Our most important purpose in Adventurers is to show kids Jesus’ incredible love for them and to encourage them in their personal relationship with Him. It’s such an important part of Adventurers that spending regular quiet time with Jesus is one of the requirements for Investiture Achievement in Busy Bees through Helping Hands. The activity book for each of the upper classes includes a devotions page called God’s Power in My Life to help your adventurers to fulfill this requirement. I love using the pages from Busy Bees, Sunbeams, and Helping Hands – they have a fun path/game board design. I send the page and some stickers home with my Adventurers. They can put a sticker on the page each day after they finish their devotional time.
Some of your families have family worships and personal devotions figured out. And for them, this is a super easy requirement. The hardest part is remembering to check the day off! But, some of your families may feel like I did the first time my eldest came home with this project as a Busy Bee! This post is for them. (And for you, to help you support them.) You’ll find a free printable with suggestions for Little Lambs through Helping Hands at the end of this post.
Dear New Adventurer Parent,
Ten years ago, when my eldest child’s Busy Bee teacher gave us the devotional chart, I didn’t know what to do. My six year wasn’t reading yet. I couldn’t send him to his room to read his Bible or a devotional book. He wasn’t ready! If this sounds like how you are feeling, take a deep breath and relax.
Please use this project in whatever way you think will be most helpful to your child and your family. It’ll look a little different in every family, and that is great. The following suggestions are methods I’ve used over the years with my kids. Hopefully either one of them will be helpful to you or they will help you brainstorm to come up with something even better for your family.
Family Worship
We used the devotional requirement as a jumpstart into a nightly family worship. Adventurers gave us the little push we needed into this family habit. Our worship is a bit loud and crazy (like our family), but God loves a joyful noise! I am thankful that Adventurers made family worship part of my family’s evening routine.
Try having a family prayer plus one (or more) of the following:
- Sing a song together
- Read a devotional together
- Read a Bible story/the Bible together
- Memorize a Bible verse together
Personal Devotions for Readers
For older confident readers, a devotional book/Bible story book/Bible and a reminder may be all they need. Or they might need a little support. My eldest (aka: The Guinea Pig) became a confident reader, but didn’t want to do devotions on his own. So, we would sit next to each other and quietly do our own together. My next test subject did well with some simple instructions and few minutes of quiet time. So, my job was just a simple reminder.
Try prayer plus one (or more) of the following:
- Bible storybook
- Devotional book
- Bible
- Memorize a Bible verse – one of my kids loved memory verse puzzles as part of his devotional time.
Personal Devotions for Younger Kids/Kids Who Aren’t Confident Readers Yet
For kids who aren’t reading well yet, you could either read any of the above options to them or choose an audio option. My youngest son started listening to Daily Audio Bible Kids as an older adventurer and continues to enjoy it as a pathfinder. The kids’ version goes through the New Testament. Ezekiel, who is twelve, is their reader. I love that this is for kids by kids!
Some audio options:
- Daily Audio Bible Kids (Podcast/App): The kids’ version is one of the options in the app.
- The Bible in Living Sound: Audible or YouTube
- The Jesus Storybook Bible (on CD or Audible)
- Your Story Hour Bible Stories
- GraceLink (publisher for the Primary Sabbath School Quarterly) has an audio version for each lesson.
Littles
I love to read a Bible Storybook or a children’s devotional book to my pre-school age kids and any kid not yet ready for independence. We like to snuggle on the couch with our book and finish by singing Jesus Loves Me.
How Long Should Devotionals Be Each Day?
The recommendation for devotions for kids is one minute per year(age), so about 5-10 minutes a day is great, but more importantly we want to create a life-long relationship with Jesus. Focus on what works for your kid and your family, not on the clock. In my experience, the more kids involved, the shorter the attention span, so I encourage you to keep your family worships short, especially in the beginning.
As always, if you have any questions, please leave a comment. I want to do whatever I can to support and encourage you.