A Family Reared on H.O.N.E.Y.

We rear a family on HONEY when we teach them from the Lord's Library. Key components of the Lord's Library, are scriptures, the hymn book, along with God's words through his prophets. Some parents feel that scriptures are too hard for little children to understand. I suggest using the real scriptures when teaching children. Why read the actual scriptures to little children?

I like to teach my children scripture stories right out of the scriptures, not paraphrased, but in the rich language and imagery found in the scriptures. I am somewhat old school and feel that Primary aged children should have their own copy of the scriptures, even before they can read. Yes, even Sunbeams! This used to be in the Primary manuals, when I was a young parent, so it became part of my parenting. I also feel children can learn to mark scripture passages for easy locating and that they can memorize verses as young as three.

Here you will find lists of many stories found in the scriptures. There are more stories in the scriptures than on these lists, to be sure.

The Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon Part 1 are compliments of Penny Gardner. Book of Mormon Part 2, Doctrine and Covenants Stories, and Pearl of Great Price Stories are created by Donna Goff. There are enough stories listed to do a scripture story each week day for thirty-six weeks for four years.

"One might ask why the doctrines and principals of the Gospel are scattered through some 25,000 pages of scripture instead of systematically arranged by topic in a more concise text. To the human mind, such a text would seem to provide for a far greater economy of space and study, as well as clarity. In His wisdom, however, the Lord has chosen to reveal His eternal truths through the interesting and memorable historical and personal accounts of the writers of the scriptures. This method of teaching powerfully presents and preserves the doctrines and principles of the Gospel in the following ways..." Elder Merlin R. Lybbert, The Powerful Potential of Scripture Stories," Ensign, Jan. 2002. I encourage you to read the whole article on
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org to learn more about this powerful way of teaching.

"Children enjoy the Bible.  We are apt to believe that children cannot be interested in Bible unless its pages be watered down...turned into slipshod English we prefer to offer them."
~ Charlotte Mason. 

I took a BYU Education Week class several years ago from Grant Von Harrison. According to Grant Von Harrison, the King James Bible is written at the 12th grade reading level. I feel that if you use the stories with young children it can build a basic knowledge of history, geography, understanding and vocabulary while building character and learning Gospel principles, even before they can read the Bible. The King James Bible translation is just over 400 years old.

According to Grant Von Harrison, the Book of Mormon is written at the 8th grade level and is excellent as a reader, even better than the Bible as a reader. About 85% of the words are phonetic, 10% have high enough repetition to learn through just reading. Only 5% need to be memorized, because they are not seen regularly enough. There is a pronunciation guide in the back of the book. These are higher percentages than the Bible which has been used successfully by parents for centuries to teach children to read.

I like to use both to teach children to read. While the Book of Mormon is easier to use to teach reading at the beginning, I feel children need the rich language of the Bible. Further, I feel they need Biblical principles, stories, history, geography, and basic biblical literacy.

More important than learning to read, is to have the principles in their heart and to have the scriptures as their sacred canon, their measuring rod of truth, right, and goodness.

Click the Links Below to find the scripture stories in the scriptures:

Old Testament Stories

Pearl of Great Price Stories
(Coming Soon)

New Testament Stories

Book of Mormon Stories

Doctrine and Covenants Stories
 (Coming Soon) 

I hope you find joy in this journey!