This Summer, Choose to Read, Write, Type, and Talk in a Meaningful Way

During summer, I welcome plenty of unstructured time for my kids to experience boredom and the priceless creative projects that stem from it. Summer break provides the sweet spot: the chance to pursue passions and learn life skills without totally losing sight of academic skills from the school year. Without the daily burden of homework or busyness of school-year activities, we can couple the lazy days of summer with simple ways to keep our hands, minds, and hearts active.

One life skill that my four kids and I are focusing on during our down time this summer is interacting with the Bible. As a Christian, it is part of my daily routine to spend some time with God, meditating on his Word and delighting in Him. That could look like listening to my audio book Bible or a sermon while I run, singing a worship song or praying while I fold laundry, or discussing and memorizing scripture with friends. I find it’s a healthy way to navigate life, so I’d love for my children to develop their own quiet time routine that can carry them into mature Christian adulthood. 

But where to start? It seemed daunting to expect my kids to jump into time alone with God without some scaffolding and guidance. So, I arrived upon a plan that pairs my desire for them to stretch their spiritual legs with my goal to keep them academically toned during the summer. While we chose the Bible, this activity can work with any text that resonates with you or your child, such as a favorite children's book, poem, historical document, famous speech, or even song. The plan goes like this:

1. Choose a passage.

2. Read it.

3. Write it out by hand.

4. Type it up.

5. Talk about it.

Just like any other skill I would like my children to learn, teaching how to interact with an important text has required some modeling (I’m working on the project alongside the kids, focusing on 1 Peter), a compelling motivation (such as the resulting biblical literacy, boosted vocabulary, penmanship practice, computer skills, scripture memory, and deeper conversations), and time to dedicate to the activity (gloriously endless summer days!)

At first, I was nervous to approach my kids with the plan, thinking they would dismiss it as a boring way to spend their summer free time. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see their enthusiasm. It has brought me great delight to see how their individual personalities match their approach to engaging with God and His Word.

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My son, for instance, decided to start right at the beginning, on page one of the Bible, with Genesis 1:1. He proceeded to read through the whole chapter and selected that as the portion of scripture where he would begin, with the idea that he could keep on marching through the Bible after summer. His idea–not mine–but isn't that brilliant? He's already looking ahead, seeing how this routine could continue into his daily life rather than just during July and August. Plus, it fits with my son’s methodical nature.

He was intrigued by the genealogies and the accounts of how long humans lived in Old Testament times. I'm not surprised; he's a math guy. The systematic pattern of Earth’s seven-day creation account fascinated him as well. There’s a lot of order and repetition in that first chapter of the Bible–perfect for a mathematical mind to process.

The other evening, as I was planning out dinner, I glanced over and noticed my son sitting on the couch, quietly scribbling away in a notebook. That was a sight to behold, as I normally can’t catch him writing anything outside of a school context. I often rope my kids into dinner prep, but I decided not to interrupt his concentration. Nearly an hour later, he got up and eagerly flipped through his notebook to show me the writing on both sides of several sheets. It was the entire chapter of Genesis 1, written there in his scratchy handwriting. “That's a long chapter. Nice work!” I remarked, in awe of his perseverance. I trust that his penmanship will strengthen in time as he continues writing.

“Now I'm going to type it up!” he exclaimed. “Go for it,” I encouraged. He immediately sat down, started a new document in his Google account and began typing away. He even titled and shared the Google Doc with me, one example of the tech skills component of this project. “Click, clack, click,” went the keys as I chopped veggies and marinated chicken. By the time dinner was ready, he had typed up the whole chapter. 

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My nine-year-old was excited to work on an entire book of the Bible, so I helped her peruse the 66 books to find one of manageable length. We flipped through the New Testament and chose a letter, which aligns with my daughter’s personality because she loves to write notes to her friends. When we talked a bit about the book of James, she was fascinated to learn that the author was Jesus' brother. “Jesus had a brother?!” she exclaimed. “Yes, several, and sisters too! His brother James became one of the leaders of the early church,” I explained. “This is a letter that he wrote with some really practical advice about daily living. I think this would be a good fit for you.”

Since my older kids had claimed the two physical Bibles we had at our condo, I took the opportunity to show my daughter how to access the Bible online. Our first search for the book of James only generated results for the King James version of the Bible. That provided a great opportunity to discuss how search terms work in an internet search and explain how one translation of the Bible is called the King James version. We then tried Biblegateway.com, where we found James and printed out its five chapters.

My daughter sat down at our living room table and got started right away. When she struggled to write in the tiny notebook she had initially selected, we dug around and found a large yellow legal pad that she was happy to use for her transcribing. I think the excitement stemmed from the fact that her third grade teacher had given her a similar pad to write in this summer. She took careful note of how the Bible text was divided into both verses and paragraphs and mirrored that in her writing.

After a few minutes, she asked how long she should spend writing. “As long as you want,” I replied. “The main thing is to do some each day.” That, of course, proved challenging when guests and travel factored into our summer schedule. Thankfully, the beauty of the Bible is that you can jump back in whenever you are ready. With practice, you can find pockets of time to spend with God on even the craziest days.

When my daughter returned to the project the following week, she was grumpy that she had forgotten to bring her materials with her on our trip and refused to write until she could do so on her special notepad. I didn’t force the idea of writing on a different piece of paper, but instead suggested she work on the typing component. She loved signing into her Google account and creating a document that she could access from any device. That way, if one sibling monopolized a particular computer, she could log onto another to continue her typing.  

As she turned to James in a physical Bible and typed up the chapter she had previously written out, she was happy to discover that some of the verses were familiar. The unique formatting of a single-sentence paragraph had jogged her memory. She checked with me to see whether a particular verse really was a paragraph all to itself. “Yes,” I confirmed. “That must mean it has something important to say!” One side effect of reading and transcribing is that you start to internalize some of the text; it's the first step to memorization.

Another bonus aspect of the project is vocabulary expansion. When my daughter came across words she didn’t know, I encouraged her to look them up in the dictionary. I also explained that some parts of the Bible are easier to understand than others and that it's okay to not comprehend its meaning the first time through. People spend their whole lives studying the Bible and are constantly uncovering new wisdom. Tricky passages are also easier to understand when you discuss them with other people, so I suggested that she talk with me about what she reads. For instance, when she stumbled over the word “deeds,” we picked apart the verse where she found it: “Faith without deeds is dead.” In other words, people who claim to be Christians should also behave like Christians. They should follow Christ’s example with their actions to, for instance, love and serve others.

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My middle daughter chose to work on the book of Esther. That is no surprise to me, seeing as the book is named after a queen. In her games of make-believe, this daughter has always been more likely to play a queen than a princess. As an avid namer of stuffed animals and characters in her stories, the names in the book of Esther simultaneously fascinated and frustrated my daughter–especially since the spellings differ from one translation to another.

When she asked what Susa was, we added a little history and geography to the mix. I explained a bit about the story's setting during Israel’s Babylonian exile and that Susa is in modern day Iran. She was also taken aback by the fact that this ancient king threw an extravagant feast that lasted seven days. It's fun to see this amazing story through my daughter's eyes. Sometimes when I read the Bible, I find I'm so familiar with it that I glaze over some cool details. All the more reason to read and discuss the text with others, including my eleven-year-old, for fresh insight.

Several days into the routine, my daughter happily told me how she loves to play computer games in the morning, go out and play all day, and then come inside in the early evening to do her Bible writing. She writes by hand in an owl notebook she received for her birthday and then types up the passage before transitioning into the separate Typing Club skills practice assigned by school. Her comment about her schedule led to a great discussion around how to plan balance in your time rather than spending the entire day either on a screen or running around. It also reminds me of the benefits of pairing a new routine you want to establish (typing scripture) with a practice that is already engrained in your daily routine (Typing Club). By habit stacking, the new routine is more likely to stick.

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My eldest daughter was the last to get started on her Bible writing project. In fact, when I first mentioned the idea to my kids, she quickly left the room and completed some practice questions for the high school admissions test. I didn't want to discourage her work in that area, so I didn't press the issue–even when, a few minutes later, I heard her playing the keyboard instead of continuing her questions.

So, when she came downstairs after showering the following evening and said she wasn't sure what to do in the sliver of time before dinner, I encouraged her to select her scripture passage. When she seemed keen on choosing a part of the Bible she could repeat each day and come to memorize, I directed her toward the Psalms. I suggested she look at Psalm 100, 103, or 23, as those were some of the Psalms I memorized when I was her age. She settled down into a seat on the balcony with her Bible and notebook.

During dinner that night, when everyone was sharing about their Bible writing work, Bethany chimed in last and proceeded to floor us with her response. She had selected Psalm 1 and, after writing it out a couple times, decided to translate it into a language she had recently made up, where each letter has its own beautifully crafted symbol. Ha! How like her creative, artistic self. What fun to see my children approach this project with their own style and in a way that is meaningful and engaging to them. 

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Ready to get started? Remember that you can adapt the project to align with your family’s priorities and passions. The point is to get the kids interacting with important words throughout the summer so they return to school and grow into mature adulthood ready to function well, rather than with a brain and attitude slumped down into the summer slide.