FHE: Team Work

Today we talked about working together as a family and being a team and the benefits thereof.  We talked about how when we are all waiting for one person to be reverent before family prayer, that is not being a team.  We talked about when we clean up after ourselves, we are being a team.  My 5-year old got to play with a parachute in gym today and we talked about how everyone has to cooperate for it to be fun.  Also, it's not fun to play a board game unless everyone cooperates with the rules.  Then we all played Mario World 3D and practiced waiting for the slower people and playing as a team.

FHE: Nanie's Birthday

We made cards for Nanie's birthday this week.  We could have talked about kindness and giving the gift of making people feel loved and appreciated. (but we didn't) It was fun to do and it was fun to deliver them to Nanie after :)

FHE: Songs On the Go

Our foreign exchange student had a special dinner tonight to celebrate the end of her cross country season, so we had to drop her off at that, but it was a 20 minute drive each way, so that pretty much ate up all of our FHE time.  We decided to take turns choosing our favorite children's hymns to sing there and back. It was fun!  I think the kids sang better (i.e. tried to sing at all) than they normally do :)

Maybe I should have read them the verse about "a song of the heart is a prayer unto me", I think D&C 25:12

FHE: The Tower of Babel

I just read them the story of the tower of babel from the Old Testament Stories book while we ate dinner.  Then after dinner, we built our own towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows.  We divided into 2 groups and set a timer to see who could build the tallest one.  We ended up with a tie :)  The kids ate some marshmallows while they built for a treat, but some of us put them in a bowl and microwaved them and added chocolate sauce on top.

I asked my 5 year old to retell me the story while we had dessert to see if she remembered, she did!

Very fun!

FHE: Reverence

We did this one awhile ago, but I felt like it was pretty effective and the kids really liked it, so I want to remember it.

We had a talent show where everyone got to show-off a trick for everyone else.  (they LOVED that.  They were all silly tricks.)

After, we talked about how they would feel if when they were performing, people were talking or not watching.  Or, how they feel when they are trying to watch, and other people are talking and they can't hear.   Then we related that to their behavior during Sacrament meeting or Primary- trying to help them see why it's important to be reverent, even if they don't want to listen, other people may and it's rude to distract from the person who has prepared something to share with everyone.

FHE: Attitude of Gratitude

First we sang "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet" and then I asked everyone if they could guess what we were going to talk about, based on those lyrics.  Eventually someone guessed being grateful :)

We then had a grateful race and we broke into 3 teams of 2 people and tried to think of as many things as we could that we are grateful for in 2 minutes.  Then we counted them up and the team with the least number went first.  If you had the same thing on your list, you crossed them off, etc. until everyone had read every unique thing they were grateful for.

We then talked about how a great way to feel better when  upset, frustrated or angry is to stop and think about our blessings.  We came up with a code word so that during this week, if anyone was upset or angry, we could use our code word to kindly remind them to say something they are grateful for in that moment, to help cheer them up!  We decided the code word would be "but at least..."  Then we all took turns practicing pretending to cry and then someone would remind them with the code word, and they'd stop crying and say, "but at least I... get to have a cupcake tonight!"

Hopefully it works!

FHE: Actions Speak Louder than Words

I just told them that phrase and we dissected it.

"What is an action?"
"Do actions say anything about us and our desires?"

And we went over some examples of when actions and desires don't line up.

My kids are notorious for not staying in their seats during dinner.  It is soo frustrating!! I can't tell you how many times I throw their food away and then they come back in crying and wondering where their food is...
"What if you leave the kitchen table during dinner... Do those actions say you are still wanting to eat?  What should you do to show you want to continue eating your food?"

"What does grabbing a toy away from someone else say about you and the way you like to play?"  (I don't care about others' feelings and I don't mind if people grab things away from me that I am using.)

"How do you show appreciation with actions?"  (You can clear your own plate at dinner-time to say thank you for making my food.  You can follow directions the first time when asked.  You can clean up your toys and take care of things you want to keep and use for a long time.  You can go to bed quickly to show appreciation for bed-time stories.  You can share with people who share with you...)

"What if you say you want to come with me on an errand, but you don't use the toilet, get on your shoes and coat, and buckle yourself into the car right away...  Do your actions say you want to come?  What kind of actions would say you want to come?"

Etc.

We all committed to trying to make our actions match what we intended to say that week.

Then we played 2 board games, which the kids loved!