FHE: Pumpkin Carving (Service)

This family home evening idea for pumpkin carving is a nice way to incorporate your annual pumpkin carving into an FHE.  I found it at a blog called Inspiration Organization.

Here's the part I used:

This pumpkin is going to help us remember how we can better serve God.
I can open my mind so I can learn about Heavenly Father and his plan for me to return to him.(Cut the top of the pumpkin)

I can repent when I make a wrong choice.(Clean out the inside)

I can keep my eyes open for opportunities to serve others.(Cut the eyes out in shape of heart)

I can be a good friend to everyone and not turn up my nose to anyone.(Cut a nose)

I can open my ears so I can listen and learn.(Cut the ears)

I can open my mouth so I can share the gospel with the world.(Cut the mouth)

I can follow the Saviors example and let my light shine in all that I say and do.(Place a candle inside and light it)

I made pumpkin smoothies for a treat.  (But I ignored all the vegan substitutions and used regular vanilla, milk, etc.)  but nobody liked them, so use a different recipe :)

Note: since my kids are so young (0, 2, 4) I had already scooped out all the innards of the pumpkins we were going to carve to save time.  GREAT idea.  I had even carved one to just point out the things so the lesson would go quicker and there wouldn't be such a large gap in time between them.

FHE: Honesty

I admit, I wasn't very well prepared for this one, so it was more of a quick discussion and it was a testament to me at how much better the kids pay attention when I have some kind of visual aid or have prepared better.

We just asked the kids if they knew what honesty, lies, and truth meant.  (and helped them if they didn't.)  We asked them to think about what might happen if you are dishonest- giving specific examples like daddy would lose his job if he wasn't honestly doing his work; we would lose our house if he told us he was paying the mortgage, but didn't really.

We also talked about how when you are dishonest, people will not trust you or what you say.  For example, if we didn't trust what my son said, we might make him do a chore twice because we wouldn't believe that he did it when he said he did.  Or, we might not give him a treat because we thought he took one already, even if he didn't (and said he didn't).

Finally, we mentioned that it's not always easy to be honest, especially when it might get you in trouble and I pointed out that I was proud of my 4-year-old son for telling me that he hurt his sister earlier that day, even though it might have been easier to say he didn't make her cry.

I would like to revisit this topic- I'm sure there is a better way to present it to young children.  I just found this link, and that looks pretty fun AND even Halloween appropriate :)

FHE: Staying Healthy in Cold Season

At least on member from our family has been sick for the month and at first I thought, "Great!  We'll all be healthy when the new baby comes," but we just keep getting sick and passing it around, so I thought it might be good to discuss some of the things we could do better to try and stay healthy.

Hand washing- We all talked about using soap and water to get in between fingers and the backs of hands as well.  We are great at washing food off our hands after we eat, but not as good at washing before we eat- which is more important for our health!  We made a family goal to try and remember to wash before we eat.

Hand sanitizer- if we don't have a sink, use this instead- particularly at preschool before snack, for my 4 year old.  I gave him some for his backpack.

Food- don't share dishes, food, and drinks with other people, even in the family.  They could be sick already and not show symptoms.  (and I need to stop eating the food off my kids' plates when they waste...)

Sleep- sleep is when our body does the most fixing, so we need to all make sure we get enough!

Nutrition- if we eat healthfully, our body will have what it needs to fight infection.  Keep taking our vitamins every day too.

Sneezing and Coughing- we practiced covering with our elbow and turning away especially when sneezing.  (our elbows have monsters in them that like to eat coughs and sneezes :D)

Don't touch your face (and for our kids, don't suck your thumb!)- germs get in through our eyes, noses and mouths, so we need to be sure we don't touch those with our hands unless we're sure they are clean.

FHE: Holy Ghost

I based tonight's FHE on this lesson.

Talked about who the Holy Ghost is (Heavenly Father's helper.  He doesn't have a body)

Talked about the Holy Ghost's 3 main responsibilities:
-Comforts us when sad or scared (and how we can have him comfort us)
-Testifies of truth (and what it feels like)
-Guides us and helps us choose the right (when would we need guidance?)

Then we played the hot/cold game with a little marble.  The first time I did it, I played some music really really loudly and then I only whispered.  My 4-year old son, after asking me to repeat a couple of times, asked me to talk louder.  Then we turned the music down low and talked about how the music is like the world we live in and we have to be able to "turn down" the world so that we can hear the Holy Ghost.  Then we played again, all taking turns being the Holly Ghost and being the one finding the marble.

Conference Activities

I wrote more about what we ended up doing for conference weekend with the kids at my family blog here.

FHE: Conference Prep

Since it's general conference this weekend, I wanted to give the kids a heads-up about what will be happening and who we will be privileged to hear from.  We built a fort in the family room and had FHE there today.

We happen to be reading about King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon right now, so I mentioned him and how when he spoke to the people and they turned their tents to him (hence the fort) it was like general conference, but now we get to watch on TV in our own home.

We watched the apostle song.  And talked about what kinds of quiet activities we could do during conference so mommy and daddy can listen.

I found this cute President Monson Scavenger Hunt that might be a fun FHE as well.  I'll probably wait and do it in Spring when my kids are a bit older.

As for this weekend...
I might have my kids play Conference Bingo, but they are probably too young still (4 and 2).  My plan is to cover each picture up with a candy and if they hear one of the topics, they get to take the candy off and eat it.

I'm planning to do something like these activity bags, but I'll put these Apostle Cards in them so when each apostle speaks, I'll read the info about them and then they can do the activity while we listen.

Anyone else have any great conference ideas for kids?  I found a lot of good ideas here and here too.