Morning Devotional

This post is part of my thoughts on educating the kids.

I love having a morning devotional.

At first, I wondered if I wanted to spend much time on spiritual things for school. We already had family prayers, family scripture reading, and Family Home Evening.  I thought we should focus more on academics, but as I pondered on the most important things I wanted my kids to know, I realized that a solid understanding of who they really are was top most on my list.  I knew they needed a daily reminder.  It has made such a difference!

When we first started having a morning devotional, we sung a hymn, prayed and read a scripture story.  We added things, little by little, as the kids got better at listening for a longer period time.

Here is what we do now:

1. Music Theory - Sometimes we just warm up our voices with a scale, or sing a song about the note names.  Sometimes we play a game like "Musical Go Fish" or "Note Memory Match".

2. Hymn - We usually work on one hymn until it is memorized.  I try to pick one that has to do with a value we are working on.  Right now we are memorizing  The Family is of God to help us work on family unity.

3. Prayer

4. Scripture Story - I like to use Discover the Scriptures because it starts with some background and a couple of questions and then we read the story right from the scriptures. You get to hear the scripture language, but you hear it in a story format.  I've also enjoyed reading chapters from the early scripture readers like this one.

4. Latter-Day Prophet Quote - I'll read a quote from the conference Ensign or New Era.  They usually have a question or we talk about what it means or how to apply it.

5. Pledge of Allegiance - Bazinks likes to hold up the flag for us.  It helps him feel included in the devotional.

6. Article of Faith - We'll recite an Article of Faith together

7. Poem - Right now, we're going through A Treasury of Read-Aloud Poems for Young People.  We've also read A Child's Garden of Verses.

8. Non-Fiction Story - Usually, I'll read a section from The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer.   Sometimes, I'll supplement it with a child's biography or other book.  For example, a couple of weeks ago, we read about the caste system in Europe during Medieval times in Story of the World, so I got a couple of books about knights and castles.  I'll sometimes read one of these books to the kids instead of a section from Story of the World.

9. Fiction Story - We'll read a fairy tale, an ancient myth, fables, a short story, etc.  Last year we were studying ancient times so we read quite a few Greek and Roman myths.  Right now we're working on The Good Books  list so we're reading through the fairy tales in The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales -Albert Einstein

The kids often do a quiet activity while I read.  They'll often color, draw, or work on a puzzle.  Bazinks has a hard time coloring for such a long time so I try to remember to get something out for him to do.  Sometimes he builds things with Legos, Tinkertoys, or Knex.  He also likes the Magnadoodle or Aquadoodle.

I can't say things always go smoothly.  I don't think that's possible with a baby and a toddler needing attention at random times.  Bazinks has been asking more and more questions that actually pertain to the reading, so I think he's getting more out of it than it seems at times.  The rest of the kids have learned to handle the interruptions really well.  They just keep doodling until I can continue.  The older kids usually want me to read more when we are finished so they seem to really enjoy it.  I know I do!  I've been learning all sorts of things that I wasn't aware of before.

I highly recommend having some sort of morning devotional to anyone who can make the time!

"Our first priority should go to spiritual learning. For us, reading the scriptures would come before reading history books. Prayer would come before memorizing those Spanish verbs. A temple recommend would be worth more than standing first in our graduating class. But it is also clear that spiritual learning would not replace our drive for secular learning.  To keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary. Never. That will lead to tragedy. Remember, you are interested in education, not just for mortal life but for eternal life. When you see that reality clearly, you will put spiritual learning first and yet not slight the secular learning. In fact, you will work harder at your secular learning than you would without that spiritual vision."
-Henry B. Eyring