Devotional & Personal Gospel Study

In our home school, we follow the pattern set in my home when I was being homeschooled, and we have a devotional each morning.   There have been lots of times when I've tried to shorten this, or take it out of our school day, but over the years I've realized that this is the largest reason that I home school my children - so I can have time with them each day to teach them the gospel. 

“Our children should be indoctrinated in the principles of the Gospel from their earliest childhood. They should be made familiar with the contents of the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. These should be their chief textbooks, and everything should be done to establish and promote in their hearts genuine faith in God, in His Gospel and its ordinances, and in His works. But under our common school system this is not possible.”

--Wilford Woodruff, Messages of the First Presidency, Jun. 8, 1888

There are lots of parts of our school day that I still need to do better at, but we have found a devotional schedule that really works for our family.  It does take a fair amount of time, and that's why I've been tempted many times to neglect it, but the feeling in our home during devotional is something I really treasure.  

Here is our schedule.  We really do it just like this.  This is one part of our day that is a constant. We actually have it on a  "three week" schedule - this is necessary to make sure everyone gets a turn to do each thing. But the blog was trying to be difficult when I tried pasting the three week schedule in, so you just get to look at "week 1".  The other weeks are the same, just different names, songs, scriptures, etc.

	Week 1
	Mon	Tue	Thu
Opening Hymn	"The Books of the Old Testament"
Led by	Aliysa	Jace	Courtney
Opening prayer	Jace	Courtney	Spencer
Storied Scriptures	(Mom reads / everyone draws)
Pledge of allegiance	Courtney	Spencer	Mallory
Patriotic Song	"My Country 'Tis of Thee"
Led by	Spencer	Mallory	Zach
Poem of the Week
Recited by	Mallory	Zach	Andrew
Memorization	Zach	Andrew	Abby
Scripture recitation	Genesis 1:1; Moses 1:39 (seminary)
Talk & testimony	Andrew	Abby	Taycie/Mom
Conference connection
Closing Song	"All Things Bright and Beautiful"
Led by	Abby	Taycie/Mom	Aliysa
Personal gospel study
Journals

We do devotional on Wednesdays also, but that is the day that my older children are at seminary and piano lessons, so I just do it with the younger children.  On Fridays, we are planning to quiz each other on our scripture mastery and scripture facts on the way to our gymnastics classes.

Most of this schedule is pretty self explanatory, but here are notes about some of it:

We use the Church website's music page as an accompaniment for our opening hymn & closing primary song.  I choose songs that go along with the scriptures we are memorizing.

Storied Scriptures - this is where I read to my children from the Old Testament, and they draw a picture in a scripture sketchbook of what I am reading.  We use the "storied scriptures" schedule from this LDS homeschool site  We often discuss what we are reading as we go along.

Memorization - I encourage each of my children to be memorizing something that they can share in devotional when it is their turn.  This is also when we practice parts for the primary program, or have them practice performing something that they are learning in outside classes, etc.  

Talk & Testimony - This is when someone gives a short spiritual thought or talk, and then they bear their testimony.  It is true that often "a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it". (Boyd K. Packer) so that is why I have them bear their testimony.  It also helps them not to feel embarrassed to share it outside of our home.  

I often remind my children to notice how they feel when someone is bearing a testimony, or to notice how they feel when they say the things in their testimonies.  I'll ask them "how did you feel when you said that you know that Jesus lives?"  

This is just a personal preference, but I don't let them start their testimonies with "I'd like to bear my testimony..."  I think that phrase is often a vain meaningless repetition. I really do not mind when I hear other people say it at church (I'm just happy that they want to bear their testimony), but I'm trying to get my children out of the habit.

Conference connection - I started this when I felt that we needed to review the conference talks more often throughout the year.  My intent was to choose a conference talk, and do a short object lesson, or tell a story from the talk, and then share a few quotes from the talk.  

More often, though, we usually just watch a "Mormon Message" on my laptop & discuss it.  These short videos are excellent!  I've been brought to tears many times while watching them.  We recently watched the one about "flecks of gold", and I felt a feeling that that is kind of what I am doing in devotional - just helping my children feel the spirit day after day.  It was a great reminder that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass".  

Personal Gospel Study - After devotional, I send each of the children into a different spot in the house with their scriptures & other gospel study materials (like "Preach my Gospel", Personal Progress or Duty to God books, The Picture Bible*, Church magazines, etc.)  We set the timer for 30 minutes, and they study.  I've asked them to pray first, then read the BofM for at least 5 minutes (they also read for 5 minutes as part of their morning chores), and then choose what else they want to study.  

I sit on the couch with the littlest ones and read from the Illustrated Scripture Story Books, and other scripture books, then help them with their journals (they dictate, and I write, then they draw a picture of what they wrote about.) The 30 minutes passes way too quickly, and everyone is always reluctant to stop studying.  

I will say that this part of our day (children's personal scripture study) is something that took a long time to implement.  We've been good about family scripture study & prayers for a long time, but over and over, I kept feeling that if I wanted my children to have testimonies of their own, then I needed to make sure they had quiet time each day to study the scriptures.   

“Do you want to feel the love of God more powerfully in your life? Do you want to feel more in tune with His Spirit? Do you want to have the heavens opened to you daily?  There is a way you can feel a daily renewal of God’s everlasting love and drink from “the fountain of living waters” (1 Nephi 11:25). It follows a pattern set by the Prophet Joseph Smith when he went to a grove of trees early one morning in 1820 seeking answers to his questions. I speak of a morning devotional time spent in prayer, meditation, and scripture study. If you have a devotional every morning, even if only for a few minutes, you will be deeply blessed. I know this to be true.” -Opening the Heavens, By Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi, Of the Seventy

*A note about The Picture Bible:  My husband read this book with illustrations that look like comic-strips when he was young, and he knows the Bible stories so well.  He absolutely loves the Old Testament, and he credits this book with helping him learn to love it.  It stays quite close to the King James Version of the Bible, and while it cuts out a few rougher parts of some Bible stories, it doesn't "dumb it down" for children.  

Journals - Technically, we meet back in the school room for journal writing time after the 30 minutes, but lately several of my children have been taking their journals with them during scripture study time & just writing in them then.  I like to be with them so they can ask for spelling help, but we may try having the older ones just write in them during study time, we'll see.  

So, that is how we start our school day.  The academic subjects come next.