FHE: Family Tree

I have a lot of siblings, living all over, and they all have kids, and my husband's family lives across the country.  I thought it would be good to review who are relatives are :)

I first talked about the term "family tree" and I had actually drawn a picture of a tree on a piece of paper.  I had printed out a picture of each relative (and used a circle punch to cut out only their heads, so they would all fit on our "tree" easier) and put them on the table upside-down.  We took turns choosing a head and saying who it was, and I made sure they understood how they were related to us, (ex. this is daddy's sister Kama's husband, Uncle Todd).  They thought it was fun and there were a few people they didn't know.  It was interesting to me to note who they did and didn't know and that also tells me who we need to spend more time with! :)

I probably should have made a sibling tree, because we had to just put siblings and families off to each side of the tree trunk (one side was for my relatives, and the other for my husbands') so probably I would do that next time, so we can also put the siblings in age order.  But this was fine for now.  I'm thinking about turning these pictures into a "go fish" game or a memory matching game of some kind where people are a match when they are in the same family.  That almost works, except a couple families have an odd number of people.  maybe go fish would be better?

FHE: We Can Do Anything with the Lord

This lesson turned out quite fun, but the kids were quite rowdy by the end and I'm still wondering if anything sunk in at all...

I started out with some lunch sacks with a "mysterious item" in each one.  I asked the kids if they were afraid to stick their hand in without looking.  They said no, and I suggested that there could be a poisonous spider or snake, or maybe a knife inside... something dangerous.  They still said they weren't scared, so I asked my 5-year-old son to stick his hand inside without looking and he got really nervous and wouldn't do it.  So my 3-year-old daughter did it instead.  (it was a pincushion)  Seeing that it was nothing poisonous, he braved up and I let all three kids take turns pulling something out of each bag, guessing what was inside before pulling it out.

Then I read the story of David and Goliath while the kids colored this picture.  After reading it once, we acted it out a couple of times, first my 3-year old being David, my husband being the giant, and the rest of us being "brothers".  "David" got 5 pieces of crumpled paper to throw at the "Giant".  Then, of course, my 5-year old had to have a turn being David, and my 3-year old wanted to be the giant. :)

After all that, I asked my kids what we can learn from this story...  Do we have to fight giants?  (5-year old: Giants aren't even real, mom!)  But do we have to do hard things? (yes)  Can Heavenly Father help us to hard things? (yes) How?  and how do we ask him to help us?  (The Holy Ghost can help us.  We can pray to ask for help)

Then, I put the pincushion inside a clear plastic bag and asked them if they would be afraid to stick their hand in now.  (of course they said, no) and I asked why not?  (because they could see what was inside!)  I then **tried** to make an analogy, but everyone was being quite rowdy and excited about throwing pieces of paper at each other...  I told them that having a clear bag was like having the Lord's help - we don't need to be afraid if we do what the Lord wants, we know we will be blessed for keeping the commandments.

FHE: Remembering our Ancestors

Since today is my late Grandmother's birthday (Gi-gi, as my kids know her) I thought it would be appropriate to remember her.  I showed pictures of her with each of them on my computer, and told them some things I love about her.  We had cupcakes and then I taught my 5-year old and 3-year old how to play "Go Fish", the first (of many) card games my Grandma taught me over the years.  It was really fun!

FHE: Ezra Taft Benson

We just sand the "Latter-Day Prophet" song, while my 5-year-old son flipped through all the "Portrait of a Prophet" pages we have been saving from The Friend Magazine from the past year.  This month was, Ezra Taft Benson, and we read through that one and I talked about how he was the prophet when I was in Primary, and the first modern day prophet I really remember.

Not a particularly memorable FHE... Probably I should have done more research ahead of time.  I'd like to go through all the modern-day prophets again when they're older, and assign the kids to read about them and share their favorite things about each one.