When to Start

When my first child was born, I had so many ideas of things that would be important for me to do with him when he was born to ensure his success in life. As an elementary education major I had so many things that I had been taught were important; However, this quote from President Joseph Fielding Smith had the greatest impact in helping me decide what was most important. He stated, “Do you, my good brethren and sisters, want your families, your children; do you want to be sealed to your fathers and your mothers before you? … If so, then you must begin by teaching at the cradle-side. You are to teach by example as well as precept.”

It was at this time that I made the decision that I would begin to have personal scripture study and prayers with my son at his crib-side. It has since then become a part of our nightly routine with each of our young children. As they get older we will turn the responsibility over completely to them but while they are young we have chosen to do it with them.

In a talk given by Elder L. Tom Perry in 1983 he further emphasized the point of starting to teach our children early as he stated, “I read recently an article in a magazine designed especially for Latter-day Saints about a study that was made of the benefits of reading to children. It stated that when a mother or a father consistently reads to a child, the child enters school at a much higher level and excels in reading during these early grades. If there is a direct correlation between the early training a child receives from parents and the rapidity with which a child learns, how important would it be, then, for us to spend time reading the gospel of Jesus Christ to our children, to imbue and instill in them, in their tender and early years, faith in the gospel of our Lord and Savior?”

Here is a list of some of the methods we have used over the years for our children’s personal scripture study:

• ·        Watch a Bible Video from LDS.org 
• ·        Watch Scripture Stories videos found on LDS.org 
• ·        Read Scripture Stories found in the gospel library app
• ·        Picture Method 
• ·        Repeat after Me Method

The Repeat after Me Method is what we are using currently. We read a small section of the scripture and then have our children say it back to us, then we move on and read another small section and have them repeat. It is really simple and works well for us. Even our not quite two year has caught on to this method after watching her brother and sister. She will repeat back the words in her toddler gibberish and I must say it is one of the cutest things I have ever heard.

*Both of these quotes came from a conference talk given by Elder L. Tom Perry in April of 1983 entitled, Train Up a Child. You Can find this talk here.