FHE: Plan of Salvation

I just finished making the printouts for this weeks lesson.  We're going to go on a "journey" through the Plan of Salvation by following yarn through the house to different places along the plan- Pre-mortal Existence, Earth, Spirit Prison/Paradise, Judgement, and the 3 Kingdoms of Glory.  I will probably hang the signs in each room for the kids to find.  We will of course end up in the Celestial Kingdom (the kitchen) and have a treat, but alternatively, you could color the pictures you found and review. :)

update: This was a great success!  My 3 year-old even said to me later in the week how much fun he had following the string.  Also, while we ate our "celestial cookie" I laid out the pictures from each room and asked him to tell me which one was first, next etc. and I was surprised that he was able to choose them all in the right order! :)

FHE: What Is My Spirit?

Last week we just talked about how we existed before we came to Earth as spirits, where we lived with our Heavenly Father- the father of our spirits.  When we came to Earth we got bodies (from our "earthly parents") and when we die, our spirits will leave our bodies to be with Heavenly Father until the resurrection, where we get our bodies in their perfected forms.  Then we all had a puppet (ours happen to be lizards and turtles) and we had our hands be spirits and when our hands went inside the puppets they got bodies, and then they'd leave again when they died, but our hands could still talk to each other without the bodies :)

FHE: Love

Before I mention this week's lesson, I thought I'd just point out that I've added some links to the side-bar of a few other helpful blogs (similar to this) with helpful ideas for FHE and other LDS callings (Activity Days, etc.) for your (and my) convenience. :)

So, this week it seemed only fitting to talk about love, since Valentine's Day was on Tuesday.  We didn't go very deep...  All we did was get out some paper and scissors and everyone was to cut out hearts (well, Peach- my 1 year old- didn't, and The Frog - my 3 year old- just cut whatever...) and then each person would finish this sentence for each other family member:
"I love mommy/daddy/Peach/Frog because..."
I wrote the responses on the hearts and we decorated our closet door in the kitchen with them.  My favorite one was
"I love Peach because she always chases me. Love, The Frog"

I didn't plan a treat (because I was already planning to make creme brûlée on V-Day) and at the last minute decided to give the kids graham cracker frosting sandwiches with some leftover strawberry frosting from a baby shower (which just happened to be the appropriate Valentine's color).  They were thrilled. :)

What did I learn?  I think with such young kids, it would have been better if I had previously cut out the hearts and even had "I love NAME because..."  already written on them because I lost The Frog by the end...  For older kids, though, it would probably be great to let everyone cut out one heart for all the family members themselves.

FHE: The Creation

You can find some other great ideas here. (especially for older kids)
I printed pictures and summarized what Genesis 1 says about what was created when.  You can see my lesson plan and pictures here.

As I was doing it, I also thought, with older kids, it might be fun to have people contribute to a large picture, what was created as it is mentioned, or have each person draw their own picture, adding in things that are mentioned.

I had some left-over sugar cookie dough from a baby shower that we used up and just made some cookies.  (I baked them before the lesson and we frosted them and ate them after).

This lesson may have been a bit too long for my little ones, BUT they were ok with it because of the treat after :)