Teaching Scripture to your children is a huge part of raising your little ones in a Christian home. When we hide God’s Word in our hearts, it accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent! {Isaiah 55}
When we first began doing devotions with our children, we wanted to make sure we included every member of the family, down to whoever was the baby at the time :) But sometimes the baby would be in bed or fussy and it just wouldn’t happen! So I got to thinking that maybe there were some other ways that I could teach Scripture with this sweet little one.
Obviously, a really small child won’t be able to repeat the verses back to you right away but it definitely plants the seed of faith! These are four things we’ve done so far to “teach” Scripture to the smallest members of the family.
How to Teach Scripture to Your Baby or Toddler
Read Scripture to Your Baby in the Bathtub
A sweet friend actually gave me the idea to read Bible verses to my baby/toddler during bath-time and it really works {as long as your baby loves the water, anyway!}. Lately, while J {13 months} has been splashing around in the tub, we’ve been reading through the Psalms! The other kids like to stop by and listen too :)
Listen to Scripture Set to Music
We love listening to music in our house! Christian and classical music stations on Pandora are typically playing in the background throughout the day. We also love Scripture that is set to music.
Some of the CDs we love are Praise Baby {God of Wonders is our fave}, Hide ‘Em in Your Heart and Songs for Saplings. J’s eyes honestly light up when we put it on!
Display Bible Verses Where Your Baby Spends Lots of Time
For the first few months of their lives, our three children spent lots of time on the changing table, so we have made a habit of hanging Scripture verses above said changing table :) We read them while we are doing the diaper change. (See my sweet little J below!)
Later, when the kids are older, Bible verses get hung on the walls of their bedroom and we read them at night.
Maybe your baby spends lots of time in the playroom or living room–wherever it is, put up some Scripture and read it out loud to your little one!
Read Books with Bible Stories and Scripture
I’m sure this is something most of you do already, but I wanted to share a couple of the books we like to read to the youngest in our house. What’s so fun to watch is when the older ones read to the baby!
My ABC Bible/ABC Prayers – We got this book as a gift when our first child was born. One side has cute little pictures and rhyming Bible stories. Flip it over and there are ABC prayers, also with sweet illustrations.
What is God Like? – After we received the Many Colored Blessings book {which we read to all three of our babies}, we looked for some of the other Little Blessings books and found What is God Like. It’s a super sweet book, illustrated by the same woman who created the Care Bears!
What we like about it is that it has Scripture put to rhyme {there’s a whole series} and at the end of the book, it gives the Scripture references for each page as well as the full Bible verse. This book is really great for kids 18 months and up!
Looking to have your toddler memorize some Bible verses?
Check out the most popular post ever on my blog that will give you 10 Bible verses to teach to your toddler!
38 Comments on Four Ideas for Teaching Scripture to Your Baby or Toddler
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This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you. My daughter got christened this morning and the sermon really got me thinking about teaching her the scriptures (she’s going on 6 months so I thought she was too young)
Thanks, Jenny! Definitely not to early to begin “teaching” our kids the Bible :) Blessings to you!
Thanks! With my kids (and myself, my twin and I thrived on the tapes from the age of 3 and up when they were new), I’ve found that they love The Donut Man above all else. I got a lot of my bible story knowledge for the first time off him. Each cd has one verse that is sang or had some cool way of doing it (those clap games we used to love as kids, or skipping rope rhymes).
If you still aren’t sure, look him up on youtube as he has videos called The Donut Repair Club as well. :) The best kids christian CDs ever!
We love the Donut Man! He is awesome at teaching theology too in a creative way! Thanks for the reminder, we have a couple of his DVDs but should get a CD too!
Just saw this post and will DEFINITELY be using some of these ideas! I have a 7 month old and want to instill a love for God and His Word in her, but knowing how to do that when she’s so itty bitty has been hard. Thanks!
Awesome, so glad you can use the ideas! It’s definitely profitable to share Scripture with our kids even when they’re really little!
Pinned this. :-) Love it!
Monica
https://happyandblessedhome.com
What great ideas! I often feel as though I’m trying to keep our littler two quiet during Bible time, and feel like they are missing out. I love these ideas!
What I do when they are too loud is I start talking quieter. I did this with my youngest little brother born when my sis and I were 16 as well as my 2 kids. If you start talking quieter they can start to quiet too to listen and also it’s good modeling (my brother actually didn’t know what shush meant until we modeled it for him). It doesn’t work immediately but the trick is to have patience. The same can be done with saying grace etc. Then when they have mastered it you can start to use the techniques for grocery shopping etc, plus has the added bonus of keeping the atmosphere sweet, stress free and free of raised voices :)
Love the Praise Baby CDs. Great ideas! I recently read a book called Together Growing Appetites for God by Carrie Ward. She explained how she struggled with “quiet time” as a mom of toddlers. So she decided to read through the Bible with her children (infants and on) at the breakfast table. We’ve implemented this into our morning routine. My son is 18 months old, and at the very least, he recognizes “By-buhhl” {Bible} and when asked who talks to us in the Bible, he can say, “Gahhh” {God}. It’s quite cute, and I can read through the Bible with him. So glad to see other mamas doing similar things! :)
I love the idea of reading through the Bible at breakfast! That would be so good for me too, serving as my “quiet time” with the Lord before the day even starts. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and share what you’ve done with your kiddos.
Love this post! I’m visiting from WLWW link up. Love the idea of hanging verses where the children are. I’ve wondered how to share verses with my 18 month old. I hang verses around the house, and I love this idea. We have Ephesians 6:1 hanging in the dining room,and my 5 yo loves to recite it.
Thanks so much for sharing your ideas!
Love your post! I’m a first time visitor from WLWW link up. I always wonder how I should do this with my 18 month old. She barely even lets me read to her right now. Love the idea of posting verses where they are. I do that for myself, so why wouldn’t I do that for my children? Love these ideas!
I recommend The Donut Man cd’s, my twin sister and I enjoyed them hugely from 3 and up and my son (2 1/2) loves him and my 7 month daughter is starting to enjoy him too. Even if they’re too young to understand the lyrics the tunes are really catchy and their spirits enjoy it and also it cultivates an interest later. My son really enjoys singing and Jesus was on his lips from about the age of your little one. :)
This is great, thanks! I had the delight of overhearing my just turned 2 year old daughter saying “ejsus, eejsus” as she flipped through her bible story book the other day. Delighted my heart. :)
It’s so precious to know that God’s word is really working in our children :)
Thank you for this RICH post!! I am always thinking of various ways we can teach the Word to our son as a family. These links are great, the books and music are wonderful resources. I checked Spotify and can’t BELIEVE how much music is there are scripture verses, I now have a Scripture Music playlist we’ll be playing all day!!!
Ooh, I’ll have to check out Spotify, I usually use Pandora on my new Roku!
That’s a great idea of reading Scripture while they are in the bathtub. I’m usually just sitting there watching him play!
Mary Beth
newlifesteward.com
Thanks, Mary Beth! A friend actually gave me the idea and it works great for us!
Great ideas! I love you post, every post at that! Thanks I’ve been looking for ways to interest my three year old:))
Thanks, Gina!
Thanks for the book recommendation, I’m always searching for great books for my little guys that incorporate God’s word. It is not an easy task.
Marissa @ forfunreadinglist.blogspot.com
Thank you, Marissa :)
H Jenn, I’m a first time visitor to your blog and found many of your posts helpful. I really like these ideas you shared on teaching scriptures to babies/toddlers. I like the idea of reading the Word during bath time, I’m going to try that out (though bath is usually my son’s water play time).
Thanks so much, Ruth! I hope you continue to enjoy the blog :)
These are great ideas. I’ve done a few of them but I now may add a few more. Thank you for sharing! I’d love to have you link this up to Titus 2 Tuesday today on Cornerstone Confessions. Hope to see you there!
Kathy
Thanks, Kathy :)
Great post, Jen! Creative ideas for teaching Scripture to our little ones. Thank you for sharing. <3
Thanks, friend! :)