FHE: Lehi's Dream

We've been reading in the Book of Mormon all year (1 verse a day) and we just finished reading about Lehi's vision in 1 Nephi 8, and I thought it would be good to go over what we just read.

I got some free printables for the kids to color during the day here so I could cut them out and laminate them for that night, though we didn't get enough time to color all of them with a doctor appt in the afternoon, so I probably should have just printed out the colored versions.

I went over the story with them and taped up the corresponding pictures as they were mentioned.  Then after we went through and talked about what the symbols all meant by asking the kids what they thought first.  I was surprised by how much my 5-year-old was able to figure out!

After that, I had set up some yarn all around the back yard (and it was night time, so it was authentically dark, like the mist), ending at a tree we have by our front door that has Christmas lights in it, and I turned it on and put a plate of brownies next to it so we could have some of the "fruit" of the tree of life too.  They really loved that!  This was super fun :)

FHE: Prophets foretold of Christ

On the back of every "Friend" magazine, this year, they had little Book of Mormon story cut-outs.  My son was very excited by this and always had me cut them out, so I've been saving them.  I pulled out the pictures of Samuel the Lamanite, and talked a bit about him and the signs he said that would foretell of Jesus's birth.

The kids were quite rowdy and not really paying attention.  Not sure if it was because of them or me.  I probably should have had the kids hold the pictures or something.

FHE: Liahona

There were a lot of great ideas online for young kids, like here, here, here, and here, but they all have one main similar element- let the kids find some kind of treat and then compare the Liahona to the Holy Ghost, meaning, it is our equivalent Liahona.

So, here is what we did:

I hid a treat somewhere in the family room, (or you could do outside for older kids), and told the kids that there is a treat hiding somewhere and they have to find it.  I made sure it was too hard to find.

Then when they gave up, I talked about Nephi and his family in the wilderness (we've been reading about it in the Book of Mormon Stories) and how they needed direction to know where to go and remind them that they found the Liahona.  (showed pictures from the Gospel Art Book on pages 68 and 71).

I told them briefly about how it worked- one needs to be righteous and obedient for the Liahona to guide them.  (It would be fun to make your own Liahona to hold, maybe paint a styrofoam ball, but I didn't bother this time.)  I printed out this Liahona image and pretended to get instructions from it and then I gave clues about where the treat was hidden and what it looked like, etc until they found it.  Once they found the treat, while they ate it, I asked them if we have a Liahona to guide us today.  They didn't know and so I talked about the Holy Ghost and how just like the Liahona, it guides us when we are obedient and righteous.

FHE: General Conference

Since general conference is this weekend, I wanted to prep the kids for what it actually is- which I was surprised to find that my 3-year-old son did.  (They must have talked about it in Sunbeams yesterday?)
Then we talked about one of the earliest "general conferences" we know of- King Benjamin's address in the Book of Mormon (Words of Mormon and early Mosiah).  (There is a good picture of King Benjamin in the Gospel Art Book that we looked at pg 74.)
I, of course, had to build a "fort" (two chairs with a blanket over) and we all huddled in there around the kids' illustrated Book of Mormon Stories and briefly went over the things King Benjamin talked about.
We talked about why the people were in tents, and the difference between conference back then (no TV, microphones, he was the only speaker, etc) and now and how lucky we are to hear the prophet speak so easily.
At the end I asked if they could remember King Benjamin's name, and where the people sat when they listened to him.  I also asked if they could remember our prophet's name (which they couldn't) and we practiced saying it a couple of times.

I think it went over fairly well- once we got over the excitement of having a tent.  It admittedly took a bit of time to get my son to calm down about that.

FHE: Nephi Builds a Boat "Puppet Show"

We started family daily scripture study in the mornings (just 3 verses a day) and we just got to the point where Nephi starts building a boat.  I saw this FHE lesson and thought it would be very relevant and maybe help make the story seem more familiar as we read it.

I pretty much followed this exactly, hiding behind a chair and holding up the cut out puppets as I told it.

My kids had a hard time paying attention to it, and next time I wouldn't read anything and try to make it more of a dialogue (having dad chime in with some kind of voice of God).  They did enjoy taking turns giving their own puppet shows after mine, though.  (my 18-mo-old just stood behind the chair and kept saying "hi!" with Nephi. It was pretty funny)

Not sure how much they got out of it, but we did it :)