About Christin

The Dig Community Coordinator
Christin loves coming alongside and helping to create community and connection. She is here at the Dig to do just that!
She has a heart to encourage and equip women in aspects of discipleship, marriage, mothering, writing, blogging, and community. She sees the body of Christ as an important community of encouragement and discipleship and works to foster that around the web. Her biggest ministry is to her family and she knows how beautiful, hard, overwhelming, and exhausting mothering can be. Her passion is to encourage mothers who need a challenge or a lift (or both). She has been married 11 years and has 5 children ranging in age from 10 down to 2.

You can find her on her blog Joyful Mothering and chatting it up on Twitter as @ChristinWrites

Bible Felt and The Dig

October 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We are on week 5 of The Dig for Kids. You can still join us!! Get your copy here: PDF, Kindle, Nook

 

 

 

 

Many people believe that Bible felt is a thing from the “old days” and it’s not as effective or useful today.

I  beg to differ. We bought the Betty Lukens Bible felt set last year and my children absolutely love it. It really paints a lovely picture of the stories we read through the Bible. It helps children visualize the story in a tangible way. It has been one of the most effective tools we have ever used.

After I read a story, I will allow my children to use the felt to retell the story to the rest of us. Then, they spend time reenacting the story on their own free time or creating a new story with the felt we used that day. Because the felt is “Bible felt” they often create stories based on what they’ve read in other parts of the Bible.

It is a very rewarding experience!

So, in this case, we are using it to help guide our lessons through the Dig for Kids. Here we are illustrating the story of the man who could not walk and whose friends lowered him down through the roof of the house to get to Jesus.

This is an investment that I believe paid for itself 100 times over. I cannot stress enough just how wonderful this tool has been for our family. Having the Dig guide us through Luke and having the felt illustrate the stories makes our Bible time simple and extremely enjoyable.

It also helps me children “catch” the concepts and learn to apply them to their own lives.

What other helpful tools do you use to capture the Bible for your children?

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Filed Under: The Dig Study

A Little Digging, A Lot of Growing

September 26, 2012 By 1 Comment

Today, Becky shares with us how the Dig has helped her children grow.

What is the greatest investment you can and should make in your child’s life? There are numerous answers to this question based on what you believe. What do I believe? I believe, wholeheartedly, that the single greatest investment in my child’s life is to introduce them to Jesus and to teach them how to develop a relationship with Him. There are lots of other important things in life; education, financial responsibility, healthy living, the list can (and does) go on and on. But none of that matters, if at the end of life, our children don’t know Jesus personally. That is why taking the time to teach our children how to know Jesus, to understand the Word and to understand our Christian faith is vital.

 

This is our first year homeschooling, we have three children ages 11, 9 and 3 and as I was planning our curriculum I knew that I wanted to incorporate Bible teaching. I really wanted to go deeper than just reading a few verses each day, I wanted to teach my children how to dig in to the Word for themselves.

 

When The Dig was released I was excited to find something that would help us develop this skill of going deeper into the Word without overwhelming my kids. I think many kids feel that the bible is just something that you should bring to church on Sunday because you get a prize and one day, when they’re a grown up, they’ll read it for themselves. To them, reading and understanding the bible doesn’t seem possible. That’s where I’m finding The Dig is changing their mindset.

 

Each day is different, some days we may do The Dig first thing or maybe over lunch or just before bed, it’s flexible. My boys take turn reading portions of scripture (something that has come down to a very exact science of making sure they each get the same amount of verses to read, they love reading it that much).

Once we read the scripture portion for the day and discuss anything that they didn’t understand (thus forcing mama to learn as well) we ‘dig’ in to the provided questions. Once we get through those questions I like to try and incorporate another activity to wrap the lesson up. This day we learned about why Jesus came (Luke 5:31-32) so we wrote names of friends and families that don’t know Jesus on index cards and have committed to praying for these people.

The Dig is a great way to introduce your kids to studying the bible in a way that is fun and doable. I believe that when we teach our kids to read deeper into God’s Word, teach them to ask questions, think about what they’ve read and heard, show them that they can understand and learn, then they are well on their way to naturally developing a deep and rich relationship with their Savior.

Becky Van Volkinburg is a work from home/stay at home homeschooling mom of three beautiful kiddos. She is passionately in love with Jesus and is learning how to “walk on water” as she daily follows Him. You can find her at her blog Walking on Water 1429

Filed Under: Guests

Do Not Hinder the Children

September 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We are on week 4 of The Dig for Kids. You can still join us!! Get your copy here: PDF, Kindle, Nook

 

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew19:14

Do we ever consider the ways we might be hindering our children from coming to Jesus?

Because children are young and immature, they need to be lead to the things that are good for them. Often times, they won’t go on their own. Often, we don’t willingly go to what is good for us, either!

When we fail to lead them, we are hindering them. We do not make it a priority to bring our children to a place where they can meet with Jesus, pray to Him, and learn more about Him through His word.

When we don’t live our own lives according to the righteous life God desires for us, our own lives hinder our children. When we create legalistic homes, where works save us, we hinder our children.

In what ways can we lead our children to Jesus?

Love Jesus. Our relationship with Christ is probably the one thing that speaks the loudest. It’s from this that everything else flows. When we seek Christ, we want what He wants. He wants our children living for Him, so we will be intentional about making this a priority. Does that mean we aren’t seeking Christ if we aren’t intentionally leading our children? I’d say probably not enough. Seek Him above all else.

Love our children. When we love our children in ways Jesus loves, we will act; because love is an action. Don’t wait for the perfect feeling to come along because you will be waiting a long time. Lead your children in the Word everyday because you love them and want them to grow in Christ. This is a place where perfection must be let go. There is no place for that here. Perfection is a hindrance.

Give them grace. As we need grace to cover our shortcomings, so our children need grace from us when they mess up. And they will mess up. When they see our grace toward them (because of the grace we receive from Jesus), they will come to understand Jesus’ love for them.

I think it’s important for us to honestly look at the ways we could be hindering our children from coming to Christ. Not only from a salvation standpoint, but a day to day relationship that builds over time. You don’t need to have all the answers before you guide your children. You can learn right along with them and watch as you see the Holy Spirit reveal new things to you.

As a parent, we learn some valuable lessons from raising children! Leading our children daily is quite a lesson for us in many ways. Let’s embrace this time, even if it doesn’t look perfect.

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Filed Under: The Dig Study

Cyndie’s Experience With The Dig

September 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We are on week 3 of The Dig for Kids. You can still join us!! Get your copy here: PDF, Kindle, Nook

Today’s guest is Cyndie and she shares the love her children have for The Dig for kids.

Hi, my name is Cyndie. I am a wife to Gary and stay at home mommy to 4 very special children, Grace 7, Emily 4, Gabriella 2 and Trei 16 weeks. We are a very modest family with only one car and very few electronics. I did receive a Kindle Fire this year as a gift for long nights with the baby. I have found it to be a true blessing to share with my family and to teach my children. One of those ways was with “The Dig“. And this is our adventure is going…

We have never done any type of structured learning. We have always made everyday events a opportunity to learn. When I found The Dig I knew I wanted to do it. Then the group study came out and I knew that would help discipline me for a structured learning. I jumped right in with both feet.
I had read all the tips for different ages since I did have very young ones. I decided what I wanted to do was an outdoor camp.
I wait til around 6 in the evening, oldest is home from school, homework done. We all eat a good dinner and head outside to our blanket. We sit in a circle, open in prayer and tell something about our day.

My oldest reads from her Bible while I read from the Kindle. My oldest loves to teach and she doesn’t miss a beat. We discuss together in front of the smaller ones, then the oldest discusses with her siblings on their level. The younger ones do get side tracked and we pause for a moment for them to reconnect with the study. I try to have something to minimize the distractions, like a snack or a small run break.
I have to admit I was worried about the first lessons when we spoke of Mary. We use The Word Bible for girls. In its text, it spoke of sexual intercourse. My daughter asked what it meant and with simplest meaning, I explained. She said OK and went on with the lesson.
We even took our lesson on the road. Thanks to being so easy to do, we can take as little or as much time as we want.

Our trip was 5+ hours long so we read a little, talked a little then applied how the same circumstances and traditions still exist in today’s world.

We get in a circle sharing what we are thankful for each day and we close in prayer.
My kids are so thrilled with the activities and exploring their minds. They can’t wait each day for a new lesson.
You can find Cyndie on her blog, Because Mama Said So.
By Cyndie
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Filed Under: Guests

When You Miss a Day {Or a Week}

September 17, 2012 By 3 Comments

We are on week 3 of The Dig for Kids. You can still join us!! Get your copy here: PDF, Kindle, Nook

 

What do you do when you miss a day (or a week) of Bible reading?

It’s so tempting to just want to give up and throw in the towel because we will never form the habit or stick with it.

This is not true. Missing a day or a week does not mean you should give up. Just pick it back up and keep going. That’s what makes a habit consistent. No matter how many times you get knocked off, you keep getting up and keep pressing on. Persevere.

Falling off the wagon is part of the entire process. It should be expected to happen. We cannot predict life. We cannot predict that our child will wake up sick and need more personal attention from us.

We cannot predict an emergency that throws our schedule off. The key is to pick it back up again.

Interruptions in the schedule will happen over and over again. Do not let that discourage you. Let that little truth empower you. You cannot control all things. But you can control beginning again each and every time.

Labor Day weekend through off our entire homeschool schedule and we needed to take that week off so I could plan and regroup.

Do not be robbed of this precious time with your children. It will be a time you must fight for.

Even when something unusual in our schedule does not happen, it can be really easy to simply let days go without digging into the Word. Don’t let that happen. As long as it’s in your power to do, you continue to be intentional about this time and not let it be robbed of you or your children.

What obstacles have you faced thus far while reading the Bible and going through The Dig with your children?

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Filed Under: The Dig Study
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