Here are some helpful thoughts for devotions with young children.
1. Have an open Bible on your lap during story time. This reinforces where the story comes from—God’s word.
2. Use short sentences and few words. Too many words overwhelm young minds.
3. Be animated in your facial expressions and tone of voice. This will help keep children engaged.
3. Incorporate movement into the story and singing. Children this age need to move their bodies. Movement helps them learn and remember what you’re teaching them.
4. Create routines during the story/circle times by using songs, finger plays, etc.
5. Use repetition to cement biblical concepts in children’s hearts and minds.
6. Keep it short and sweet. A story time of 5-10 minutes is the maximum children this age can attend to and sit for.
One of my favorite topics! Some of the church women have really helped me formulate devotion times with Evelyn even from a very early age. She’s not a “toddler” yet so I’m not sure how it will change. But now she actually really likes when I get “God’s Word” out – its a special treat for her. We use my mini ESV and when I get it out she gets so excited! She actually kisses it! We read straight from the Bible. We actually read a Proverb for each day. No pictures but I do read it like it is super special and she LOVES it! I think she knows its special because of how I present it and she sees mommy and daddy reading it. Then she has a special time she gets to be with it too! That is how her morning devotion time is with mommy. Sometimes we get out the other books like “A Little Girl After God’s Own Heart” – which has scripture and we’ll read 2-4 pages of that.
Our evening time as a family is a little different. David has really been working with her to sit still for church and it’s been paying off. Then we have singing and worship time with the guitar or piano – which she LOVES! It is so cool to see your kids get excited about God or Jesus. We talk about Jesus a lot and when I even just say “Jesus” Evelyn smiles. I can’t wait until she actually can understand more. Still – it makes me happy to see her interested in what mommy and daddy are trying to share with her.