I Am a Child of God and Can Be Like Him Someday

Please forgive my absence in December! It was crazy!

SONG: https://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/i-will-follow-gods-plan?lang=eng

Have a bag with the following items inside and be ready to discuss how each item shows us Heavenly Father loves us:

• tree or bush branch or flower...something from this earth (represents the Earth and how it was created for us to live on)
• suit tie (represents church and how He gave opportunities to go to church)
• picture of Christ (talk about how He gave His Son to suffer in the garden and die on the cross so we can return to Heavenly Father)
• scriptures (He gave us the gospel to learn and teach us to be happy)

Then explain that Heavenly Father loves us and we are His children.
Have your child match the Adult animals to the Children animals using this printout:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By-8pEe8O7e5MGQ2M2JhYWUtYmYyOC00MDQ3LWE5NjAtN2Y4NTNmZmZjNDNl/edit?hl=en&authkey=CO-npkY

(If you have time, try to get a baby picture of yourself and an adult one to include as well)

If you can't pull it up through that link, try getting to it from this one: http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/05/may-pdfs.html

Explain we can all grow up and be like Him just like babies grow into adults! Ask what we can do as children of God to grow up to be like Him...

Share our toys
Be nice to family members
Obey parents and Heavenly Father
Talk to someone lonely
Don't kick, stomp, or destroy things
Share the gospel
When old enough, go to the temple
Pray
Read our scriptures
Tell the truth

The Prophets Foretold Jesus Would Come to Earth

There are 2 lessons you can give this week to choose from! TWO is like we always do, and reiterate what was taught in Sharing Time. ONE is a short yet powerful video about the true meaning of Christmas!

LESSON ONE:
Watch this video with your family. Then ask each person 1 or 2 things they will give for Christmas. Personally, I'd like to see a little more sharing and obedience! http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001&cid=HPWE120413186

LESSON TWO:
SONG: http://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/samuel-tells-of-the-baby-jesus?lang=eng

Have these pictures ready and set up in different places of the house:

Isaiah



Nephi


King Benjamin


Abinadi


Alma


Samuel the Lamanite


Have the kids get in a "car" and drive around to each of the places. Each place has a picture of a prophet who testified of the coming of Jesus to the Earth. Have your scriptures ready. Once the scripture is read for the prophet's picture, go over what it talked about and match the pictures below to each prophet so your child can visually see what was the prophecy.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a ^asign; ^bBehold, a^cvirgin shall conceive, and bear a ^dson, and shall call his name^eImmanuel.


1 Nephi 11:14 And it came to pass that I saw the ^aheavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?

 15 And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.

Mosiah 3:5-8 (King Benjamin) 5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the ^aLord ^bOmnipotent who ^creigneth, who was, and is from all ^deternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a ^etabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty ^fmiracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the^gblind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

 6 And he shall cast out ^adevils, or the ^bevil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

 7 And lo, he shall ^asuffer ^btemptations, and pain of body, ^chunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can ^dsuffer, except it be unto death; for behold, ^eblood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his ^fanguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

 8 And he shall be called ^aJesus ^bChrist, the ^cSon of God, the^dFather of heaven and earth, the ^eCreator of all things from the beginning; and his ^fmother shall be called Mary.
 

Mosiah 15:1 (Abinadi) And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that ^aGod himself shall ^bcome down among the children of men, and shall ^credeem his people.


Alma 7:10-12 (Alma) 10 And behold, he shall be ^aborn of Mary, at ^bJerusalem which is the ^cland of our forefathers, she being a ^dvirgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and ^econceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and ^aafflictions and^btemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ^ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him ^adeath, that he may ^bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to ^csuccor his people according to their infirmities.

 

Helaman 14:1-5 (Samuel the Lamanite) 1 And now it came to pass that ^aSamuel, the Lamanite, did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written.

 2 And behold, he said unto them: Behold, I give unto you a sign; for ^afive years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name.

 3 And behold, this will I give unto you for a ^asign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day.

 4 Therefore, there shall be one ^aday and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is ^bborn.

 5 And behold, there shall a new ^astar arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.

We Should Thank Heavenly Father for All Our Blessings

Normally I don't like the ideas (for toddlers) from Jill's Sharing Time Ideas. But for this week's lesson, I think it is a GREAT supplement to yesterday's Primary lesson!

I would suggest printing pages 9-15 of http://0e2adbce82be14fd6bcb-5584cc5742c63ca82c29a0709ec0b026.r46.cf2.rackcdn.com/Nov_week_4_thank_blessings.pdf and then cut them out and put them face up. Because your child can't read, I would go over each picture and have them identify it.

These are blessings Heavenly Father has given us.

Then ask HOW we can SHOW our thanks to Heavenly Father for each of these things. Go over some of the phrases and ask if it "matches" with the picture you have decided to talk about. When your child has found the right "match," move on to the next one until all the matches are made. Simple enough!

As an activity, you can draw a picture of something you would like to thank Heavenly Father for. Remind your child they can say thank you for it in their prayers tonight!

I am Thankful for Temporal and Spiritual Blessings

Last week was Veterans Day so hopefully you did something special with your family. This week I am combining sharing times from last week and this week because right now my oldest is learning the alphabet and I saw a great idea on Pinterest!

SONG: http://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/thanks-to-our-father?lang=eng

If your toddler does not know the alphabet, you may need to help them out quite a bit, or tweak the lesson to their level of learning.

First, go over what are temporal things vs. spiritual things (some overlap-like family, so there will be some real teaching going on)

Click HERE for your ABC sheet. I would suggest having your child(ren) think of as many things as they can on their own. Then, go around the house and see if they can fill it out more as they see objects (or pictures of Christ, temple, family, scriptures, etc.) After that, you can help fill in the rest. Then go through each one and ask if it is a temporal or spiritual blessing. See how they do! Simple, easy, and a lot to teach! Great lesson for the whole family!

I am thankful for my body, and I know that it is a temple

SONG: http://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/in-our-lovely-deseret?lang=eng (sing the second verse)

Since toddlers aren't able to grasp the abstract, I would try my best to explain that our body is a temple. Maybe show a picture in your house (every room should have a picture of the temple and one of Jesus!) or on the internet, or remind your children of a time you visited the temple. Remind them how beautiful it is and how clean. Then explain our bodies are beautiful and Heavenly Father wants us to keep them clean too!

After looking at some blogs, I finally found a GREAT one that has perfect toddler-appropriate activities to help teach the Word of Wisdom. AAAaaannnd, it comes with printables that aren't extreme or time consuming! Here it is:

http://teachldschildren.com/tag/word-of-wisdom/

I would choose from the first three ideas (we're probably going to use the first idea and incorporate it with the opening song).

My Testimony is Strengthened When I Share the Gospel

SONG: I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

There are a few teaching opportunities we can do with this topic.

1.) First, WHAT IS THE "GOSPEL?"
You can explain that the gospel is the teachings of Jesus Christ.

2.) And the teachings of Jesus Christ are so wonderful that we can't just keep it to ourselves! We want to share it!

3.) And when we share it, our testimonies are strengthened.

So for numbers 1 and 2, we can teach our children what are the MAIN points of the gospel and of a testimony when we share it. To keep it simple and visual, I would recommend the Testimony Glove. If you are like our family, we have gloves around the house for gardening and cleaning. I know you can also get some at Dollar Tree.

Here are the pictures so you don't have to go looking for them:



For number 3, have each child put on the glove and go up in front of the family and practice giving their testimony! As far as understanding your testimony is strengthened each time you share it, our Primary used a jar of water and put food coloring drops into it. The more food coloring drops used, the darker (or stronger) the color got. I believe she might have gotten this idea from http://0e2adbce82be14fd6bcb-5584cc5742c63ca82c29a0709ec0b026.r46.cf2.rackcdn.com/Oct_week4_tesimony_strenghened_jr.pdf

Because I have boys, they like to fight (hiya!) and say they are "so strong." So I was thinking of the cliche: have a piece of thin string and see how easy it is to break, but with each finger of the glove, add more string so it's harder to break. So the more you share your testimony, the stronger the string is and can't break so easily. You can also use Popsicle sticks or whatever you have on hand.

Living the gospel helps me be a missionary now

Last week, we did this idea for FHE: http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10380

We made the puppets but we did not color them. We also made the puppets talk to each other about Jesus Christ (my sons' favorite gospel subject).

THIS week, we are going to color and talk about HOW we can share the gospel with others in the following situations:

Neighbors
School
In the store
At home
At the park

What would your puppet say to someone in those situations?