A Simple Bible Memory System To Give Your Child The Heritage Of God’s Word

A significant benefit of home education is the freedom to prioritize learning about God and the Bible within your daily schedule. It is such a blessing to start the day together with your children – reading the Bible, singing hymns, and reciting Scripture from memory. My own childhood experience was very different. Mornings were a hurried race to get through breakfast, get dressed, and rush out the door to get to school on time. Home education has helped us to slow down and embrace the blessing of morning time, which now centres around our Scripture memorization system.

Why We Chose the Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture System

For a few years now we have been using a Bible Memorization system from Simply Charlotte Mason, and we absolutely love it. We love it for its ease of use, effectiveness, and simplicity.

How the Simply Charlotte Mason System Works

Sonya Shafer does a wonderful job of explaining the system in a video. You have to create a box with 4 buckets:
One called a “Daily” bucket which contain the new scripture verse that needs to be memorised,
Second called “Odd” and “Even”,
Third called “Days of the Week”,
and Fourth called “Dates of the Month”.
Buckets 2-4 are used for reviewing previously learnt verses.

Her video provides an excellent demonstration of her Bible memory system’s morning routine, complete with a separate tutorial on how to set up the verse box. Best of all, her website offers hundreds of verses available as a free download—I’ve already downloaded and laminated them for use in our own family system. Of course, you can choose any verses you like but what I like about her Scripture Memory Verse Packs are:

Advantages of the Verse Packs

• They are a good mix of familiar Old Testament and New Testament verses.
• They are a good mix of short verses and long passages. Sometimes you will be memorizing a short verse e.g. 1 Corinthians 1:8,9 and at other times it will be a whole psalm (Psalm 23, Psalm 46, Psalm 100) or multiple verses (Philippians 4:4-9). You can even use this system for long paragraphs and chapters.
• There are some cards that have been left intentionally blank so that you can type in or write in some of your favourite verses. I’ve found these really helpful!

Our Experience: Key Benefits After Years of Use

Simple, Effective, and Takes Less Than 5 Minutes a Day

We’ve memorized a substantial amount of Scripture over the years using this incredibly simple method. The routine is straightforward: we repeat the verse for the day three times and quickly review a couple of older ones. Miss Shafer insists this only takes five minutes a day, and it truly does! In her video, she demonstrates how the whole process can be completed in under that time. Of course, consistent repetition is the key to success.

How the System Guarantees Consistent Review and Retention

One of the issues with a memory system is how to manage review of previously learned information, which accumulates over time. However, this system takes care of that with ease as well. Using the buckets mentioned earlier, you are constantly reviewing old verses on a regular basis so that the information moves onto your long-term memory.

Customizing Your Memory System with Blank Cards

These are great if we want to add a particular verse that isn’t listed in the main verse packs, or if we need to address a particular need in the homeschool. For example, during a particular challenging period with sibling bickering and conflict, we wrote out Proverbs 20:3 to encourage peace and fellowship. It also brought a smile onto the kids’ faces every time we recited it!

Tackling Long Bible Chapters Together as a Family

Using this system, we are currently memorizing Romans chapter 8 together. This is a long chapter, and it will probably take us a good 6 months to 1 year to memorize it (or maybe longer!). I agree with Miss Shafer when she says that we shouldn’t worry about how long a passage takes to memorise, but instead to remember that it is a lifelong spiritual habit and a privilege.

Using the System for Memorizing Other Subjects

The system is so effective, it can be used to memorise other subject areas. Just use the same system of buckets and dividers and only change the subject content.

I love what Miss Shafer says at the end:

Give your children the heritage of God’s Word in their minds and hearts. Corporate scripture memory will knit your hearts together as a family like nothing else can, and those verses will become a lifelong treasure of worship, of comfort, and of guidance for each person.