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Find Your Margin.
Find Your Margin.
For the Child
You don't have to know everything about the Bible to study it.
Sometimes you'll look for something. Sometimes you'll draw. Sometimes you'll watch a video and check whether it matches your Bible. Sometimes you'll tell the story yourself.
Your job is to look closely and see what you can discover.
And if you don't know an answer?
That's okay.
Look again. Ask a question. Ask your grown-up for help finding where to look.
For the Grown-Up
Elementary Margin is designed to work across a wide range of reading abilities. Your child may read an entire passage independently, read a few verses with assistance, or need you to read everything aloud. All three children can study the Bible.
If your child cannot read independently, become their reader—not their answer key. Read Scripture aloud and allow them to listen, observe, point, draw, count, choose, retell, and answer verbally.
If they're struggling to process a question, make the question smaller before giving them the answer. Instead of asking, “What happened in this chapter?”, try, “Let's look at verse 5. Who is talking here?”
You can also offer choices, reread a sentence, act something out, define an unfamiliar word, point to the correct paragraph, or complete the first example together.
The goal isn't perfect answers.
The goal is helping your child gradually learn:
I can open the Bible. I can look for myself. I can notice things. I can ask questions. I can learn how to study God's Word.
Elementary Margin
See it. Find it. Draw it. Tell it. Make it.
Elementary Margin helps young readers discover that Bible study is something they can do, not just something adults do for them.
At this stage, studying Scripture doesn't need to mean understanding every difficult word, knowing historical context, or writing pages of notes. It can begin with learning to look closely:
Who is here? What happened? What did they say? What changed? What does this tell me? Where did I find that?
Children will watch, search, draw, retell, build, compare, and play—but every activity has the same destination: back to the Bible.
Middle School Margin
Read it. Question it. Check it. Figure out what you actually know.
Middle School Margin is where Bible study starts becoming more independent.
You aren't just learning Bible stories anymore. You're learning how to ask questions about them.
Why did they do that?
What happened before this?
Does the Bible actually say that?
Why does this translation sound different?
What does that word mean?
Is that something I know from Scripture—or something I've just always heard?
And sometimes:
I have absolutely no idea what this means.
Good.
Questions aren't a Bible-study failure. They're often where Bible study begins.
Middle School Margin gives you enough direction to know what to do without doing all the thinking for you.
For the Student
You can read now, so we're going to make you work a little.
You won't always be given the answer.
You may be asked to investigate, compare, explain, question, draw, rewrite, research, or defend what you think.
Three rules:
1. Keep your Bible open.
2. Show where your answer came from.
3. “I don't know yet” is allowed.
The goal isn't to finish every prompt perfectly.
The goal is to learn how to study Scripture for yourself.
For the Grown-Up
Your role is beginning to change.
In Elementary Margin, you may have been the reader, question-breaker, activity-setter, and guide. Here, your student should increasingly take ownership.
Try not to hover.
Let them read. Let them wrestle with a confusing sentence. Let them disagree with your first interpretation. Let them ask something you don't know.
Instead of answering immediately, try:
“What makes you think that?”
“Where do you see that?”
“What happened before that verse?”
“What could we look up?”
“I don't know either. Let's investigate.”
You are moving from teacher toward study partner.
The Middle School Rule
Don't rescue the student from a question they are capable of investigating.
Help them find the road.
Let them walk it.
High School Margin
Ask harder questions. Study deeper. Learn how to find answers for yourself.
High School Margin is where the training wheels start coming off.
By now, you can read Scripture independently. You can make observations. You can ask questions. You can recognize that context matters.
Now we're going to ask you to do more with those skills.
You'll investigate difficult questions, examine things you've always assumed the Bible says, learn how history and genre affect interpretation, compare translations, use study resources, trace ideas across Scripture, and eventually build studies of your own.
You won't always be given the answer.
Sometimes you won't even be given all the steps.
That's intentional.
The goal isn't for The Margin to become really good at studying the Bible for you.
The goal is for you to become really good at studying the Bible.
For the Student
Bring your Bible.
Bring your questions.
Bring a notebook or somewhere to keep your research.
And get comfortable writing:
I noticed…
I think…
The text says…
This source argues…
I'm not convinced yet…
I need to research…
I still don't know.
Those are all legitimate parts of Bible study.
For the Grown-Up
Your role is changing.
Elementary Margin often needed you beside the child.
Middle School Margin sometimes needed you nearby.
High School Margin should increasingly allow the student to study independently and come find you when they want to talk.
You can help locate reliable resources, talk through difficult questions, challenge unsupported conclusions, and say “I don't know—let's find out.”
You do not need to monitor every conclusion or make sure their study ends exactly where yours would.
We're teaching them how to investigate responsibly.