Sunday, May 29, 2011

Family Home Evening: President Kimball on Gardening

As part of my faith, my family and I participate in a weekly event called Family Home Evening (FHE). FHE is a way to share experiences, increase faith, build strong familial bonds, teach ethics and values, and simply have a good time together on a weekly basis. I loved these fun-filled evenings as a child and have tried hard to implement the same functioning system with my own family that my parents had with me and my siblings. Unfortunately, my memories are aging with me and I can only recall Family Home Evenings from about the age of 8 and on. My children are ages 1 and 3 and DO NOT have the same attention span of an 8 year old, and thus, CAN NOT sit through those same kind of FHE's!

Their lack of attention and understanding frustrated me over the last few months to the point of almost giving up! Then FINALLY it dawned on me that my extremely active children simply needed action oriented FHE's. So I came up with a VERY SIMPLE application for Family Home Evening that is appropriate for children 4 and under and have decided to share my lesson plans with you each Sunday. I am starting by teaching my girls about modern day prophets. Each week we will focus on one prophet and do an activity that coincides with his teachings. This week we will be learning about President Kimball. So here goes!

Opening Wiggle Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Opening Reverent Song: I am a Child of God (We will use this as our reverent song until our 3 year old memorizes the words and then move on to a new song.)

Opening Prayer: Given by Daddy

Lesson: Given by Mommy

Lesson Plan: Today we are going to learn about a prophet of God. A prophet is a living person who helps us to know what Heavenly Father wants us to do. This is President Spencer W. Kimball:

He is a prophet of God. President Kimball taught us many good things. One thing he taught us was that we should plant a garden:

President Kimball said that if we plant a garden, we will have our own food, even if we don't have money to buy it from the store. He also said that we will learn how to do new things, and how to work hard!
Lesson Application: (Here is where the action comes in.) Now its time to plant a garden as a family. You can start small by planting some seeds in a pot on your porch, or you can go all out and build a square foot garden, or plant a garden in your yard.


When you're done gardening and have washed all those little helping hands, wrap things up with a closing song and prayer.

Closing Song:
The Prophet said to Plant a Garden

Closing Prayer: Given by Brooklyn

Treats: Prepared by Lily (and Mommy)... ICE CREAM!!!

If you want to have some reinforcing activities before your FHE, try THIS Outdoor Adventure that my sister Erin posted!

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