Simplifying Come, Follow Me

When we started learning from the new Come, Follow Me curriculum back in January, I was pretty excited! I had a great plan for teaching my children from the scriptures and learning and growing together. It involved a lot; it definitely wasn’t simple; but for our circumstances at the time, it was awesome! I am a stay-at-home-mom and just had one child with me during the day while the older 4 were at school. So, I had time to find print outs for the kids to do activities and add to a notebook along with a little lesson to do with them every night. We kept up with it for a good while too and really enjoyed what we were doing.

And then, my husband left on a work trip. Not just any trip. He will be gone for 6 months. And I began to feel a little bit of what I have heard others complain about:

it’s too much to do . . .

there’s not enough time . . .

it’s too overwhelming . . .

how do I fit it in?

I’m now running a household completely on my own. I am lucky that I am still a stay-at-home-mom, all the kids are in school now, and I don’t have to go to a job during the day. But having to manage everything on my own, without any help from my husband, has been quite overwhelming.

Also, with the start of a new school year and all the kids in school our afternoons and evenings are jam packed, even though we don’t do a lot of extracurricular activities. I have 3 kids who are still in the learning-to-read phase and need me to read with them for 20 minutes a day (adds up to 60 minutes). And 4 kids taking piano lessons who need to practice each day (adds up to about 1 1/2 hours). Then there’s homework and fitting in phone calls with Dad. With all of that going on, the time we have to sit down as a family is limited to dinner and prayers before bedtime.

So, what’s a mom to do?

How do you fit everything in and still do the most important things?

It was definitely time to come up with a new plan. And this is what it looks like. It has been working great for us.

Are you ready? Here it is:

We now get up 15 minutes earlier each morning.

After breakfast which is at a specific time (it’s the last thing we do, when everyone is ready to go), we have 15 minutes of scripture time.

10 minutes is spent reading alone. The kids can choose any of our illustrated scripture books (they sit in a stack on our counter so they’re easy to grab each morning) or their regular scriptures. Sometimes the older ones will read quietly to the youngest one who can’t read independently yet. This 10 minutes gives me time to look through the Come, Follow Me manual, along with my scriptures and pick out one or two verses to share with the kids.

When the 10 minutes of personal study are up, they close their books and it’s time for family scriptures. It takes just a quick 2-5 minutes to read the scripture verse or two that I picked out and then talk about what it means. Simple and done.

I do like to look at 3 resources in addition to the Come, Follow Me manual. It’s not necessary, but I enjoy these:

Don’t Miss This weekly video on YouTube
Come Follow Me for Us podcast
- They both give me further insights into the scriptures and things I can share with the kids.
Weekly ideas listed in the Ensign
- I just rip out the page called Family Study Fun, fold it and stick it in my scriptures so I have it when I’m reading in the morning.

Anyway, that’s it. Easy peasy. No extra preparation time required, just sitting with your kids to read the scriptures and picking out something to share. I know there are people out there in more difficult circumstances than me . . . single parents who have to work during the day or those going through extra difficult challenges. But if you can find just a few minutes a day to read the scriptures with your family, know that it doesn’t have to be big or elaborate. Don’t let it overwhelm you; you can do great things in just a few minutes!