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!

FHE: Gratitude

I just repeated what we did last year, because the kids loved it so much.  They still loved it :)

FHE: Gratitude

With Thanksgiving coming up, we thought it appropriate to talk about gratitude.

We talked about how being grateful makes us happy because we enjoy the things we have while we have them, rather than wishing for things we don't have and being sad about it.

We all traced our hand and colored it to look like a turkey.  Then we took turns saying 5 things we were grateful for and mom & dad helped everyone write them on each finger of their turkey.

My 4-year old absolutely loved this.  He wanted to do another thing for the body.  The next morning he even woke up and said he wanted to make another hand-turkey picture, but use BOTH hands and list things he was grateful for for both hands.

FHE: Where does food come from?

I was really sick this week- stomach bug and a cold (and pregnant) and didn't plan anything.  My husband took the kids out to dinner while I slept at home (was still sleeping...) and kind of had an impromptu lesson about where our food comes from that we eat.

Now when we pray at dinner, the kids often throw in "and thank you for cows" or whatever animal we are eating that night.  It's kind of funny yet sweet.  My son asked me out of the blue one time, "Mom?  What animal do potatoes come from?"

FHE: Heavenly Father and Jesus Love Me

I got this topic idea here.
For this, I printed out some pictures of things we are blessed with from Heavenly Father:
Food, animals, family, church, flowers, sun...
I just googled: "free coloring page sun", etc.
You could even have them color the pictures, but I didn't. (my son is not big on coloring and my daughter mostly eats the crayons...)
Then, I taped them up around the room and had the kids try to find them.  As they found each one, we talked about what it is and how we know Heavenly Father and Jesus love us because they gave us each of these things.

This was a big success.  My son, the next day, even played with the pictures and talked about them to his little sister. :)