Scripture Power!

'For those of you who have had (or currently have) young children, I'm sure you can understand how tricky family scripture time can be. After years of experience, I have discovered that we have to change what we do every six months or so. We have found an amazing number of ways to mix up reading the Book of Mormon as a family every day, although we do have certain staples that we stick with in each new way.

Our previous scripture reading involved scripture stories up on a wall, hehe...

For the summer, we have decided to take a break from our current scripture technique (which involves a lot of time in the actual scriptures). I have been struggling getting Emma and Caleb to even sit still at all for the last couple of months during scripture time. They will repeat the verses after us, and they will say what they have learned and such, but I'm not sure they are getting ANYTHING out of it. I decided to pull out an old favorite scripture reading technique of my older kids that we used when they were little. I haven't done it in a long time, because we are not in the "real" scriptures as much as I would like the older kids to be, but I figured we could relax since it is summer (if this is a bad stragety and my kids are scarred for life, oh well). We call it "Scripture Power." Here is how it works:

We start by singing the song "Scripture Power," actions and all. I pull out the GAK (gospel art kit) and the kids take turns pulling out ANY picture (yes, we deviate from just the Book of Mormon for this). The older kids enjoy reading some of the stories they are not as familiar with. I tell them the story on the picture and then we all act it out. One day we may be wicked Nephites throwing rocks at Samuel the Lamanites, and the next we may be lions in the den with Daniel. The little ones really enjoy this. We then sing the timeless Veggie Tales song about how "what we have learned applies to our life today" and all the kids say how the story applies to their own life. I am pleased to report that Emma and Caleb have both been able to refer to the actual story, rather than the typical "Follow Jesus" that Caleb always says, and the "Follow Jesus and repent" that Emma uses. Following our discussion of how we can apply the counsel in the scriptures, we sing a poem that I put to the tune of "Scripture Power." It works perfectly...

"I want to be like Nephi, obedient to the Lord
Corageous like Queen Esther, and Ammon with his sword.
Like Ruth I will be faithful, like Moses I'll be true.
Examples in the scriptures can show me what to do"

"Scripture power keeps me safe from sin.
Scripture power is the power to win.
Scripture Power, every day I need
the power that I get each time I read."

Anyway, it has been going SOOOO well that I just wanted to share. The little ones have been participating again and we have had some awesome discussion time with the older kids. And ya know what? It just does a mom's heart good to hear her little ones sing "Scripture Power" with such gusto. :)

Lizzie (6) picks the story of Adam and Eve while Hannah (8) looks on Hannah (8) and Ammon (10) really like the POWER part of Scripture Power
Eve (Hannah) tries to convince Adam (Caleb) that he isn't an animal like the rest of the kids. :)

P.S. I just wanted to put in a plug for every family owning the GAK! It is so awesome. We have actually gone through a couple of sets. We use the pictures all the time. We use them in scripture study, family home evening, and the typical places. We have also found other good uses for them. I have a bunch of the GAK pictures of the Savior that we bring to church for the kids to look at/read during the sacrament. I still have fond memories of Hannah Bay at four or five years old sitting with Nana at church every week (we were in the same ward) and learning scripture stories of Jesus during the sacrament. We could sure use you these days, Mom!