If you ever want real accountability for being in the Word of God on a daily basis, then sign up to teach the kid’s ministry at church. I teach kids from ages 9-12 every Thursday evening. We are going through the books of Samuel. I don’t use any curriculum; I simply inductively study the chapter during the week and teach the lesson the Lord gives me.  This keeps me daily in the Word, studying and reviewing the chapter that I am teaching.

At home, the first thing we do each morning is our family devotions. During this time, we read through the Bible together. It took five years to read the entire Bible together the first time, and we are just finishing up Deuteronomy in our second read through. I also read a Bible story to the kids every night before bed from The Egermeier’s Bible Story Book, but I have been longing to do more. I long to teach every subject through the Bible and my Thursday night Bible studies with the kids at church have prompted me to add more Bible study to our day at home.

My “intellectually disabled” drummer boy, get’s very little out of Thursday night’s Bible studies. His canned answer to every question is “God.” He really wants to understand it though, so I have decided to give him a head start in the lesson. This has lead me to teaching language arts, at home, through the Bible. Monday through Thursday, we inductively study the chapter I will be teaching Thursday evening. Now my drummer boy gets at least half of the answers correct on Thursday evening and he is much more engaged.

Every narrative element can be studied through the Bible. Studying the Bible builds character and gives value to doing school. If glorifying God is the purpose of school, of course His Word should be the main subject.

Here is a link for the steps of how to inductively study the Bible: Inductive Bible Study

All three categories of the trivium can be practice through inductively studying the Bible.  Through observation, language and speech can be practiced. This week my drummer boy and ballerina practiced summarizing and orally retelling the battle between David and Goliath. Thought is practiced through both interpretation and application of the scripture. Last week, my students interpreted the symbol of the Amelikites as the flesh. They researched God’s Word regarding the flesh. They found out what it is and what to do about it. Then they  orally explained what they are going to do about their own flesh, for more practice in the speech skill set.

It is my intent to do more of this as my drummer boy’s therapy programs are completed, but for now I have had to move our read alouds to the evening time after dinner. I am also in the process of freeing our family from curriculum enslavement so we can add more project time and science to our day. I will be posting more about how we are accomplishing this in future posts. Happy studying!