Hmmm...I think it's kind of ironic that I mentioned at our Draper get together that I was so happy everyone had been posting so consistently. HA! Then I missed the boat and dropped off the blogging world for a bit. Sorry about that! :(
My post for today revolves around simple FHE ideas for toddlers or young kids. Of course, you could spend your whole day looking online for such things. I have compiled just a few ideas here that we have used.
Topic: Families
Song: Families Can be Together Forever
Lesson: Talk about what it means to be a forever family
Activity: Look at pictures of grandparents, cousins, and practice saying their names. This is helpful before family reunions, family get-togethers, family trips.
Topic: Prayer
Song: A child's prayer
Lesson & Activity: Use a prayer puppet (a doll or puppet you have that shows how to pray). Talk about how we are supposed to pray and everyone can take turns saying a prayer.
Topic: Book of Mormon Stories
Song: Book of Mormon stories ;)
Lesson: Choose any story from the Book of Mormon that can be acted out. Have dad or mom tell the story.
Activity: While telling the story, help kids act out the people and what they did in the story.
Topic: Prophets
Song: We thank thee, O God, for a prophet OR Follow the Prophet
Lesson: Teach who the prophet is and how he helps us
Activity: Have everyone stand in a line and the line leader can hold a picture of the prophet glued to a popsicle stick. Go around the house singing the chorus to "Follow the Prophet" and switch line leaders periodically.
Most importantly, I want to share that the main thing I remember about Family Night (that's what we called it) growing up is that my family had it consistently, every Monday night. We had a very strict rule that nothing was to supersede family night (sometimes we would have band concerts and sporting events, but then the whole family would attend and support the sibling involved). If you have not already made FHE a priority in your family, I promise if you do you will find more peace and love in your home.
What other ideas do you have for simple FHE lessons?
We like to let the kids choose a picture from the Gospel Art book and we tell them the story. Or, we watch the narrated scripture stories or a Bible video on the iPad/computer and talk about it. Our kids respond well to movement, so we often do "talent segment" where they get to do some sort of trick for us at the end. Their favorite FHE lately was when we talked about the Sabbath day. We had FHE on the trampoline and every time they gave a good idea for something that we could do together on Sundays, they got to do 3 jumps on the tramp. It was like sugar-free bribery.
ReplyDeleteI love these ideas, thanks Shelley! We do the Gospel Art book also, or we have a little book about lessons for young families and we read something out of there. I think the biggest key is consistency, as you say--they may not remember what we did, but they'll remember we had it. I really only remember two or three FHEs from my childhood: kickball, the plan of salvation lesson, and one where I was in charge of teaching the lesson. But we had it weekly, and it made a huge difference!
ReplyDeleteWe had a Relief Society activity where they had a bunch of ideas printed and we just cut them into slips and put them into a jar and decorated it. I love having it! We just pulled out a slip yesterday and it was about learning to say "I'm Sorry" and shared the story of Nephi building the boat and how his brothers were mean and didn't help but later they were sorry and then helped. We cut out and colored paper doll figures and a boat. Minimal planning on our part the slip has a song, scripture and lesson explanation on it. I think the lady in charge found it all online. Anyways, if you are ever in charge of a RS activity - I thought it was a great idea and one we use all the time. They had lessons for older kids and lessons for younger kids.
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