FHE: What's In a Name?

Two Mondays in a row, wooo hoo. While we are still focusing on preparing Pablo for baptism here is one of my favorite lessons for teaching the concept of taking upon us the name of Christ.

Materials needed: "Hello my name is" stickers, pens

As family members walk into the room have them take a sticker and write their first name on it. You can write it for those who are too young to do it themselves. (take extra stickers and pens in with you for further use)

Opening Song: When Jesus Christ Was Baptized (Click on link for music player)

Lesson: Welcome everyone to Family Home Evening (be dramatic about reading every one's names off their stickers. It will make the kids laugh if you pretend not to know their names, this allows them to point out their name on the sticker). Talk a little bit about the importance of their name, who they were named after, why we have names, and how we use our names. Explain how our actions are attached to our names. If you are always honest people begin to say, "That Pablo, there, he is an honest boy. You can be sure that if he says it, it's the truth," or, "Cookie is always a good example to her friends." Point out some bad examples too, like, "Have you ever met Sam? Well, if Sam is in the room you can be sure that trouble is soon to follow." Ask the kids what kind of things they want people to associate with their names.

Now, give the children another name sticker (a kid can never have enough stickers) and a pen while saying, "You also have another name. You have a last name. Can you write your last name and stick it to your shirt?" Point out that you all have the same last name (or not, if they are different). Ask them where this second name comes from (daddy, mommy, or their parents, and you could also talk about names changing when you get married or are adopted). Explain that, just like their first name, their actions will have an effect on what people think about that name, but this time it won't just effect their name, it will effect everyone who shares that name with them. So, if you make a bad choice it can reflect badly on the whole family (give some examples). What do you want people to think about the "Smiths?" (insert your own last name here)

Give children another name sticker. "When you get baptized you receive another name. This name is a very, very special name. Do you know what it is?"

Read: 2 Nephi 31:13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism-yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongues of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.

Or, Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Hold up a name sticker with the name Jesus Christ written on it. Have children write the same name on their third sticker, letting them look at your so they can see how to spell it. After they put this third sticker on discuss with them the importance of having this name. When we take upon us the name of Christ it means we are willing to be responsible for what people think of Him. This means that everything we say and everything we do should be what Christ would say or do. Do you think this would change the way we act? Do you think this will be easy to do? Sometimes it can be hard to remember, even for adults. Sometimes you might make a mistake, or a bad choice, and do something that Jesus wouldn't do. What do you think we should do then? Should we just give up and take his name off of us (act as if you are about to take the Christ sticker off your shirt)? We don't have to if we remember what we learned about last week. Does anyone remember what we learned about last week? (Repentance)

So, remember, you need to take care of the names you've been given.

Closing Song: I'm Trying to be Like Jesus

Family Night: Repentance

It has been a long time since I've posted a Family Home Evening lesson. We have been having them, I promise, but it has been more family time than lesson with the pregnancy and baby. I did, however, manage to put this together last week and it went over very well with the kids so I wanted to share.

For those who don't know, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints people aren't baptized until they are 8 years old or older. This is because we believe that men are punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression. Therefore, we do not believe that innocent children have any sins to be washed away. 8 is considered the minimum age of accountability, when a child is old enough to be held accountable for their actions/sins.

Pablo is getting baptised next month so we are beginning to focus most of our lessons and discussions on the topic of baptism and all that it entails in order to prepare him for the amazing responsibility that such an event brings with it. To that end I put together this lesson on repentance.

Items to gather beforehand:

Rubbing alcohol

Antibiotic ointment

Bandage

Word strips

Opening Song (click on link for words and music): When I Am Baptized

Lesson: Pablo is going to be baptized soon. Do you know what that means? (Sins will be washed away. Everything forgiven. As if he has never done anything wrong or made any mistakes.)

But after that what if he makes a mistake? What can he do to stay clean? (Repent)

How do we repent? Say if you hit your sister, what do you need to do? (Say we are sorry) Yes, we do say we are sorry, but there is actually more that we have to do. Did you know that making wrong choices hurts our spirit? It does. So let's talk about how we fix hurts. Let's say that Monster Man climbs the tree and he breaks the rule about jumping in the tree and he falls of and cuts his leg. Do you think simply saying, "sorry," will fix it? Nooooo. What do we need to do to fix his owie? Well, first he has to realize that he has an owie. How will he know he has an owie? (It will hurt) Yes, and the pain from his hurt is just like the sorrow (hold up sorrow word strip) we feel when we do something wrong. When we feel sad, or have that yucky feeling inside, or when our heart hurts, that is how you know you need to repent.

Ok, so now that he feels the hurt, feels the sorrow, what should he do? (Go tell mom) Yes, now he needs to come tell me that he hurts and how it happened. This is called confessing (confession word strip), it means you tell someone about your sorrow and what you did to make you sad. So if you hit your sister and you feel bad about it you come and tell me, or daddy, or you pray and tell Heavenly Father what you did that was wrong. When you get older there might even be times when you have to tell the Bishop what you did. This can be scary because you don't want to get in trouble, but just like Monster Man's owie he needs to tell me so I can help him, we need to tell someone so we can be helped.

After Monster Man tells me about his owie what do you think I'm going to do? (Pull out first-aid items. Talk about first-aid routine. Talk about how the rubbing alcohol stings and hurts but why we need to use it anyway) This is fixing the owie, but for repentance it is called restitution (Show word strip. Point at the wrench to help them remember that restitution means to "fix"). Now, just like rubbing alcohol is the worst part in getting an owie fixed, restitution is often the hardest part of repentance. Say that you steal your sister's watch, and you loose it. How do you think you could make restitution, or fix the problem? You should probably use your own money to buy her a new watch. Do you think that would be easy to give up your money to do that?

(Discuss other situations and talk about possible ways to make restitution, and talk about how hard those might be to do. Talk about how awful it is to use the rubbing alcohol on an owie, but that if we don't the owie can just get worse and get infected. Just like an owie, the pain in our heart can get worse if we don't fix our mistake. It will be scary and very hard to do, but once it is done we being to heal and we feel better.)

So, Monster Man jumped in the tree and fell, felt the hurt (sorrow), told his mommy (confession), fixed the wound (restitution), but there is one more thing he needs to do. What should Monster Man do to make sure this doesn't happen again? (Not jump in tree. Hold up Forsake Wrong strip) So, after you go through all the steps in repentance you need to make sure you don't do the same thing again. If you do make the same mistake again, what do you think you will have to do? (Go through the whole thing all over again). You can keep repenting, and because of the atonement you will always be forgiven, but how many times do you want to fall out of the tree? And how many times do you want to have to use the rubbing alcohol?

Closing song: Choose the Right

It was so fun watching the kids reactions to the rubbing alcohol parallels because they absolutely HATE rubbing alcohol. =)

St. Patrick's Day FHE

Opening Song: The Holy Ghost

Lesson: Read this brief history of St. Patrick. Point out that St. Patrick's life was a hard one but because he never stopped having faith he was able to be guided to do wonderful things. Talk about his using the shamrock as a lesson on the Godhead. Repeat together the first article of faith.

Talk about how the shamrock has three separate leaves but are joined together on the same stem. discuss why Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are different/separate and how they are similar or considered "as one". Here are some articles with ideas or answers to these questions that you can read before you give the lesson:

Articles of Faith: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost

First Presidency Message: In These Three I Believe

You can write these down on a big cutout or drawing of a shamrock. Write the differences on the leaves and the unifying elements on the stem.

Closing Song: I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus

Treat: Green Rice Crispie Treats

Game: St. Patrick's Memory Game (Print out two copies onto thick or color backed paper)

Hey, Everybody, It's Family Night

Hey, everybody, it's family night! Monster Man is in charge of teaching the lesson tonight. Of course I have to help him, he is only 5 and this is his first time teaching the lesson, but I really want this lesson to come from him. Lately, Monster Man, Pablo, and I have been studying the Joseph Smith history along with our nightly scripture study. So, I went online and found pictures that correlated with the things we have learned so far. I printed each picture twice on card stock and cut them out (I wanted them cut nicely so that we can reuse them in other lessons). I just asked Monster Man to tell me about each picture and he did so rather well. He calls John the Baptist, John the Baptismal and I can't seem to change his mind about this, but I think it is cute. Then we will play a matching/memory game with the cards and Monster Man will explain each picture as the matches are made. It should only take 10-15 minutes which is perfect for his attention span. I am really enjoying this new phase in our family where I am not the only one doing EVERYTHING. It gives me hope that someday I will be able to say, "Go do your chores," and they will do them without me watching over them the whole time. Cookie is already at that stage and I LOVE it!

Oh, and I am in charge of refreshments tonight so I am going to use up some of that Halloween candy. I am going to pop a bunch of popcorn, melt a bunch of Snickers bars, drizzle on top of the popcorn and VOILA, peanutty, chocolatey, carmel popcorn.

Come On Everybody, It's Family Night!

Tonight for Family Home Evening we are going to play this new game I found at D.I. the other day. It is called Chatter Matters and it looks really fun. I tried to find a site where you could purchase it but I didn't have any luck; it must be discontinued. It is a fun game that helps family members get to know more about each other. In the end you try to win wishes (and these are real prizes). You get to earn things like "Select the menu for a favorite home meal with your family," or "Get out of doing chores for one day," or "Stay up an hour after bedtime," etc...

Now, in order for this to be a fun evening I am going to have to get busy today. DSSH gets home from work rather late and if we are going to have enough time to play a relaxed game I am going to have to have dinner on the table by the time he walks in the door, the chores all done, and I will have to have everything set up and ready to go for the game time. So, I am getting off my duff to clean, fold and put away laundry, prep veggies and meat for dinner tacos, and read the instructions on this game so I know how to play it =).

We will also be munching on veggie sticks and Party Popcorn so I need to get that all ready too.

Party Popcorn
*The reason this is called “party” popcorn is because it’s quick, yummy, you usually have all the ingredients on hand, and it’s really at its best that night. It starts to sugar after 12 hours so it’s not good for gifts or long-term commitments.

Ingredients
2/3 C. unpopped popcorn kernels
1/2 C. light brown sugar
1/2 C. margarine
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
Air pop the kernels and remove the ones that won’t pop (this is easy if you transport the newly popped kernels into a bigger bowl with your hands, fingers spread while scooping, all the heavy, unpopped kernels will slip through your fingers)
Melt butter and sugar together and cook till it is well combined and just starts to boil. Then stir into popcorn with the salt until well coated. Bake 10 min at 350, stirring once or twice. Cool before serving.

~ Adults really love having a cup or 2 of toasted pecans or peanuts stirred in, Kids like anything from marshmallows to M&Ms stirred in.

SHS Update: Fresh sheets are on my freshly made bed and I moved for about 5 minutes. Wrote a letter to my Grandpa, now I just need to get it in the mailbox (that is usually the hardest part for me).

I also answered another question today. It is a new hot topic and I suggest you check it out if you have teens.

HEY, Everybody, It's Family Night!

Usually I know exactly what subject I want to cover every Monday for our Family Home Evening lesson, but this week I was feeling mighty stumped. Luckily I remembered that my friend Cellista (that is pronounced 'Chellista', because she plays the cello, and that is pronounced 'chello') had put together a great list of FHE sites on her blog. After scanning several dozen different lesson ideas I finally found one that we need, and need in a BIG way. My sweet kiddies are a good bunch and they are very obedient. The problem I have is getting them to be obedient quickly. I usually have to say something three times, threaten them in some way, or yell at them in my exorcistic-mommy-means-business voice before they "hop to it". So, this is the lesson I have planned for tonight:
Opening Song: The Family (CSB #194)

Prayer

Discuss: "Did you hear in the opening song how much fun a family can have together? What did they have to do before they could have all that fun?" Reread the song if needed. The answer is they had to get all the work done first. "To get all of our family work done I need you to all be willing to obey when I ask for your help, don't I?"

Read: I Believe in Being Obedient By Karen Lofgreen

Activity: Play Hangman using the pictures at the bottom of the story.

Discuss and Challenge: Talk with the kids about how obeying quickly helped President Hunter to be a prophet of God. Talk about how obeying quickly will improve the peace in our family and will help each child be the best they can be. I'm going to ask them to play a game. They like to race eachother in everything just to say "I win!", so I'm going to ask them to try winning with obedience. If I ask them to do something and they do it the first time i tell them I will say "YOU WIN!". I'm hoping htis will encourage Monster Man and Pablo, who are very competitive and the ones who don't obey quickly. I'll let you know how it goes.

Closing Song: Quickly I'll Obey (CSB #197)

Closing Prayer

Treat: Creme Brulee for the kids, yogurt and fruit for DSSH and me (I'll whine about why this is tomorrow)

FHE REPORT: I am happy to report that since the Mom My Ride FHE our car has been emptied everytime we get out of it. It is currently in need of a good vaccuming, but there is no garbage, book bags, toys, etc... littering the floor, and that feels good.

SHS Update: Jumped out of bed, changed my sheets, made my bed, did 7 minutes of morning stretches. Feel really good about it.

Cookie's FHE

Last night Cookie gave the lesson for FHE. I love it when she gives the lesson because she always amazes me with her mature grasp of the gospel. Her lesson made me proud and a bit sad. I felt sad because her opening story was about dealing with bullies. She has had to deal with bully behavior at school. She has been called names, she has been tripped, she has been pushed, and she has been yelled at by boys who just don't seem to know better. This has been a good, albeit tough, learning experience for her and I have been proud of the choices she has made in these situations. She has even turned several of these bullies into friends. So, last night she read her story from the friend and then she had us play a board game that she had created herself. I love these moments, when you feel like your child is mastering the skills you are trying, so desperately, to teach them before they must be sent out in the world on their own. It was good for the boys to hear, too, because they have been getting pretty rough with each other. They seem to think that it is o.k. to punch the other in the eye if he says, "You're a stupid face boy". I keep telling them that if they punch the name caller then they both have to be punished for bad decisions, but if they don't fight back, then only the name caller gets punished. Ah well, we keep trying.

Today I am taking on Mount Everest. I am climbing the summit, and then I am going to chip and hack away at it until it no longer exists (or at least until I turn it into multiple miniature Everests). If you can't tell, I am referring to my paper pile. And it is taller than me right now, seriously! It starts at the top of my computer armoir, actually it starts on the top of my printer that is on top of my armoir, it runs down the sides of my monitor, it is busting out of every cubby hole, is keeping the side cupboard and drawers from closing, has fallen behind the armoir, and has been pushed underneath, and between its side and the wall. Considering all that, I don't think anyone can accuse me of exaggeration for calling it an "Everest".
P.S. What time is it when you find a pitcher in the bathroom?

Answer: Time to sanitize the pitcher and see what else the kids have been doing while I blogged.

Hey Everybody, It's Family Night!

I was asked to prepare a back up sharing time for Primary today, just in case the person in charge wasn't able to make it. I prepared it and ended up not needing it because said sister did indeed pull through. Wasted time on my part? I think not! Now I have a FHE lesson all ready for today.

Theme: Having Courage to Follow Christ's Example

Opening Song: Nephi's Courage

What is courage? Some people think it just means to be brave, but it is actually something different. To have courage means to be able to do something that you are afraid to do. So being scared to do something is ok because you need to be scared first before you can have courage.

Story: The Courage of a Knight I just paraphrase it because it is a bit long for the point it is making. Main points are

1. "True courage is fear that has said it's prayers."
2. Gaelin prayed and had courage to complete his task

Tape a shield to every one's chest and mention that we can find courage to do scary things if we ask our Heavenly Father for help and guidance.


Here are some little stories from the friend that show courageous children. Talk about these situations and how scared the children might have felt. Ask if your children ever feel scared about situations that they find themselves in when they are trying to "Be like Jesus".

Closing Song: A Child's Prayer

P.S. We will be dressing up in all of the knight dress ups we have on hand (which is a lot considering I only have two boys) to add to the fun.

P.P.S. I almost forgot the snack. Well I am going to be cleaning out my freezer (I'll explain why tomorrow) so Jon and the kids will have all you can eat ice cream buffet and I will be eating yogurt. I like yogurt so it will still be yummy for me =)

Hey, Everybody, It's Family Night!

Hey, everybody it's family night!
(update from last week: The car is still clean and it has been SO nice. The kids take everything in with them now when we leave the car each time.)

As I sat here, pondering what topic we should cover in Family Home Evening tonight, I suddenly remembered that I have been wanting to cover prayer for awhile now. Prayer is something that we do often in our home, yet Pablo is still having a hard time understanding what we are supposed to be doing in our prayers. Or, if he understands he isn't able to express it correctly. For instance, I can not get that boy to offer thanks for anything. That really is my main goal for tonight. To show them how, and why, we offer thanks in our prayers. So, here is the lesson I have outlined for tonight:

Opening Song: I pray in Faith

Why do we write letters to Grandma? (Because we love her, miss her, she misses us and wants to hear about us, etc...)

Why do we pray? (to talk to Heavenly Father)

That is right. Did you know that Heavenly Father loves us so much, that he loves us even more than Grandma loves us? It's true. Heavenly Father loves us and he misses us too. We used to live with Heavenly Father before we came to earth so we were able to talk with him face to face, but now that we are here on earth we must pray in order to talk with Him.

Praying is a lot like writing a letter. In fact it is a lot like writing two different letters together, like a "thank you" letter and a regular letter to Grandma.

Here is a practice letter for praying. You can write down ideas for your prayers on here:
Do you remember when we wrote thank you cards after Christmas? We write thank you cards because we want people to know that we are grateful for a gift that they have given us.

Can you think of anything that Heavenly Father has given you that you should be grateful for? (our bodies, food, the scriptures, our friends, the sunshine, our current prophet, our family, etc..)

We have so many things to be grateful for because Heavenly father gives us EVERYTHING.

After we tell Heavenly Father what we are grateful for then we let him know what is going on in our life, just like a letter to grandma. We can tell him of problems we are having, or of things that we are trying to do to make Him happy.

What are some things that you can tell Heavenly father about? (troubles in school, trying to read my scriptures, people I'm trying to become friends with, etc)

Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He wants to help us and to give us things that we need. So, we usually end our prayers by asking for things that we need. We should also ask for things that we would like other people to have.

What would you ask for? (help with my homework, help finding lost keys, help daddy to get better when he's sick, blessings for our Bishop because he works so hard, help to hear the Holy Spirits whispers, etc...)

Then we end the prayer "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen"

You can use this letter to help you pray if you want. Just remember that Heavenly Father loves you very much and that is why he wants us to pray to Him.

Closing Song: I Pray In Faith (we will repeat the opening song to help them remember it)

Treats: No bake cookies.

Monday, Monday, Can't Trust That Day.....

The title is just a line from the Beatles song. It was the first thing that popped into my head while trying to think of a random Monday title.

Last night we held our Un-Mom Our Ride FHE. It went really well. We sang our songs, went to the car vacuums, cleaned that big sucker out, then went out for pizza. My car looks SO nice now. It made DH and I laugh to see the difference in carpet color when we took the floor mats out. Under the carpet the floor is this light, silvery, gray. Around the carpets, it is more of a grayish taupe color. The best part was dusting and washing the dashboard and radio area. Having that clean makes the car look almost new when you're sitting up front. This will definitely be a repeat FHE.

Today is sunny and we just came back from the produce stand, so I am headed outside with some dirty kids and a bag of apples. ENJOY THE SUN!
Liz

Hey Everybody, It's Family Night!

I can't remember who first sent this to me, but I LOVE it! Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFE3B0Rje0

The sad part is that my car looks worse than this. It is sad that I am willing to curl my legs underneath me, in my Sunday dress, rather than clean out the car so that I have room for my legs. So, I feel inspired to use this video as a valuable Family Home Evening lesson.

Opening Song: Quickly I'll Obey (CSB #197) or use this link and the computer plays the piano for you.
http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=2&searchseqstart=197&searchsubseqstart=b&searchseqend=197&searchsubseqend=b

Scripture: Teach them to never be weary of good works (Alma 37:34)

Poem: "Thank You, Heavenly Father" by Mabel Jones Gabbott
Today the storm roars through the skies;
The young green trees bend to its will.
But I remember yesterday—
The skies were warm, the leaves were still.
One day I helped Dad clean the car
And thought we’d never get it done.
But now when I remember it,
It wasn’t hard—’twas more like fun.
The next time when the skies are dark
Or I have something hard to do,
I will remember storm clouds pass;
Each task once done gets easier too.
How glad I am for memory.
I thank Thee for this gift to me.

Jobs
Mom: Put away items that go back in house.
Dad: Vacuum
Cookie: Pick up garbage
Pablo: Wash surfaces
Monster Man: Stay out of Cookie's way and help mom
Sweet Terror: Be Godzilla, boss every one, torture Monster Man, and mess up all our hard work

Closing song: When We're Helping (CSB #198) or
http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=2&searchseqstart=197&searchsubseqstart=b&searchseqend=197&searchsubseqend=b

Treat: Get in clean car and go out for ice cream. NO ICE CREAM ALLOWED IN CAR, AND YOU BETTER WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE YOU TOUCH ANYTHING


****We are also going to set a goal for a new family habit: Never leave the car messy, take it all in with you. I'll let you know how the car looks next Monday ;)