Bible Boy

I'm teaching one class in the Beka program. Our students are first graders, but their English skills are really advanced and it's a lot of fun to interact with them.

We're reading Aesop's Fables, so every story has a moral lesson and a Bible verse with it. The only problem is that the Bible Verses are in King James Version English. Sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 reads to understand what the verse is supposed to say. So I keep an easier translation Bible on the desk and we find the book, chapter, and verse.

I learned in my CE course to always have the physical Bible in your hands when you are quoting scripture, even if you have it memorized, so that the children know where your words come from. It's also been a really great experience teaching how to find things in the Bible. The think "God Eats Pop Corn" (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians) is really funny - but they remember it and can find any of those four books faster than most Americans their age.

One of our students, Thomas, is from a Buddhist background. It makes me really happy that he has taken a special liking to finding the verses in the Bible. Sometimes they fight over who gets to look up the verse; a little lesson in missing the point, which always makes me chuckle.

Thomas proudly declared, "I'm Bible Boy" after he found a passage in Ephesians (Eats). Yes, Thomas, you are. And I hope you always will be.