I am a proponent of making learning interesting or fun for children. But what do we do when we lose the fun aspect of school? Or when a subject is hard to present in a fun way? Do we abandon the subject and search for something else? Or do we press on and ensure learning is taking place despite the lack of fun?

When it comes to educating my children, I look for ways to make the subject interesting. I am not so naive to think that everything related to school must be fun. My oldest enjoys learning math and he tells me that quite frequently. However, there were times when it has been drudgery for him. He wanted to quit and his attitude showed it. Whenever that disgruntled attitude crept up, I took the opportunity to teach him about doing the hard or difficult thing because it builds character. Life is not about having fun. There are many things I’d rather not do but I do them anyway because it blesses others and makes me a better person. My son is still learning about this life lesson. I am comforted to know that usually after having this kind of talk with him, he can continue with the school lesson with a better attitude.

In our home school, the fun aspect (i.e. doing a hands-on activity or game) is interspersed and is not incorporated in every lesson. In reality most of the time we simply do the lesson with occasional activity or game. It is important to keep in mind that we shouldn’t be pressured to always make a lesson fun or interesting even as we remember that inserting an occasional game or fun activity encourages a child to learn tremendously.

Recently we started reading Sally Lloyd-Jones’ The Jesus Storybook Bible and I was quite pleasantly surprised by this book. Like The Big Picture Story Bible I recently reviewed, Lloyd-Jones’ book uses a thematic approach in telling stories from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The flow of each story or character in the Bible is skillfully tied together. This storybook indeed lives up to its subtitle: “Every story whispers his name.” Jones underlying goal is to convey that the Bible is about Jesus and His redemptive work for the human race, and this is exactly what this storybook accomplishes.

The only complaint I have with this book is the writing style, which is a bit too vernacular for my personal taste, especially when it comes to writing about the Bible. One example is the fight between Goliath and the Israelites where Goliath taunted God’s people with the following:

“Chickens!” Goliath bellowed. “Your God can’t save you! I’ll rip your heads off and have you on toast!” (p. 123)

Another example is of King David:

Did you know that David was a songwriter, too? In fact his songs were so good, they might have been in the top 40 charts (if they’d been invented then). (p. 130)

There is nothing wrong with the content, but it is just a bit too contemporary for my taste. I just can’t imagine a Philistine like Goliath calling the Israelites “chickens.” I’m sure Goliath called them something in the similar fashion, but the language used seems to belong in the 20th century American playground rather in the historical event in the Biblical time period. I understand that this is a children’s storybook which explains the writing style. However, my five-year-old son doesn’t quite understand the cultural reference, and these references are likely to mean little to those not immersed in American culture.

Besides the above personal preference difference, I really enjoy this book and would recommend it.

One of the best story bibles for children that we’ve come across is The Big Picture Story Bible. This book is written along the lines of “Biblical Theology”, i.e., reading the Bible from a redemptive-historical rather than just a grammatical-historical context. In other words, it presents various accounts of Biblical history set in the broader context of God’s redemptive purposes throughout history, from Genesis to Revelation, with special emphasis on God’s crowning achievement of redeeming His people through Jesus Christ. Most Bible storybooks simply retell of various Bible characters and stories in a disconnected fashion, often in a fairly moralistic fashion (“what can we learn from [fill in Bible character]“). This book instead strives to help the reader understand that all of history is connected to God’s redemptive purposes and a consistent thread that repeats itself in God’s dealings with man: “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.”

The book is laid out attractively for a youngster. Each page has a very colorful picture with several lines of the story. We have been enjoying reading this book for some time now, and at point we even had my husband record sections of this book just so my son could listen to it during his quiet time. We really appreciate the thematic approach of this book because even as adults we rarely see or read the Bible as a whole. While reading the Bible in sections is good, we often fail to see the overall redemptive story of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament to the New Testament. So, without any reservation, we recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Recently I overheard my son singing Twila Paris’ “Lamb of God” with a different twist. He was happily and proudly singing his own revised version of the song without really knowing it. The correct lyrics for the first stanza are:

Your only Son
No sin to hide
But You have sent Him,
From Your side
To walk upon this guilty sod
And to become the Lamb of God

When he changed the first line to “Your only Son, You choose to kill“ I burst into laughter. As I told my husband, his revision was not very poetic and the word choice was not the best. But he is theologically correct:

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)

For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:26-28)

I suppose he may have a future as a theologian even if becoming a artistic poet is out.

There is much to be learned about parenting, I think, in what the Lord expects of His disciples:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Mt. 28:19-20

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Prov. 3:5-6

“… God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor 9:7b

When our children are given a command, we require them to obey in the following ways:

• Completely: This means obeying the entirety of a command and its intent, not doing a job halfway.
• Quickly: They must not tarry but to get to the task without delay and without argument.
• Cheerfully: They must have a good attitude when obeying.

We expect them to obey completely because children can often do half of what we say, and usually only that part which is easy or preferred for them.  And that’s not obedience, that’s self-interest.

We expect them to obey quickly because delay is usually a reflection of stalling and a lack of true submission.  For example, a slowness to respond to a command can either be an attempt to avoid obedience, or to try to continue doing what they’re having fun with instead of submitting to the authority of their parents.

We expect them to obey cheerfully because God expects the same of us.  That’s not to say that we would imagine they would have all reluctance gone. But it means that even as God’s standard of holiness for us is a heart of pure joyful submission to Him, so too we hold our children to the same standard.

And in all of the above, the goal is to instill in them an intrinsic trust in us, and actions that reflect that trust.

From time to time we chant this little ditty, “How are you to obey? ‘Completely, quickly, and cheerfully.’” One time I overheard my oldest chanting this to his siblings and it was then that I knew he caught on and remembered this principle.

Of course, when we say that we “expect” what we really mean is that we have a standard that we will expect them to attain to.  It doesn’t mean we actually expect that in every instance they actually will meet it!  But our goal is to help them to learn the discipline of obedience to another, so that as they grow older, they will be more able (by habit as well as by grace) to discipline themselves for the purpose of
godliness and not only submission to imperfect human authority.