Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. 

Steve: We're going to do something different today. God has put this on my heart  lately, and I thought I would share it with our listeners. It's about teaching spelling  through the Scripture. How's that sound? 

Scott: Like a great homeschool lesson. 

Steve: OK. Let's pray. Father, help me to articulate well what You've put on my heart  and what we've accomplished in what I was teaching. I pray that You'll bless our time  together here this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. 

We're going to go way back in time. After our fourth son was born with Down  syndrome, he endured several significant surgeries. My wife and I were unable to  continue the many tasks on our plate, and we sensed God was leading us to step back  and heal as a family. 

I resigned from the ministry, I resigned from teaching, and I resigned from lots of  different things that I was doing. In the providence of God, I received a phone call to  move to Massachusetts and teach at a K‑8 Christian school. The idea was I would  teach one year, meet the different people, and perhaps be the headmaster the  following year. 

As the lone man on the faculty, I wore several hats. I taught math and science to the  upper grades and was the physical education teacher for the whole school. However it  was my homeroom that stretched and blessed me. 

Each morning, in addition to the mundane tasks of making announcements, collecting  money for lunch, I was also given the responsibility to teach Scripture as well as  spelling and penmanship. 

Now, you know me, Scott. At first, the original assignment was to have devotions with  the kids. I said, "That's not my responsibility. That's the parents' responsibility." The idea of taking this Scripture, applying it to somebody's life, having prayer  requests, I felt wasn't a teacher's job. That was a parent job. I said, "I will teach the  Scripture as a topic," and the administrator was good with that. 

The spelling and the penmanship was pretty much workbook city. The kids each had  their own workbook for spelling and they each had a little penmanship book. They had to fill out one page a day, for each book. I would collect them and make  sure they'd done their homework. We had a quiz at the end of the week. It was simply  passing papers back and forth. I didn't feel like anything was being accomplished. 

As we began reading the Bible, I an idea and asked the students, "How many of you  have ever read the New Testament?" The class was made up of children 10 through  12. It was comprised of fifth and sixth graders. 

Out of my class of 14, two had done this. I would have predicted those two because I  knew their families well. I asked them, "Would you like to read the New Testament all  the way through?" They said, "Yes. Sounds great." 

I made a calendar. Since this was the beginning of September, I thought ‑ "If we start  right now and include weekends and holidays, we can read one chapter a day and  finish by the end of the school year, in May," 260 chapters in the New Testament. That's what we started doing. We began with Matthew 1. They would read it the night  before, and we would discuss it in class. Matthew 2, etc. 

Some of this was a result of my musing on why education had begun in America in  the first place. I had taken a class or two on the history of education when I was at  seminary. 

I discovered that it was the Puritans' desire that their children would learn to read, so  they could read the Scriptures. I thought of passages such as ”The law has become  our tutor to lead us to Christ," (Galatians 3:24) and "Faith comes from hearing, and  hearing through the Word of Christ," (Romans 10:17) 

I'm pretty sure these verses impacted their thinking, and the prime objective was to  teach our kids to read. The early schools did not convene for a full school year. It was  after the harvest and not during planting because these were people who worked on  the family farm. The whole family was working. They didn't have the luxury of  sending their children off to school for 180 days each year. 

Children had responsibilities as well, but it was a huge priority to our forefathers that  they would learn to read and understand the Scriptures. 

As we began reading through Matthew, one of the students raised their hand and  said, "I ran across several words last night that I didn't know what they meant." I was  surprised and asked some of the other kids, and they said the same thing. I decided to do some research, "OK. Here's your assignment tonight. I want you to  write down every word that you don't understand what it means out of the chapter  that we're going to be reading as a class.” I received between three and seven words  in one chapter. 

Our school at the time was encouraging us to use the NIV, which I found out later, is  written at about a sixth grade reading level. Since this is what the school had chosen,  everybody in the school was reading the same translation.

I was flummoxed, "Seven words in one chapter? That's a lot of words." Then a bunch  of pieces started falling into place. I'd been watching them mechanically fill out these  worksheets each. I didn’t believe the worksheets were teaching them anything." I had a kind of epiphany as several thoughts came together in my mind, ”Here's what  we're going to do. I'm going to pick one word from each chapter of our reading. That  word is going to be your vocabulary word for the day. 

"I want you to look it up and write down the definition in cursive. Then I want you to  use that word in a sentence and write that down with printing," or, at the time, we  were calling that manuscript. 

This word wasn't just any word. It was a significant word in the text of that chapter. If  the chapter happened to be focused on justification, I would choose justification.  When in doubt, I picked the biggest word or the hardest word, and I made the list. Pretty soon, I had a list of all 260 chapters with a word beside them. That was their  word that they were going to define, they were going to write out using their  penmanship and their cursive and their manuscript, and they were going to use it in a  sentence. 

If I was to do it again, I would make one change. Let’s say that we're reading Romans  3 and the word I chose was propitiation. I would have them look up the definition and  write it in cursive and then would have them print the verse where that word appears. Do you see what they're doing? They're understanding the words of the Bible. They're  becoming more, if I can call it this, biblically literate. They're practicing their printing,  they're practicing their cursive, and they're reading God's Word. 

It was all in sync. Instead of three little segmented Bible reading, spelling,  penmanship assignments, we were actually doing what education was designed to be  done in the first place, learning to read and understand the Bible. By the end of the school year (I'm not sure about one student) but all of the students  had read their entire New Testament during the school year. They'd looked up over  260 words, and they understood the meanings. Isn't that cool? 

Scott: Very cool. 

Steve: I felt it was the best thing that I did that year, and it was the class that, if you  can put it this way, I was the least equipped for because I had been a high school  math teacher. I knew how to teach math. I was pretty good in the sciences. I knew  how to teach science. I was a jock, so I could do gym class. Those were in my  strengths. 

The idea of teaching spelling and penmanship stretched me. Once this all came into  focus, it was one of the best, most satisfying things that we accomplished that year in  our classroom. 

During this year, my oldest son was eight, my second was six, we had a three and a  half, and then we had John, who was a baby. At this juncture in our life, we had just  moved and had to find new doctors for John's care. We were in a different state. Sandy asked, "Would you be willing to take the two older boys with you to the  Christian School for a few months until I can find new doctors for John?” Since I would  be there and they could drive back and forth with me we thought this was easier than  Sandy dragging 4 kids around to doctor’s offices.  

I said, "Sure." They with me to school until Thanksgiving. When we had some doctors,  then we pulled them back out and Sandy continued the homeschooling that she'd  already begun when we were in Georgia. 

When we started homeschooling again and were having family devotions, I remember  sitting around in our living room, and I started listening or trying to figure out which  words the boys didn't understand. 

Then we started doing the same thing. "If there's a word that we're reading and you  don't understand it, raise your hand," or I would pick it ahead of time and I would  have them look it up. They would define it, and write it out. 

This doesn't have to be a formal curriculum in the sense that what I did in the school,  because we had a pretty good rhythm there, but it was the idea of keeping your  antenna up. 

When you come across a word, like in our family, what we did was we would read one  chapter aloud per day. If you're reading through that chapter and you come across a  word that you don't know, perhaps we could look it up right then. Then, when the boys got older, I did start assigning some words, like propitiation or  justification. I might say, "Ethan, you look up this word. Isaac, you look up this word.  Joseph, you look up this word." 

Then, when we came to them in the reading, we'd stop and they would tell us what  the definition was and use it in a sentence. When they got a little older, I started  assigning words and having the two older boys, especially, look them up in Greek.  Not in‑depth, but searching for it in concordance. I would ask, what's the Greek word?  Or what's the root word of that one in Greek? 

The idea was we were trying to become more biblically literate. We were trying to read  the Bible with understanding. We were trying to improve our vocabulary, improve our  understanding of what God was saying in His Word. 

This doesn't have to be formal. It can simply be keeping your antenna up. Look for  words that people are stumbling on or they don't know how to pronounce when  you're reading the Bible together. 

If you want to have some initiative, you could look at what you're going to be reading  that week, pick five words from the next five chapters and assign them to different  people in your family. I'm trying to whet our appetite for using the Scriptures to teach  people how to spell and understand the meaning of words. 

One last point is about the dictionary. One of the words that I had chosen to define in  the Christian school was blot, B‑L‑O‑T. The kids, almost to a person, said that the  dictionary definition was a stain. 

I said, "No. It's the opposite," because it's blot, like a blotter. Back in the old days,  when they used ink pens that weren't modern ink pens, you had a blotter in case  there was too much ink on the thing, and it would soak it up. 

When it talks about Jesus blotting out our sins, He's removing them. He's not leaving  them. He's not staining us. He's removing the stain. That happened more than once. In fact, the word righteousness was one of the words I had chosen. The kids came  back the next day and said, "Mr. Demme, we couldn't find that word in the dictionary."  Modern dictionaries did not even have the word, so you have to be careful. Scott: That's weird. 

Steve: I'm a big advocate of the Webster's 1828 dictionary, which is now available for  free online. When I bought it, it was a significant investment because I was broke. I  was poor, but I really wanted that dictionary. It cost $39 or something. Back in those  days, that's a lot of money for one book, but that book is wonderful. To me, George Washington helped us become a nation, but Noah Webster helped us  have a unified American English language. He was a significant character in the  forming of the United States of America. 

Noah Webster, in creating this dictionary, had a circular table, except he could be in  the middle of it, so picture a big round doughnut, except flat. He kept 27 different  lexicons for 27 different languages. He would take one word and walk around the  table and write down a definition after consulting the 27 lexicons. Amazing! This is before computers obviously, when he wrote this Webster's 1828 dictionary.  There's a ton of edifying information in there and a lot of Scripture. There's also a lot  of John Locke and Shakespeare. He was a very learned man. 

I really like the 1828 dictionary because it gives you biblical definitions for words. In  fact, the word righteousness is a third of a column. There are three columns in his  dictionary. It's like a Bible study which is very different from a modern dictionary,  which is pretty secular. 

Scott: Fascinating. You don't really think about how the dictionary was compiled or  formed and that there would be some sort of slant to it. You think, "Oh, it's a dictionary. This is what the word means." Somebody had to write it, and somebody  had to choose examples of how to use it in a sentence and all that. Steve: Oh yeah. If you look at the modern Webster's dictionary versus the original  1828 Webster's dictionary, it's significantly different. It's edifying to read Webster's  original dictionary. It's wonderful. 

What I'm trying to encourage people to do is, number one, read the Bible. Number  two, understand the Bible. I also think it's important that you know how to print and  how to write properly. I don't have a curriculum for that, but I'm sure you can find  stuff online. 

Most people know how to make their letters. Have the children use their  understanding of penmanship, teach them how to look up a word and find the  definition. Then use it in a sentence and to observe it in Scripture. I think the whole  idea works wonders. 

Recently I have found my list from my teaching days. By the time we air this particular  podcast, I will have my list of New Testament words that I used in the Christian  school. 

If you want to have them, I'm going to put them online for free. You can download  them, and we'll go from there. 

Scott: I sense a new course coming along, one or two. Let's see. 

Steve: Yes. Spelling through Scripture. 

Scott: Scripture‑U‑See and Cursive‑U‑See. 

Steve: I've always been big on multi-sensory. You read it and then you write it and  then you say it. It's still the way that I think, that we use as much of the brain as  possible. We write it, see it, say it, and then apply it. 

I believe this approach will ground us in God's Word and help the Word of God to  make more sense, especially when you think of somebody that's 10 or 11 years old  that's reading the Bible, is not understanding five, six, seven words in each chapter. How do you read the Bible with understanding if you don't know what the words  mean? 

OK, let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the fact that we have  Your Word. We have so many translations, and I pray that we'll not just have these on  our shelves, but that we'll read them, we'll understand them, and we'll teach our  children to read and understand them as well. In Jesus' name. Amen. Scott: Amen. 

Steve: I would like to tuck in one more little exhortation. I spoke at a youth  conference this summer. I was sitting around the table with these young people, and  they were asking me really good questions, deep questions. 

One of the students asked me which translation of the Bible I preferred. I said, "Before  I answer that, why don't you each tell me which translation you use?" One person used KJV, one was ESV, one was Phillips, I think. Anyway, they all had  different ones. There were a couple, like the ESV, that were more prevalent. I said, "Do you know what those all have in common?" They looked at me and they  said, "What?" I said, "They're all translations," and they went, "Oh."  I know that we each have a preference, but I would never divide a church over the fact  of which preference we have because they're all translations. If you want to get really  into the Word of God, read it in the original language in which it was written. Each family, I'm not going to make a recommendation. I'm going to recommend that  each family pray and trust God to choose a translation that would be good for their  kids. Then, if they all are functioning out of the same translation, it provides less  confusion. 

When we first started reading the Bible as a family for our family devotions, I found a  large‑print translation, which I don't even remember exactly which one it is now. I  found one that was large print so my kids wouldn't have any trouble reading it, and  we all read from the same translation. 

It was helpful, but by the time the kids were in high school and going off to college,  we probably had five translations as we read around the room. My wife was using a  different translation. I was using a different translation. It's OK. That's different, but  

when they're younger, I think it's nice to have the same translation. Of course, today, if you really wanted to, you could print them out. You can take a  chapter of the Bible, print it out, adjust the font size, so everyone is looking at the  same one. Put them on a clipboard or in a three‑ring binder and go from there. There are lots of different ideas for this, but pick a translation that is readable. Scott: It helps to pick one that you know it's a translation, not a paraphrase or  whatever. Maybe even know something about how they did the translation, because  nowadays, there's all kinds of different things out there.  

Steve: When I read the Bible, I generally keep three or four up on my computer. I read  my Bible on my laptop. Most of the time I read the ESV, but sometimes I have the  Amplified beside it. Other times I have the New American Standard in another column.  Sometimes I have the NLT open as well. It enhances the Bible reading. As I'm reading through something, I think, "Boy, I wonder what that means." Then I'll  also have BibleHub open, and I can run over there and I can look at one verse in the  original language. I'm a little eclectic. 

Scott: Nice. 

Steve: Have a great day, Scott, and may God bless all of us in teaching our kids how  to read and understand the Scripture. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.