JBQ and Learning the Cards

The information in the Junior Bible Quiz Bible Fact-Pak is the best information that you can ever have. It is the catechism of the Assemblies of God, in my opinion. If we could teach all of our kids this information, we would ground them in the Word of God that would establish them for life. That's a pretty powerful statement, but the key is that we must teach it to them in a way that they learn the information. We have to have a way to transfer this knowledge from the Fact-Pak to that child's brain.

I want to share with you some ideas that we did as parents to teach our kids the JBQ cards. All three of our children earned their Master Seal, now called the Bible Excellence Award.

Parent Involvement

The number one thing we did was get involved with our kids and learn the Fact-Pak ourselves. We had times when we just read the questions to our kids and they gave us the answers. We even used driving time to teach our kids the JBQ cards. It was amazing what my kids learned from the cards during our drive time. The kids not only learned; I learned as well.

The information on the JBQ cards is so valuable that even the parent should get involved so their kids can learn these questions.

Break Down Questions into Segments for Parents

Another thing I recommend is to break the questions down into segments so not all 576 questions are attempted to be learned at once. We do this for our church because we are part of the Indiana District. Our JBQ coaches have arranged what cards the kids would learn each week of every month they were quizzing—which was about 20 questions per week. During our JBQ practices, we would quiz those same questions over and over and over. Each week we would add more questions but review the ones that we had already learned.

Here’s how this works: The cards are broken up into point values of 10, 20 and 30. Easier questions are in the tens and the harder ones in the 30s. We started at the beginning, as we wanted our kids to master the 10-point questions. As they mastered the 10-point questions, we then began to add the 20- and 30-point questions to make it more challenging. We had set before them the goal of getting their Bible Excellence Award/Master Seal, and they knew, as a result, that they were working toward a goal.

Once our kids earned their Master Seal, they would be rewarded for accomplishing their goal. Along the way, we also offered small rewards as they would learn the questions—plus they also worked hard for the fact that they wanted to score points at the quiz meets.

Repetition & Fun

Repetition is the key for children learning these questions. So we would ask the questions over and over and over, making it FUN as we were having our study time. Fun is a key element to teaching children.  Don't make JBQ practice a drudgery; make it a fun time that they get to spend with mom and dad.

There are 107 quotation questions where students need to memorize the verses word for word.  There are also some other very long answers to questions, like the 12 names of Jacob's sons. So to help with this, we would make up fun songs to go along with the answers, plus we would find songs for many of the Bible verses. We also have made up funny raps to some of the long answers as well. We make the practice sessions FUN and sometimes silly, and that’s all okay—even when answering a question in a squeaky voice. The idea is that the students learn the answers and get the information deep in their hearts.

The students will also need times when they study the questions on their own. Make sure they have a notebook of the questions they are to learn, and set up a location for them. (Or have them set a place where they are going to study those cards for a certain amount of time.)  Record yourself reading the questions so they can listen to you reading them during their study time when you're not there. Creating good study habits for your child will be rewarding throughout their lives.