Our month of family home evenings: faith and testimony

This month we chose to focus on Faith and Testimony.  I already posted what we did the first week.  It was on building faith.  The second week was on building our testimonies.  We discussed how our faith can help us build our testimonies.  We cut out rectangle pieces of paper and on each paper wrote different aspects of the Gospel (Joseph Smith, prayer, scriptures, Word of Wisdom, etc.).  Then we colored them like bricks and the boys each chose a brick to tape to the wall.  They each chose until all the bricks were on our wall and we had "built" a structure.  We talked about how the foundation of our structure was Jesus Christ and all the other bricks build from him up.  We discussed the different things we could know about each brick and talked about examples (Will talked about how he has a testimony of prayer because when he prays to find something he always finds it, etc)  Then we went and "built" an banana split for our treat.

This final week we talked about how faith and testimony protect us.  Mike and I chose stories from the scriptures of individuals that had faith and as a result were protected.  We chose the Strippling Warriors, Esther, Elisha, Nephi and Lehi, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Then we found pictures of each of these stories and printed them off along with each of their names.  We cut the pictures and names up and then placed them face down on the ground.  We played a matching game where the boys would choose a name and a picture.  When they got a correct match we told them about the story.  Then we discussed how each story showed someone being protected by the Lord because of their faith.  At the end we talked about Abinidi and how in the end he was not saved and protected, even though he had faith.  We asked the boys why they thought this was and then told them that sometimes even when we have faith, we can't be protected from bad things happening because the Lord had a different plan.  We discussed that we still needed to have faith because there were some things the Lord wanted to protect us from and that even if bad things happened to us, we could still have faith in the future and the eternal promises of the Lord.

Faith FHE

This month we are focusing on building faith and testimony.  I found a picture of Mt. Everest and then printed off a mountain climber.  I took a picture but can't find it on my computer now.  Anyway, we just cut the climber out and read a scripture about faith.  Then we told the boys about climbing Mt. Everest and how the climbers have to first work up to being able to get to the top.  They have to have proper tools and have climbed other high mountains first.  Then, when they get to the mountain they also have make stops along the climb to acclimate their bodies to the climb.  We explained that they have experienced climbing before, thus giving them confidence that they can do it again.  We also explained that some people have a spiritual gift of faith and others have to work harder for it.

With that, we made up scenarios that would build or hinder our faith.  An example we used, "You are sick and your daddy gives you a blessing that you will get better the next day.  The next day you are no longer sick."  The boys had to guess if that example would help build their faith or not.  We talked to them about how our experiences can help build (or hinder) our faith.  Then, if it was a scenario that built faith, they got to move the mountain climber up the mountain until he was at the top.  We explained that just as the climbers do things to prepare them to climb the mountain, we needed to do things to help build our faith--reading our scriptures, looking for faith building experiences, listening to other's testimonies, etc.

(this picture is from June, not Monday..we didn't take our camera this time)

Then, for our activity, we went hiking at Garden of the Gods.  The boys wanted a real hike, not a paved trail so we found one and they loved that.  It was such a beautiful day that it was the perfect chance to get them out and go for a hike and tie it into our lesson.  It was good too because the trails are hard to follow sometimes we we got "lost" once and then had a good discussion about faith and how it could help us get back on the correct trail.

The boys have been making up their own games since then--playing tag and running around this wall in our house and saying, "I can't see you but I can hear you so I have faith you are there!"  They call it their faith game and it cracks me up.  I'm glad they are understanding more about faith.

Teeth

Eli has cavities.  Of course he does--he doesn't like us to help him brush his teeth and he loves candy.  Boo.  Anyway, tomorrow he has to get them filled so I decided to do some projects with him about teeth.  I got on pinterest (love that site) and found two great ideas.  I wish I had found this idea when I did the All About Me/Bodies week with our co-op last year.  It was so easy and effective.  I just got a large lego and some play dough and yarn.  We talked about how to get food out of our teeth and what happens if we don't.  Then Eli practiced "flossing."  We also made a diagram of what the inside of our teeth look like and what happens when sugar bugs attack our teeth.  Then we just talked about what the dentist will do tomorrow and how Eli's teeth will be all new and clean after they are done.

Penguins

We decided to learn about penguins since it is winter.  I got online and found some fun ideas for Eli to do.  We did a letter match game and then I found a clip art picture of a penguin and we played a number game.  I gave Eli some goldfish snacks and said, "The penguin wants to eat four goldfish" then Eli would put that amount of goldfish in the penguins tummy.  Then he ate the goldfish for snack.  Next we did a science project where we collected snow from outside and put it in a pot on the stove.  We talked about the climate where penguins lived what would happen if all the snow melted where they lived.  We then watched the snow melt in the pot and then put the melted snow in a bowl and put it in the freezer to freeze the water.  Next we did an art project where we made a diorama of where a penguin would live with fluffy batting for the snow and Saran wrap to make the water look shiny.  We also watched some videos of penguins with their eggs.  Then we played a gross motor game where were put an "egg" (really just a little ball) between our legs and tried to waddle across the living room without the ball falling out.  Don't crack the egg!!

Puffy snowmen

Eli and I decided to do some crafting. I went to Pinterest and saw a great idea for puffy paint. It was just equal parts of glue and shaving cream. Eli made a family of snowmen. When I asked him where the nose goes he said he didn't want it on the face he wanted the nose on the belly so that's what I let him do. It was a fun project and Isaac was impressed to--he asked to do his own when he got home from school.

Once there was a snowman

The pictures came out backwards but this was a fun little craft I did with Eli and Isaac. I saw something on Pinterest that showed a flattened snowman that was a birdseye view. I decided to take it one step further and we cut the snowman out in a swirly pattern then glued the very end of the swirl to the paper. We also glued the hat on but made sure to keep it just on the other end of the swirl. Then we drew eyes, a nose, arms, buttons, etc. When we were done we used it to sing the song, Once there was a snowman and we would grab the hat to pull it up and down on the "tall, tall, tall," parts and the "small, small, small" parts. They loved it and giggled and did it over and over. Great winter craft.

Robots

These boys have such an imagination and I love it. Will came home one day from school and said he wanted to make a robot. Isaac thought that sounded like a great idea so they went rummaging around the house and in the recycle bin for parts and got to work. Then over the Thanksgiving break, my dad gave the boys some various parts to add to their robots. They worked hard and I am so impressed with what they came up with. I didn't really even help them--all I did was give a few ideas of things that might work for parts and helped them dig out stuff from the recycle bin that they couldn't reach. Such creative boys and I LOVE it!