FHE: Easter

I did what we did last year.  Holding off on the scriptures again.  It went over very well, and I was impressed how much more knowledgeable my 4-year old was this year, compared to last year.

It's working! :)

FHE: The Atonement of Jesus Christ

This month, the Youth's topic is The Atonement of Jesus Christ.  We had a great lesson on fast Sunday where the leader had a couple of volunteers come up and she poured something on their hands, had them rub it in, comparing it to sin, and then wash it off.  The first person had molasses.  It was dark and sticky and looked bad, but it came off in just cold water.  The second person got soy lecithin, and she had to wash several times in hot water, with soap to get it off.  She talked about little sins we can take care of ourselves, and bigger sins we might need to go to the bishop for- it has more steps for full repentance (soap, etc.)

This gave me the idea to do a more simple version for my two kids.  This is how the night sort of went
What is the atonement?  (I don't know)
What did Jesus do for us? (he died)
That's right, He died for us and paid for our sins.  Do you know what sins are? (no)
Sins are naughty things that people do.  What do we do when we do something naughty?  (say sorry)
That's right!  We say sorry and try to make it better.  That is called repentance.  We repent through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  He suffered for our sins, so that we don't have to if we repent.

Then I had the kids follow me to the kitchen sink where I already had a chair for both kids.  I had them roll up their sleeves and then I showed them our bottle of pancake syrup.  I told them the syrup represents our sins.  Then I gave examples of sins and dropped little drops of syrup on their hands.  "hitting", "not obeying mommy and daddy", "taking a pee pee treat when you didn't really use the potty", etc.  Then I told them the atonement is like the soap and water.  When we use the atonement, our sins (the syrup) gets washed clean.

It was a nice idea, BUT I think the kids were too preoccupied with the fact that I was doing something so crazy as pouring syrup on their hands... The whole time, my 2-year old kept saying things like, "mommy, is that pancake syrup?  are you pouring it on my hands?"  and my 4-year old, as soon as I put syrup on his hands, wanted to wash it off and I think had a hard time paying attention because the syrup was bothering him.  hahaha.  I suppose it's good that sin bothered him... :)

I also toyed with having them take a bath and doing something like that in the bathtub...

I'm not sure if anything sunk in. I'll try to bring it up all week and see what happens.

FHE: Speak Kindly

Our whole house is super sick, so I did very easy...

In the February Ensign on pg. 7, there is a little grid with either something kind or not kind written in each square.  I read them out loud and asked if it was kind or unkind.  If it was unkind, my 4 year old would color it in.  He felt very important and took his job very seriously.  My 2-year old wasnt paying much attention- mostly because she was feverish and tired...  When we were finished I asked how it makes us and others feel when we speak kindly and asked them if they could see the secret answer in the grid.  (it was a smiley face)

This would be really easy to make your own too.

I also found this great lesson and would like to do it next time we talk about speaking kindly- maybe in a few months.

FHE: John Taylor

This week's topic is inspired by the "Portrait of a Prophet" in the back cover of the friend magazine.  I read through this summary of his life to prep, and then I gave a brief sketch of his life, highlighting the cool story about his watch.