This year for Family Home Evening, I have decided to follow the 2007 Outline for Primary for Sharing Time. (If you are not of the Mormon faith, click hereFHE to find out more about FHE.) We usually choose a topic that we feel the kids need to work on (ie patience, kindness, honesty) or we choose a basic lesson that is important like prophets, temples, etc. But this outline has topics for each week's lesson that the children's teachers use at church. I thought, "Why not reinforce the concepts they are learning each week at church with our own lesson?" I also thought it would make FHE planning a lot easier. It has a gospel principle topic for each month, then a related topic for each week of the month, along with related scriptures, songs, and sometimes activities. It will tell you what song the kids are learning for that month as well. For example, this month't topic is "I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ". The song is "I'll Follow Him in Faith" which is available at this link.
Last night for FHE we had a great lesson on Nephi. We read the story of Nephi building the ship and I found some great activities online for the kids to do. I just love this story from the Book of Mormon because it's such a simple concept that children can understand about obedience. The related scripture was 1 Nephi 3:7, "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." Jill talked about this scripture on her blog recently as well. I found a few Activities for them to do and it worked out great! They loved them so much we had to get their attention to finish the lesson- they were engrossed in what they were doing. (It was a dot-to-dot and some finger puppets of Nephi's family)
We are also memorizing the Articles of Faith with the kids. It has really surprised me how well they have done. Austin knows #1-3 so far and Olivia has #1-2 memorized and is working on #3. I often underestimate the capacity of these kids! What do you do for FHE and where do you get ideas for your topics? Any great ideas to share?
About Me
- Robyn
- Wife to Jared and mother to three beautiful children, Austin (9), Olivia (7), and Ashley (4). I am a running, baking, cooking, cleaning, photo-taking and reading fanatic. Currently working part-time as a personal trainer and loving it!
9 comments:
Such a great idea for FHE. I will have to check out the primary topics and use them. I was like you and just choose a different topic each week we needed to work on.
We definitely underestimate what our children are capable of. Memorizing for them at a young age is easy to do and they will most likely always remember. You are wise to start now.
Robyn,
These are great ideas. I have the outline for the year, but the links aren't working. Would you tell me where you found the activities online? I wish there were better FHE resources. I know there are lots, but I don't love what I have found so far. I do think though that the Gospel Art Kit is a must. The distribution center sells it and it has 300(or more?) pictures (everything from the new/old testament (creation, etc) to BOM to prophets to pics of baptism with a brief explanation on the back. We've built our whole lesson around the one picture sometimes.
Sorry, it looks like none of my links to lds.org are working. I don't think they allow it or something because I did test them the day I posted this but now they are showing errors.
For the activities I just go to lds.org and choose Gospel Library. I search "The Friend" for anything having to do with our topic. That night I put in "Faith" and "Activity" I think. Sometimes I put in the subject and "Sharing Time" since they have great games and activities for sharing times. I also find excellent stories to use in FHE this way.
The link for the activities I mentioned is http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates$fn=default.htm. The dot to dot might be too hard for Clayton, Laurie, but it's great for 6-7 year olds. My son loved it. Even though it was too hard for Olivia, she still liked coloring it and trying to be like her big brother.
I agree that the Art kit is essential, especially when they are younger. We have often chosen a picture and based the whole lesson on that. My kids STILL fight about who gets to hold the picture!
What great ideas. I will have to use some of them. It will be fun see some new topics I haven't thought of.
Thanks so much Robyn for the info and filling in my questions. Very helpful!
Those are great ideas for FHE, especially the part about reinforcing what they are learning in Primary already. (I already have a feeling that Harrison is one of those kids who always yell out the wrong words to the songs and pays more attention to friends than to the lesson.)
One book that we have been using for FHE is "Another Year of Family Home Evenings" by Karen Crossley and Roberta Hunter. (I got it at Seagull). It is geared towards kids age 3-10, so the lessons only take 5-10 minutes, which is nice with short attention spans. Each lesson has a simple object lesson that helps kids visualize what is being taught.
That book sounds great, Jamie. Thanks for the tip!
I wish we could be there for your FHE nights! What a wonderful resource the internet has given everyone. I'm so proud of the kids learning their Articles of Faith too. You are so right, little minds can memorize so much and it will stay with them and strengthen their testimonies all their lives.
Great idea!!! I'll have to get on there! I always visit the YW page and forget to look around. :)
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