Lego FHE

My boys love Legos.  Mr. One and Mr. Two can sit and build for hours and hours.  Mr. Three likes to unbuild what his older brothers create :).  He likes making things with his Duplo blocks as well.  Mr. Four loves to chew on Legos.  We have to be very vigilant about keeping the little pieces out of his reach.  When they are not building, they are often discussing various Lego adventures.

I hope that the language of faith and the Gospel come as easily for them as talking about their favorite playthings.  As I was pondering this, I had a light-bulb moment.  I could use Legos to help my children better understand the gospel.  Here's how Mike and I did just that.

I purchased two identical small Lego sets and placed the pieces only (minus the mini figure) in two small boxes.  We told the boys that we had a gift for them.  (We gave Mr. Three a Hot Wheel to open just to be fair because he is too young for the little Lego sets.)  We let them open the boxes and dump out the pieces.  Then we simply said, "OK, now build it."  They were a little confused and asked us what they were building.  We just told them to figure it out.  They started examining the pieces and experimenting with putting them together.  Mr. One kind of enjoyed this, although you could see he was confused about what he was supposed to do, but it was clearly frustrating to Mr. Two.  Mr. Two quickly said, "We need instructions!"  We asked them if just a picture would help, and we showed them.  That gave them a better idea, but still was difficult to know how to put everything together.  Then, we gave them the instructions.  They were both able to put their model together fairly quickly.

We asked them to explain why they needed the instructions.  They said that they told them what to do, that they made building easier, that they helped them understand how to fit all the pieces together the right way.  We then asked them if they knew of anything that they had that might be like their Lego instructions to help them in their own lives.  Perhaps a book of instructions to help them know how to live.  We were impressed when they quickly connected the instructions to the scriptures.  Bingo!  We were able to have a good, short and sweet talk about how the scriptures are a guidebook for our own lives.  They can provide answers to our problems.  They can give examples of righteous people to follow.  They can be an answer to our prayers.  They tell us how to live so that we can return to our Heavenly Father.  Just like the Lego instructions, that they can go back to to help them rebuild a model, the scriptures help us build our testimonies, and we can learn from them each time we read.

We shared our testimonies about the power that comes in reading the scriptures.  How they have blessed our own lives and answered our own questions and prayers.  We expressed our desire to have them love the word of God, to be eager to read and study them individually, to have their own testimonies.

I am grateful that inspiration can come through the most everyday items, and that even Legos can be a springboard for a meaningful gospel discussion.

We Love Mail

For FHE this Monday, we talked about love and how we show love to our family.  We asked the boys to tell us the ways that we can show love, and here is our list:

say I love you
respect them (by obeying your parents, doing good things)
say you're sorry when you do something wrong
take care of them
give hugs and kisses
draw pictures or write notes
give gifts
help
teach them how to do something new
pray for them

Oh how this list makes my heart happy!

Then, we decorated little mailboxes from the Target Dollar Spot, so that we could send one another little love notes and surprises throughout February.

Mr. One got up extra early the next morning to make little love notes to put in everyone's mailbox:  little hand drawn and colored hearts in favorite colors. 

He was so excited to announce that the mailbox flags were up, so we needed to check the mail.

Here's hoping we can all spread a little more love around our home!

Decorating the Tree

Monday night was Family Home Evening.  We used this lesson that I had made a few years ago to talk about the symbols of Christmas.  Then we decorated the tree.

 

The boys loved hanging up all of their ornaments in the front and center of the tree.

Mr. Three loved pulling them off.  After it was decorated, we stood back to admire our work.

My mom found these glasses at Walgreens several years ago.  If you look at the lights, they will project snowflakes, Santas or snowmen on the lights.

The kids love to put them on and stare at the Christmas tree.

After some scripture reading and our Christmas bedtime story, we had a cup of hot chocolate and went to bed.  It was a nice cozy night together.

Now I have to keep Mr. Three away from the tree.  I think we will be doing more errand running while he is awake during the day.

What Christmas is Really About

We sincerely want to help our boys understand that Christmas is about so much more than presents and goodies.  We want them to know about Christ's birth and life and to reach out and care for others as He did and still does for us.

We were able to pick out an ornament off of the angel tree at school to help some of the needy families in our community.  Tonight we wrapped the gift and got it ready to drop off on Monday.  I hope they feel good inside knowing they could help someone have a nicer Christmas, even if it is just one small gift.
 
This past Monday for Family Home Evening, we spent time talking about the Nativity.  We have a Little People nativity set and a nativity magnet set that our boys can play with.  Mike had them find and hold the different pieces as he told them the story of Jesus' birth.  I think it was the perfect beginning to the Christmas season.

Last night, we found the Little People nativity set up just like this.  I noticed Mr. One playing with it last evening before bed, but didn't notice how he had left it.  I love how he placed all of the pieces to look at the baby Jesus.  Isn't that perfect?  I hope we can continue to have that spirit of worship and reverence in our home.

Easter FHE

Have you seen the Resurrection Eggs that are all over the web right now?  Here's just one example.  Do you have your own?  I have two sets that were given to my by friends in years past, and they make a perfect Family Home Evening lesson for Easter.  We take turns opening one egg at a time, examining the object inside, reading the scripture and discussing the events of Christ's death and resurrection. 

I am amazed at how much my children already know about these events.  Mr. One knew almost all of the details as we opened each egg.  Even Mr. Two remembered the basic story.  After going through the eggs and singing a few Easter songs, we had our treat.  We made these sweet rolls, but used them as an object lesson for the empty tomb.  The marshmallow melts and leaves an empty center to the roll, to remind us that Jesus's tomb was empty after three days, that He lives.  They loved this!

We're heading to the Easter Pageant later this week with our family.  I can't wait!

Trimming the Tree

Monday night was all about family and tree trimming.  I put together a family home evening kit on the symbols of Christmas a few years ago.  This is a perfect lesson to start off tree trimming.  Interested in the details?  I'll post them at the end.

We sang a Christmas carol and had our little lesson.  I was excited that Mr. One remembered many of their meanings already.  We then let the boys have fun decorating the tree, while Mr. Three slumbered nearby. 

They loved looking at the ornaments and asking where they came from.  Can you tell where little hands can reach on our tree?

After a cup of cocoa with lots of marshmallows, it was bedtime for little boys.

Then, Mike and I finished trimming the tree.  We may have rearranged some of the original ornament placements...

Oh, the soft lights glowing on the tree.  It is just heavenly.

Symbols of Christmas FHE

 

Opening Song:  The Nativity Song (Children's Songbook, pg. 52)

Scripture:  Luke 2, Moses 6:63

Lesson:

Put up the undecorated tree.  Explain that many of the decorations and traditions we have at Christmastime are to help us remember Jesus Christ.  Explain that as they help you decorated the tree they will learn what each symbol means.  For each symbol, take turns placing the object on the tree as you explain their meaning.  Read the corresponding scriptures as you put up the decorations. (I used some Christmas clip art that I copied, colored and laminated.)

Tree:  Christmas trees are evergreen trees.  They do not die in the winter, but stay green all year through.  This is a symbol of eternal life.  Christ made it possible for us to live with him after we die.

Scripture:  Moses 1:39

Lights (small stars) and Star:  We often use lights, candles and stars in our Christmas decorations.  These represent the new star that appeared when Christ was born.

Scripture:  Matthew 2:9-10

Candy Canes:  This candy is made in the shape of a shepherd's staff.  The shepherds came to see baby Jesus.  Christ is known as the goood shepherd.

Scriptures:  Luke 2:8-9, John 10:11

Angels:  Angels announced Christ's birth to the shepherds.

Scripture:  Luke 2:10-11

Red, White and Green Ornaments:  Christmas colors are symbols of Jesus Christ.  Red represents the blood of Christ.  Green represents eternal life.  White represents the purity of Christ (he was perfect).

Scriptures:  Luke 22:44, 3 Nephi 12:48

Gifts (to put under the tree):  Gifts represent the gifts the wise men brought to the Christ child and the gift of the Savior that Heavenlty Father gave the world.

Scriptures:  Matthew 2:1 and 11, John 3:16

Activity:

Decorate your Christmas tree together.

Here is a follow up activity that you could use also.

This is a symbol matching quiz from the Friend magazine (Dec 2009).

Just Another Manic Monday

Monday was our first day of October Break.  Since we are not going on a vacation, we'll do some fun things each day together. Here are some of the highlights from Monday.

The morning began with a rushed start, getting myself and three boys ready for the day.  We met a friend (with her two boys) at JoAnn's (what were we thinking?) at 9:30 am.

The good news is we found most of the materials we were looking for (I'll explain our Massive Christmas Project later).  It didn't take all day, and we left in one piece, with all children in tow.

The bad news is, we totally turned into That Mom in the process.  You know, That Mom, the one who is more concerned about matching patterns and figuring out yardages and sale prices than making sure that her children are quietly standing by.  That Mom, who's children decide to run races down the costume fabrics isle, practically mowing over old ladies with their patchwork quilt tops?  That Mom, who bribes said wild children with Fruit Snack and Skittles, just to keep the youngest ones in the shopping cart and the oldest ones from running amok?  That Mom, who is balancing a baby on one hip, and two bolts of fabric on the other, while pulling a shopping cart from behind?

Oh yea, but These Moms at least got a great deal on fabric.

 

After surviving the fabric store, we took a little detour to a party supply store next to JoAnn's.  We went up and down the isles, looking at the Halloween items (and avoiding the really gory, scary stuff... what sick person actually likes that?).  Then, as we hit the 10 and 25 cent bins, I had an idea:  let the boys pick an item and use it as leverage for good behavior this week.  I told them they would each have to earn their prize.  Fabulous!  Mr. One wanted a small skateboard.  Mr. Two picked a bouncy ball. 

We then ate at Grammie's house and headed to Sam's Club for groceries.

Later in the afternoon, Mr. One went with a friend to the park, while Mr. Two made a pretend "popcorn dinner with popcorn drinks" (can you tell what our favorite food might be?), and Mr. Three fussed while I attempted to get dinner together.

Handsome Husband arrived home early (hooray!) to play with the boys so I could finish dinner (alfredo pizza with tomatoes and "Jamba Juice").

 

Monday night means FHE, so Handsome Husband gave our lesson.  After General Conference, we decided that we wanted to focus this month on gratitude, after hearing our prophet, Pres. Monson give this talk.  We read and discussed the scriptures referenced in his talk (including the ten lepers).  After lesson was treat time.  I made this caramel sauce which we dipped our apple slices in for dessert.  They boys gobbled up the caramel and the apples.  A perfect fall finish for our day.

Expressing Thanks

For FHE, we decided to finally finish our Christmas thank you's (better late than never!).  My husband and I really want to help our children to cultivate gratitude.  Writing thank you notes is a simple and important part of becoming a more grateful family.

I wanted my boys to feel like they had a large part in the process, so I had them create part of the card art.  The inspiration for this project came from this post on the Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Before dinner, I prepped the project.  I marked off 4x5 squares with my ruler on a large sheet of white construction paper.  I taped off small rectangles in the center of my marked off boxes before painting to create a gift box after the paint dried.

I helped the boys watercolor the construction paper.  We just used our cheapie watercolor sets that were on hand.  I let them choose one color to use, and then I also had them use one complimentary color to go along with theirs.  Mr. One chose green (of course) and Mr. Two chose yellow.  I had Mr. One use blue as well and Mr. Two use red.  This was a lot of painting for them, so we didn't finish the whole sheet of paper.  A little tip, use lots of water to spread the paint out.

We ate dinner while their paint dried.  Then, we peeled off the tape (Mr. One loved doing this and seeing the white rectangle appear).  I cut the squares and glued them on colored copy paper to make our cards.  Then I took a black thin marker and outlined the box, added a bow on top and the words "thank you" to the bottom.

 

For FHE, Mike read a scripture from the Bible about gratitude, Psalms 95:2.  We talked about having thankful hearts and how we gain happiness as we thank others.

Then, the writing commenced.  Luckily, we didn't have too many thank you's to write.  We had the boys sign their names and tell us why they liked their gifts.  It felt good to express our thanks and to give our boys the opportunity to practice gratitude.

The Terrible Tempered Turkey and a Treat

For Family Home Evening, we focused on controlling our temper.  The story I used was a favorite of mine growing up, "The Turkey with the Terrible Temper".  I remember my mother telling it to the family for FHE as a child.   I found a version of our story about  the Terrible Tempered Turkey on Sugardoodle.  It is about a turkey who loses his temper, changing colors with his tempers.  (Green with envy, red with rage, etc.) At the end of the story, he learns to accept responsibility for his emotions and to control them.  Plus, he has a colorful tail to remind him to control his temper.  I used a cute clip art turkey I had on hand and xeroxed it on different colors of cardstock and laminated them.  (You can see this post for some other cute turkeys I found on the web.)  For the feathers, I hot glued colored feathers from the craft store onto clothespins to attach as the story progressed.  (FYI, if you don't have a purple or pink feather in your package of colored feathers, you can color a white one with a non-washable Crayola marker.  This worked suprisingly well.)  

After our story, we made tasty turkeys.  I decided to make it more of an open-ended activity, so I put out various snack foods that I had on hand. 

Here's what we had to use:
Fudge Stripe cookies
marshmellows
pull-n-peel licorice
mini M&M's
chocolate frosting (I put in a ziploc bag and snipped the tip to make a "glue bottle")
Nutter Butter minis
candy corns
Milk Duds
PEZ candies
chocolate covered pretzels

The only direction was to make a turkey.  It was so fun to see all the different turkeys, and even more fun to eat them!  Gobble, gobble!

Mr. One's Turkey (Can you tell he loves PEZ?)

Mommy's Turkey

Daddy's Turkey

Mr. Two fell asleep before he could participate.  Maybe he dreamt about tasty turkeys...

For more Thanksgiving fun, visit Sugardoodle.  There is a great list of Thanksgiving ideas if you're looking for something new, some are religious and others more secular.

Gratitude

For Family Home Evening Monday night, we talked about gratitude.  I hope to continue this theme for another few weeks.

First, we discussed what gratitude is and how we show it to others, such as saying thanks, writing a thank you note, doing something nice for someone in return, as some examples.  We talked about how to express gratitude to our Heavenly Father, such as saying thanks in prayer and in trying to do good for others.

We read the scripture story of the Ten Lepers from the New Testament .  We talked about what Christ was teaching us about gratitude in this parable.

We started our gratitude jar (a little late, but better late than never).  Every night, one family member will share and write down one thing they are thankful for.  My plan is to read all our blessings on Thanksgiving Day. (I'll post the jar a little later.)

Afterwards played a game.  Each person took a little handful of Reese's Pieces.  Then everyone had to name one thing they were grateful for for each Piece.  Daddy grabbed the biggest handful, so he shared some of his "blessings" with the boys so they could still participate.  This was a big hit.  It was interesting how the kids started off naming more material things, like cars and toys, then people they cared about, then moved on to more spiritual blessings, such as a Savior, the temple, completely unprompted.  Mr. One was having so much fun naming things he was grateful for, he didn't want to stop.  Even Mr. Two joined in and named some things he was thankful for.

We learned the song "Thanks to Our Father" from the Primary Children's Songbook.

I personally feel so grateful for the many many blessings we have recieved, especially this year.  Isn't it amazing how trials really help you recognize just how much Heavenly Father is blessing you?  I hope we can keep this "attitude of gratitude" all year long.

Family Home Evening-Manners, Monsters and Bullies

Every Monday night, we gather our family together to learn more about the gospel and to strengthen our relationships with one another. We are trying to have a weekly lesson, something that our young children can understand and will help them in their everyday lives. I want them to learn to make positive choices and develop their faith. We attempt to keep it short and sweet and interactive. We also pray together and sing a song or two during this time. If the kids are lucky, I might even include a fun treat afterward.

Our family home evening lesson came out of a need to address speaking kindly to one another, after an especially dramatic shouting contest between one little child who shall remain nameless and a little friend...

We started out with a prayer and this song from the Children's Songbook.

"Jesus Said Love Everyone"

Jesus said love ev'ry-one;
Treat them kindly too.
When your heart is filled with love,
Others will love you.

I found this wonderful article in the Friend about bullying. We read the story and the scriptures and talked about bullying. We focused on the idea that using mean words and yelling are a form of bullying, and that we can't have love in our home when we bully one another with hurtful words.

Then, we played this little game from File Folder Fun called Monster Manners. It was a perfect reinforcement of what words we want to use in our home.

Last, we had our family scripture study, prayed and sang "Kindness Begins With Me."

I want to be kind to ev'ry-one,
For that is right, you see.
So I say to myself,
"Remember this:
Kindness begins with me."

I hope my little family can remember that "kindness begins with me."

An added bonus: Mike and I had fun later that evening, talking and coloring the little monsters for the game (that I didn't finish before our lesson). Love is spending time together, even if it's just coloring a file folder game.