11. Have students teach.
Ask children to teach the verse to a parent. (Teaching someone else helps us learn the verse ourselves.)
12. Daily reminders.
Tape the verse on a bathroom or bedroom mirror. Choose a place the child looks every day.
13. Play a memory game.
Make a memory game of Bible verses. Write out each verse on one side of a card. Put the reference on the other. Then have children match the references to the verses.
14. Look it up!
Have kids look up the memory verse in the Bible. This not only helps them get used to looking up verses. It also emphasizes that the verse is from God’s Word, not from some storybook.
15. Speak out.
Encourage the child to say the verse aloud. Sometimes saying the words makes more of an impact than simply reading them.
16. Recite it.
Encourage parents to say (or read) the verses the child is learning. Do that every night at the supper table.
17. Be bilingual.
Look online and find the verse in a different language. For fun, read it together and see if you can match up the words. Don’t spend a lot of time on this (unless you really want to). But it might make some of the English words stick in the child’s mind.
18. Follow the trail.
Design a memorizing trail through the classroom or home. Write out the words of the verse and attach them to different objects.
For example, with Psalm 100:1 – Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! you can place “Make a” on the kitchen counter (as in “making” dinner).
“Joyful noise” can go on a piano, guitar, or other noisy something. “To the Lord” can go on a Bible. “All the earth” can be taped to a globe.
Have children walk around, stopping at each point to say the verse.
I did this with a teen who was stuck on a difficult verse. After we’d walked through the house a few times, we both knew the verse perfectly.
19. Use color.
Write the verse on cardstock. Highlight (in color) key words and draw pictures around the edge to illustrate the verse. Then hang in a visible place.
20. Take the initial challenge.
Write the first letter of each word of the verse on a card or whiteboard. After children review the verse several times, challenge them to say it by looking at the letters. Ask them to do it that way a few times and then without any help.
