Getting Started with the Family Bible Lessons
- Stephanie Cain
- Apr 12, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: May 5, 2019
The Family Bible Lessons (FBL) are an amazing set of FREE Bible lessons for ages birth - 9. It is a 3 year cycle that you repeat 3 times. Don't let the suggested age throw you off though. This is also excellent for adults. The only reason it is recommended for birth to age 9 is because there is a second set of SonLight Bible lessons (Desire of all Nations) that can begin at age 9, after the FBL has been completed.
When you are first getting started, I recommend joining the SonLight facebook group and printing the lessons and activity book for the quarter you are working on and collating them. I laminated covers for each lesson and added a slash jacket for supplemental pages. I find that this works really well for me so that I can go to the activity book and print out the pages I want them to write on/color and I have all the stories with the lesson. As an alternative, you could 3 hole punch each lesson and place in a plastic folder. Then when you are done with that week, you grab the next set.
I also recommend having a 3 ring binder for your children to keep their activity pages in so they can keep them organized and go back and review. At the end of each quarter, I plan to spiral bind their completed pages for them to have a reminder book to look back on :)
These songs are excellent to add to your worship to sing along with or to sing/listen to throughout your day.
So you want to start the FBL. What do you need to do? Download the files & print activity pages. Which lesson should you start with? It depends. If your church currently uses My Bible First, I would recommend selecting the quarter and lesson that lines up with it since your children have already covered the previous lessons - not as in depth as the FBL but it has still been covered and it will be easier (in my opinion) to align with the church lesson. Otherwise, definitely start at the beginning!
Year 1 (My Bible First refers to it as Year A)
Y1Q2 - Rebekah to Manna, Insects
Year 2 (Year B)
Y2Q3 - Baby John to Healings, Water
Year 3 (Year C)
There is a training course that is highly informational that I recommend. It is called the 10 Principles Course. It is a huge book and will take a motivated person 6 months to complete. That being said - DON'T let this deter you from starting the FBL! You can do them simultaneously.
The Catalog Road Map & Route, page 28 (see below) has a sample outline for how to include the FBL throughout your entire day and gives your information and helpful tips on getting started.
Click on this photo below and use right arrow to slide to other schedules.
The main thing to focus on with the FBL is learning the Bible lesson, memory verse, doing a nature study that ties to the lesson (included in the FBL) and working on developing the character quality. The habits we help our children to form now will be the habits they have for life. This really hit home for me when reading Patriarchs and Prophets Chapter 15, especially pages 175-176. (Listen/watch this chapter) Everything we let them do is training them! Let us train them diligently <3
I also highly recommend watching the Family Bible Camp videos where you can receive a basic training for using SonLight materials.
Nature Resources:
Handbook of Nature by Anna Comstock, read pages 1-24 before choosing a topic, pdf version here
More Fun with Nature Take Along Guide (I read the bird section to my daughter several times when she was 3 - per her request - and she amazed us when she saw birds in the wild an was able to identify them based on the information learned from this book!)
Download these awesome notebooking pages!
Subscribe to this Handbook of Nature blog.
Subscribe to this Notebooking Pages blog as well :)
Learn the Benefits of Narration
Character Resources:
Studies in Character Building by Mrs. E. E. Kellogg
SonLight Character Qualities Book
A Hive of Busy Bees by Effie M. Williams
IBLP Character Sketches (I bought mine used)
Child's Book of Character Building: Growing Up in God's World - At Home, at School, at Play, Book 1 & 2 by Ron Coriell
Character Building for Families Volumes 1 & 2
Other Resources:
A wonderful supplement to start right away with the FBL is the Rainbow Covenant. It will help to add to your character/nature study and help to train the children right away to recognize a rainbow color and tie it with their character meanings.
White: Purity
Red: Sacrifice
Orange: Judgment (or consuming fire)
Yellow: Divinity
Green: Faith
Blue: Obedience
Indigo: Royalty (Priesthood)
Violet: Obedience Unto Death
I purchased this set of construction paper from Walmart for $2.27. There are 10 sheets per color. They will need to be cut down as they are 9x12"
If you would like to make a cover like the one above, here is the file. You can use permanent marker to add name at the top.
Another wonderful supplement: the materials from Lois Eggers
Her videos can be watched on youtube and her felt sets and books can be ordered from Teresa Kodimer.
Bible Story Hour uses some of her materials from Creative Christian Parenting in their videos.
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