Teaching Young Children

If you have young children in your family, here are some activities that can help them learn:

• Sing. Hymns and songs from the Children’s Songbook teach doctrine powerfully. Use the topics index at the back of the Children’s Songbook to find songs that relate to the gospel principles you are teaching. Help your children relate the messages of the songs to their lives. (See also “Including Sacred Music in Your Gospel Learning” in this resource.)

• Listen to or act out a story. Young children love stories—from the scriptures, from your life, from Church history or your family history, and from Church magazines. Look for ways to involve them in storytelling. They can hold pictures or objects, draw pictures of what they are hearing, act out the story, or even help tell the story. Help your children recognize the gospel truths in the stories you share.

• Read a scripture. Young children may not be able to read very much, but you can still engage them in learning from the scriptures. You may need to focus on a single verse, key phrase, or word. The children may even be able to memorize short phrases from the scriptures if they repeat them a few times. As they hear the word of God, they will feel the Spirit.

• Look at a picture or watch a video. When you show your children a picture or video related to a gospel principle or scripture story, ask them questions that help them learn from what they are seeing. For example, you could ask, “What is happening in this picture or video? How does it make you feel?” The Gospel Media app, GospelMedia.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, and children.ChurchofJesusChrist.org are good places to look for pictures and videos.

• Create. Children can build, draw, or color something related to the story or principle they are learning.

• Participate in object lessons. A simple object lesson can help your children understand a gospel principle that is difficult to comprehend. When using object lessons, find ways to let your children participate. They will learn more from an interactive experience than from just watching a demonstration.

• Role-play. When children role-play a situation they are likely to encounter in real life, they are better able to understand how a gospel principle applies to their lives.

• Repeat activities. Young children may need to hear concepts multiple times to understand them. Don’t be afraid to repeat stories or activities often. For example, you might share a scripture story several times in different ways—by reading from the scriptures, summarizing in your own words, showing a video, letting your children help you tell the story, inviting them to act out the story, and so on.