Family Home Evening

I wanted to introduce the topic of light so we mainly talked about physical light and why we need it/why it is important.

Song: On A Golden Springtime (Children's Songbook)

Attention Activity: (from FHE Manual, lesson 12)

Turn off all lights and/or use a blindfold. Have a member of the family

perform a difficult task such as writing a sentence or getting something.

Then turn on the lights or take off the blindfold and show how easily the

same task is done in the light.

Lesson: We are going to talk about light and why it is important.

*Show a picture of the sun.

*Ask ~ Who made the sun?

*Show a picture of the moon and stars.

*Ask ~ Who made the moon and the stars?

These things give us light.

Read Doctrine & Covenants 88:7-13.

So light is in all things and comes from God. Light gives life to things and helps us understand truth and enlightens our minds.

Light is important because we cannot see without light. Plants need light to grow and animals and humans depend on plants. Humans also depend on animals. (We then talked about what would happen to the earth if the sun didn't rise. It would be cold, no light, plants die, etc.)

We need light to have energy and to have food and warmth. We also need light to understand things and to learn and see.

We are more comfortable in the light and we seek light. Plants also seek light. They will grow in the direction of the light. (We talked about the flowers on the porch that are growing towards the light. We also talked about how sunflowers follow the sun across the sky, wherever the sun is, they turn toward it. That is why sunflowers are called sunflowers.)

Testimony.

This was geared more to a three-year-old. We talked fast ;). We don't follow a strict lesson outline, but this is basically what we did.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Last week for FHE, we started off November with a lesson about Gratitude of course.
Something new I wanted to do this year was a "Thankful Tree" and "Appreciation Pockets".

I used a lesson on Gratitude from Lds Living. I modified it and just basically read the story from President Faust. (We only have one three-year-old child.) Then we put together our appreciation pockets and talked about them and our Thankful Tree.

For the Thankful Tree, the idea is to write what we are thankful for on a leaf and put it on the tree. I have a bulletin board tree cut-out that I am using and leaves cut out in fall colors. I would put up the Thankful Tree in my classroom during November when I taught school, and I don't remember where I got the idea. I've seen similar ideas since then.

I got the idea for appreciation pockets from a book about traditions by Kimberly Bytheway. I have modified this also. The book says to write things we are grateful for and put them in the pockets, but I am using the tree for this. My appreciation pockets are to write things we appreciate about each other and put those in the pockets.

Then, for the last Monday in November, we are going to have a pie night and read the leaves from the tree and the notes in the appreciation pockets.