I became a follower of Jesus Christ when I was 17 years old. Developing a discipline of daily devotions – reading the Bible and praying – has been a 36 year process.  By the time I was 40 I still had not read through the entire Bible. The reason I am writing this in my ‘homeschool joys’ blog, is because I wanted my children to have an education that included an understanding of who God says that He is, as well as a personal relationship with Him. I didn’t want them to be in their 40s before they read the entire Bible. So, I made reading the Bible together a part of our daily school schedule. After breakfast and morning chores, we gathered together to read the Bible aloud together and to pray for our day’s activities.

Reading aloud is a ‘tip’ for another day, but I can say that there are many educational benefits for the activity – fluency, reading comprehension, presentation skills, etc. But these are side-benefits, the focus was to read through the Bible. We took a chapter a day. There were discussions that naturally followed our reading. The children had heard many of the Bible stories before, but there were many things with which they were not familiar. It took us just over two years to complete the book. I must caution you and say that there are chapters in the book of Deuteronomy regarding the Law to the Jews that introduce some subjects that I had not prepared myself to discuss with the kids until they were older, but I did cover them as carefully and sensitively as I could. We celebrated the accomplishment and had enjoyed the journey together. I did encourage them to re-read the Bible on their own, but we soon replaced that time with other devotional reading.

The point I am trying to make is that there are disciplines we would like to instill in our children, whether they be reading the Bible or getting regular exercise.  By making them a routine part of your school day, we help ourselves and our children develop these habits at an early age. Of course, there will be disciplines that they will struggle keeping, but the things we instill in them while they are young will find a place in their lives as they mature.

So, choose wisely, and make it a part of your day.