Tips For Young Bible Bee-ers On Hard Verses

My 7-year old sister is struggling on the verses. They are all hard for her–she is a new reader and words like, "inspiration, correction, Scripture, acknowledgment, etc." are hard for her to know the meaning of, let alone memorize. I know there are others out there with the same thing…

Any suggestions?

Think up creative word pictures for her to think about when she is memorizing. For example, on "acknowledgment" if she knows what the word "knowledge" means, she can think of, say, someone putting a mint ("-ment") into her head (for "ac-knowledge"). The crazier it gets, the easier it is to remember.

Matthew has a good suggestion. Also, try taking it a little at a time. You don't have to memorize a lot right away. Helping her focus on learning just a little bit of a passage one day, and a little bit more the next, might be just what she needs. It's better to memorize well with understanding than to memorize hastily and sloppily, after all.

For example, for 2 Timothy 3:16-17, first, just get her to focus on a short, understandable phrase - "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (or even just "All Scripture"), taking time to explain what "breathed out by God" means. You don't have to dive into a complex theological explanation - go for simplicity (without stretching or squashing the truth, of course). Then you'd go through the passage in the same way

"and is profitable" - explain that "profitable" basically means "useful".
"for teaching, reproof, correction and training" - explain "reproof" as similar to when Mom tells you you did something wrong.
"in righteousness" - say "righteousness" is basically doing what is right.

So on and so forth…simplify and break down into chunks.

I hope that was helpful!

Hi. I am a Bible Bee mom. For younger children, try working on one verse at a time rather than a passage.

Also, younger children can memorize easily, but understanding is more difficult. It is okay for a child to have a verse memorized that she doesn't understand. She is still hiding God's word in her heart. And later she will understand the meaning.