FHE: Gratitude

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

FHE: Harold B. Lee

Kind of a lame one.  It was hard to find very much about Harold B. Lee, since he was only prophet for a whopping 18 months...  I basically read what was on the back inside cover of the November Friend, after singing through the "Latter-day Prophets" song and pointing to the pictures of each one in the Gospel Art Book.

Here are some links about him, if you want to try doing a better job...  Let me know how it goes. :)

FHE: Struggle is Good

I read this story to the kids and talked about it with them... Then I compared it to why they have to have chores and why they have to sometimes do hard things.

Jay thought it was kind of a harsh story for such younguns...  In retrospect, I'm not sure they really understood it.  I may do this again when they're older.

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: ...

the plan was to do the pumpkin carving activity from last year, but uncooperative kids during the day made it so i didn't have time to clean out the insides beforehand, and I really just carved a couple pumpkins with the kids.  we didn't really tie in a spiritual message, as I had wanted.  (also, the hubby is going through a lot at work right now and he got home later than usual, so we started late and i felt rushed.)

oh well- you can't win them all!

FHE: Peer Pressure

I basically used the lesson idea from 52 Weeks, but sort of told the story of the pre-existence quickly and we focused most of our time and attention on the daily choices sign game.  Although, I changed some of them a bit, and added a few extras.  They really liked the choices game (it's amazing what having a sign can do to help foster the conversation) and I really enjoyed asking them why they would say what they would say, and helped them think of nice ways of saying "no" in each situation, or why it would be a good idea to say "yes".

This was very successful, I thought, and I was amazed at how long their attention span was for this!  I think I'll try to use this same "Yes or No" answering format for other topics.  I feel like we had a great discussion!  My husband and I decided to move to eating our treat for the last few questions, since we didn't realize how long we would end up spending on this (and the kids needed to get ready for bed.)

Here are the questions we used:

1. You and your friends are playing in your neighborhood. One of your friends 

says, "I see flower pots on your neighbor's porch. Let’s go and pick 

them for our magic potion!" 

2. Before church your friend says, "Let's both tell our parents we need to use 

the bathroom and we’ll meet in the hall and play during sacrament meeting! I 

brought my DS with me." 

3. Your little sister asks if she can share your new toy. 

4. A new girl comes into Primary and is sitting all alone. She gets up and asks 

"Can I sit next to you?" 

5. You and your friend find a dollar in your neighbor’s driveway. He says, 

"Let's keep this and buy candy with it!" 

6. Your friend forgot her snack for school. You're really hungry. She asks if she 

can share yours. 

7. You are playing at your neighbor's house and they offer you coffee (we also discussed tea and what kinds of teas are "ok") to drink. 

Your friend says, "Just drink it this once. It's so good. You're Mom will never 

know." 

8. Your friends are sitting with you on the school bus and see a shy girl sitting 

alone. They tell you to make a mean face at her. 

9. Your teacher asks if you will miss some recess to help a student in class that 

you don't like very much with her homework. 

10. Your sibling tells you to throw food at the dinner table. 

11. Mom asks you for help clearing the dinner table. 

12. Your sibling asks you to sing songs with them to help cheer up the baby.

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