Hey everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that Natalie emailed me the other day and the second volume in her interactive Book of Mormon Stories is done!
Yay!!

Check it out:

Ok, that's the first volume. For some reason I can't get blogger to find the second volume from youtube, but here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGIlY8n09E&feature=youtu.be

And here's the link for her Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BookofMormonforKids?ref=seller_info

I'm so excited about this. My boys loved the first volume, and now they can have the second volume as well!

Great FHE Resource

I've recently been perusing my copy of this handbook and I just wanted to draw your attention to what I think is an excellent resource for Family Home Evenings.

 

This book provides an overview of gospel principles and is used to instruct new converts or those recently re-activated.

 

 

(Gospel Principles)

 

I love that the lessons are fairly simple so they'd be a great way to teach your kids all the gospel basics, not to mention that they make great refresher courses for personal study.

Seriously, there's about a years worth of lessons inside.

 

You can order a copy for yourself or just visit lds.org and you can view all the lessons on-line.

 

 

 

Bible-themed crafts and games

I just found a website full of Bible-themed crafts and games that would be great for family home evening. You can see it here:

Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities

I also pinned several of the activities to our FHE board on Pinterest, so feel free to check it out if you don't have time to browse the whole website.

Call for contributors

You might have noticed that posting around these parts has been a little spotty lately (okay, well, for the past few years!).

We're busy! We'd love to add a few more authors to this blog. If you're interested, and you think you can manage one post per month (or more), please drop me an email at mrs [dot] mordecai [at] gmail [dot] com.

Feel free to pass this notice along to your creative friends!

New FHE Pinterest board

We have a new group board on Pinterest for Family Home Evening ideas. Feel free to follow. If you know of other great FHE boards on Pinterest, please leave the address in the comments so we can all share even more great ideas!

Alternate giveaway winner

I just wanted to take a quick minute and announce an alternate winner for the giveaway.
Sorry Kiama, you never responded. :(

Our alternate winner is::::::

LiziBates!!!

Please, contact me Lizi at firelein06(at)cox(dot)net so I can forward your information to Natalie and she can get you your download.

Congratulations Lizi!!

Book of Mormon for kids giveaway winners

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to draw a winner.

Well, I did forget to draw a winner, thank goodness Natalie has your back guys!

She reminded me.

So, without further ado, our two winners are::::


Jonna Pantelis

and

Kiama Dawson


CONGRATS!!!

Jonna, I 've emailed you and Natalie with your contact information. Natalie will email you your download.

Kiama, please email me at firelein06(at)cox(dot)net with your contact information so I can forward it to Natalie.
She will then email you your download.

If I don't hear from you in 72 hours, I'll draw another winner.

Thanks for playing guys!!!

Our first giveaway!!!

 

We were recently contacted by Natalie from Book of Mormon for Kids regarding a giveaway.

 

She has a really great product available which we think is a wonderful Family Home Evening tool.

 

 

She sent me a copy of the PDF, and I have to tell you, I just love it.

 

What a fun way to teach your favorite Book of Mormon stories to your little ones.

 

I took it to my local copy place and had it printed out.

 

I've decided to make mine into file folder games.

 

 Helping Nephi dress in Labans clothes.....

 

What a fun and interactive way to teach scripture stories during Family Home Evening!

And afterwards, it makes a wonderful quiet book for Sacrament meeting.

Double score!

 

 

You can do whatever you'd like with it...laminate it and make it into a spiral book, file folder games or even just slip the pages into page protectors and put it in a binder.

 

Here is Natalie's instruction video. You get a great feel for the whole thing here.

I love this!  

 

 

This Book of Mormon for Children is a PDF that you can print and create for your own family. There are 9 stories in Volume 1:

1. Lehi's Family Leaves Jerusalem
2. Nephi and The Brass Plates
3. Nephi Builds a Ship
4. Enos Prays All Day
5. King Benjamin
6. King Noah and Abinadi
7. Alma Teaches the Nephites
8. Alma The Younger and The Sons of Mosiah
9. Ammon & King Lamoni's Sheep

 

 ...Aaaannnd ...

 

Volume 2 is coming soon! It will include the last 9 stories of the Book of Mormon...

 

-The Anti-Nephi-Lehi's
-Captain Moroni
-The Stripling Warriors
-Samuel the Lamanite
-Birth of Christ
-The resurrection
-Jesus blesses the children
-The Brother of Jared
-Moroni buries the plates

Now, the fun part! Natalie has offered to give away two free downloads for our readers!

All you have to do is comment before next Monday, Feb. 25th and you've got a chance to win one!
Be sure to stop by Natalie's Etsy shop for a  second chance to win. Just be sure to post a second comment letting us know you visited. The awesome thing is that even if you don't win, she's selling the download for just $9.99. You can still win!

Courage

For the next two months, my family will be learning about courage, as inspired by Teaching Your Children Values by Linda and Richard Eyre. I was planning to spend just one month on each value, but I found so many wonderful stories and materials, I went ahead and planned out eight lessons.

There are many wonderful scripture examples of bravery, so we will focus on one story each week.

Please help!
There are many movies and books with examples of courage. I would love if you would leave your favorites in the comments so we can supplement with them in the coming two months!

———

Songs
Just as we did last year, we will continue to choose one song each month to sing each night. This month we will be learning "Dare to Do Right." Next month we will learn "Nephi's Courage."


Week 1

• Use the lesson plan "Jesus' Courage" to show ways Jesus showed courage during his life.
• Play the game "Carrying Beans" and explain that Jesus didn't listen to others' taunts, but did what he knew was right. Explain that we can do the same.
• Award medals from the lesson "Jesus' Courage" and tell our children something brave they've done lately that makes us proud.
• Quote: “Inner courage is a necessary virtue of those who follow the Lord.... I should like to say to members of the Church, particularly to young men and women of the Church, that I hope you may come to know inner personal courage as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For this is the requirement of the Lord as we journey through our mortal probation, as we show to Him and to ourselves that we indeed ‘love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, and with all [our] soul, and with all [our] mind’ and that we ‘love [our] neighbour as [ourselves]’” (Matt. 22:37, 39). Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Sept. 2001
• Quote: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."   —Harper Lee, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird
• Scripture: "Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."  —Deuteronomy 31:6 

Week 2

• Tell the story of Samuel the Lamanite (Helaman 13–15). Discuss whether he was afraid. Discuss how he showed courage.
• Scripture: "And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the ^ctemptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction." —1 Nephi 15:24
• Discuss what the fiery darts of the adversary are. Just as the people of Samuel's time shot arrows at him, Satan tries to shoot us down with his temptations.
• Play the arrow game with each of the children.

Week 3

• Tell the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17).
• Tell the diving board story from p. 61 of Teaching Your Children Values (a story about a girl who was afraid to go off a diving board, but did it anyway).
• Quote: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”  ― Mark Twain
• Discuss things that are hard or scary in life, for example: going off a diving board, getting a shot, giving a talk, talking to someone new, running a mile.
• Make lists of what each family member is good at. (p. 68 in Teaching Your Children Values). Discuss how that makes you feel about yourself. You are unique and no one else is just like you. You are special, and you can have the courage to do hard things. 
• Scripture: "Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." —Deuteronomy 31:6
• With God's help, we can do even more things than we can do by ourselves.

Week 4

• Tell the story of King Noah and Abinadi (Mosiah 11). Emphasize that the king wanted to kill him, but he went back again to preach.
• Sometimes it takes courage to go back and try again.
• Tell the story from page 60 of Teaching Your Children Values, about a child who fell from his new bike, knocked out his teeth, and got back on again the next day to try again.
• Discuss situations in which we may fail, and when we should try again. 
• Remove training wheels from son's bike and give it a try—and another!

Week 5

• Tell the story of Daniel and the king's meat. 
• Do you think it would have been hard to eat different food when everyone else was eating the king's meat?
• We should do what is right, regardless of what our friends want us to do.
• Read the story "It takes real courage to be a chicken" from p. 56 of Teaching Your Children Values.
• Discuss situations in which friends might tempt you to make a wrong choice, and what you can do.
• Play the game "Carrying Beans."
• People know you mean what you say when you look them in the eye. Practice having conversations while keeping eye contact (p. 63 from Teaching Your Children Values).
• Quote: “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”  ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 

Week 6

• Tell the story of Nephi and the boat.
• Scripture: 1 Nephi 3:7. 
• It takes courage to obey God's commandments.
• Talk about the tools from the lesson "Nephi's Courage."
• Play matching game with the tools.
• Make "banana boats" (banana splits) for treats.

Week 7

• Tell the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den.
• Do you think Daniel was afraid to pray? 
• Quote: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that
  something else is more important than fear.”  ― Ambrose Redmoon
• Why do you think Daniel decided to pray to God even though he could die? 
• Talk about making decisions in advance, so it will be easier to make the right choice when it comes up. Write lists of decisions. (p. 71 from Teaching Your Children Values)
• Role-play being confronted with each of the choices on your lists, and practice making the appropriate response.

Week 8

• Tell the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3).  
• Why did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego choose not to pray to the idol? What was the consequence for not praying to the idol? 
• God helps those who have faith in him.
• Play the red-yellow-green game from p. 66 of Teaching Your Children Values. (Present situations, with red, yellow, and green answers: red for courageous, yellow for average, green for cowardly.)
• Discuss the "Hard and good" principle from p. 69 of Teaching Your Children Values. (The right choices often tend to be the hard choices.)

Honesty

This year my family is focusing on a different value each month from Teaching Your Children Values by Richard and Linda Eyre.

I am glad the first value is honesty, because my three-year-old has proved to me recently that she has very little concept of truth vs. lie.

There are four Mondays this month. I have divided the topic of honesty into four short lessons that I hope will stick with my three-year-old and six-year-old.

 Week 1: What is truth? What is a lie? It's okay to have opinions. God is a God of truth.

• Ether 3:12: "And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie."
• Alma 7:20: "I perceive that it has been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round."
• "Truth or lie?" game: make several obvious statements and let family members decide whether I am telling the truth or lying.
• Elder Marvin J. Ashton: “A lie is any communication given to another with the intent to deceive” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1982, p. 10; or Ensign, May 1982, p. 9).
• Discuss that it is okay to have opinions, and that not all questions have a right or wrong answer. (Examples: What do you think of this broccoli? What is your favorite movie? Do you want to clean your room or go to the zoo?)
• Tell story "The Lie."

Week 2:  Lying is wrong. Acting a lie or telling a partial truth is wrong. Lying can hurt you and others. Satan is the father of lies.

•  Moses 4:4: "And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice."
• 2 Nephi 28:8: "And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God."
• “Those who choose to cheat and lie and deceive and misrepresent become [Satan's]  slaves” (Mark E. Petersen, in Conference Report, Oct. 1971, p. 65; or Ensign, Dec. 1971, p. 73).
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf (link goes to story and audio file)
• Ask a family member questions. This family member has been notified ahead of time that he or she is to answer only in lies. Wrap thread around the person's wrist every time a lie is told. Have him or her try to break free. Discuss that many little lies can hurt us over time, even if each one seems harmless.

Week 3: Telling the truth can be hard, but it is worth it.

• Tell the story from p. 41 of Teaching Your Children Values.  
• 2 Corinthians 4:1–2: "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God."
• Make index cards with situations that might lead us to be dishonest. Discuss the consequences of responding with either truth or lie.
• Tell the story from p. 49 of Teaching Your Children Values.
• Tell the story from p. 54 of Teaching Your Children Values.
• From Gospel Principles: "People use many excuses for being dishonest. People lie to protect themselves and to have others think well of them. Some excuse themselves for stealing, thinking they deserve what they took, intend to return it, or need it more than the owner. Some cheat to get better grades in school or because “everyone else does it” or to get even. These excuses and many more are given as reasons for dishonesty. To the Lord, there are no acceptable reasons. President Kimball taught that when we excuse ourselves, we cheat ourselves and the Spirit of God ceases to be with us. We become more and more unrighteous. (See Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 234.)"
• President Joseph F. Smith: “Let every man’s life be so that his character will bear the closest inspection, and that it may be seen as an open book, so that we will have nothing to shrink from or be ashamed of” (Gospel Doctrine, p. 252).

Week 4: Other ways of being dishonest: cheating, stealing, breaking promises, exaggerating.

• D&C 136:25: "If thou borrowest of thy neighbor, thou shalt restore that which thou hast borrowed; and if thou canst not repay then go straightway and tell thy neighbor, lest he condemn thee."
• D&C 136:26: "If thou shalt find that which thy neighbor has lost, thou shalt make diligent search till thou shalt deliver it to him again."
• D&C 136:20: "Seek ye; and keep all your pledges one with another; and covet not that which is thy brother’s."
• Exodus 20:15: "Thou shalt not steal."
• Discuss situations in which it might be tempting to be dishonest (see Teaching Your Children Values, p. 54).