapters for Young Children) comes with a CD. There is at least one song on each, a coloring book and the recording of the chapter for listening or memorization. I have also used Bible Adventures CD (Your Story hour).

Every morning at 8:30 am is quiet time for him. He puts on his headphones and listens to one of the above. It usually lasts about 20 minutes.
It has only been a blessing at our house!
Dorla

We started quite times when the kids were about 8. My daughter, at 15, now does her own using either a Bible study of her choice or just writing verses on index cards and praying through them. My 10 year old uses a devotional book. When they were littler, I would have them do their quiet time while sitting beside me so that I could redirect any distractions or answer questions they might have. Now, they do their quiet times on their own before school in the mornings. We call this devotional time at our house. The 15 year old will occasionally share something that happened in her quiet time. I ask the 10 year old questions when he's done, although sometimes he'll come down the stairs and announce to me that God gave him a devotional that covered something he was having a hard time with (like don't bully your brother, have faith the scout trip will work out, don't let video games be an idol). I still do morning devotionals with my 6 year old. I guess my theory is that we do the devotional, open the Bible, and pray together in the mornings (in addition to our school time Bible studies), and after several years of that, they will be able to do it on their own. I also think it helps my kids to (the early risers at least) come down stairs and find me having my own quiet time. Sometimes the 10 year old will go get his devotional and Bible and do his in the room with me. Anyway, that's how it works at our house. HTH

I have taught a homeschool teen bible study class for the past few years in hopes of teaching children to have their own quiet time. I personally found for "us" that the best prep for "my boys" was doing it together consistently as a family until they were around 12. My children were not ready for the responsibility of quiet times. I mean they would read through children's bibles, but to dig deep and eat spiritual meat didn't happen until they got a little maturity under their belts. I share this because I wish someone had told me this. I really beat myself up and strived so hard to make little Oswald Chambers I tried so many things and had such high expectations on myself for my young children to have a daily quiet time. I think for us we found doing it as a family was modeling what they would need to do when they were older.

The things we have found successful were...,

1- Reading through a book of the bible from start to finish, not jumping around. (Once we finished a book we could go to any book we wanted)
2- Small readings so they could focus on personalization, interaction and content. (we scheduled 4 days of reading so we could enjoy Psalms or other options)
3- One memory verse per week
4- Journaling in their bibles- My goal was that all they need wherever they go is a pen, highlighter and their bible and how they can keep those bibles for years to come. This is what I do. They just date where they are beginning to read and make a note of anything they want. Errands, Occassions, Prayers, etc..,
5- Highlighting anything that they felt the Lord personalized for them.
6- Once a week we then share as a group what the Lord said to each of us.

You know what Kathleen I was very excited when I saw the plans because we have not established an official quiet time with each child. I will say that I know the thing that has really helped them all develop a love for reading the Bible so I will share that in case it helps. I think having that love is a good step to developing a lifetime habit. For us it is that we read through it together and explore what is there in depth and we also take what is in Bigger and embellish it by going deeper every day has been huge. I made a decision a while back that no matter what unit study I used our life unit study would always be Bible. And I decided that we would get that by reading through the Bible together in its entirety every 2-3 years. That was just my decision. I think many plans would work to make the Bible your life focus with your children.

One thing that I have always done is let them search whatever is of interest to them no matter how silly or strange it seemed to me. Some things they wanted to trace are kind of interesting. One that comes to mind is what happens to polygamists in the Bible and can I tell you that never turns out to good. But we have had others, some of them have been real life situations that we have searched for Biblical answers. What this does is teaches them that it can be an adventure and that the Bible is really the source to answer every question even questions about itself. That along with actually reading from the word together chronologically has been great. This year we are reading through most of the NT and our focus is learning what it means to be Christ like and how to get that in our lives. I love that Carrie is doing the focus of individual quiet time because I think it will be the perfect next step focus for us. I am pretty sure it would be an easy step for my kids this year if I wanted to but to be honest I had not yet thought to make that a ritual with them since they do explore on their own. But I do think it is important even if they do read on their own because on their own it is more random and that does not build ritual. Having a ritual builds a habit and a habit like this is huge in a lifetime. Just another thing on the list Carrie is handling for me.

Ladies - Thank you all so much for sharing your ideas with me. I really appreciate and can glean wisdom from all of you! I'm going to talk to my husband and see what we want to try with our kiddos as they grow.

(((Big Hugs))) to all of you!
Kathleen