I Can Choose to be Happy FHE

Today we talked about choosing to be happy.  Surprisingly, it kept Brayden's attention even though he was in a very tired mood.

Preparation: 

Print and cut out the wordstrip “I can choose to be”

Print and cut out each letter of the word “happy”

Print (or draw) and cut out a happy face

hide the happy face somewhere in the room

come up with some things that help us to be happy (or use my list below)

Song: “Smiles” (CS #267) 

or When We’re Helping We’re Happy (CS #198)

Prayer

Scripture: Psalms 146:5

^aHappy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:

Lesson:

Set out the “I can choose to be” word strip with the scrambled letters for “Happy” underneath.  Since my oldest is only 2 1/2, I will spell the word and let him help me with the letter sounds.  Once we make the sentence, repeat it all together.  (this is where I would share the scripture)

Help the children remember things that made them sad and point out what made them happy.  Then tell them that there is a happy face hiding somewhere in the room. You may either hide it in a hard spot and let a spouse or older child find it or let it be easily found by a toddler.  I had my husband look for it :) Once the happy face is found, explain that sometimes it’s easy to find a happy face/feeling and sometimes we have to try really hard to find it.

Lastly, you can ask what sort of things make us happy.  After hearing some answers, list some things you have come up with.  Maybe present them in a fun way? (ie- on the back of the letters to “Happy” or hidden around the room)

Repeat the phrase “I can choose to be happy.”

(optional): sing “If you’re Happy and You Know It.”

Helpful Resources:

“How to Be Happy” by Marlin K. Jensen.  http://www.lds.org/new-era/1999/08/how-to-be-happy

A printable version with the words and everything can be emailed.  Just leave a comment.

Birthday FHE

This was our FHE activity a week ago.  Because it was my birthday last week and I just get really excited about it.  So, I adapted this idea from Chocolate on My Cranium, but her idea was way too much for my little young family.  So, I used her cake and found some other candles to print just by searching for candles. Here's the idea.

BIRTHDAY FHE

Preparation:
   Print a cake
   Print an outline of candles on yellow paper
   Cut out the candles and have tape ready
   Make birthday cake or cupcakes for a treat

Song: You've had a birthday

Prayer:

Lesson:
   The way it worked for us, my boys were both just interested in my printed cake and wanted to hold the candles, so while I got tape ready, we all took turns saying one thing we liked about birthdays.  The last candle was used to introduce the lesson and I said "I like birthdays because they remind me of why I'm here on Earth."

Then I summarized the lesson from chocolate on my cranium and it was something like this:

In heaven, we all made a good choice to follow Heavenly Father and come to Earth. Because of that good choice, we got our bodies as a gift on our birth day!  (from Birthdays: A special Celebration by Stephen C. Duncombe)

Even my short summary of the message was quickly losing attention, so I focused on the gift of our bodies and how they can do amazing things.  I asked what our hands can do?  No response. . . so I suggested clapping.  When I suggested that our legs could jump I got a great response! Gotta love little boys! I came up with a few suggestions of what our bodies can do:
   hands - clap
   feet- stomp
   legs- jump
   eyes- blink

Finally, I bore a testimony that if we keep making good choices, we get more great blessings.

Of course the biggest his was our ice cream sandwich cake that Brayden helped make.  I got the recipe from pinterest. Here's the link: http://www.thyhandhathprovided.com/2009/02/ice-cream-sandwich-cake.html