'What did you talk about in SRE today?' is the most important question you can ask, and it takes ten seconds. Even if the answer is 'I don't remember' or 'Jesus stuff', you've communicated that SRE matters to your family. When the answer is 'we heard about Zacchaeus and Jesus came to his house', you have a thread to pull — 'What did Zacchaeus do? What would you have done?'
1. Ask One Question Every SRE Day
2. Read One Bible Story Together Per Week
This doesn't have to be the same story as SRE — any Bible story your child engages with builds the vocabulary and familiarity that makes SRE go deeper. A good children's Bible (The Jesus Storybook Bible, for example, is excellent from age 4 to 10) makes this a five-minute routine rather than a project.
3. Pray Together Before Bed
Even a one-minute prayer at bedtime — each family member naming one thing they're thankful for and one thing they're worried about — models the habit of bringing life to God. Children who see adults praying habitually develop the same habit. Children who never see prayer modelled outside of church rarely develop it on their own.
4. Connect SRE to Church If You Can
If your family attends church, mention the overlap when you see it: 'Oh, we talked about that in Sunday school — what did they say in SRE?' Cross-context repetition is one of the most powerful memory reinforcement tools available. A story heard in three different contexts (SRE, church, home) is a story that stays.
5. Affirm the SRE Volunteer
SRE volunteers rarely hear from the families of the students they teach. A brief email or note to the school — 'Our daughter came home talking about the Lost Sheep story and we had a wonderful conversation — please pass on our thanks' — is extraordinarily encouraging to someone giving their time each week. It also reinforces to your child that you value what they're doing in SRE.
