Do not intimate to your children that it is no matter whether they labor or not. Teach them that their help is needed, that their time is of value, and that you depend on their labor.
I have been shown that much sin has resulted from idleness. Active hands and minds do not find time to heed every temptation the Enemy suggests; but idle hands and brains are all ready for Satan to control.
Spiritual Gifts 4B, pg 137
During the first six or seven years of a child’s life, special attention should be given to its physical training, rather than the intellect. After this period, if the physical constitution is good, the education of both should receive attention. Infancy extends to the age of six or seven years. Up to this period, children should be left, like little lambs, to roam around the house and in the yards, skipping and jumping in the buoyancy of their spirits, free from care and trouble.
Parents, especially mothers, should be the only teachers of such infant minds. They should not educate from books. The children will generally be inquisitive to learn the things of nature. They will ask questions in regard to the things they see and hear, and parents should improve the opportunity to instruct, and patiently answer, these little inquirers. They can in this manner get the advantage of the enemy, and fortify the minds of their children, by sowing good seed in their hearts, leaving no room for the bad to take root. The mother’s loving instructions is what is needed by children of a tender age in the formation of character.
A Solemn Appeal, pg. 133
Here’s a great idea I found on Pinterest if you need to practice b,d,p & g. The original source is linked at the bottom of the illustration.
Looking for a Bible reading plan appropriate for younger children? Here is a link to the Adventist Junior Youth Bible Reading Plan. This reading plan takes four years and uses 12 different themes to organize the readings. Download the two-page .pdf file HERE.
“Children as well as parents have important duties in the home. They should be taught that they are a part of the home firm. They are fed and clothed and loved and cared for, and they should respond to these many mercies by bearing their share of the home burdens and bringing all the happiness possible into the family of which they are members.”
Ministry of Healing , 394
From the earliest dawn of intellect she had taught her son to love and reverence God and to regard himself as the Lord’s. By every familiar object surrounding him she had sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator. When separated from her child, the faithful mother’s solicitude did not cease. Every day he was the subject of her prayers. Every year she made, with her own hands, a robe of service for him; and as she went up with her husband to worship at Shiloh, she gave the child this reminder of her love. Every fiber of the little garment had been woven with a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true. She did not ask for her son worldly greatness, but she earnestly pleaded that he might attain that greatness which Heaven values–that he might honor God and bless his fellow men. – Patriarchs and Prophets
Hannah’s Sunshine:
1. She taught her son to love and reverence God.
2. She taught him that he belonged to God.
3. Everything in her home was to lead Samuel to thoughts of God, our Creator.
4. She prayed for him night and day that he would be pure, noble, and true.
5. She made him a coat of service as a reminder of her love.
“There is an important lesson for parents and children to learn in the silence of the Scriptures in reference to the childhood and youth of Christ. He was our example in all things. In the little notice given of His childhood and youthful life is an example for parents as well as children, that the more quiet and unnoticed the period of childhood and youth is passed, and the more natural and free from artificial excitement, the more safe will it be for the children and the more favorable for the formation of a character of purity, natural simplicity, and true moral worth.”
Youth’s Instructor, Feb. 1873
The Adventist Home Educator 