FHE based on Richard G. Scott's talk

I want to try something a little different with Family Home Evening.  Each week we are going to pick a talk from the most recent general conference and teach a lesson based on it.  My kids are 9, 6, and 1 and the lessons are made to fit their age group.

This week we did a lesson based on Richard G. Scott's talk "Make the Exercise of your faith a priority."

Start by asking "how can we make our bodies strong?"

When they say exercise have them show you some of their favorite ways to exercise.

 Teach that before we were born we were taught that the purpose in coming to Earth was to be tested and help us grow.  There are many things that are hard, that can make us sad, or frustrated.  However there are also many things that make us happy, make us strong, and build our testimony.  “Despite all of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to actively exercise our faith.”  

Ask "What are some ways we can exercise our faith?"

 Explain that Elder Scott talked about 4 ways we can exercise our faith in his talk.  Prayer, Scripture Study, Family Home Evening, and attending the temple.  Since my kids are young we focused on the first three.

In a bag I had cards with different quotes about prayer, scripture study and Fhe.  (all are from the talk, some are paraphrased.)  Here are my cards, you are welcome to use them :)  

We would pick a card and read it.  If it was a quote on prayer they kids would do jumping jacks, scripture study-push ups, Fhe-sit ups.  We rolled a dice to determine how many.  The girls loved it.

To finish I explained that just like our bodies need exercise to be healthy, strong, and grow our spirits need to be exercised so that our testimonies can grown and become stronger.

I really loved this talk.  I also recommend reading the notes at the end the quotes are amazing.

September Visiting Teaching handout

I loved this months message and had a hard time picking just one quote to share so I included them all :)    

Just click on the picture, copy, then paste in a word document.  You can size to fit your needs. 

Rustic Fall Sign tutorial

While browsing pinterest I fell in love with this sign (she shares a great painting tutorial).  I didn't want to paint my letters by hand so here's a quick way to get a fun rustic sign look.

 I love how my sign turned out!

I started with a pre-cut board from walmart (in the craft section for $2).  Paint the entire thing brown (or whatever color you want your words to be).  It doesn't need to be perfect.

 

Let the paint dry.  Cut out vinyl and add it to the board. You can also use stickers if you don't have access vinyl letters.

 Paint your board and vinyl with main color (I used ivory).  Again it doesn't need to be perfect.  This was 2 coats.

 Once the paint dries pull all the vinyl letters off.

 

Sand the edges and over your letters to give it the distressed look you are looking for.  I glued a little rope to the back so I could hang it.

 

Painting with Water

Here's a fun way to beat the summer heat.  We grabbed some paint brushes, a cup of water, and headed outside.  Dip the brush in water and start painting. 

 My kids' favorite thing was to try and paint their name before it started to disappear.  (It was over 100 degrees so they had to work fast).

What are some fun summer games you play?

August Week 2 Sharing Time

Family Home Evening Strengthens my Family (You can find the outline here)

To start I am going to use the some of the Hatch Patch's ideas and pictures (you can find it here).  I am going to start with her tug of war idea the show the word strips Family Home Evening Strengthens my family.  

Explain that Joseph F Smith started Fhe in 1915 and promised "great blessings" for holding regular Family Home Evening.  Almost 100 years later our prophet stills testifies Family Home evening will strengthen our family (words from outline) Show picture of Joseph F Smith and Thomas S Monson.  (Also here)

Next we are going to play a fun game called Zap (idea found here)  I modified it just a little bit.

 

Divide the primary into two teams.  Each team will pick a number.  Read the question that corresponds with the number.  If they answer it correctly the team gets a point and gets to open the bag with the same number.  (IF they miss the other team gets  chance to answer).  Inside each bag is a card that will either give them more points, take away points or Zap some ones points (zap means all points are lost).

Here's a sample of some of my cards.  I used most of the ideas at the end of this post.  (however I did not leave any blank) 

Instead in 6 of them I included parts of Joseph F. Smiths talk pertaining to FHE.  (I purchased this kit so I used the pictures that went with it.  You can always make your own or just add word strips).  I will be adding the pictures to the board as we find them.

Play until you run out of bags or time runs out.

I've included my list of trivia questions, my numbers (cut and attach with clothes pin), zap sign (display on board) and list of quotes from the talk.  This game would be very easy to change for any Sharing time theme or  for family night. 



Zap questions
1.Jr. Who is your favorite prophet? Sr. What can we learn from him?
2.Name 1 or 3 Latter day prophets
3.Recite 1 article of Faith of your choice
4.Who did Joseph Smith see when he prayed in the Sacred Grove?
5.How can you help make your family strong?
6.Name 1 or 3 people in the Book of Mormon
7.Name 1 or 3 people in the bible
8.What is your favorite scripture story
9.Jr. How old do you need to be before you can be baptized? Sr. How are we baptized?
10.T or F I can return to live with Heavenly father even if I don’t repent.
11.Recite 1 article of Faith of your choice
12.What are 2 things you can pray for?
 13.How often should we have Family Home evening and when?
14.Jr. Who is your favorite prophet? Sr. What can we learn from him?
15.Name 1 or 3 of the current apostles
16.How can you help make your family strong?

 

Quotes from Talk

The whole family should be invited to Family Home Evening

There can be prayers, music, and scripture-reading

Lessons can be about family, the gospel, everyday problems, family rules, home, the church, the country you live in or how to get along with others with lessons for smaller children made especially for them.

Light refreshments can be served that you can make at home.

Family Home evening shouldn't be formal or stiff but relaxed and comfortable.

Then, we are promised that there will be love in our homes and children will be more obedient to parents.  The young people will have more faith and be able to fight against the evil and temptations of the world.

Crafting with Olivia: Princess crown and wand

 This is the first addition of Crafting with Olivia and hope to have my cute crafty little girl pop in again soon!  Olivia is 6 years old and Loves, loves, Loves to join me in the craft room.  She likes all things sparkly and pretty.  She likes to work with mama

Today Olivia is going to teach you how to make a princess crown and wand.

You will need: paper, pencil, pins, felt, stick (dowel), headband, wedding stuff (tulle), hot glue gun, and pretty stuff to decorate with.

First you need to draw a star.  Have your mommy pin it to felt.  .

 

Then cut out the star.  You need two one for the front and one for the back

.

 Also cut out a crown.

 Decorate your star and crown.  I used stickers, flowers, and jewels.  My mom used hot glue to stick them on.  Tie your wedding stuff (tulle) to your headband.  I put some on my wand too.  Glue your crown to the top of your headband.  Glue your stars together with a stick in the middle. 

We are now done!  Its time to dress up!

See you later.

Fox cuteness!

 I had a request for a fox sweater that I never posted.  (unless you follow me on facebook then you might have seen it) I love custom orders because I get to be creative but there is a little anxiety because you never know if they will like it.  I think this one turned out pretty fun. (I altered a pattern from this cute shop)

Picture from the momma

 

and the full set

I had a recent etsy order for one of my fox newborn sets and thought I would share a little from my shop.

Here's the fun photos from Red Barn Photography of this prop in action.

Crochet double strand headband pattern

 My little girl needed a bow or something to match her outfit (okay she didn't need one but that is one of the fun parts of having a little girl right?!?)  While digging through the several we already have she surprisingly doesn't have any red bows.  Well I had a few minutes so I decided to make one that matches perfectly.  It seriously took about 15 minutes start to finish and part of that time was picking the right colors and figuring out the design.  It turned out so cute and the possabilities are endless.

 You need:
H hook (larger or smaller if you want a different size)
2 colors of worsted weight yarn
glue gun
felt circle 

Flower
1st color (I used pink)
1. Ch 3 sl st in 1st chain
2. 6 sc in center, sl st to 1st sc
(change colors)
3. ch 3, (2 dc, ch 2, sl st) in same st., *(ch 2,  2 dc, ch 2, sl st) in next st.* repeat 3 more times (5 petals total.  sl st. to 1st ch. 3.  fasten off.

Headband

measure child's head and subtract 1

chain to desired length and sl st to 1st ch.  (mine was 70)

chain same number and sl st to starting ch 1. fasten off

*you will have what looks like two loops connected in 1 spot.  Hot glue your flower to the headband.  use a small dot of glue to spread the two strand apart (see picture below) 

 cover with felt circle and you are done!

 You now have a cute and easy headband that can be made to match any outfit.

If you have any questions or something isn't clear please don't hesitate to ask.  I would love to see pictures if you decide to make one-leave a link in the comments or post a picture on my facebook page :)

Baby Loafers

These are my favorite shoes and I'm so excited I finally had time to make some for my little girl. 

You can find them in my etsy shop here.  Perfect for boys or girls.

Dr. Seuss printable

We are starting a Dr. Seuss theme week!  Here's a fun printable I am going to display all week.  It goes perfect with this FHE idea we are going to use tonight.

My body is created in God's image Sharing Time

 This is for February week 3 but would be great for Family Night too..  You can find the outline here.  Click on any of the images and save to your computer.  You should then be able to print them.

I am going to start the same way as the outline.  I am going to have a few kids take turns holding a mirror and describe what they see  (eyes, ears, mouth, and so on). Explain that what they saw was an “image” of themselves.

Then have someone read Genesis 1:27.

Explain that God has eyes, ears, a mouth, and so on, and that is why we do too. We are created in his image

Put this sign on the board

I found this fun idea here. "Invite a child up front and stand behind them. Hold up one of the pictures below. The child up front will call on Primary friends who can give them a clue to help them guess whats one the the picture behind them.  once they figure out the answer ask, “How does Heavenly Father want you to use or take care of this part of your body?”

M&M experiment (If you do this make sure you have enough for all the children.  Bring individual packs or let them take a few from the bowl on the way out)
1. Open bag of M&M's and put them in a bowl. Blindfold one child and then take one M&M out of the bag. Show everyone else in the family the color.
2. Hand it to the blindfolded child. let them eat it and have them guess which color it is.
3. Do this five different times, keeping track of how often they are right.
4. Switch players and repeat if time.
5. Talk about the colors on the outside of the M&M made no difference to what was inside. They were all the same, even though the outsides were different. Just like we are all Heavenly Father's children regardless of what we look like.

Each of us is a child of god. We are created in heavenly fathers image. And yet each of us is different. Some have blue eyes, some green. Each face is unique. We act differently too. Some are good in sports others music. We all have special talents. (found here)

If time let children draw self portraits and write why they are special (or you can send it home with them). Use the handout below. 

I liked how Sofia's primary ideas ended her sharing time. "People are all created differently, but no matter what.... we can be who God wants us to be!! We were created in His image."