How does one go about teaching the Bible to the youngest children? This ques­tion pertains to our families, but Bible lessons for the children are sometimes taught during Ladies' Bible Study sessions, and in some churches they occur during Sunday School or Vacation Bible School.

I'd like to suggest that we don't need a "story Bible" to help us to do this task. Of­ten these books are watered down or em­bellished, sometimes to the point of inaccuracy or even heresy. Instead, with some planning, we can teach young chil­dren right from the Bible.

Could We Do It Better?⤒🔗

Back in 1984 our church had a Sun­day School that met for one hour per week after the morning worship service. My friend Cheryl Bogedain and I were teaching the 3 and 4 year olds, and we had a group of about 6 children. For a while we used a "canned" curriculum from a Christian com­pany, and while we found a lot of value in it, we also felt it was somewhat lacking in the type of Reformed content that we desired. To a great extent we felt that the curriculum was a bit "dumbed down" and that the kids could really handle more Reformed knowl­edge than they were receiving, without making it dry, boring, or difficult. We thought we could be lively and enthused while presenting better information.

And so we set out to create our own curriculum, using the Bible and the cat­echism and our knowledge of the basics of Reformed theology. Our goal was to determine:

1. what knowledge to present;
2. how to apply it to the lives of 3 and 4 year olds; and
3. which techniques and aids would best help them to learn.

We planned out a two-year program and then divided up the subjects so that we each prepared and presented about half of them while the other assisted.

It was a very successful program. We base this on the fact that all of the kids memorized the songs, poems and verses that were presented, all enjoyed the classes, and all of them learned how to sit properly in church, although, of course, our class can only receive a little bit of the credit for that great feat.

This course might be of use within one's own family, or during the time that a morning ladies' Bible study meets. This could be used with children that are a little older as well, but don't underestimate your tiny ones. When one of our three year olds was heard happily belting out "Your neigh­bor's goods you shall not covet..." (from Hymn 7 in the Book of Praise used by the Canadian and American Reformed) as her Mom pushed her in a cart through the gro­cery store, we knew it was not too difficult or boring for her to learn.

I present to you now an expanded out­line of the two-year program that we used. It gives a suggested structure for helping children become familiar with the names and narratives that they hear about in church, and basic knowledge regarding how God wants them to behave both in church and in the home.

Content — What Knowledge Should We Present?←⤒🔗

We decided to teach an overview of God's covenants with key people in the Bible, followed by a study of the Ten Com­mandments and then a study about Jesus and what He did and taught. That pretty well took up the 104 lessons that we needed, and afterwards they graduated into the next class.

Now, I can just hear some people say­ing, "Oh! Just imagine! How could she think that she could teach 3 and 4 year olds 'an overview of God's covenants'?" Well ... by figuring out exactly how much could be understood by the children and going on from there to determine how to do it. The outline we established went as follows:

1. Creation
2. God's Covenant With Adam
3. God's Covenant With Noah
4. God's Covenant With Abraham
5. Moses, and God's Covenant With Israel
6. The Ten Commandments
7. God's Covenant With David
8. Jesus Christ — Who He Was and What He Did

Now that we had the outline established, both of us put together our lesson plans by deciding on the specifics of each lesson. There were several "rules" we established and followed as we progressed.

First of all, we did not use any story Bibles. We looked over the passages that pertained to the subject and determined which verses we would read to the chil­dren directly out of the Bible. Then we would tell it to them in our own words, with lots of enthusiasm and eye contact.

Secondly, we chose a short verse or phrase that seemed to sum up what was being learned and could be memorized by repetition with the children.

Thirdly, we chose songs that related to the topic, and sometimes made up our own songs and poems.

Last of all, we decided on a picture that could be colored or a very simple craft that could be put together. There were actually four reasons I can think of for this:

1. for the children's enjoyment;
2. so that the children had a paper to take home that let their parents know the topic and verse that was learned;
3. the children at this age were learning to sit still and follow instruc­tions from someone other than their par­ents, so just staying seated and scribbling helped them in learning these things;
4. while they were coloring, we continued talking with them about the narrative that they had just heard, thus cementing it more firmly into their little minds.

Seven Days of Creation←⤒🔗

We started at the beginning. One les­son was spent on each of the days of Cre­ation. We brought in lots of pictures and we cut them out and added them to little book­lets which the children took home after the seventh Sunday. Constantly we taught them that "God made me and all things." I wrote a couple of little songs, including this one that purposely put the days of cre­ation in their order (see the sheet music for the tune):

God made the light,
The water and the air
God made the land, with trees and flowers everywhere
God made the sun, moon and stars hold the light
He made the fish and birds and ani­mals just right
Then God made man, Adam and Eve.
And on the seventh day, He rested indeed.

It could also be used as a poem and be re­peated by the group. With each line we in­vented hand motions that helped them to remember. Working with 3 and 4 year olds, each activity lasted about 5-10 minutes at most, so we included a lot of variety. Some­times we walked around in a circle holding hands singing to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell":

"God takes care of us,
God takes care of us,
God takes care of everything and
God takes care of us."

Such simple tunes were easy to find new stanzas for as we progressed from les­son to lesson. We put pictures of the chil­dren up on the bulletin board along with pictures of animals and plants, and talked about them together.

Moving on to Adam, we told about the first sin and then about how God made a cov-en-ant with Adam. "What does covenant mean? It means that God said to them, 'I will be your God, and you shall be my people!" This phrase was reiterated over and over again. How did this relate to their lives? "God makes a covenant with us too! He says to us, 'I will be your God, and you shall be My people!'"

What is sin to a little one? We taught them that, "God wants you to obey your Mommy and Daddy." We gave examples that they could relate to: "What if Mommy says 'do not touch the book on the table?' Then I must not touch it because Mommy said no." "God is pleased with us when we obey our Mommy and Daddy."

Studying Noah, there was the basic story to tell, of course, followed by God's promise in the rainbow. Along the way we showed pictures of animals and rainbows, and colored animals one week and a rain­bow the next. How did this apply? "God chose Noah and made His cov-en-ant — He said, 'I will be your God, and you shall be my people.' He promised to take care of Noah, and He takes care of you, too, be­cause you belong to Him as well." Here we taught another song (author unknown):

We belong to God the Father
Who made us, everyone
Who made the earth and heavens
The moon and stars and sun
All that we have each day
To us by Him is given
We call Him when we pray
Our Father God in Heaven.

We studied Abraham, always asking our­selves which facts we wanted them to re­member well, and what truth we could teach them through the passage.

Moses and the Red Sea←⤒🔗

In the first lesson on Moses, I brought in a doll and a basket. As I told the story, I put the basket on the long wooden bench and then gently pushed it along. The children sat wide-eyed and silent, hanging on every word. I told how Miriam had watched and that there was a kind of king called a Pharaoh and his daughter found baby Moses. Then Miriam went and got Moses' Mommy to come and feed her little baby. "Didn't God take good care of Moses? And wasn't his Mommy thankful to be able to see her baby boy every day?"

Of course the lessons learned were simple. But far greater lessons were being learned as we went along. They were learning to sit still and listen to the narra­tive. We never considered outbursts and getting out of their seats as "interrup­tions" — for they were the work itself. As the weeks went on, the children improved in their ability to sit still and listen, and this was good training for sitting in the worship service.

As we finished several lessons about David, touching on a few easily under­stood highlights and well known accounts, we realized that we were acquainting them with the people of God's Word. Whenever they would hear "David" or "Moses" or "Abraham" in a sermon upstairs, then they would have some understanding of who that person was. And always, we reiterated "I will be your God and you shall be My people."

When we talked about the parting of the Red Sea, it was thrilling to tell them how strong and mighty God is, and to choose a stanza of a hymn or Psalm that reflected that.

Part of each lesson was spent on re­peating the words to the stanza of a Psalm or hymn we were working on, so that after several Sundays the children knew the stanzas by heart.

All of this information was sent home on their "paper" too, so that parents might review with them during the week.

The Ten Commandments Applied to Toddlers←⤒🔗

The Ten Commandments study was probably the biggest challenge and per­haps the most rewarding lesson planning of all. How did we apply each commandment to 3 and 4 year olds?

"You shall have no other gods before me." We talked about worship! We set up chairs in rows and one of us pretended to be the minister and we pretended we were in church. We talked about how God wanted us to behave during worship time. "Should we wiggle all around and turn around and make faces at our friends?" (Lots of giggles — Nooooo!) "Should we rip the pages of the Bible when we are holding it?" (More giggles — Nooooo!) "No! God wants us to sit quietly when Pastor X is talking. He is happy with us when we are careful with the Bible and songbook. These are His spe­cial books." We practiced standing and sit­ting and talked about how to act during each section of the service. We practiced singing the hymn or Psalm that we knew.

"You shall not make for yourself a graven image." "Some people used to take a piece of wood and make a little statue and say that was their God. But the real God says, No! You are only supposed to worship Me. That was silly for them to think that a piece of wood could be a real God..."

As we moved along through the com­mandments, we found ways to relate each one to our little covenant critters. The third commandment taught us that we should be respectful and serious about God, His name, and His worship. We should not be silly or play around when it was time to worship, or when we talked about Him. The fourth commandment talked about what activities we did all week long that we did not do on Sunday, and why. The fifth commandment talked about obeying Mommy and Daddy and teacher and babysitter and grandparents — whoever was taking care of them! The sixth taught them to be kind to one another — not tak­ing each others' toys, or saying things that made another person sad.

The seventh commandment did cause us to reflect for a while before we found two applications. "You shall not commit adul­tery." We talked about dressing modestly, covering our bodies with clothing, for even little ones need to begin learning this. And we said that God brought a man and woman together to be a family, and that people should not take a family apart. We brought in wedding pictures from their families and talked about them. (Thank­fully, in our case, there were no situations of divorce to deal with).

For the eighth commandment, we talked about being thankful to God for what He gives us, and not taking what be­longs to other people. For the ninth, we developed little stories that illustrated how children might blame someone else for what they did. And with the tenth com­mandment, we talked about being happy for others when they have something that we don't have, being thankful for what we do have, and explaining what it is like to be jealous, and why it is wrong.

We generally did two Sundays on each commandment, so it took about 22 Sun­days altogether because we spent two weeks doing the introduction.

By the end of the lessons, due to en­thusiastic review sessions and music, the children could all say the Ten Command­ments and sing all nine stanzas of Hymn 7 (the Ten Commandments) in the Book of Praise, and other songs and Psalms as well. I found that with my own children, they were a handy reference throughout the week as I reminded them of how God wanted them to behave, and how glad we were when they did so. This was humor­ously seen when one of my twins was act­ing badly one Sunday in class and I reminded him that God is sad when we do not obey. The other twin piped up and said, "Yes, but God loves all of US who heed His Word."

They all memorized, with hand mo­tions, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

The Life of Christ←⤒🔗

From there we went on to the life of Christ. The two challenges there were:

1. what to do about visual aids, and
2. which knowledge to include to give a balanced general idea of who Jesus is.

As far as the visual aids went, we avoided all pictures of Jesus, but sometimes showed some scenery or some other people or the donkey he rode into Jerusalem.

For content, we mostly used the Book of Luke, and just had to take the number of Sundays that were available to us and pick and choose from there. Certainly this started with His birth and ended with His crucifixion and resurrection, and included some miracles and statements from Jesus along the way.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

When the two years were finished, the children were 5 years old. They knew who Adam and Eve and Noah and Abra­ham and Moses and Israel and David and Jesus were and they knew what God re­quired of them. They could sing a few of the hymns and songs that were commonly heard within their own congregation, and they could repeat simple phrases and verses. They had practiced sitting still and listening and taking turns and sharing crayons with one another as part of "lov­ing your neighbor as yourself."

We can teach the kids right from the Bible without a story Bible to help us. In­stead, let us acknowledge the abilities of their minds, while remembering the char­acteristics and limitations of their age. Our excitement about God's Word will spread to them as we do so.

O LORD let Thy commandments teach us
Our sins and misery to see,
that we, delivered from all evil,
May live in thankfulness to Thee.
Book of Praise Hymn 7, stanza 9

Do you not know, have you not heard
the Lord enthroned on high
He is the everlasting God
Who made both earth and sky
Hymn 9, stanza 1