Published March 4, 2026

How We Challenged Our 7-Year-Old to Read the Entire Book of Mormon Before Turning 8

This last year we decided to try something a little ambitious with one of our daughters. And I’ll be honest… it was not all sunshine and roses. But it ended up being one of the most worthwhile things we’ve done.

The idea actually started with my sister. She mentioned in our family group chat that her son (who is my daughter’s age) had set a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon before he turned eight and was baptized. When she said that, I immediately thought, Wait… that’s amazing.

The Book of Mormon is over 500 pages long, and the language isn’t exactly what most seven-year-olds are used to reading. But the more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea of giving my kids the chance to accomplish something that difficult before they were baptized.

So we decided to try it.

If you’re curious about what the Book of Mormon is and how it relates to the Bible, you can read more about it here:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe/book-of-mormon

Why We Decided to Do It

There were a few reasons behind the challenge. First, we wanted our daughter to have the experience of doing something really hard. Not something easy. Not something that everyone does.

Something that would stretch her.

If she could finish the Book of Mormon before she turned eight, she would always be able to say that she accomplished that as a child. And I knew that kind of confidence can carry into the rest of your life.

Second, I knew it would dramatically improve her reading skills.

Scriptures use language that’s different from most children’s books. At first it can feel slow and difficult. But the more she read, the more comfortable she became with it. Within just a few chapters, I noticed her reading ability and comprehension improving noticeably.

And third, we wanted her to become familiar with the scriptures early. Not necessarily to understand every single verse right now – but to become comfortable reading them.

The Big Incentive

Now… I also know my kids.

Evelyn is a reader. She loves books and reads constantly. When we told her about the challenge, she immediately took it on and started reading three to six pages a day completely on her own.

But our daughter Eleanor (we call her Squish) is not naturally a bookworm. I knew she would need some extra motivation. So we made a deal. If she finished reading the entire Book of Mormon before her eighth birthday…

She would get to go on a one-on-one trip to Disneyland or Disney World with either Mom or Dad. Suddenly the challenge felt very real to her.

Our Reading Plan

The Book of Mormon is 531 pages, so we had to figure out a realistic plan.

We started in October, and her birthday is in March. If she read two pages every single day without missing, she would finish in time. But life happens. Travel happens. Kids get sick. Holidays get busy.

So we started with three pages a day to give ourselves a little buffer. Later, as we got closer to the deadline, we bumped it up to four pages a day. Toward the very end, she was even reading eight pages a day by splitting it up into two reading sessions.

Breaking it into smaller chunks helped a lot.

Sometimes we did:

• Two pages in the morning
• Two pages before dinner

Later we moved to:

• Four pages in the morning
• Four pages in the afternoon

And toward the very end she was so determined to finish that there were even nights she stayed up reading in bed with a little book light just to get her pages in.

What started out feeling overwhelming eventually became completely manageable.

It Was Not Always Easy

I want to be very clear about something. This was not a magical experience where my child happily skipped off every day to read scriptures. There were plenty of days she didn’t want to read and pushed back where I wondered if I was just making her hate the Book of Mormon.

I even called my sister a few times to ask if this was normal. Her answer was basically: “Yes. Some kids just struggle more with it. But it’s always worth it.” And she was right.

One Rule I Set For Myself

Before we started, I made a decision. I was not going to stop after every verse and make sure she understood everything perfectly. There is absolutely spiritual value in doing that. But I knew that would make the challenge overwhelming.

The main goal was simply this: Finish the book.

Understanding and deeper study could come later. Interestingly, the more she read, the more she naturally started asking questions on her own. She began recognizing stories. She started noticing patterns. Her comprehension grew without me forcing it.

Ways We Helped Keep Her Motivated

Besides the big Disney trip at the end, I occasionally used other tricks to keep her motivated.

Some things that helped:

• Watching videos of Disney or Harry Potter World to remind her what she was working toward
• Talking about how close she was getting to finishing
• Breaking reading into smaller sessions
• Occasionally offering smaller rewards along the way

My sister actually used a different approach with her kids. They gave small rewards for reaching certain milestones and sometimes even tied family activities to their progress.

Every family will probably do it a little differently.

What She Learned From This

The biggest lesson had nothing to do with Disneyland. It had to do with learning that she can do hard things. This is a child who often says, “I can’t do it” or “It’s too hard.”

But now she has proof that she can push through something difficult. Yesterday we talked about it together. At the beginning, reading two pages felt almost impossible.

Now she can sit down and read four pages easily. By the end of the challenge, she was reading eight pages a day. That experience taught her something really important:

Practice makes hard things easier. And that lesson will apply to everything else in her life.

Was It Worth It?

Absolutely. It required a lot of commitment from me. There were days when it would have been easier to just skip it. But watching her finish something this difficult at such a young age has been incredible.

She’s already talking excitedly about the trip she earned. But even more importantly, she knows something about herself now that she didn’t know before.

She knows she can do hard things. And that lesson is going to stay with her long after the Disneyland trip is over.