It’s that time of year again!  At the end of every school year, we have a recognition ceremony, for the kids.During the course of the school year, they have roughly 20 Scripture verses (or passages) to memorize.  Some are short, some are rather long, but we work with them until they all know them.

At the end of the year (usually 2 weeks after the last day of school) we have our ceremony.  I just made this up one year to congratulate them on a job well done, and it went over so well, it’s become an annual tradition.

Here’s basically the way it goes:

We go over key versese (selected by me) that we memorized during the course of the school year.  We practice these verses for roughly 2 weeks, before the ceremony (practice started yesterday).  The day of the ceremony, each child comes to the front of the class, where the officiator (me) prompts them to recite their verses. (I do less prompting every year, they’re getting really good at this).  After they recite their verses and receive their applause from the audience (the family) it’s the next child’s turn.

When each child is done, they are all called to the front of the class, and congratulated and awarded with an award certificate, with their name on it, and framed, as well as a small gift, wrapped and decorated (some small thing from the dollar store, usually).  This is followed by another round of applause, hugs, and “way to go!” comments from the audience.

We make a big deal out of it, then we usually follow up with barbeque, ice cream cones, and a big celebration. 

The award certificates I created myself, and if you’d like, you can see one here. (The academic achievement award that Jessica also receives, is here)  I make all kinds of these things, I love doing this.

We make a big deal out of this, because it is a big deal, that our kids know the Word, and hide it in their hearts.

Here are the verses I’ve selected for this year’s ceremony: