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: Bible Stories

Today was super crazy, and last week was spent sick, so I'm quite behind on my planning.  We just whipped out this lift-the-flap bible stories book we have and read through some of the stories and talked about what we can learn from them.  Then we played "hide the sunglasses".  The object that you hide can be anything. Peach decided what we would hide today.

The kids had so much fun with the activity last week they asked what it was today, and I think it is important that we do them every week.  I wish I was better at thinking about activities that are relevant to our lesson.

FHE: Child Led from Gospel Art Book

This month, The Frog picked the picture "with the volcano", the one on pg 20 "Elijah contends against the priests of Baal".  My husband told the story behind the picture and then we played Sardines.  They loved it!  (daddy hid last and nobody could find him...)

FHE: Child Led from Gospel Art Book

This week, The Frog asked about the picture on page 16- "Moses and the brass serpent".  Jay told the story behind it.

FHE: Daniel and the Lion's Den

Tonight, I read chapter 43- "Daniel and the Lion's Den" in the LDS Old Testament Stories book (though I've just now discovered that there is also a movie I could have shown...) and then we acted it out a couple of times.  We made a little "den" in the corner and the king sat on a certain chair as the throne, etc.  I even had a tutu to put on the lion's face as a mane, but the kids found it annoying, so we didn't end up using it.

It was short and sweet and rather fun.  I'll do something like this again, for sure. :)

PS when I said we were going to act out a story, my 3-year-old said, "can I be the giant?"  referencing when we did this for the story of David and Goliath in January. Yay!  She remembered!

FHE: Child Driven from Gospel Art Book

I had the kids look through the pictures in the Gospel Art Book and pick one they wanted to hear the story behind.  They chose the one with Moses and the snake on the staff when the people wouldn't look to be healed.  Probably would have been better if we didn't wing the story, but it turned out ok.

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.