I am a Child of God

my four year old knows we pray to Heavenly Father and that we want to make Him happy, but I wanted to have a lesson where we really taught her that He is our Father. Literally. So, we came up with this lesson.


Prep

Get pictures of baby animals and their animal parents for matching.
On a board or the wall put up the baby animal pictures, save the parent ones.

Start by singing “I am a Child of God”

Activity
Tell children that all babies will grow up to be like their parents. Hold up each “parent animal” picture and ask them to match it with the baby. Just like a foal will grow up to look like a horse (or elephant, puppy, kitten), kids will grow up to be as tall and know as much as their parents. Tell them we have another parent we want to be like and ask if anyone knows who that is (Heavenly Father).

Tell the children that Heavenly Father is the father of our spirits and that we live Him before we were born on earth. Just like we will someday become like our moms and dads, we can also become like Heavenly Father too. Heavenly Father loved us so much that when He sent us to earth, he gave us another mom and dad to love us and take care of us so that one day we can return to live with Him.

Song
“I lived in Heaven”

I am a Child of God

Garden Tile Stone Activity

After Christmas and New Years is a great time to stock up on stuff for future birthdays OR FHE activities! The other day I went to our local mall where they had a ToysRUs Express. This means the store only comes in during the holidays and then after the holidays are through they sell whatever is left at a highly discounted rate. So I decided to browse. I found a "do-it-yourself" garden tile stone kit designed for children. I picked one up for $2.50 and can't wait for spring when I'll use it for an FHE activity.

I am not sure as of yet what the lesson will be, perhaps I'll post on that when I figure it out, but I can't wait to have my husband and our children put their hand prints on it, along with other decorations and put it in our garden. Keep an eye out for special sales and keep FHE in mind, you mind be surprised what you find!

Garden Tile Stone Activity

Setting Goals

Image source

Setting goals (and meeting them) is an important part of life, and something people naturally tend to do around this time of year. Well, the setting, maybe not the meeting ;).

For family home evening last night, we all thought of something we wanted to improve on. We had our two older children think of something on their own. Our five year old decided he wants to be nicer to people. Our three year old decided she wants to stay in her bed at nap time (hurray!--we have been struggling with this for a few days). My husband and I decided we want to do better about taking time to play with the children.

Having the child think of a goal to strive toward on their own gives them some ownership and some sort of desire to meet the goal. We have decided to make a picture representing their goal and put it on the bathroom mirror to remind them of it. We will see how the "meeting goals" portion of the goal setting and meeting task goes :)

I think it is also valuable to tell your children of your own goals. They can then watch you work toward and hopefully meet that goal. It will be a great example to them and help them really learn how the process works.

Setting Goals