Growing up in a reformed church almost guarantees you’ll have an innate sense that when someone says “Questions and Answers” your first thought is “What is my only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” If that’s not word for word, it was because it was from memory.
I couldn’t STAND it growing up when my parents decided that Wednesday nights meant learning the catechism instead of going to youth group hangouts. [Now, I see the role that played in my life was literally and figuratively foundational in my walk with the Lord.]
With my own kids, I thought it would be too hard and cumbersome given the depth of the memorization and then someone recommended this book to us and we jumped right on board. It broke down the catechism into simple questions and answers, while still teaching the instrumental truths of the Bible.
While my book has notes and kid “notes” scrawled all over it, you can see how rudimentary, yet instrumental the questions are. This is such an easy resource to start with for kids.
Disclaimer: With the first batch of kids (two the same age), we began it as a game, whoever could answer first would get a point. We thought this was great, it would be like math facts, right? The quicker you are to memorize the faster you get; but once the yelling and anger entered in from who screamed it first we thought the irony of what we were teaching was just not that effective. Since we decided a shouting match wasn’t the message we were hoping to send, we switched to going around the table in an every-other scenario so they each would get a chance to answer, then switch it up the next night so they would get asked the opposite questions. We still deal with the “I know that one, you don’t?!” but we’re getting there. I highly suggest learning from our errors here.
It is fun to see how quickly they start to memorize the answers. You can even implement this with older kids as they can answer and recite the corresponding verses. It is a great resource for parents wanting to instill the basics of the Bible (and the Heidelberg Catechism).
Finding ways to reach your children in paramount in this day and age, I have more listed on my Resources tab if you are interested.
~Becca
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
