FHE: Follow the Prophet

Yikes!  We moved over the summer!!  We've been having FHE, but I haven't been documenting it!!  (We didn't have internet for about 6 weeks)  I'll try my best to do a bit of remembering but....

September 8th, we took some chocolate zucchini muffins to all our new neighbors to introduce ourselves.  So glad we did.  I admit was terrified, but it was really a great idea.

September 15th, we talked to the kids about "We reap what we sow" over dinner and we just happened to have had a plumber and our landlord there at the time and it ended up in a lengthy discussion between our landlord and us about Mormonism and what we believe.  It was really awesome!  (and I think the plumber was eavesdropping :D)

September 22nd, I was feeling overwhelmed about a gigantic pile of laundry that needed folding, and decided to teach the kids (6, 4, and almost 2) how to fold laundry and we played a game where we put clothes on from the basket in a silly way and ran them over to the piles and fold them.  It got kind of crazy and only a little bit actually got folded, but I think the kids had fun and we spent time together as a family, right?

Tomorrow, I'm planning to talk about "Follow the Prophet" as a precursor to conference this weekend.  We are going to make sure everyone knows who the prophet is, what a prophet is, and we are going to play a game where one person is blindfolded and someone else helps them with instructions to put a puzzle or a toy together or something.  Then we will play "Follow the Leader" or "The Prophet (Simon) Says"  and the leader will have a picture of the prophet.

update: we did the puzzle thing and it occurred to me after that it probably would have been more effective to have someone try to put the puzzle together by themselves blind-folded and then have someone help them after so they could see how much easier it is when you follow the instructions.

FHE: Let Your Light So Shine...

I read them this scripture:
Matthew 5:16
and we talked about what it meant.  And then we went to look at Christmas lights!!

Very fun :)

In the future, it would probably be a good idea to do some service before seeing lights.  (maybe when our kids don't have 7pm bedtime...)

FHE: Love God with All Your Heart, Might, Mind & Strength

I got this lesson from The October Friend.  You can find it here.

Prep:
I printed off a picture of a strong arm and a lightbulb and then cut out a heart from red paper.  Then I cut out the pictures provided in the Friend and taped them all around the room.

I started out by having my 5-year-old "read" a scripture (i.e. copy what I say while reading...) D&C 59:5 and talked about what it meant.

Then I had the kids find the little pictures taped all around and had them bring them back and tape them onto the corresponding picture (which was an easy task since there were little arm/lightbulb/heart next to the picture descriptions).  Then we went through and talked about all of them and also asked if they could think of other ways they can serve using our minds, our hearts, and our strength.

My 5-year-old and 3-year-old loved finding the pictures and putting them in the right place, but they were quite rowdy and I'm not sure how much they heard... Although after reading the one about telling your family you love them, my 3-year-old said she loved me :) <3

FHE: Charity

We watched this movie from the Mormon Channel called "The Red Coat".  It's a story from Heber J. Grant's childhood.  I didn't realize that, and wished I would have saved this movie for when we talk about Heber J. Grant.

After the movie was over, we talked about it.  "How did it make you feel?"  and talked about ways we could show charity and kindness in our family.

After you watch the movie, thumbnails for other Mormon Channel movies show up.  My son really wanted to watch another, and we did.  I will look more into these for future FHE lessons.  There's a lot of great stuff in there!

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: Service

looked through this website under the topic of "service".  (how do all of you get ideas for FHE topics?)

After reading through all of them, I decided to do a bit from more than one.

I started by "accidentally" tripping and spilling crayons all over the floor.  I hoped someone would offer to help me clean up... luckily, everyone came over and helped :)

I used the printable from this lesson, though not in the way she suggested.  I wrote each family member's name on the back of the badges and everyone drew one out.  Then we colored them while we talked about what we were going to do with them.  This week we are all "Secret Servateers".  Everyone got someone's name who they would serve sometime this week, secretly, and then leave the badge behind as a symbol of the secret service being provided.

I talked about how serving others makes me happy- giving examples of how everyone had served me or someone that day- and I know it will make them happy too.  (and it's especially fun to do it secretly...)

Then we all took turns brainstorming ideas for how we could serve each person.  It was funny to hear my 3-year-old son talk about ways we could serve him.  (you could say "boo!" to me)

We'll see how it goes this week!