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As a foster family with little ones 1-4 years old, devotion time has radically changed from previous years, when we were a family of grown ups!
Our morning devotion routine starts with gathering the family and getting the little ones seated quietly on the couch. Honestly, this is probably the most difficult part! Some mornings are finally almost effortless, but some mornings way more time is spent on obedience than on devotions. Not to worry, this is both normal and extraordinarily valuable for the children. In fact, the toddlers probably benefit more from that training than from the actual contents of devotion time.
Once everyone is seated, we briefly review yesterday’s lesson and read a new page from Everything a Child Should Know About God. We’re loving this book for our current little ones as it covers the basics in a paragraph or two every day. Perfect for tiny attention spans!
We then do our memory verse of the week. Right now we’re using Foundation Fighter Verses to help us select meaningful texts, and we’re setting every verse to ASL sign. We’re all learning and signing it together, keeping everyone engaged.
Finally, we end with a simple song, again with sign language. On occasion we’ve found a youtube video showing other kids singing and signing and that’s always a bonus. But we’ve found that just learning it together works well also, and gives us a much broader selection of songs to pick from.
All told, this is probably a 5-10 minute process. While more could be added (I’m eager to add more catechism components as one of our kids loves those) we’re very excited to see our little ones learning the story line and theology of the Bible in a way that they enjoy.
In the evening we watch another chapter from The Jesus Storybook Bible DVDs together just before tucking them in for the night. Much of it goes over their heads but it is a wonderful way to end the day for all of us.
How about your family? What is your routine? Any tips for families new to devotion time?
