Teaching Children the 10 Commandments

If someone asked you to list the 10 commandments right now - could you? Would you get 8 right? 9 right? Or all 10?

This summer we have decided to memorize one commandment a week as a family. So by the end of the summer we should have the entire 10 commandments memorized.

In the picture you'll find two tools we are using:

1. The book titled Carved In Stone by Craig Peters (my Sr. High Youth Pastor - and a graduate of my Alma mater, the Moody Bible Institute - for a copy of the book email him at Craig@m-b-c.org). This is a book written to teach children the 10 commandments. So each week, we sit down as a family and my husband reads one chapter from the book out loud. Then we memorize that one command for the week and discuss it.

2. Our Memory Verse Box - as you can see in the picture - it's a simple cheap box - that I have placed index cards in. We have used this box for over a year. It contains all the verses we have memorized in the past (plus extra cards for adding new verses) and it sits in the center of our kitchen table. Over lunch we usually review a few verses for fun. We also discuss the verses and it makes for good conversation.

Since the summer is young - we are only on commandment number 2, but already we have had a lot of great discussions about what God requires of us. If you don't have a summer plan for memory work with your kids - then why don't you start by teaching them the 10 commands? They are in Exodus chapter 20.

My elementary school librarian heard I was teaching my children the 10 commandments and she called me up and taught me this cute little jingle that moms, grandma's or Sunday school teachers can use to teach children. So I thought I would pass it on.

Sing the song to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell" and hold up the appropriate number of fingers for that commandment.

Commandment number one, commandment number one:
There is only one God
Commandment number one.


Commandment number 2, commandment number 2:
Worship no one else but God,
Commandment number 2.


Commandment number...

3:Use God's name in special ways
4: Use Sundays to honor God
5: Respect your mother and father
6: Never kill anyone
7: Love the person you marry
8: Never steal anything
9: Don't tell lies at any time
10: Be content with what you have

And for older children, teens and adults, I found a neat finger play to teach the 10 commandments at Run Watch Play Wait - check it out here!

Walk with the King!


http://www.womenlivingwell.org/