Pitfalls Part 3 - Overestimation of Child April 23, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Family Worship Series , trackbackJoe,
That was a good post on the planning of family worship. Just a few minutes of planning saves tons of time in the end! This is especially important for those families who do not feel they have enough time for family worship.
I am onto the 3rd pitfall today. This pitfall will be one side of the coin (the other which will be discussed tomorrow). On this side of the pitfall coin is the overestimation of what a child can and should do in family worship.
This is where it can be wise of a parent to know two things. Number one is that you need to know what is developmentally appropriate at the age your child (or children) are at. Obviously our three-year-old cannot be expected to read during family worship because she doesn’t know how to read yet. Secondly, you need to know your own child. What are their strengths and weaknesses. While some children can be expected to start memorizing Scripture at a young age, for other children this may be too much.
You will save yourself a lot of hassle if you are not trying to force children to do things that they are not developmentally ready for yet. Another thing to consider when considering what your child is capable of doing is the order of events in family worship. For example, we had been singing a hymn, then reading a story from Abby’s Bible, then reading a chapter from our Bible, doing Scripture memorization, working on catechism questions and then praying. We started to see that Abby was getting tired by the end and was not doing as well on her catechism questions. So we switched her Bible reading to right before prayer to put the memorization and catechism questions (which would be more taxing for Abby) earlier on in our time, so she was fresher.
Also try and keep in mind that things like memorizing hymns, Scripture and catechism questions with your young ones are not a race. It is going to take them time and it doesn’t need to be rushed through. It may take us 2-3 weeks to finally have a hymn memorized. Don’t worry about the time, focus on fellowship with the Lord and the fruit that will be borne from it!
Slow and steady with you,
Erin
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