Navigating the Bible - An Important Skill for Tweens

Beginning readers enjoy reading Bible storybooks, collections of Bible stories that have been rewritten with simpler words. However, when kids enter third or fourth grade, they are ready to move to a traditional Bible. Tweens (kids ages 9-12) are at a perfect age to learn to navigate the Bible. Here are some reasons to encourage the tween reader in finding his or her was around the Bible and to apply it.

Tweens have mastered basic reading skills.

• Most tweens can read "sight words". Those are the words that appear frequently in English.
• They have learned reading strategies to help understand other words that may be unfamiliar. Some of these strategies are decoding (using word parts or sounds to read a word) and using context clues (understanding the meaning of the new word based on the rest of the sentence).

Tweens have the ability to understand the format of the Bible.

• They can read and use a Table of Contents.
• They have the ability to learn Bible references (book, chapter, and verse).

Tweens are developing the maturity to understand and apply the Bible.

• They can make inferences (understanding what a passage means but does not directly state).
• They can make generalizations (application of the message to an area of their own lives).

What did I leave off the list? What other reasons are tweens the perfect age to learn to navigate the Bible?


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Notes from Carol

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copyright (c) 2013 Carol McAdams Moore