If you homeschool or your child attends a private Christian school, God is hopefully a part of your regular school day. You and/or the other teachers can not only teach an entire class on Bible, but your child may also hear God’s teachings and principles in numerous ways throughout the day. If your child attends public school, you may believe your children have no rights to be exposed to God at school – even if you would like them to be.
A lot of misinformation floats around every year about how “much” God is allowed into public schools. The reality is our God is bigger than any person or group of people who may want to get rid of Him. Over the years, I have done a lot of research to learn what we can and cannot do to remind our children of God throughout their school day. In spite of all of the depressing reports you may have read, there are several ways you can make sure your children are still exposed to God – even if you have enrolled them in public school. (Please be aware I am not an attorney. Double check your child’s school policies if you have any concerns. There are groups who will help you fight illegal anti-God school policies.)
Whether your children attend public school, private school or you homeschool, there is nothing more exciting than those first days of classes. New school supplies, books full of interesting new things to learn and time with friends for kids and moms all add to the promise of great things this year.
If your children attend an average elementary school, they are probably having breakfast around 6:30 or so in the morning. Schools are great about pressuring the parents of even kids who don’t want breakfast into having morning rounds of “just eat a little something” . At school, your children may be eating lunch as early as 10 am. By 11 am, most elementary aged kids have had two meals or a snack and a meal.
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.
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!