Tag: FHE

FHE Lesson: Joseph Smith

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My husband came home from work yesterday and said “We should do a Family Home Evening lesson on Joseph Smith”. Since it was 5:45 p.m. and I still didn’t have a solid plan for FHE (yes, things are not always well planned around here!), I jumped on the idea. It was good night to talk about Joseph Smith, since June 27th marks the anniversary of his martyrdom.

After a quick search on Sugardoodle, I had a fun activity: Joseph Smith Tic Tac Toe. You can play the game in the regular tic tac toe fashion, but to place a marker on a square each team must first answer a trivia question about Joseph Smith. Sample questions: “What part of Joseph’s body was operated on when he was 7 years old? His leg” and “What river was Joseph baptized in? Susquehanna”.

I knew that my children wouldn’t really know the answers to start with, but my husband and I played on opposite teams and coached our partners in the answers. It was a fun way to learn about the Prophet, and by the end of the evening we had all learned a few things. The evening was complete with the singing of “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” and “Praise to the Man”.

“Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah! Jesus annointed that Prophet and Seer.
Blessed to open the last dispensation, Kings shall extol him, and nations revere.
Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven! Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain.
Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren; Death cannot conquer the hero again.”

Another great resource is this summary of highlights from the life of Joseph Smith, as printed in The Friend magazine.

While we’re on the topic of Joseph Smith, last Friday for our date night my husband and I watched Emma Smith: My Story. The movie is well done, and a good way to learn more about Emma and Joseph. You can watch the movie right now for free on Hulu, or I’ve included it below.

A lesson for Easter

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The theme in Primary for this month is Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I’ve been preparing my Sharing Time lesson for this Easter Sunday, and I think I will do some variation of using Easter eggs, the Gospel Art picture kit, and symbolic items to teach the children about the Savior’s atonement and resurrection. Hailey shared a great lesson plan at Little LDS Ideas.

To conclude the lesson I plan to share the following film:

But I also really like this newest film:

In our family we traditionally have an Easter themed FHE lesson the week before Easter, to put us in the right frame of mind to remember the real reason behind Easter. This year we followed the lesson plan from A Year of FHE.

FHE quick tip: I have discovered that the best way to keep the attention of my children during FHE is to gather at the table, instead of on the couch. The living room leaves too much space for jumping or running or dancing around, whereas at the table they have to be more contained. Then I usually give them a coloring page to work on while we discuss the lesson. Coloring keeps their hands busy, and their ears (and heart and mind) more receptive to the message.

Our Easter celebrations are simple. We will have a nice family dinner on Sunday (always a baked ham, this year with red potatoes and green beans), followed by an Easter egg hunt outdoors. In my attempt to keep the day focused on the real reason for Easter, many of the eggs that we hide contain a small picture of Jesus Christ. I cut the pictures out of old Ensign magazines, fold them up and save them for future years. I still include small candy/treats in the eggs, but the pictures of the Savior are my little reminders.

How do you celebrate Easter?

FHE: Use your manners. Be polite.

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Teaching good manners is a topic that I have been thinking about for awhile.  Reminders like “Use a napkin, not your shirt” and “How can you ask that in a nice, polite way?” and “Use your fork, please” are heard often in our home. So I was very excited to find a FHE lesson on Manners at A Year of FHE.

I mostly just followed the lesson as outlined by Emilie. We talked about the magic words of please and thank you and we sang this cute little song:

(Sung to I’m a Little Teapot)

I have super manners. Yes, I do.
I can say “Please,” and “Thank You,” too.
When I play with friends, I like to share.
That’s the way I show I care!

Then we read Time to Say “Please” by Mo Willems. We’ve had this book out from the library for over a month now. Anything by Mo Willems is always a hit at our house, so this book has been a good tool for reminders about saying please and thank you.

Then we moved on to the topic of Table Manners. For our family, we have decided to focus on two:

Always use your tools to eat your food.

Clean with a napkin.

I made a little poster with some visual aids to help us all remember!

To wrap things up, the girls colored the mini book of manners that Emilie shared.

As they colored, we read and discussed  What do you say, dear? by Sesyle Joslin, with pictures by Maurice Sendak.

This book was written in the 1950s as “A handbook of etiquette for young ladies and gentlemen. To be used as a guide for everyday social behavior”. What we have really enjoyed about this book is that even though the hypothetical situations the children face are often bizzare and quite imaginative, there is still a place for manners. For example, “You are picking dandelions and columbines outside the castle. Suddenly a fierce dragon appears and blows red smoke at you, but just then a brave knoght gallops up and cuts off the dragon’s head. What do you say, dear?” And the answer of course, as you turn the page is, “Thank you very much”.

Adding to our Family Habits List

Use your manners. Be polite. is the sixth habit we have added to our Family Habits list. To read more about the habits we are working on in our family, read this post.

Teaching our children to love the prophets (and getting ready for conference)

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“It is when children are young that parents must be innovative in helping them develop good habits regarding conference participation. As our children are given opportunities to observe and learn the role of these special witnesses, they will receive a spiritual confirmation of the sacred calling of their Church leaders, and they will feel a deeper love for and interest in these leaders and their message” (Elder Neil L. Anderson, source).

General Conference is just a few days away, so that means it is time to get the packets ready for the children! Having a packet of coloring pages and activities for the children to work on during General Conference has become an important tradition in our home, and it helps our children to really look forward to the special weekend. It helps them to be reverent and listen more to the speakers, even at a very young age. I am very thankful for so many people who do the work of assembling the packets and freely share their talents with the rest of us!

Be sure to visit the Sugardoodle.net General Conference page for links to the most current packets available. I really like the design of this season’s packets by Angela and Melanie, and it is helpful to have them age appropriate for nursery, junior primary, senior, etc. I am printing some pages from a few different packets to get the right match for the abilities and interests of my two girls. It is exciting to have a fluently reading 6 year old, since that ability opens up a lot more activities for her to work on.

We love a good toilet paper roll craft at our house, so my girls should enjoy the First Presidency Toilet Paper Roll puppets in the nursery packet.

Our Family Home Evening lesson this week was centered on getting to know the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles. We did a little match-up game and shared a few facts about each apostle, using these apostle cards. Unfortunately, the lesson didn’t go over as well as I had hoped, probably due to a lack of planning on my part (plus I should have remembered that talking about 15 men in one sitting is way beyond the attention span of my 3 year old). They did think the apostle song was funny.

But I really like the idea shared at the Crane Corner. Jeanine used three different Family Home Evening nights to learn about the apostles, and then did a memorable activity that tied in with the interests of one of the apostles discussed. For example, making banana bread because President Eyring likes to bake, or painting because Elder Scott enjoys painting.

So here is my new idea: In the coming months we will spend one FHE night a month (or more!) focused on one of the apostles. We will use this resource to learn about their life and background, we will review their most recent conference address, and then we will do an activity that connects with that apostles life or his conference address. I am excited about this plan, and I think it will help us to bring the messages of conference home a little bit more, while helping us all to learn more about our leaders.

“Our challenge as parents is to prepare our homes so that our children might be “armed with righteousness.” In the future, a discernable distinction of the true followers of Christ will be the heed and attention they give to the living prophets and Apostles. As our children listen to these men, they will find their way.”

“Some might say it is not the leaders who are important, but the message they bring. Yet, if our children do not know the names of the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, they most likely will not know their messages either.”

Neil L. Anderson, “Teaching our Children to Love the Prophets”, Ensign, April 1996, 44.

What do you think? Are you ready for General Conference this weekend?

A Heartfelt FHE, and a few Primary inspired lessons

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The Ant Bug had really been looking forward to making hearts and decorating our house for Valentines Day, and she figured that the last day of January was the perfect day to bring on the hearts. Since January 31st was a Monday, a Family Home Evening activity/lesson was born!

Scripture of the Week

“Yea, I will keep thy commandments with all my heart” (Alma 45:7).

Song

If Listen With My Heart by Sally DeFord (the song taught in Primary during the month of January, found in the January 2011 Friend Magazine).

Lesson Plan

Display the scriptures and review the four books in the standard works. Explain that the scriptures are the word of God, and have been given as a guide to help us in these days. Explain that the Topical Guide and Index to the scriptures are wonderful tools to help us get the most out of our study of the scriptures. You can find scriptures on many different topics: Jesus Christ, faith, baptism, atonement, repentance, etc. There are even scriptures that have to do with heart(s).

Activity

Cut out construction paper hearts of all sizes (use the easy method here). Share and discuss scriptures relating to hearts with the help of the Topical Guide. We read a few different verses until we hit on the perfect scripture of the week for our family (see above). Hang the hearts around the house, and finish off with a treat!

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I am really excited about the 2011 Primary theme “I Know the Scriptures are True”. I taught Sharing Time for the month of January in our ward, and I found a lot of resources and ideas that transferred well to a Family Home Evening lesson. One week we played this scripture matching game. We talked briefly about the scripture story and sang the accompanying song.

Another week we discussed how the scriptures will tell us all things that we should do. We used this set of scenarios and answering scriptures to find solutions to things that children would commonly have questions about.

A few different ambitious people have put together FHE lesson for the entire year that correspond to each weekly theme in Primary. Go here on Sugardoodle and then scroll down to Family Home Evening lessons for a few different packets to choose from.

Primary resources and lesson manuals are great places to look for inspiration and helps for Family Home Evening!

FHE: Be Grateful

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Scripture(s) of the week
D&C 98:1 “…rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;”

D&C 59:7 “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.”

Mosiah 2:19 “…O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!”

Alma 34:38 “…live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.”

I wanted to focus a lot of gratitude and thanksgiving this month, so of course that is what we have been discussing at Family Home Evening.

Last week we followed the lesson plan Heavenly Father Blesses Us from A Year of FHE. The overflowing water (blessings) cup was a great hands on activity for my girls.

Yesterday we reviewed our family habits and decided to add “Be Grateful” to our family habit list. We decorated a simple banner with those words as reminder, while Dad shared the above scriptures with us. I wanted to make some thank you cards as well (find a template here or here) but we ran out of time. I think that will be a good Sunday activity for us as a follow-up.