Love is in the air: Four February Family Home Evenings

I love themes. A lot. Since I couldn't select just 1 Valentine's theme for Family Night, we have been enjoying a whole month of Love-themed lessons! I realize by the time this is posted, ya'll will be way over Valentines Day. The heart and red/pink/white images popping up all over social media for the past 4 weeks might have something to do with the V-tines overload--- or perhaps it is post-raspberry-chocolate-cheesecake guilt? hmmmm...but it was worth it! I digress. If these lessons don't fit this month's ideas, feel free to pin this post so you remember 4 great LOVE lessons for next year!

1. Wrinkled Heart

Focus: Using kind words

song: Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words to Each Other (232)

scripture: If we love one another, God dwelleth in us (1 John 4:12)

lesson: Wrinkled Heart

activity: write nice notes to each other

dessert: 'heart' chocolate dipped pretzels, merengue hearts, or other favorite V-tines treat

The original idea came from here, but we simplified it considerably. I had the kids share experiences of getting their feelings hurt. Eric and I contributed experiences of our own to help illustrate. With each example, we folded the construction paper heart. After all the ideas had wrinkled our heart up pretty good, I asked how we could remove the wrinkles. (for older kids, it would be fun to give each child a chance to try...) Then we discussed how saying sorry is essential, but sometimes damage is already done to tender hearts. Conversely, kind words make a huge impact. I shared this story about the power of kind words (it is short and sweet). 

I really wanted to encourage the kids to think before they speak/act. To be more intentional with their words, aware of the impact, ya know? The poem sums it up!

 I love the poem, so I made one up and printed it on deep red card stock before embellishing with hearts and silver Sharpie. I'm happy to share my ink-saving b&w version if you want it (print on colored cardstock and embellish as desired). Just leave your email in the comments!

After the lesson about positive words, we wrote nice notes to each other. I found a free printable for heart-shaped 'I Love You' notes at FabnFree if you are interested, but we just colored on printer paper for ours. 

 2. Love from Heavenly Father

Focus: Heavenly Father loves you!

Song: I Feel My Savior's Love (CS 74)

Scripture: "He took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them." (3 Nephi 17:21... read verses 11-24 for older children)

Lesson: Heavenly Father and Jesus show their love for us

Activity: raining hearts (each time you tell something you are grateful for, you get a heart. Once pile is depleted, we throw hearts in the air and let them rain down on us like blessings from Heaven)

Dessert: merengue heart cookies or heart dipped pretzels

I had 10 or so hearts printed (link to free printable below--keep reading!) with various blessings received from Heavenly Father (everything from temples and family to prayer, scriptures, and the Holy Ghost-- a great selection!). We scattered them face down and each member of the family took turns picking one. They then got to say what they loved about that blessing (or bear their testimony of it). For older kids you could deepen the concept by asking them how this blessing shows Heavenly Father's love for us. You can see Emmett REALLY wanted to hold this commandments heart!

Emmett loved the lesson! He was all over trying to grab hearts and ribbons. Can you tell he was excited?

We had leftover pink camo cake for dessert because Caroline requested it.

I wanted to emphasize that the greatest blessing Heavenly Father has given us--- the most beautiful way He has shown us how much He loves us--- is through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine teaching what LOVE truly means without pointing to the Atonement as the greatest expression of love. 

Neither of the above pics gets the colors right (with the flash it looks purple, without flash is too orange). These free printable hearts from OCD Primary Chorister have lovely rich colors. They are intended for Primary singing time, but why limit the application? After our lesson, they made fabulous chandelier decor above our kitchen table-- like blessings raining down on us!

3. Home Filled with Love

 Focus: Loving your family

Song: Love is Spoken Here

Scripture: John 15:10-12

Lesson: read the poem, talk about loving family

Activity: heart and house game

dessert: merengue hearts, pretzel hearts, heart jello jigglers or other dessert

We read this poem by Jane Lamb entitled My Home:

My home is not the wood. My home is not the brick.

My home’s a loving mother who soothes me when I’m sick.

My home is not the garden, or the place we park the car.

My home’s a gentle father who loves us as we are.

My home is not the windows. My home is not the doors.

My home is my big brother who helps me with the chores.

My home is not the chimney or the smoke that billows there.

My home is all my family as we bow our heads in prayer.

My home is more than just a house with walls and roof above.

My home is where my family lives in peace, in joy, in love.

 After the poem we discussed some of the concepts about what makes a loving home described in the poem. We made sure to point out some of the things our family struggles with in the discussion. We've had sick kids for about 15 days and have seen A LOT of each other during this period of quarantine. There were times in the day or two leading up to this lesson that I seriously contemplated my qualifications to teach it, as I have struggled right along side my kids with patience in the face of so much arguing/pestering each other. But after much prayer, I was reminded that Heavenly Father wants our effort and the Savior's Atonement enables us to overcome our shortcomings. We just have to keep trying. That is the message I shared with my kids and it went well. We talked about what kind of home would be happiest, what kind of home Heavenly Father and Jesus would like us to have, and ultimately what kind of home WE would like to have. It was an easy transition to a fun game about filling our homes with love.

The kids chose a heart, read it (or had it read to them), and had to decide if it was a loving heart or not. If it was something that would 'fill our home with love' then it went right in the little house. Otherwise, it was tossed aside. After a while, we actually started discussing what a better choice would be for those non-loving hearts so that they too could become loving and go in the home. I LOVE the examples selected for the hearts. Some include things like 'tell your brother something you love about him' and other applications that the kids really enjoyed. 

The original idea with free printable game is from Little LDS Ideas and includes the hearts with loving/not loving examples on them and a link to the free printable house template. I used that template for our card stock house and thought it was easy to put together--- though I should warn that it is very small and I had to make sure our hearts were cut pretty precisely in order to ensure they fit (lamination and all) through the slit in our home's roof. Adorable, though. And since my girls are obsessed with 'tiny' things, I knew they would love the cuteness of it.

 Emmett was pretty excited to participate... and really wished those hearts were just a TAD closer! But his efforts at nabbing one only scooted him farther away. I'm sure that convenience won't last much longer with the way he's going, though! Right now we'll just enjoy that he only scoots backwards. :) 

 Caroline, who can't read, immediately assumed that each heart told her to tell a family member how much she loved them. It was adorable! (She did get pretty offended when Gwen didn't reciprocate after picking up a heart. We had to explain that Gwen was following the instructions on the heart but that OF COURSE she would love to tell Caroline lots of things she loves about her! Caroline was comforted after we finally 'altered' what Gwen's next heart said and asked Gwen to tell Caroline why she loved her. Much kissing and hugging ensued!)

 Gwen was pretty intent on getting her hearts in there just perfectly. 

Fondness for the "climb on the dad-gym" game was followed by 

 a rowdy bout of tickle torture! She never tires of it!
I love seeing a lesson permeate our home. For the past week since we had this lesson, I find myself (and have overheard others) saying "is that going to fill our home with love? Is that something we want in our home?" and the wonderful part is seeing behavior modified almost immediately without a fight. They are trying. Trying so hard to follow the example of Jesus Christ. I couldn't ask for more since that is what I'm working on too!

4. Show Love through Service

Focus: Serve others like Christ

Song: Love One Another

Scripture: "When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17)

Lesson: Show love through service (based on Pres Monson's talk here) 3 meanings of love: feeling in heart, word spoken, action shown. poem about who shows greatest love. 

Activity: family service project and/or secret service (take 3 hearts. Leave a heart behind after doing an act of service within the family)

Greatest Love Poem
(could also simply be summarized as a brief story:

“I love you, mother,” said little John;

Then, forgetting his work, his cap went on,

And he was off to the garden swing,

Leaving his mother the wood to bring.

“I love you, mother,” said rosy Nell;

“I love you better than tongue can tell;”

Then she teased and pouted full half the day,

Till her mother rejoiced when she went to play.

“I love you, mother,” said little Fan;

“To-day I’ll help you all I can;

How glad I am that school doesn’t keep!”

So she rocked the babe till it fell asleep.

Then, stepping softly, she fetched the broom,

And swept the floor, and dusted the room;

Busy and happy all day was she,

Helpful and happy as child could be.

“I love you, mother,” again they said—

Three little children going to bed;

How do you think that mother guessed
Which of them really loved her best?

I prepared a delightfully illustrated 'family' last year as a visual aide for stories about kids/parents. I got these free illustrations from Susan Fitch Designs and just adjusted the size relationships for the 'ages' of the children I wanted my 'family' to have. I found that some of the characters I made last year fit PERFECTLY for the poem above--- Eric even asked me afterwards if this was the story that originally inspired her illustrations, they fit THAT perfectly! I have used Susan's illustrations for many other projects too, including our Plan of Salvation chart, our morning routine flow chart, Primary assignments for talk/scripture/prayer, certificates of accomplishment for Article of Faith, and a family chore chart I'm working on (but that will be for another post) because I absolutely love her style! All of the things I've used have been completely FREE and I HIGHLY recommend Fitch Illustrations for their quality. Go check it out!

We are doing secret service hearts with our family to reinforce the concept (I 'inherited' a TON of fuzzy red fleece fabric from my mom a few years ago. To make this project economical and easy, I just cut out hearts from the fleece. No sew project. Maybe someday I'll sew 2 together and lightly stuff them. Of course you could come up with something cuter, but this works for us.) I also plan to recruit my children's help for some meals we're taking to friends-in-need this week. These service examples fit the ages of our kids, but I look forward to doing more labor-intensive service with older children! The idea for this FHE came from FabnFree, but I used her ideas as inspiration rather than 'outline'. She had videos and coloring pages also that you might be interested in, so go check out her collection of materials. 

 Everyone's favorite family member to serve... not much sacrifice required to do nice things for this adorable face!

and I think he knows it. :)

 I'll be the first to admit that my camera doesn't take the best pictures in poor lighting. And I'll also admit that my food photography leaves much to be desired. :) So forgive the quality of these strawberry thumbprints (cake mix cookies) that are super easy and fun for kids to help make! The recipe is photographed with much more appetizing results on the blog where I found the recipe. 

I love my family and I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I hope you are inspired by something you've seen here or a resource I used to go and share with your loved ones!

Babies, Whales, Penguins, and Projects

When you don't feel well or your kids are sick and you aren't sleeping well, something always has to give. For me, blogging goes out the window first. Followed closely by exercise (embarrassing to admit that, but I'm being honest--- who has the energy to exercise when you feel like you're barely hanging on to the day?). Well, I'm happy to report that all of us are mending from our colds and that the bug didn't bite us too hard. It has been much worse. Counting my blessings here. But either way, I've got catch up to do from the past 2 weeks. Accordingly, this is going to be a "recap" post. Individual posts just aren't happenin. You understand, right? and you're not judging me for it, I hope. ;)

 Mr. Emmett turned 5 months! He is our smiley, chill baby-- who hardly spends a minute on the floor without wanting to roll over onto his tummy. He hasn't figured out how to roll back onto his back, so we end up having to rescue him eventually, but he really LIKES being on his belly, so he doesn't complain much. He has successfully scooted his bum under the couch a few times and can rotate around in a circle on his tummy... putting lots of little things within his eager grasp!

 No teeth yet, but he is exploring everything with his mouth and will gum anything that gets close to him. He loves to explore textures with his fingers too--- embroidered/beaded embellishments on shirts and jackets are a clear favorite! Oh, and I think we've decided his eyes are going to be brownish with perhaps a hint of green. Still hard to say, but they are definitely not blue like his sisters. 

 We had a Family Home Evening lesson on Repentance using Jonah and the Whale. We had a wonderful felt set to play with (a combo of Keeping Life Creative's version with some storm clouds I designed, sailors and people of Ninevah from the LDS Friend, and then I shrunk KLC's version of Jonah so that he could fit on the ship with the sailors. I also added a hinge mouth to the whale because I thought that idea was cute), but the felt set in all its awesomeness is not pictured here because I forgot to go back and take a picture. 

 The girls got to practice putting pictures of themselves inside the whale (I got the idea for that at Blue Skies Ahead, but opted not to make a milk jug whale. We used a 2-D image instead) and then demonstrating what they would need to do to come out. We emphasized that though it is sad, lonely, and dark in the whale, the Lord does NOT want us to stay in there. He provided a way to come out: repentance. 

 The picture of the whale and the sticks with our pics on it were on display all week as a reminder. I can't count the number of times I had to either put a child's stick into the whale (kind of like 'you're in the dog house' only 'you're in the whale') or just ask "do you want to go in the whale? What do you think you should do right now?", but each time we helped the girls remember that they have a Savior who made repentance possible so that they could happily come out of the whale again. 

Preschool this week was all about penguins!

Caroline had a morning where she really wanted EVERYONE to come join her for preschool... so we indulged, though it made the table a little crowded. :)

We did lots of activities with these little abc guys all week. For this activity, I scattered about 7 cards around the room and called out a letter for her to find and retrieve. Lots of fun! Another game we played was matching the uppercase magnetic letter to the correct lowercase penguin. These penguins were free for printing at Gift of Curiosity. But it was really hard to choose our penguin activities because 3Dinosaurs, RoyalBaloo, and a myriad of others also have some wonderful free printables. Man, if my ink was unlimited... :)

This arctic animals tracing page is from the 3 Dinosaurs Zoo pack free printable.

We did a dice rolling game. Count out the penguins... and then eat them of course! :) Started out with one die, then added two dice so that she had to add the two together for increased difficulty. She loved this activity! (Eating the learning materials always makes the activity a hit, don't you think?) One thing I thought was observant of her was the way she started to arrange her penguins in the same configuration as pictured on the die (I didn't take a photo of her doing this, but it was neat to see her copying the composition and making connections from one 'space' to another similarly proportioned 'space'. The artist in me was pretty stoked to see her doing that because that is key to observational drawing!)

Our Penguin book club was a hit with the kiddos! We read A Penguin Story and Penguin and Pinecone. Both are adorable books! Then the kids got to practice being daddy penguins with eggs on their feet, throwing 'fish' (i.e. balls, bean bags, etc) into a box with a hungry penguin inside and singing "I'm a Little Penguin":

(tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little penguin

black and white.

I waddle to the left

and I waddle to the right. 

I cannot fly but I can swim. 

So I waddle to the water and jump right in!

We did fun actions for the song and the kids wanted to do it over and over again!

 We made these penguin pals for our craft. I got out the heart punch for the feet and let the kids do it themselves and I think that might have been their favorite part! Originally the design was simple, but when one child wanted to add an orange scarf (because the penguin in Penguin and Pinecone wears an orange scarf) and another immediately asked about his friend pinecone, I knew we were adapting the project! who can stifle such creativity? A little ribbon, some brown acorn caps and buttons, and wuahlah! Penguins with personalized touches! 

Funny: while I was concentrating on tying that scarf on Caroline's little brown pinecone pal, I didn't notice that she had used the WHOLE pile of brown buttons and glued them to her penguin! Guess she wanted him to be stylin (or popular)!

C was pretty sure he wanted his penguins to swim in his milk. :)

On the home front, Gwen has been going perler bead crazy lately! She got a set for Christmas and was eager to try it out... again and again! She has been generous to share with Caroline (who made the above square) and eager to create both small and large designs. 

Pictured here: a purple snowflake, rainbow heart (the perfect landing pad for Toothless), and a very large penguin (that took her several hours to do!)

My friend Rachel posted recently about her projects and asked readers to comment on what they were working on... and I thought. Hmmmm. I should probably finish those stockings that I started in November thinking vainly that I could finish them by beginning of December (with preschool, Thanksgiving, and a 2 month old? What was I thinking?)... Inspired to create by her beautiful creations, I decided that I would love to work on them some more rather than snuggle down and read after the kids went to bed (the ambition to do a project came closely on the heels of feeling improved health! Amazing how that works!). I designed these critters myself (way back in October) after seeing these adorable stockings but wanting to go for an all animal motif (no Santa or snowmen here) for our family stockings. These are 3 of the 6 animals I've created (we also have a moose, raccoon, and bunny. with plans for a skunk when the times comes!). Now that they are ironed onto velvet material, I'm ready to add faces, embellishments and cute stitching to the felt/fabric. Stay tuned for more pics of the project progress!

Out of curiosity, what drops out of your life when your days are feeling weary? and what are you eager to add back in?

Noah's Ark: Obedience and Follow the Prophet

There are soooo many things you could do with this lesson because Noah's Ark immediately interests kids---I'm certain it is the animals! :) But the biggest lesson, I think, is a reminder of the safety in obedience. Earlier this week Caroline and Gwen didn't obey me in the parking lot of the library and I was very upset about the dangerous situation they created. It seemed a perfect time to remind them that they don't need to understand 'why' before they obey--- they need to trust and obey. And really, they can trust mom/dad and Heavenly Father because the rules/commands are not given for any reason other than love. 

Song: Follow the Prophet

Scripture:  John 14:15

Lesson: Noah's Ark/Obedience and Follow the Prophet

Activity: ark reenactment

Dessert: 'rainbow' animal crackers

The felt set (available from Keeping Life Creative) was a big hit, though Caroline was pretty concerned that we couldn't fit all the animals 'inside' the ark. Therefore we piled them up on top and they got to ride out the flood on each others' shoulders! :)

Gwen had a strange interest in the scoffers who didn't listen to Noah's warnings. It was a great opportunity to talk about how God wants to protect us and we should obey even if we don't understand why right away. It didn't matter that the rain was not coming down yet or that the ark was constructed on dry ground--- it might have been hard to understand why then too! But if we trust Heavenly Father and remember His love for us, then we can put our faith in his commandments and in the prophets regardless of our personal skepticism. Perfect segue into obeying mommy and daddy even if you don't understand why-- because we want to keep them safe too!

We role played a bit and made the couch our ark. The kids retrieved as many animals from their room as they could and we were happy to ride out the flood together. I misted them with 'rain' and they loved it! Everyone agreed that we DEFINITELY want to be 'on the ark' in life!

Then both girls wanted a chance to make 'rain' so we made arks for the animals out of the kitchen chairs. I think spraying their critters might have been their favorite part of the evening!

My favorite part was the next day when they took the spray bottles outside and sprayed each other in 40 degree weather for almost an hour! I think I refilled those spray bottles about 7 or 8 times each! Who would have thought that the flood was the best part of the story for reenacting in frigid winter weather?

We finished our family night with animal crackers (a peanut butter smear allowed the girls to sprinkle some rainbows on top--- a symbol of Heavenly Father's covenant!)

It was a fun evening! The proof was in the week that followed: the girls were quick to obey (especially in parking lots!) and if they seemed to scoff a bit before complying, all I had to do was ask if they were choosing to be on the ark or off... and they ended up making the right decision every time! Love my kids!

Adam and Eve: Choices Have Consequences

This year we are focusing on scripture stories and the values they teach for our family nights. A few weeks ago we started off with the Creation (it was 2015 goals night), but lest I get very behind, I'm going to skip to last week's lesson on Choice and Accountability using the story of Adam and Eve. 

Song: Choose the Right

Scripture:  Alma 37:35

Lesson: Adam and Eve/Choice and Consequence

Activity: choice/consequence matching game or chutes and ladders game

Dessert: fruit

I used the felt figures to tell the story, emphasizing that with every choice there is a consequence and that the best consequences always come from making choices to obey Heavenly Father. 

 Then the kids got to take a turn telling the story to me. Caroline was really excited to be the snake (which was just fine with Gwen, who wanted to be the trees) and she enjoyed using her 'bad guy' raspy voice to tempt Adam and Eve. 

I found these adorable printable Adam and Eve felt figures at Keeping Life Creative (free download at her Teachers Pay Teachers store). But since the printable only came with one tree, I paired it with this one from LDS.org. I like that the fruit is multicolored and non-specific so that the kids don't think it was definitely an apple! I saved it as a jpg and then edited it in word to enlarge the trees before printing. I also wanted to complete the story with expulsion from the Garden of Eden, so I made my own fur/leather clothing for Adam and Eve. Everything except the clothes is backed with felt. The clothes are 'worn' using clear velcro dots (one side is on the people, the matching half is on the back of the fig leaf clothing and fur clothing). 

I loved that the kids even seemed to pick up on the nuances of the story-- that families and learning through experience were essential components of Heavenly Father's plan for our happiness. Some deep thoughts here about free agency and Heavenly Father's omniscience. Not that I think they picked up on all of THAT, but at least it wasn't a shallow re-telling that cast Eve as the culprit. 

Then we played a little choice/consequence matching game that I made (simple illustrations, but they get the point across and gave the girls tangible life examples to help the concept sink in). Alternatively, could just play chutes and ladders. (Our FHE time is very short because of the time Eric gets home from work, so I opted to plan a much shorter game. Nothing worse than telling your little ones mid-ladder/slide that we'll have to put the game away now for bed time!)

Fruit makes a perfect snack to finish up! 

Gwen and Caroline both loved this FHE and wanted to keep playing with the Adam and Eve figures throughout the week. I still have to remind them (*constantly*) that choices have consequences, but I have hope in the promise that the Holy Spirit will carry the truth to their hearts. I want them to know they can turn to the Lord's Holy Scriptures to find truth to guide their lives and ultimately to point them towards their Savior. I love Him so much and want them to discover His love too!