Scripture Breakfasts

I read scriptures in the morning with the kids. It just seems to be a good time because they are sitting still and tend to be quieter than normal.

We've switched from reading the pictured scripture stories to just reading directly from the Book of Mormon. I thought this might be a difficult transition but I think its actually gone better than I expected. There's a lot of explaining and we only get through one column a day. Sometimes it doesn't seem like we get much out of it, but even I don't always get something out of my daily reading.

Today we were reading and I thought some props might help the kids understand the story. Hopefully this doesn't sound disrespectful to anyone but Nephi and his brothers were a scrap of paper that was on the table, Laban's house was the milk carton, Nephi's old house was a bowl of cereal, and the angel was a spoon. When a hole in a rock was needed for a hiding place Nephi and his brothers went under the table and the wilderness was a meandering over the table top and loop-de-loops around Spencer's head. If the props don't give it away, we are reading the story of Nephi and his brothers obtaining the brass plates. I had the attention of all the kids. They even wanted to continue the story once we reached the end of our daily column. We read three columns!

When I went to clean up breakfast Evelyn asked me where the brother's dad was at. Good question for a three year old. She was really getting it. I set our props back up and showed her that Lehi stayed in the wilderness while his rather grown up boys traveled back to Jerusalem to get the plates.

Tomorrow morning Nephi goes back to Laban's house to get the plates. Knowing my boys this will be a story they'll be thrilled to act out, gruesome by true.

I'm glad we switched to reading directly from the Book of Mormon. I think it will help the kids later realize they can read and understand scriptures, especially if they are already familiar with the language. I wounldn't have guessed it would be going this well. The kids even take interest in just looking through the pages and pages of text. I know not everyday will as successful but its sure promising of more good mornings to come.