FHE: Brass Plates

I recently decided that we should abandon reading out of The Book of Mormon with the kids, and go back to the illustrated version, because it just seemed like they weren't getting very much out of it, and my 2-year old might actually understand better with the pictures.  (my 4-year old did, perhaps glean nuggets but...)  So, even though we had made it to 2 Ne in the other, we started over in Book of Mormon Stories.

There is a lot of mention of plates in the first part because it starts off telling where The Book of Mormon comes from and then the second story is about Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates from Laban.  I thought it might be fun to try and make those feel more real and talk about what they are and why records would need to be kept on metal, instead of paper.

All I did was fold a piece of aluminum foil in half twice and give a "sheet" to everyone with a toothpick to "write" with.  While we talked about why the records were kept on metal, we all "carved" pictures and words into our "plate".

I also showed them some pictures from the Gospel Art Book where plates are shown, and a brief 2-sentence summary of what is going on in each pictures.  Pictures #73, #86, and #92.  (making sure to mention that Joseph did not actually translate The Book of Mormon as depicted in that last picture).

I was going to make a book out of them at the end, but my 2-year old decided to rip hers to bits after drawing on it.  We also talked a bit about how the bible was kept (Monks spent their life copying them by hand to preserve them) and I was surprised that my 4-year old knew about illuminated bibles.  (or that they had pictures in them)

I thought it went pretty well :)

FHE: Death

My grandmother died recently and so my whole family attended her funeral last week.  I thought this might be a fitting opportunity to talk about death with my children.

I made a paper-bag puppet that kind of looked like "gi-gi" (as we call her) and I made the analogy of my hand being her spirit and the bag being her body which gets left on Earth.  I thought about making a sock puppet for my hand to be the spirit, but I didn't go that far.

We talked a bit about the pre-existence- how we lived with Heavenly Father as spirits there, and then we got our body.  i.e. our spirits "moved into" our bodies and they dwell there now, on Earth.  We talked about how everyone dies and that means our spirit leaves our body to go be with Heavenly Father again.  We reminded them of Easter and Jesus' death and resurrection and mentioned that we will all be resurrected again one day when Christ comes again to the Earth.

My 2-year old really just wanted to try out the puppet, but I think it was good for my 4-year old.

FHE: Prayer Reverance

My kids have been having a hard time staying reverent during prayers and so I thought I would focus a lesson just on being reverent during prayers- as opposed to general reverence.

I made the print-out boy from this site and called him "reverent Rex".  We started by having him do things like wave hello, jump, wink, blink, sit, etc. while the kids copied him and then we used him as an example of how to be reverent during a prayer.  We all practiced a couple of times

update: all week long before a prayer we would say, "now, remember what reverent Rex does during a prayer" and they were both MUCH more reverent this week.  It was awesome!

FHE: Prophets

This week is president Monson's birthday, and were we not already having another birthday this week, I might have made cupcakes for it...  Nevertheless, I thought we'd have another lesson on Prophets.

This was very simple.  I just printed out a picture of our prophet for my kids to color and while they colored, we talked about what a prophet is, who is our current one, and a little bit about other prophets they might know.

I was so proud that my almost 4-year-old son knew about Daniel and Adam.  The cutest was when he was trying to get us to guess Adam and described him as, "wearing green all the time and helping things to grow".  Adorable!

FHE: President Monson

Since it is the Prophet's birthday month, I thought it would be fitting to learn a bit more about him.  We played President Monson Bingo which taught us some fun facts about him.

I thought it would be fun to let the kids cover their pictures with M&Ms and they could eat them at the end as a treat, but actually, my almost-2-year old just cried the whole time because she couldn't eat hers.  haha.  My almost 4-year-old had fun though!

I also printed out a coloring page here, but decided we had enough and didn't need to do that also.  Maybe next week.

FHE: Contributing to the Family

So, I decided it's time to let the almost 4-year-old start having some basic chores and this seemed like a great way to introduce it.  I came up with a plan for displaying a daily schedule for him, and there are chores, fun things, and also some educational activities interwoven throughout the day.

I explain my chart too thoroughly here, if you're interested.

We talked about how I'm having a baby in a few months and how I'll need some extra help and he (well, both of my kids) are big enough to do one thing every day to help me out.  (although, there are really a few things on there... They've already had to help out cleaning up their toys and I think clearing your own plate after you eat is regular enough that it should just be a habit, not really a chore.)

Then I showed them their schedules (not chore charts) and how they work and I've waited awhile to post anything so I could say how well it's working out.  I must say, it's been working quite well!

Here's some pics of the charts:

And here's a link to the cards I put together, printed out, cut apart, laminated, and then display in two 3x3 pocket page protectors.

FHE: Baptism

We were out of town for the first 3 Mondays in July (flying in a plane for 2 of them) so I didn't do FHE then.  Last week, I probably should have, but the hubby was gone directing a tour to Nauvoo, so I just decided to be lazy until our whole family was together again.

I admit, tonight I just winged it... the kids really really really needed a bath, so we decided to talk about baptism while they took one.  I just showed pictures from the Gospel Art Book- the one where the girl gets baptized and confirmed and where Jesus is getting baptized by John the Baptist, and I asked questions to my almost 4-year old about it.  (I was surprised by how much he knew!)

-How old do you need to be to get baptized? (8)
-Who does the baptizing? (a priesthood holder, like your dad.  My dad baptized me, but daddy was baptized by a missionary)
-What happens?  (wear white, special prayer, get dunked under water)
-Why do they dunk you all the way? (represents washing our sins away like we wash dirt in the bath, also we lie down completely as if we have died and come back up as if we have resurrected (like Jesus did at Easter) into our new life- free from sin)
-I compared covenants to a "pinky swear" with Heavenly Father, because he knows about those, and talked about what we promise and what He promises us.
That lead us to talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost a little bit.
-Why did Jesus have to be baptized?  Does he have sins?  (no, He doesn't, but everyone needs to make those covenants with Heavenly Father to live with him again.  Jesus also needed to set an example to teach those around him what the proper way to be baptized is.)

My son had a funny interpretation :)  He thought we meant the Holy Ghost gives us presents- "like on Easter".  hehe  We had to explain that the Holy Ghost IS a gift from Heavenly Father.

It wasn't the most "exciting" or "fun" lesson, but I was surprised by how engaged my son was anyway.  When we were done talking about baptism, he started flipping through the gospel art book and asking us about who different prophets were and what was going on in each picture.  I feel like we covered a lot tonight!