Home Church with Kids

We have tussled many times about how we, as a family, want to conduct 'church' at home with our young children. For those who do not attend a local church and who struggle with formulating some kind of structure for your kids' learning, here's what we have been doing as of late with success.

                     

(Click to enlarge)

We picked up a copy of The Book of Mormon Family Reader at the D.I. for a couple of bucks a little over a year ago, but it can be bought new or used from Amazon here.

The book offers a reading plan for families to follow. It's designed for kids to read snippets of Book of Mormon stories chronologically. Additionally, it offers thought-provoking questions at the end of each lesson. 

We use the new Covenant of Christ to become more familiar with that edition but follow the same reading plan from the book. We will also watch relevant videos online here and here [1], and utilize a whiteboard to help capture the overall message. 

Additionally, before each lesson, we review the previous week's lesson (they do most of the talking here), and my wife and I ensure that we ask our own questions and bring up important information throughout the lesson not included in the book or videos.

Although we are following a book’s reading plan, that is not to say we are relinquishing our duty to teach our kids light and truth in an adequate way. We avoid ‘cute’ lessons or anything that waters down important principles and events just because they’re kids. We tried it. Doesn’t work. Our kids are not only able to handle raw information, but they want it. My experience is that’s true for most kids. 

With that, it’s no surprise that young children can be difficult at times to teach because of their ever-changing moods, but that's more of a lesson for the parents than the kids. Our kids are 9, 8, and 6 and we have found that consistency matters most at this age. 

Kids retain a lot more than we think, so my two cents are to be consistent each week. Don't skip a week if you can help it. This helps with body and mind regulation and sets expectations. Have structure, but don't control the meeting. The structure we offer is just the underlying means of producing a dialogue. 

My wife and I are always amazed at how much the kids are actually listening and comprehending - even when we think the lesson was a disaster. More often than not, lessons actually do go quite well. There are times I have thanked God for His help in getting us through the lesson, and He has thanked me in return. I think He appreciates our efforts, despite our weakness.

Be deliberate and intentional. Teach your kids honestly because not only is it our duty, it's quite fun. We won't follow this format forever, but it's working. 

Here are some things we're looking to incorporate throughout the upcoming year:

  • Gather with other families with young children of similar age [2]. 
  • Have special guests teach our kids - such as folks from other faith traditions, folks with unique talents that can stimulate children's minds, and people with musical, artistic, or other talents. 
  • Have our kids teach that week's lesson.
  • Visit Restoration themed sites, such the Church History Museum which displays a replica of the gold plates, has Joseph and Hyrum's death masks, as well as other important bits of Restoration history.
  • Plan community/service projects for those in need.
If you can be of service to my family in these areas, we would greatly appreciate it. 

Our family home evening structure and lessons are quite different than our Sunday meetings. 

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[1] A good friend in my fellowship recently shared with me the Book of Mormon videos in graphic novel format. It’s actually very informative and expansive compared to the typical kids video.

[2] This is very important to us. Kids need to be around other like-minded kids. It's also important that they, even at a young age, learn how to work well with other kids especially when it comes to things of a ‘religious’ nature. You may no longer attend a church, but Zion won't come if kids don't know how to learn, listen, have discussions, and healthily work alongside each other. We can continue having church at home by ourselves but would appreciate and prefer any connections. Thank you. 

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