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What Is a Catechism? + Why You Might Want to Use One With Your Kids
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Jun 19, 2024
What is a catechism? It's something I hadn't even THOUGHT about using in our homeschool until recently...but here's why you might consider it, too. Plus, I'll flip through a new Modern Catechism on the market to show you what it's like. FROM THE VIDEO: Buy Foundational Truths catechism here: https://amzn.to/41Wvzzo Education: Does God Have an Opinion?: https://amzn.to/4b3Szke Full-Time Parenting: https://amzn.to/48AJ4ra Homeschooling with a Biblical Worldview: https://amzn.to/4aVWhfM MORE VIDEOS YOU MIGHT LIKE Basics of a Biblical Worldview Flipthrough — https://youtu.be/zDNNhmwVPpQ Homeschool Mom Day in the Life — https://youtu.be/6-JcAvI0-Q4 Homeschool Prayer Challenge — https://youtu.be/MLMpgixFRDU ********************************************* Hey there! I’m Sara, and I’m a teacher-turned-homeschooling mom to 4 kiddos (including a set of twins!). I balance homeschooling while working full-time from home, and am so thankful you are here. I love sharing about homeschooling on my blog, Blessed Homeschool, where you’ll find tips, resources, and curriculum reviews. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, I hope you will leave inspired and equipped with what you find.
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Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Today I'm going to be sharing a book with you that I almost didn't
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buy because I didn't think we needed it in our homeschool, but I've since changed my mind. If you want to
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learn more about what a catechism is, why you should consider using one in your homeschool
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and take a look at a new one on the market. Stay tuned. The other month, one of our pastors
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was talking about how he and his wife used a catechism with their kids to teach a brief systematic theology
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and help with building a biblical worldview. I kind of brushed it aside in my mind at that moment
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recalling the hours of rote memorization I did as a kid in my catechism classes and thought
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I read the Bible with my kids every day and we study it together. Why, you know, do we need a catechism
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We memorize verses together. Why do we need to do this? what will a catechism really add that we aren't already doing? Well, it turns out a lot. Let me start off by
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explaining what a catechism is. So catechism teaches biblical truths in an orderly way, typically in question
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answer format, which are then backed up by scripture references. Its aim is to help develop
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fundamental understandings of Bible doctrine and what we believe as Christians. There are many
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catechisms out there. I didn't realize this, but when I started looking into them, I found different
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versions corresponding to various confessions of faith and catechisms that regular people have written
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over the years to summarize and effectively help teach biblical doctrine. And when I started thinking
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about this whole catechism teaching idea, two things came to mind. For one, I already do a lot
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of question and answer type teaching with my kids and it's very effective. For example, one of the
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things we do. When I ask my kids, how do you respond to a no answer? They'll reply, you say okay or
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disagree appropriately. It's something we've practiced and they've learned. So when they choose to respond
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to a no answer by whining or complaining or backtalking, I can bring this to their minds very
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easily. The other thing I realized is that we are all being catechized whether we realize it or not
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all the time. Some examples of questions that I've seen consistently across the different
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are things like who is God? Who created everything? What is our primary purpose for living or what is a
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cheap end of man? How do we know Jesus is God's only begotten son? How do we know Jesus rose from the dead
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The world is ready to give our kids answers to these questions. Are we? I like to think that I
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would know how to answer a lot of what I consider basic questions about my faith, but for some of those
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questions, there is a lot to unpack and a lot that the Bible says about it. Sometimes I don't always have a
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distinct answer for what the Bible says about something as a whole. What I love is that a
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catechism does just that. It helps summarize and order Bible doctrines so that it's easy
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and clear to communicate and teach. After I heard my pastor talking about catechisms, it wasn't
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long after that that I saw a post on Facebook from Israel Lane sharing a new catechism he was
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releasing. If you've read my blog for a while, you might know that I highly recommend his books
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In fact, it was one of his sessions at my first homeschooling convention that
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truly changed how I viewed homeschooling, parenting, and education. It opened up an entirely new
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mindset for me. That being said, I purchased two of his books to read on the way home, and they are
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just excellent. Here they are. And here is one that I bought later. So good. I know most of you
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are homeschooling already, but even if you're not, or if you just need some encouragement and
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positive reinforcement for the work that you are doing, and its importance, I highly recommend
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these books. I will link to them down below. Anyway, this is the new one that I saw
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mentioned online. I almost didn't buy it. I had it in my cart and then I left. And then I
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started researching the benefits of using catechisms with kids and why people like my pastor and Israel Wayne thought they were such great teaching tools So here are some of the reasons that I found that really compelled me Number one Yes we memorize scripture verses but we can understand fundamental doctrines
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from single verses. We need to interpret scripture as a whole for that, but there's no way we can
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really memorize the entire Bible realistically. Catechisms help us build a framework on which we can
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understand and we can help our kids understand and be able to answer what the Bible teaches. Plus set the
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stage for deeper theological teaching. All right, number two, we are told by God to instruct our
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kids diligently, and they are capable of understanding basic theology. A catechism can be a great
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tool to help us teach this. I don't think it should be a substitute for Bible study or scripture
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memory, but something different. They help us instruct in a different way. Yes, our kids can learn
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theology by reading the Bible, but having a foundation, a big picture understanding will help them
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learn and read the Bible in a deeper way because they'll have that doctrinal knowledge. I love
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that catechisms often provide verses that back up the answers to the questions. So kids are
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learning the usefulness of God's word and how different verses answer important questions
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which is important in teaching them and helping them build a deeper understanding of the Bible as
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a whole. And number three, we can work with our kids on memorizing catechism questions because they can do it
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little five-year-old the other day started rattling off the Pledge of Allegiance. It made me think of
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all the emphasis we have on them memorizing multiplication facts, states and capitals, pledge of allegiance
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whatever, all for good reason, yes. But how much more important is it that they are memorizing
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truths from and about God? Kids can memorize things much more easily than adults, so having them
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hide these truths in their heart now will serve them for the rest of their lives. The other day, we started
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memorizing the Lord's prayer and that's one of those things I will never forget because I
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recited it probably hundreds of times in catechism class growing up. Did I 100% realize the
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usefulness of that memorization when I was doing it and why it was important? Honestly, not really
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And those are conversations and teaching opportunities that you can have with your kids
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but I am thankful for the way that the Lord has used what I learned and memorized as a child to help
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me today. And I do think that this is key that we teach our kids why we are doing
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things like memorizing a catechism. I'll be honest, when I went through my catechism classes
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that are church growing up, I did it because I had to. It was required for us to be able to take
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communion, join the church, things like that. But I don't think I really understood the value of what
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I was doing. And I didn't even really understand the beauty of the Bible being an entire narrative
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a beautiful story of God's love and redemption until I was much older. I didn't know what doctrine was
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or that the Bible spoke very clearly about certain topics. So this is an important part that our kids see purpose in what they're doing
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and why this is valuable, that we show them how what they're memorizing can be helpful
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when we study the Bible with them or they study the Bible on their own
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So after I thought through this a bit, I decided to purchase this catechism
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and I'm going to share it with you today. So you can see what it's like, how it's formatted
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and I will talk a little bit about how we've started to use it in our homeschool
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And I'll remind you, I am not well versed in all the different catechisms out there
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So I can't really compare this to other ones. But I do like this one for a few reasons and I think it's going to be a good tool for us
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If you decide you want to start teaching catechism to your kids, you'll want to make sure that you choose one that matches what you believe, that's age appropriate for your kids, and has the type of materials that you want or need to support your teaching
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I've seen some that come with worksheets, songs, activities, and things. like that. So just know that that is out there. All right, let's talk about foundational truths
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a modern catechism. This is a non-denominational catechism. It is written using verses from the
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King James version of the Bible and there are 52 weekly lessons inside. All right, I am going to
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give you a look inside this new catechism I not going to flip through every single page every single question and answer I will show you the table of contents I will show you how it structured Talk about how we using it a little bit
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If you have any specific questions about how any of the questions are answered, please feel free to leave a comment below, and I'm happy to let you take a look at that
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Okay. So here is the table of contents. Like I said, there are 52
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weekly lessons. And if you look over this page, you can just see what types of questions
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that this catechism covers. And here are the rest of them back here
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Also on this page, there are some instructions on how to use this book, or really, I should say
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suggestions. You can use it however you want to, but it just kind of explains the different parts on the pages
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which I'll show you in a minute. There's a little introduction and some information, kind of like
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what I went over about what a catechism is, and it actually gives a list of some of the other popular
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catechisms here. So if you're interested in looking into any of those, those are some popular
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options. Purpose of a catechism, and then we get into the first lesson. So each of the 52 questions
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I have basically four pages for each one. So we start off with the question at the top for this one. How can we know there is a God? And then you have the answer. God's creation plainly reveals his wisdom, so we are without excuse. Our moral conscience knows right and wrong, pointing to a moral lawgiver, God. The scriptures are God's word given to us by God, revealing the way of salvation. And I love how it provides the scripture reference and also color codes it
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So you can match it up over here. And then the scripture is written out. So you can read it straight from
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here. I like to have my kids find the verses in their Bibles so they can look them up. Like I mentioned
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these are going to be in the King James Version. So that's going to be on the first page. So you've got
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question, answer, and then how the scripture backs that up. Right. When you flip page
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you'll see what that foundational truth is that you're learning. this in-action section. So these are really neat. It kind of gives you a way to put this into practice
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this week. So for example, strive this week to make your actions like those desired by God found in
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the teachings of scriptures. Each day identify an opportunity to act in a way that reflects God's
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wisdom and moral standards. This could involve acts of kindness, forgiveness, love, or seeking
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justice. So these are great things to strive for as a family each week
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things that you can talk about with your kids. They're all different depending on what the question
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is and what the foundational truth is, but it's a great way to live this out and just get a deeper
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understanding for the truth and how we can relate it to our lives and why it's important
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You'll see definitions on each of these. So if there's any words that might be hard to understand
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for your kids, they're written out in here. A scripture checklist. So in case
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you want to use any of these scriptures for additional memory work. I like that. You can check them off
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right here. And then there is a prayer for this week. Right. And then rinse and repeat for each other
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week. So question number two, same format question answer. Got your scripture verses. The inaction
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section definitions and the scripture checklist. Like I said, we just got this recently. We're only a
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couple of weeks in. And what we have done so far is at the beginning of each week, we will go over
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what the question is and what the answer is We will look up the different scriptures in our Bible so we can see where they are what they say how they relate to that foundational truth We will read the inaction the prayer talk about how we kind of want to implement that
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And then I've been having my kids take a piece of paper
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I'm going to get some binders for them. But we've been using these as dictation and then copywork practice
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So I will have them write down the question on their page
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and then I will dictate the answer to them, and they'll have to copy that down
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So we'll use it, you know, to practice handwriting, grammar, spelling, lots of different ways that you can use that
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Then I'll have them write down what the reference verses are. And then throughout the week, it's up to them to look up their Bibles and they use these scriptures as copywork
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At the end of the week or at the beginning of next week, we'll do kind of a little quiz to test to see if I ask the question, do they have the verse memorized
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and I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. My kids really do well with a reward system, which I have no problem in doing rewards
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So like a piece of candy or a sticker or something when they have the question and answer memorized
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Right now I'm just doing a sticker at the top of their page for when they've got the question memorized
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and then a sticker if they get their copywork done. But I'm probably going to come up with something else to just
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encourage them to continue to work on their memorization and their copy work each week. So we really
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like I said, are new to this. That's kind of how we're using it. And this is something that can be
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ongoing. So I love that there is something every week that we can do. We can spend the whole
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week on a question and answer, really digging into it, seeing how it applies to our lives
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seeing how the Bible speaks to this topic, how the other scriptures speak to it
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And I just really like it. I think it's a great teaching tool for all of the reasons that I had mentioned earlier
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Here's a few pages I've kind of looked through. If there was anything in that table of contents that you saw that you want to know more about
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just leave me a comment below. And once you get through all of the questions and answers in the back
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you also have a few additional things that I think are great to memorize
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So you've got the Ten Commandments back here. And then Psalm 23, the beatitudes, how to pray, the Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule, Fruit of the Spirit, the Nicene Creed
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And that's just the next. So, again, these are also things that you can use for copywork to work to work on memorizing
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with your family, and things like that. So that is just a flip-through of this new foundational
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truce, modern catechism by Israel Wayne. I hope that helps give you an idea of what this covers
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and what it's like, how you might use it in your homeschool. I hope this video has been helpful to you
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and given you some ideas on how a resource like this might benefit your family. Honestly, it hadn't
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been until recently that I consider this as something we might use. But
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There are many good reasons to do it. And it doesn't take long, less than 10 minutes a day
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You can easily incorporate it alongside your Bible curriculum or morning basket time
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If you do that, you can use it with language arts as copywork and dictation, or even use
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the catechism as a bedtime devotional or when you're sitting around the dinner table. Lots of ways you can be intentional about teaching biblical doctrine to your kids
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And you don't have to use this one. Like I said, there are a few different options out there in different formats
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so check around to see which one might suit your family the best. And leave a comment below if you use the catechism in your homeschool
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I'd love to hear any tips you have or which one you use. And thank you so much for watching
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I love sharing tips and encouragement with other homeschool moms on this channel
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So make sure to subscribe and like this video if you found it helpful and you like things like this
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I'll see you next time
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