FHE Lessons for September

I know that I have been providing lessons each week that go along with what the Primary themes are.  However, with General Conference coming up the first weekend in October I have felt that instead of providing lessons to go with the Primary themes, I would encourage each of you to watch or listen one talk from last conference each FHE from now until Conference as a family and talk about it.

There is a Facebook group called 30 days of General Conference that suggests one talk a day to read, this would be a great way to pick which talk you’d like to cover as a family, by reading one each day yourself!  It’s a great goal and I know that by doing so, you will be better prepared to receive the messages given this coming conference.

A few that jump out to me, that I would like to suggest for your consideration are: (I have also listed expansion ideas for each).

Filling Our Homes with Light and Truth – You could have your children draw a picture of your home, and together list ways to fill your home with truth and light

The Family Is of God – You could have your children draw a picture of your family, and take turns saying nice things about each member of the family.

We’ll Ascend Together – Make lists of ways that we can help one another in the home and better keep the spirit in the home.  Bear your testimony to your children about temple marriage, and/or qualities that you admire in your spouse and/or them.

Choose to Believe – Talk about choices we make in life, give some examples.  Bear your testimony. 

Therefore They Hushed Their Fears – Share experiences when you might have been afraid, have children share as well.  Discuss how Heavenly Father can help dispel fear.

The Music of the Gospel – This talk would go well with an object lesson of dancing with and without music!

Blessings of the Temple – Visit the temple (if there is one nearby), bear your testimony of the temple, and/or have your children color a picture of the temple

The Sabbath is a Delight – with the call from the First Presidency to better observe the Sabbath, this would be a great one!  Talk about ways that you as a family can improve your Sabbath observance and make goals to do so!  . 

You can find the previous FHE lessons in a downloadable format HERE, Oct-Dec still to come!

2015 Primary Themed FHE Lessons

UPDATE:  I did not get October up, I'm sorry.  Check out these FHE lessons to help educate your family about the dangers of Pornography!
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER
UPDATE:  Now includes through AUGUST, more to come!
UPDATE:  NEW COVER and LINKS only per page to avoid copyright infringement 1/6/15
Some kind soul for the last 2 years has compiled FHE lessons based on the primary theme of each year. We have used these for FHE and I looked and looked on the web for a 2015 version; but, to no avail.  So, I decided it was my turn to give back!  Since 2015 is just around the corner and I only decided today to do this, I have only January at this time.  I will be adding the entire year over the next few months (don’t worry February will be posted in time!).




The link will be updated as I add to the lessons.  Here is January to start you off!  Check back soon for updates!  Click on the picture to go to the document!
Enjoy!  Please feel free to share!  But please link to this post and not the link itself!  Thanks! 

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Getting Ready for General Conference

This is the first conference where I actually have a game plan for the kids.  Probably a year ago now, I printed off some of those color pages for C (who was then only 4) in hopes it would occupy him, knowing full well he doesn’t like to color…and well, of course it didn’t.  This year I was on the hunt for ideas that did not involve coloring, and that would also grasp the attention of my 2yo as well. 

Here in Hawaii we are lucky (or unlucky) that conference starts at 6am…though my children are usually up bright and early, it still buys us some time for the morning sessions before everyone is up and at ‘em. 

So of course I hit up pinterest for some great ideas!

My goal this year is to have some sort of breakfast prepared the night before and baking in the oven to be eaten at the conclusion of the morning sessions (8am).  I’m thinking this blueberry french toast bake, I pinned it here.  Now that takes care of ONE morning. 

In regards to keeping the little ones busy, I have combined a variety of ideas that I have found on pinterest and other blogs. 

First off I have hung a row of church related pictures on the wall by our TV. 

This will be used for this activity – Conference Wall, which I pinned here.

I am combing this activity that I pinned here, Each bag will be labeled with a picture of an apostle, the bag will contain and activity and an extra picture.  They must match the extra picture to the picture on the wall that matches the topic the speaker is talking about. 

We are moving the little kids table into our living room so they can sit and do their activities in the room while watching conference. 

So…what’s in the bags?
I’m still working on them, but this is what I have planned so far (listed in no particular order):
1.  mini M&Ms
2.  mini containers of playdough
3.  Juice boxes
4.  M&M cookies
5.  Little panda cookies
6.  Popcorn kernels (to pop) with a popcorn bowel
7.  Cookie dough (to make fresh baked cookies)
8.  Jesus Puzzles (pinned)
9.  Book of Mormon Match up cards (pinned)
10.  Temple Matching cards (pinned)
11.  Apostle matching cards (pinned)
12.  Conference Jenga (pinned)
13.  Build a Temple, activity taken from The Friend magazine…I would like to mount it to some duplos or wooden blocks, but we don’t have any.

And I may throw a few extra in there, since they  usually have some other speakers, like The General Primary President, or someone else. 

I also went through the friend magazines and cut out the search puzzles, and the last page with the picture and scripture on it…for quiet books for sacrament!  I’ll put them in coversheets in a binder, so they can be reused again and again.

For Family Home Evening this week we talked about Prophets, we sang Follow the Prophet, talked about who the prophet was today and talked about General Conference and why it’s important for us to watch it.  I introduced the basics of their activities, so they have something to look forward to this weekend!

I’ll post how it goes after this weekend!  Happy Conference everyone!

For those of you that are not LDS – twice a year we have large meetings which include all of the church membership worldwide, it is held in Salt Lake City and is broadcast throughout the world in many different languages.  This is when we hear from our church leaders.  We believe that there is a living prophet on earth today, and our church is set up like Christ’s church was in the bible.  There is a prophet (or president of the church) and 12 apostles.  Conference is when we are able to hear from them, and receive instruction.  Feel free to tune in, many places broadcast it on their local cable channels, you can also watch it or listen to it at www.lds.org.

Scripture Study and Sacrament Activities

With today being Sunday, I felt inspired to make a post about Scripture Study for children.  There are lots of ways to bring the scriptures to life for children, and to help them understand and relate to the stories that are in them.
Firstly, we use the storied scriptures as laid out by the School of Abraham, basically they have taken the MEAT of the scriptures and outlined them. We follow their outline reading daily, and then we occasionally supplement what we have read with other sources.  We print pictures from the living scriptures coloring books and also watch the movies that go along with what we are reading. (they also have FHE ideas on their site).  Typically they color the pages while I read.  We also like the Who's Your Hero?  Series.  These are great b/c it relates the stories to the child's life, and they also have FHE lessons to go along with each story as well.  Scripture Scouts is also something my kids enjoy listening too.  They have CD's for Book of Mormon, Old and New Testaments, Articles of Faith and the Family Proclamation.  These are cute little plays on CD, of kids acting out and retelling the scripture stories.

As C is getting older and being able to read independently, we have purchased Discover The Book of Mormon program for this year, they also offer other programs besides The Book of Mormon, and we plan to get them all if the BOM program goes well.   The early elementary programs use the Scripture Story Readers sold by LDS Distribution, and the older children programs use actual scriptures.

More ideas for younger children:

Ideas for Older Children:

A fellow homeschooling mom also referred me to this blog with free scripture study workbooks for children age 8+  http://www.ldsworkbooks.com/

Primary and Sunday School Manuals can also be purchased inexpensively from LDS distribution as well.  And don't forget The Friend and The New Era magazines.

The best way to teach children anything is to immerse them in it...I'm a self proclaimed book-a-holic, and church books are no exception!

Now for Quiet Bags for Sacrament Meeting.  I am a firm believer that if kids are going to be otherwise occupied during sacrament meeting, it should be atleast church related.  So we have a church bag that comes to church on Sunday's...in our bag we have a a notebook with puzzles printed from the living scriptures coloring books, they are in page protectors so that dry erase markers can be used on them...again and again and again.  We also have some of our scripture study materials...scripture board books, Who's Your Hero?, etc.   Then there are some various other materials purchased from Deseret Books:
Book of Mormon:  Seek and ye shall find
Book of Mormon Busy Book
Sticker Books
and other items.
It's actually time for a revamping of the scripture bag...it's on my mile long to do list...but for now, we are using what we have.  I would like to make some file folder type games, and other quiet books, specifically something for them to look at and think about Jesus during the passing of the sacrament (the rule with the bag is that they can not take it out until after the Sacrament has been passed).

We also have a felt pieces that I have not taken down in sometime....I need to use those again.

So that's our scripture study in a nutshell.  I'd love to hear what you do with your family!

ADDED:  As luck would have it Latter-Day Homeschooling Blog has a post about Scripture Journaling!  Check it out http://www.latter-dayhomeschooling.com/2011/05/scripture-journaling.html

A few more great ideas....SINGING THE SCRIPTURES (for memorization), check out these sites
http://www.ldsscripturerock.com/
http://www.singitagain.com/

and more MEMORIZATION tips
http://www.schoolofabraham.com/scripturemastery.htm

I can't believe I forgot about this site

Family Home Evening - Making it Easy, But atleast we are Making It!

Okay, so we have really been slacking on FHE...and since I am having to be more disciplined with Scripture Study and School (since C starts K and it's FOR REAL now!). Why not work on FHE too. I have had this book for some time now...so I pulled it off the shelf and dusted it off.


52 Weeks Of Family Night: Fast and Easy Lessons for Young Families

The book has 52 numbered picture cards in the back, one gets pulled from the bag and you then turn to that number lesson. There is a scripture listed, a song and a short story to go with. Short and Sweet, Easy Peasy...but you can say it was DONE!! I cut out the cards, laminated them and put them in a gift bag...
It's on the bookshelf in plain view, so we can't forget!

However, tonight...we will be doing SCRIPTURE COOKIES...the Primary sent home a newsletter last week. And I have heard great reviews on it...so we will do it tonight.

Here is how it goes:

Search your scriptures to find what ingredients are needed to make these scrumptious cookies. Look up the scriptures and write the ingredient in the blank spaces. Once you have found all the ingredients, then you are ready to make and bake your Scripture Cookies.
Recipe from: Our Scriptures
Preheat oven: 350 degrees
Beat together: 3/4 cup of Psalms 55:21
1/3cup of 2 Nephi 26:25
1 1/2 cups of Jeremiah 6:20
2 of Isaiah 10:14
Add: 2 cups of 1 Kings 4:22
1 teaspoon of Song of Solomon 4:14
1 teaspoon of D&C 101:39
1/2 teaspoon of 1 Corinthians 4:6
3 cups of D&C 89:17
1 cup of 1 Samuel 20:12
Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes
But not before reading Joseph Smith - History 1:37
and D&C 133:11

(Answers: Butter, Milk, Brown Sugar, Eggs, Flour, Cinnamon, Salt, Soda Puffed Up, Oats, Raisins, Cook no burn in oven, Watch.)