FHE- Followers of Christ

This week we talked about Elder Oaks' talk from Conference.  Another record-time planning session (is it really "record" if it happens every week?) that led to a successful FHE.  The Lord is really looking out for me!  It seems like all I have to do is make an effort and he takes care of the rest by filling my mind with great ideas.  I love it!  Anyway, the talk is titled "Followers of Christ" and Elder Oaks talks about different things we do that make us Followers of Christ. 

For this FHE you will need:
-footprints (traced or printed then cut out)
-the talk "Followers of Christ" by Elder Oaks from April 2013 General Conference
-tiny pictures for the characteristics you choose.
-something your kids use while they sleep/rest (like a blanky)

Prep:

Make your footprints however you choose. I traced my own feet and cut out a stack of construction paper footprints.  I ended up with 8 (4 of each foot). I think it was just the right amount. Then choose the same number of characteristics that you want to use. Elder Oaks discussed charitable contributions (tithing), baptism, the sacrament, service, missionary work, keeping commandments, repentance and forgiveness.  I added my own applicable habits of sharing, reverence, and playing nicely.  Then search for pictures of each thing.  I used a google search for the topic plus the word "coloring" because then it brought up lots of black and white pictures that are much nicer for my ink supply. They're meant for coloring on, so if you have kids that want to help prep, you could let them color them in!  Or if you're in a super big hurry, you can even just write words on the feet.

The last thing to prep is deciding where you're going to lead them.  I chose my bedroom because the talk basically says that if we follow Christ we'll find rest to our souls.  So, I figured a bedroom is a good resting place.  Wherever you choose, leave your child's "resting item" there where they won't accidentally find it before you start.

Song I used:
Do as I'm doing (with marching in a line to follow the leader. . . since we're talking about following Christ).  "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" would work nicely too.

Lesson:
After we had an opening prayer, I explained that just like in our song when we followed each other (each of us got a turn leading) we were talking about following Christ.  I told them that we say "follow in his footsteps" because we want to live the way He did when He walked on the Earth.  I told them that Elder Oaks shared some ways that we can follow in his footsteps.  Then I shared his testimony from the end of his talk that says "He invites all of us who are heavy laden to come unto Him, to learn of Him, to follow Him, and thus to find rest to our souls."(I added emphasis).  I emphasized that we work hard to follow all his footsteps and then we can rest because it can be hard and tiring!

Now the fun part- the footprints!  I just held the stack and showed them the one on top and asked them what the picture showed.  Then when either they would guess it or I would tell them, I would toss it on the ground ahead of us and we all had to run and hop on it.  They started taking turns standing on each one :) I kept tossing the footprints ahead to lead to my room where my resting place is.  Once we were there, they found their blankies waiting on my bed and then we went to their resting places after a quick treat and brushing the teeth.  They both did really well with it and actually went back to race to the footprints after we were done.  So, I asked what steps Brayden remembered.  He started just pointing and saying "that one and that one" so I started naming some for him and he seemed to actually be paying attention and trying to remember them.  Ahhhh.  Another success.  Parenting is SO fulfilling when you're doing it right.  Basically when you partner with the Lord.  Love love love it.

Conference 2013 FHE - Christofferson

Yesterday was not my favorite day.  I went grocery shopping during my time with Preston during the day, then shortly after he left, I started feeling sick to my stomach and must have had a stomach bug.  It lasted nearly all night.  Yuck.  A tender mercy was having Preston come home early without me even asking.  He must have been inspired! But, one reason he came home is he heard some news we had been waiting for.  It was bad news.  No dream job yet.  But, despite all the negative things that I could focus on, I was still able to feel pretty positive in life and put together another good FHE.

Elder Christofferson talked about being redeemed.  It was a really great talk that I need to go back and read more in depth.  But, I had the idea pop into my head (from a higher source I'm sure) that we could have a little shopping experience for FHE in a mini store where the boys could each spend homemade $2.  However, the prices were $1 for 1 mini marshmallow, $2 for 5 mini marshmallows (obviously a better choice), or $3 for 10 marshmallows and a large gummy bunny.   The idea was that they would want to spend $3 for the best treat bag, but they could only provide $2 on their own.  I explained that there was a way to afford the $3 bag.  They could go ask Daddy for a coupon that would make up the difference.  Brayden was wise and got the coupon. Zander tried to take the bag without a coupon and ended up having a fit until we just gave him the $2 bag that he could afford without the coupon.  That little one can't resist sugar!! It was a good object lesson though.

During the activity we used the words "redeem" the coupon.  Which is important since the whole talk is about being redeemed.  The other key was that the coupon was on the back of a picture of Christ- our Redeemer.  So, while the boys ate their treats we showed them the picture and explained how we can go to our Heavenly father and ask him to help us with what we can't do for ourselves.  We explained that Christ is our Redeemer because he provided a way for us to "say sorry" and repent.

I also used a small quote from the talk. There's lots of good things you can share from the talk.

Anyway, it was fun.  And hopefully took the principle to their level.

Conference 2013 FHE- Andersen

I have decided to review all the first presidency and apostle's talks for the next few FHEs.  So Monday afternoon I was struggling to decide how to choose whose talk to review when it occurred to me that I didn't have to choose all of them.  I asked Brayden instead.  He chose Andersen.  Uchtdorf and Andersen are usually his favorites.  Funny how a 3 year old has decided his favorite apostles. I sometimes wish I could get in his head just to see his reasoning.  Anyway, when I looked up his talk on my phone all I had to do was read the highlighted text at the top and the idea came to me.  Inspiration at it's best.  I read:

"If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart—painted, as Paul said, 'not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.'”

I just knew I should cut out some little hearts and write something on it to remind them of this concept.  I skimmed over the entire talk and then got to work cutting.  When I was done, I decided that I would just write "I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" in the style of a missionary badge (see below).

Then we could talk about how the missionaries want to share their love of the gospel and how we can show our love for the Savior and the gospel too. And that was it.  I read the quote, summed it up that way and we were done with our "lesson."  Then we glued a little picture of Andersen on the front just to involve a craft and to remind them whose talk we discussed.

As an activity we played charades with one turn for each me, Preston and Brayden.  We had to act out a way that we could show our love for the Savior and gospel. I "read my scriptures," Preston "prayed," and Brayden covered his ears. . . ???  We interpreted it to be not listening to anything bad or scary. Haha.  He said we were right :)  gotta love 3 year olds!  We had sort of lost Zander's attention at that point, so we didn't make him do one.  But we mentioned that sharing, and saying nice things also helps people feel loved, which is a feeling from God.  So, there ya have it.  Simple, fun and I thought effective.  Oh, and the hearts were hung by their beds for the week so they could remember to show their love for the Savior because Elder Andersen taught us that that was good.

Super Reader FHE

If you haven't heard of the show "Super Why" this is nowhere near as cool.  But, my boys love the show and I was inspired yesterday to have a little Super Why activity.  At first I thought maybe for primary, but then changed my mind to use it for FHE.  It was a hit with the boys :)  I cut out some green foam masks just like Super Why's and planned the lesson to be a whole adventure with finding our own "super story answer" by looking in a book.  Our story was from President Monson's talk on Sunday in General Conference about when he was young and started a fire with his friend even though he wasn't supposed to.  So, when we got to the part of the story where the fire was out of control, we identified that as our "super big problem!"

The boys put on their super reader masks and we "flew" together into a book.  Which happened to be the Book of Mormon. 

Look at the excitement on Brayden's face!

We used a story from the area we've been reading and it was about when Jesus came to the Nephites. 
The story starts with a big storm and thunder, so Brayden helped me with some flickering lights.  Then it was dark for 3 days, so we closed the bathroom door and were in pitch black.  We decided it was scary and we should help the story by finding a flashlight.  Low and behold, there were super letters with the flashlight! Go figure.  We were on our way to our super story answer!

The next part of the story was when they heard the voice of the Lord and wished they had repented and come unto him before.  So, we found out biggest picture of Jesus and went to him.  More super letters were waiting to be found!

Then we got to the part when they couldn't understand the voice of the Lord until they listened.  So, we looked to a picture of Christ on the wall for our next letters. 

Finally, the people heard Heavenly Father introduce Jesus and he came to the temple.  So, I explained that Jesus was there where they could see him and they could see how tall he was. . . the next letters were on their ducky measuring thing hanging on their wall.  And we finally had all the super letters from this story.  We had to review that the story was about people who had to repent and listen to Jesus in order to find peace and happiness. 

Off we went to the super duper computer where we put our letters in order and found our super story answer! dun dun dun. . .

OBEDIENCE!!  But why?  Because if President Monson had been obedient he wouldn't have gotten in trouble with the fire.  Then we watched the 45 second clip on lds.org from Monson's talk and raised our hands whenever he said "obedience/obedient."

General Conference FHE

As you can tell, I'm trying to document my Family Home Evening ideas while I'm actually putting forth effort and time.  So that when I'm in those down times I can go back to get ideas :)  Last year for General Conference we read about King Benjamin talking to the Nephites and likened it to general conference (we set up a kid tent and everything).  Then for the actual conference, we made a room-sized fort to watch conference in.  And, since it was around Easter time, we offered Brayden a jellybean any time he heard them talk about Jesus (to encourage listening).  We also had the photo page from the middle of the conference edition Ensign that we helped Brayden put a sticker on each apostle when he spoke.  It was affective!  I loved seeing Brayden actually enjoy conference time!  Even though he wasn't sitting and listening and soaking up their message (c'mon, he's 2), he did understand that we were hearing from the prophet and apostles of our Lord.  It was just awesome to see him begin to understand that it is important.

This time we're trying some different things to see if it works.  We made little Conference kits (one for each apostle) with activities or snacks.  It was Brayden's first experience with a glue stick and he very much enjoyed helping glue pictures to the bags.  He also remembered a lot of the apostles' names from last time.  I did get a bunch of my ideas from online, but it's sort of a mesh of ideas that have stuck in my head.  So, I don't have a specific link for ya.  Here's how I did it:

Preparation: (there’s a lot this time!)
Print and cut out a picture of all the apostles and first presidency.  I used apostle cards found on ourhandshishands.blogspot.com.
Get an old conference edition Ensign (or look it up online) and remove/print the middle page with all the apostles on it.
Decide what you want your activities and snacks to be for each apostle and gather the goods. Also print out a description of each snack or activity with the apostles name so you remember!
get glue sticks and paper bags ready.

Song: “We Thank Thee, Oh God, for a Prophet.”

Spiritual Thought: Being prepared for Conference helps me feel happy and ready to listen.

Lesson: General Conference is this weekend!  That means we get to listen to our prophets.  Let’s see if you remember all their names and faces!  Spread out the apostle pictures and pull out the page with all the pictures and names.  First name Monson to see if they can find the picture.  Then see if you can name them all in order! Whenever the children can’t find one, look at the page from the ensign (or printed from the ensign) and help them find the right picture. Once you name them all (or as many as you can until attention is fading) explain that we’ll hear from all of these brethen this weekend.  Today we’re going to prepare conference packages to use when we listen.  Being prepared will help us to be happy and listen during conference.

Help the children glue an apostle’s picture to a paper bag and fill it with the appropriate activity or snack.

While you fill bags or after it’s done, sing “The Prophet Song.”  It’s all the first presidency and 12 last names in order to the tune of “The Books of the Book of Mormon.”

At the end either have a fun fall treat since it’s now October, or enjoy some of the conference treats that look yummy! (the extras of course)

And here's the list of the activities and snacks I came up with:

Thomas S. Monson
Monson is our prophet!  See how long you can sit and listen! If you make it through the whole talk, you’ll get a prize!

Henry B. Eyring
“Eyring” sounds like Eye. Play “Eye Spy” gospel style as we spy with our ears.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Uchtdorf flew planes.  Here’s your airplane to hold while you listen to Uchtdorf.

Boyd K. Packer
We “Pack(er)ed” some pretzel sticks for this talk.

L. Tom Perry
Perry’s always smiling, so make your own smiley face while you listen.

Russell M. Nelson
Nelson was a heart surgeon.  Your heart pumps blood to your body.  Healthy blood has iron in it, just like these Graham Crackers.

Dallin H. Oaks
“O” is for Oaks and Oatmeal.  Eat an Oatmeal Cream Pie!

Russell Ballard
“Ballard” has the same first sound as “banana.” Eat a banana while you listen to Ballard.

Richard G. Scott
Scoot on your bottom whenever Scott says “Jesus Christ” (or the equivalent).

Robert D. Hales
The “D” stands for Dean.  Donut sticks also start with D.

Jeffrey R. Holland
Take a sip of water every time he mentions Christ.

David A. Bednar
Start playing BINGO when Bednar starts to talk! Continue until you have 5 in a row.

Quentin L. Cook
“Cook” a bag of popcorn to enjoy!

D. Todd Christofferson
“Christofferson” starts with “Christ.”  Color a picture of Christ. If you hear him say “Christ” in his talk, get a sucker!

Neil L. Andersen
Snack on animal crackers while you listen to Andersen.

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