When my daughter was an infant, I used to put her in the stroller and take long walks around our neighborhood. Looking back, I am sure people driving by probably thought I was a little strange, as I talked to her constantly the entire time. Whether I was pointing out things for her to notice or telling her stories about what we would do later, she heard constant chatter.
Studies have shown talking to infants makes a huge difference in their intellectual growth. By the age of two years, babies who had been spoken to a lot by their parents were up to six months developmentally ahead of children who heard little conversation from their parents. (Guardian Feb. 14, 2014, Ian Sample) In fact, according to Mr. Sample, Professor Erika Hoff stated, “Children cannot learn what they don’t hear.”
What a powerful thought! Our children cannot learn what they don’t hear. Even more importantly, the article quoted experts as saying television and iPhones were no substitute for adults talking to their children about things they might find interesting. Healthy language and intellectual development were dependent on direct, focused, parental involvement.
What if we applied educational science to spiritual education? How would this information apply to teaching our children about God? What things would we need to do to make sure our children were learning about God in the best possible ways? What if we were as concerned about our child’s spiritual development as we are about their language development?
For Bible stories and principles to become a permanent part of your child’s memory, they must be repeated many times over the course of many years. As a parent and teacher, I am always looking for new ways to make review a little more fun. Yesterday, we decided to use a game to review everything we had learned over the summer. My husband invented the original normal table sized version of this game and we took it up a notch by making it life-sized!
Barnabas is one of my favorite people in the Bible. We don’t know a whole lot about him, but the descriptions in Acts (4:36, 9:27,11:22-24, etc.) always caught my imagination. What would a person be like who was known as the son of encouragement? How would someone behave who was known for encouraging others and being a good man, full of the Holy Spirit?
You want a godly book or dvd for your children, so you head to the local Christian book store and purchase something that sounds good. After all, how bad can it be since the Christian bookstore is selling it? When I was young, the Christian book and movie industry was in its infancy. Ironically, many Christians were very cautious about purchasing anything labeled Christian.
Teachable moments are some of the best tools in the savvy Christian parent’s tool box. You can create an experience or take advantage of one that happens naturally to teach your children important lessons. A lot of the ideas in Parenting Like Hannah are actually ways for you to intentionally create teachable moments to help your child develop specific godly characteristics.
.