FHE: Remembering our Ancestors

My Grandma passed away last year and her birthday was yesterday.  It makes me sad that my kids will never get to know their "gi-gi" like I did and so I thought it would be fun to spotlight her.

I set my computer up to play a slideshow of all the pictures of her I have and I just told them about some of my memories of her and things I love about her.  We had a treat that reminded me of her too :)

The kids weren't honestly that interested, but I think they might be when they're a bit older.  Still, I liked celebrating her in my own way.

FHE: Godhead

I've recently been called to the YW presidency and the new curriculum that started this year has a gospel topic each month.  I thought I would plan at least one Family Home Evening lesson each month using this topic, even though my kids are much much too young for the Youth Program, just to get me thinking about it.

I got a triangle and said it represented the Godhead, and asked if they knew what it was.  They guessed a member and I taped Jesus' picture to a corners as they guessed, and gave clues to the members they didn't know.  I used the pictures of Jesus and Heavenly Father from the picture of Joseph's 1st Vision and then wrote "Holy Ghost" on a piece of paper.

We talked about how they were all related and that they are one in purpose and which ones have bodies or not.  I also told them that this is one of the distinguishing differences between our religion and some others, in that we believe Heavenly Father has a body because Joseph Smith and Stephen (in the Bible) among others have seen it.  We also believe they are three separate beings.  Whereas some other religions do not think Heavenly Father has a body and think He, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are all one person.

I thought about playing some kind of game where you say a characteristic of one of them and get the kids to answer who it goes to, but they were quite cranky tonight and we opted to end so we could put them to bed.

FHE: Answers to Prayer

FHE was a day late this week...

I based this lesson off something in the January 2013 Ensign right after the First Presidency message which is about getting answers to prayer.  There was a little scripture chase for Primary aged children and I used 4 of those 5 scriptures.  I printed them out (double-sided) with a corresponding picture on the back and hid them around the room for the kids to find.  When someone found one, we would all stop and read the scripture and talk about it.

We reviewed while we ate our treat.

I'm glad I only did 4 out of the 5 recommended scriptures because though my 4-year-old was very attentive for the first 2, by the 4th he was having a harder time listening.

FHE: Jesus Christ is Born

I had planned to reinact the story from Luke 2 using our Little People Nativity set, but I confess... we forgot about FHE :(

Next year!

FHE: Joseph Smith

Since Joseph Smith's birthday is December 23, we always like to talk about him right before Christmas.  My husband loves church history and particularly Joseph Smith and knows a lot about him.  We started off asking the kids to guess who his 3 or 4 stories were about.  I think the sacred grove story was a dead give-away.  Good thing it was last.

We had cupcakes for a treat, sang happy birthday and everyone got to blow out a candle on our own.  The kids always love blowing out candles :)

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: Music

ok ok, we didn't really have FHE.  I was thinking of enrolling my 2 and 4-year-olds in a music class and the sample class we could go to was on Monday night.  :(  So we just let it be our FHE this once.