Daniels in the Lion's Den FHE

My 7 year old daughter organised our lesson for FHE (Family Home Evening) and she did an amazing job, and yes, she did it all by herself!!  It was sooooo simple, but it was really effective and worked for ALL our family aged from 12 to 3 years...and yes, my husband and I are older than 12 years of age, but maybe not mentally, haha!! ;)

This is the script that she read to explain her lesson, in case you can't read it I've typed it out below, spelling mistakes and all...

'Ok.  So this is a kind of game but it is a listening game so you have to listen very carefuly.  

So if I say lion you get down on the floor with your hands and feet, and ROAR as loud as you can, 

but not that loud so you crack a window.  

And the next rule is when I say Daniel you sit down if your a boy and when you sit down you cross your legs.  

And if I say King all the girls act posh like a queen, but you can't be one because their weren't a girl in the story.'

Love it!!! She inserted an additional action for when she said 'Daniel', the boys would have to fold their arms (as well as crossing their legs) so that it would look like they were praying.

She then held up the picture from our Gospel Art Box to show everyone, and then commenced reading the story that is printed on the back....and that was it (told you it was simple).

It was heaps of fun and everybody listened very intently to the story, so that they wouldn't miss out any of the acting.  Our lions got a tad ferocious at one point during the reading and attacked daddy, haha...and by the end of the story everyone was acting out all the parts named.

She was really proud of herself at the end of it all, and so she should be.  It really was such a lovely night and everybody loved her lesson and EVERYBODY got involved, no tears tonight (woohooo!), just lots of KugAlls!!

ps I've checked store.lds.org and I can't find the Gospel Art Box listed anymore (the Gospel Art book doesn't have the words on the back of the pictures)....but you could use the script from this Old Testament Stories (it's not as long though).

For Peace at Home

I can't believe it's been two months since Conference, time is just flying by!!?!  I loved conference and didn't know where to start with the things I've learnt and the FHE's and activities that we've got planned....soooo excited, can you tell??!?  We decided to start with Elder Richard G. Scott's talk entitled 'For Peace at Home'.

As Elder Scott spoke the words below in his talk an image popped into my head and I sketched it down in my notebook so that I wouldn't forget.

I’m sure you can identify the fundamental principles that center your home on the Savior. The prophetic counsel to have daily personal andfamily prayer, daily personal and family scripture study, and weekly family home evening are the essential, weight-bearing beams in the construction of a Christ-centered home. Without these regular practices it will be difficult to find the desired and much-needed peace and refuge from the world.

I'm still not super duper at doing graphic images but I'm good at sharing (lol) and hopefully getting better at it as I go?!!  Well this is what I came up with.

to download file

click here

We used this talk as our guide tonight for FHE, there was sooo much in the talk that we could focus on, and I didn't want to leave any of it out, so I broke it up into smaller bite size chunks/topics so that the kids could take it all in.

I stuck a picture of the Saviour in the centre of a piece of paper and after we had read each of the quotes from the talk, we discussed them and then wrote on the paper what we could do to make Christ the centre of our home.

This is now stuck on our kitchen door as a reminder of what we are going to try to do to make our home more peaceful (here's hoping!!) and Christ centered.

For the activity at the end of the lesson, everyone got a strawberry lace and we put a big bowl of Cheerios in the middle of us all.  One by one we had to say something that made us 'cheery' (aka happy), and then we could put one cheerio on our lace...we set a time limit of 5 minutes to do it, so everyone was trying to think of things to say as quickly as they could.

It started off well with the kids saying things and quickly threading on their Cheerio so that they were ready for their next go.  It was only as we were half way through the game that the older kids noticed that every time they were saying something my three year old was repeating it and handing a Cheerio to his dad to thread on...hence his lace had lots more than the others, then everybody just went for it and shouted out lots of 'cheery' things with no waiting this time...it was really funny, and we had such good giggle at it all.

I really enjoyed the lesson and game tonight, but more so the game...it wasn't particularly peaceful, but hopefully we heard some of the things that makes others in our family happy, and will look for ways to make them cheery in the future.  Playing the game was easy, but the further it went on, the harder it got...but as I heard some of my children's answers it made me reflect on lots of wonderful things in my life that have brought me so much happiness and joy.  We are all so blessed in so many different ways, we've just got to stop, look and think and we will find things that make us 'cheery', no matter what our circumstances  :)

Preparing for and Reviewing General Conference #3

One of these days I'll be super prepared and get my posts on here before General Conference starts, lol!!  Well it's another 'can' idea but for General Conference this time, also below is a great link to 'The ultimate guide to General Conference with kids'...a must for anyone with children :)  

General Conference Preparation

I've made a 'can' for each of my kids this year and have filled them with pens, felt tips, crayons (for the younger ones), and some sweets...I find doing these quirky little things generally helps with my kids concentration and also they get really excited for Conference too.  I printed the phrase "I 'can' listen to the Prophets and Apostles" on some card and used lots of my 'DIY Mod Podge' to stick it on.  Voila!...job done :)

I put a big packet of love heart sweets in each one and the plan is each time they hear the word love (or something about love) being mentioned they get to have one....I'm guessing the younger ones will have finished theirs before the opening prayer, lol?!!?! 

General Conference Review

Very similar to the above except with the words 'I 'can' listen and obey the Prophets and Apostles'.  On the Monday after Conference for FHE we are going to go through our General Conference Notebooks and decide for each talk what conference square picture to stick at the top of their named lollipop stick.  

Conference Squares

Then on the back of the stick we will write a goal/idea of what we can do to follow the council given and review these during the next six months for FHE/family councils/goal setting etc.

This is going to sit on our mantle and I'm hoping it will be a daily reminder for the children and us to look through and remind us of the talks and council given at conference :)

Looking for other ideas??  The website shown below has a stack load of great links for all different kinds of activities, colouring, games etc, why not take a look it's great :)

livecrafteat.com

The Ultimate Guide to General Conference with kids

lds.org also has a page specifically designated for General Conference Activities for Children too.

Hope you enjoy watching Conference with your family and loved ones xx.

Scriptural Easter Egg Hunt

I've been asked to cover my Primary's music time this Sunday and thought I'd do an Easter Egg Hunt, so I cut out some brightly card into an egg shape and wrote different songs on...I had some left over and thought I could use them for us tomorrow to help us read the Easter story.

I looked in John chapter 20 to see what verses etc I could group together and write on the eggs and couldn't decide as it was all so lovely (cheesy but true).  So I grouped them according to the six paragraphs already highlighted in the King James Version.

Egg 1 - John 20:1-10; Egg 2 - John 20:11-18; Egg 3 - John 20:19-23

Egg 4 - John 20:24-25; Egg 5 - John 20:26-29; Egg 6 - John 20:30-31

We are going to hide them around the room and one of the children has to find number one first and then we will read/discuss those scriptures and then we can find the next one etc...once we've read them all the children can then hunt for their chocolate eggs.

Happy Easter everyone xx

Two Instant FHE games

I think I've got a bit of a wild imagination as I regularly conjure up games out of nowhere for our kids to play after our FHE lessons...though this only occurs when my brain is actually in a fairly functional mode, lol!! ;)

You need no preparation and no supplies, so you can play them in an instant.  The two games are entitled....Sleeping Lamanites and Are you Reverent??

The idea for this game came from the story found in Mosiah 24 where the Lord made the Lamanites sleepy so that Alma and his people could escape.  

 19 And in the morning the Lord caused a ^adeep sleep to come upon the Lamanites, yea, and all their task-masters were in a profound sleep.

Basically the aim of the game is for a Nephite to sneak pass all the 'sleeping' Lamanites on the floor without waking them up and escape from the city....aka get from one side of the room to the other without being detected by the people lying on the floor.  

The Lamanites lay face down with their eyes shut (no peeking!) and they are allowed one 'twitch' each...a 'twitch' is when they move their arm or leg to try to touch the passing Nephite (very funny to watch by the way).  If they miss that's it, no more twitches for that person....and if somebody does manage to touch the Nephite then they get to be the next one to try to escape the city.  I hope these instructions make sense!?!!

We played this one just this Monday after we'd a rather irreverent day at church, but we have yet to see if it's sowed other thoughts into their heads of crazy things to do during sacrament or whether it's taught them how to sit reverently, hopefully it's the latter!! p.s. I don't expect my kids not to move during church, but hopefully musical chairs is a thing of the past :)

Right how to play...one (or two) people stand at the front, while the rest of the family sprawl themselves across the settee doing things that aren't particularly reverent...eg fingers in ears, upside down, on phone, sleeping etc.

The one/two ask those on the settee "Are you reverent??", to which everyone should respond in unison "No!!"...of course, you always get someone that answers 'yes'.

Then they have a certain amount of time (we chose a minute) to get them looking reverent either by physically moving them or by giving instructions eg turn round, feet down, fold arms etc...the latter worked better for the younger ones.

We have really enjoyed playing these simple games together over the years and hopefully will have many more years of them to come, and maybe your family will enjoy them too??!

I know it. I live it. I love it.

I loved Ann M. Dibbs talk at General Conference and as soon as I mentioned the story at the beginning of her talk about the girl in the T-shirt my kids remembered it too!!

Once we'd finished the story we all had a piece of paper with her chosen T-shirt statements on (I'm a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it), and we each wrote down how and why we knew it, lived it and loved it!  It was lovely to watch the children sit and think as they wrote down their feelings and answers to these simple but profound sentences.  I got all choked up as we shared what we had written down, we were basically sharing our testimonies of the gospel with each other...it was one of those special memories.

We each had a cut-out card T-shirt to decorate (on both sides if we wished) with either the words or drawings showing our beliefs....if you've got some old plain T-shirts laying around you could use these instead, or if you are a very hi-tech family you could design them on your computers and then print the designs onto T-shirt transfers.  I thought teenagers might enjoy the latter one, but as I have none yet I am only guessing??!!?!  It could also make quite a good activity for Faith in God too?

We finished the lesson by reading Sister Dibbs testimony at the end of her talk....

I have a testimony of our Heavenly Father’s great plan of eternal happiness. I know that He knows us and loves us. I know that He has prepared a prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, to encourage us and help guide us back to Him. I pray that each of us will put forth the effort to be able to confidently declare, “I’m a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it.”

For the treat I was soo excited when I found these mini football shirt biscuits, how perfect are they??!!?  And as with most of our FHE treats we had to cover them in lashings of frosting and hundreds of sprinkles...nom nom!!

I am a Child of God games

'Build a Beetle' is one of our family favourite games, so I thought I'd change it a bit to coincide with this years Primary theme, and we love it!!  Click on the link below to download the game and the instructions and get drawing some crazy stick people :)

Click here to download files for

I am a child of God game and Instructions

If you would like an easier version of the game, I found a similar type of game on Pinterest.  I downloaded the image and then typed the words above... 

gingerbread dice game

kinziekreations

I laminated both games to make them more durable and to save on photocopying...and the added bonus is that my kids love using the felt tips and then rubbing them out...the simplest of things amuse my kids!!?!

I am a child of God Totes

Include a die and felt tips and you have a great pressie and activity for all ages.  If you want to be extra crafty you can also make a 'I am a child of God' tote for the game to go in too.

Nephite vs Lamanite game

This game is basically naughts and crosses but with Nephites and Lamanites on the reverse side of the relevant symbols.  I made a drawstring bag to keep the playing pieces in with the square grid printed on one side and the title of the game on the other.

This is what it looked like on my computer screen.  I then printed them off onto my calico fabric using my 'How to print onto fabric using your printer' post as a guide.  Just a note when making yours, make sure you leave enough space around the edge to allow for seam allowance and more space/fabric at the top so that you can make it into a drawstring bag.  I also used the same technique for printing the cartoon images and lettering.

Unfortunately I can't share my file of this as I got my pictures from a disc I bought years ago called 'LDS Clips 10,000' by Inspire Graphics :(  But hopefully there might be some free ones that you can download on the web??

I made this for my sister's family for Christmas and they love it, now I've just got to crack on and finish making the one for us.  It makes a great family gift and doesn't cost too much for the materials etc...just takes a bit of time (and love) to get it made :)  It's also super for a FHE game and a Sunday activity.

Adapted words to 'A Happy Family'

I'm one of those people that makes up crazy random songs about anything to sing to myself or to my children...you either know what I mean or you're now saying 'huh!!!!!'

Anyway, I started singing 'A Happy Family' from the Children's songbook to one of my children and I couldn't remember all the words...I know it's a really, really short song, but it must of been one of those days where my brain was mush!!  So of course, I made up my own words and now we sing it like that all the time...apart from when we are at church of course :)

We change the words just like in the original song to mummy, and we use our children's names too, and they love it....I know this sounds really cheesy but we have often sung it as we have sat around the dinner table waiting for people to finish or for pudding.  The children (and us) can't help but smile as everyone around the table is singing the song just for you, it never grows old!  Hope you like it too :)

Christmas Is...

My nine year old daughter did FHE tonight and used the link from lds.org entitled 'Christmas Is...' as the basis of her lesson.  It takes you to mormon.org where they have four images that flash up saying 'Christmas Is...Family, Service, Love and Jesus Christ'.  We printed off a sheet of paper with the above words on for each member of the family, on festive red paper of course :)

Firstly, she asked everyone what came to their minds when they thought of Christmas, we got the usual answers, pressies, Christmas tree, birth of Jesus, stockings etc.  She told us the four things that were mentioned on the church website and that we had to write on our pieces of paper under each of the headings, ideas of ways that we could do them during the festive season.

Between us we came up with some lovely, simple ideas that we could do....movie night with hot chocolate, hiding secret love notes to each other, caroling to the elderly etc and we decided which ones we would do and have put them on our calendar for this month...I'm even more excited for Christmas now.

Another idea that we came up with for 'Christmas Is...Jesus Christ', is to watch the six Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos that refer to the birth of the Saviour the week before Christmas, and to read the corresponding scripture references.

She then closed by reading a quote from President Thomas S. Monson-

"With the birth of the babe in Bethlehem, there emerged a great endowment—a power stronger than weapons, a wealth more lasting than the coins of Caesar. This child was to become the King of kings and Lord of lords, the promised Messiah—Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

Please share what traditions and ideas you have for this Wonderful time of year.

Consider the Blessings

I loved General Conference, and where better to start than with the prophet's talk entitled 'Consider the Blessings' for our FHE tonight.

We started by singing the obvious choice of song, 'Count your Many Blessings' (Hymns #241).

I asked the children to listen carefully as two verses from the scriptures were read and to share with us which verse showed someone who was counting their blessings and someone who was not.

First we read 1 Nephi 2:11

11 Now this he spake because of the ^astiffneckedness of Laman and Lemuel; for behold they did ^bmurmur in many things against their ^cfather, because he was a ^dvisionary man, and had led them out of the land of Jerusalem, to leave the land of their inheritance, and their gold, and their silver, and their precious things, to perish in the wilderness. And this they said he had done because of the foolish imaginations of his heart.

Followed by 1 Nephi 2:13

 16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the ^amysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did ^bvisit me, and did ^csoften my heart that I did ^dbelieve all the words which had been spoken by my ^efather; wherefore, I did not ^frebel against him like unto my brothers.

We discussed theses verses and decided that Laman and Lemuel were doing alot murmuring and complaining whilst Nephi who was also in the same situation chose to pray and gained a grateful heart for the situation they were in.

Then we read the following quote from President Monson's talk -

My beloved brothers and sisters, this conference marks 49 years since I was sustained, on October 4, 1963, as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Forty-nine years is a long time. In many ways, however, the time seems very short since I stood at the pulpit in the Tabernacle and gave my very first general conference address.

Much has changed since October 4, 1963. We live in a unique time in the world’s history. We are blessed with so very much. And yet it is sometimes difficult to view the problems and permissiveness around us and not become discouraged. I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness.

I then showed them the poster with the title of the talk on and an outline of a body (that is somewhat misshaped, haha!!), and we took turns writing in the body how we would feel if we didn't see, notice or consider any of the blessings in our lives.  We had answers like, grumpy, unhappy, unthankful etc.

I told them that the 49 colourful circles around the edge of the paper represented each year that our prophet has served as in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency...and that from today each FHE till next General Conference we would decide on 2 specific blessings that had happened during the week to place in our empty body, so that by the time April comes it would be full of lots of colourful blessings.

The children chose coats (as two of the children had just got new ones) and Sister Win (who is a lovely lady in our ward) and wrote them on 2 circles and stuck them inside the outline.

A bit of cheese now, but I'm so grateful for General Conference and for the spiritual uplift that I receive from listening to the General Authorities of the Church that helps me and my family, and I'm also grateful for this blog, it's helped me in so many ways especially being more confident on the computer...I know I still have a long, long way to go yet but I'm getting there post by post xx

50 Songs from the 1970s LDS Friend magazines

Yep, the photo above is of me from the '70s...moving on quickly then!! :)

Well I've recently been called as our Ward Music Chairman and have been rooting around the internet for some additional songs that our choir or smaller groups could sing, and I thought where better to start than the Church website.  I've been at it for 3 hours and I've only managed to list the songs in the Friend magazine from the 1970s!!...and three of those years didn't even have any songs!!!

Some of the songs listed can now be found in the Hymn book or the Children's Songbook but I have still included them as sometimes they have different piano arrangements, there's even a piano duet for 'I Hope They Call Me on a Mission'.  

Key
simp. version = simplified/easy version
1v = one verse to the song, 2v = two verses and so on.

1973
The Golden Plates (2v) Jan 
Saturday (1v) Mar
I Know That My Redeemer Lives (simp. version, 1v) April 
Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning (simp. version, 1v) May                 
Father, We Thank Thee For The Night (1v) June 
Come, Come Ye Saints (4v) July 
Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice (1v) Aug 
Come, Ye Thankful People (2v) Nov 
Christmas Song (3v) Dec 

1974
I Am My Heavenly Father's Child (2v) Feb
In Humility, Our Saviour (1v) Apr
I Hope They Call Me on a Mission (2v, secondo and primo) May
I Pray to My Heavenly Father (1v) June 
My Country (2v) July
Come, Follow Me (1v) Aug
Repentance (1v) Sept
A Child's Prayer (3v) Dec

1975
Word of Wisdom Promises (3v) May
Fathers (3v) June
My Flag, My Flag (1v) July
Come, Ye Children of the Lord (3v) Aug
Keep the Commandments (1v) Sept
When He Comes (2v) Oct
Children All Over the World (1v) Nov
Lullaby (1v) Dec

1976
Have a Very Happy Birthday (3v) Jan
Our Easter Song (1v) Apr
My Father Taught Me (3v) June
Blessed America (1v) July
Lullaby (3v) Aug
We Thank Thee (3v) Nov
Who Is the Child? (2v) Dec

1977
Other Sheep Have I (1v) Jan
Did Jesus Really Live Again? (3v) Apr
Repentance (2v) June
When Jesus Christ Was Baptized (2v) July
When Jesus Was on Earth (3v) Aug
Love One Another (1v) Sept
When Joseph Went to Bethlehem (3v) Dec

1978
Easter Day (1v) Mar
Hear the Raindrops (3v) Apr
When Mother Bakes (2v) May
Pioneer Children (3v) July
Hymn of Thanks (3v) Nov
Have a Very Merry Christmas (3v) Dec

1979
Come, Follow Me (piano duet) Apr
Building a Temple (1v) May
My Evening Prayer (2v) June 
Thanksgiving Song (2v) Nov
Little Jesus (2v) Dec

 These songs can be great for FHE, ward choirs, or as musical items.  I will hopefully get around to finding and listing the other songs from the magazines too....but feel free to do it and if you do, pleaseeeee let me have the link, thank you :) 

Choose The Right FHE

Tonight we did a bit of a reminder of the Primary theme for the children...and us, which is 'Choose the Right'.  This was one of my quick, it's FHE night what can we do!! 

So I taped several pieces of card together and drew a 'strait and narrow' path down the middle and glued the picture of the Saviour at the top.  I also cut out some little green strips of card that fit in the path (you'll see these later).

We started our FHE by singing Choose the Right #239, then after the prayer we talked about ways we could stay on the strait and narrow path so we could get back to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus.  One by one a member of the family wrote down on the card (pictured above) our answers and explained why we had chosen it...they wanted to keep writing down answers but we'd never finish the lesson if they did!!

We then turned to the scriptures and read the following verses from 1 Nephi chapter 8 -

 19 And I beheld a ^arod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood.

 20 And I also beheld a ^astrait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood;

We talked about the story of the tree of life and how people had to hold on tight to the rod of iron so that they wouldn't stray from the path.  Then we turned to 1 Nephi 15: 23-24 to find out what the rod of iron represented -

23 And they said unto me: What meaneth the ^arod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree?

 24 And I said unto them that it was the ^aword of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would ^bhold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the ^ctemptations and the fiery ^ddarts of the ^eadversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

Next we handed out the little green strips of card as we discussed how we could hold fast to the word of God, and different ways we could hear/read/see/feel the word of God...and shared our thoughts as we wrote down our ideas.

During the week we are going to stick these green strips on our path as we do them, so we've already done our Family Home Evening one :)  So hopefully this week we will all get stuck into our scriptures, the Friend, Ensign etc. and work towards drawing closer to the Saviour through the word of God.

Refreshments was a biscuit with icing on that we all decorated with sweets to make happy smiley faces on....because when we choose the right we feel happy :)  Especially with all this sugar on just one biscuit!! ;)

I really like the FHE lessons where we have a reminder of what we've learnt during the week, I know it helps me to stay on track and I hope and feel that it helps my family feel the same.