We Are Fam-i-ly!

I was in charge of the FHE lesson last week. I felt that we could benefit (once again) from a lesson on Family Unity. We talked about how each of us are similar because we are a family, but that we all have differences that make us unique.

As we talked about our uniqueness, we took turns adding measured ingredients into a bowl. Each ingredient was unique, but played a part in the whole good of the recipe. If an ingredient would have been left out, the whole or end result, wouldn't have been as good.
As with our family, we all play a very important, unique roll and would be missed if anyone of us were "left out". I encouraged us to celebrate our uniqueness and focus on family unity.

We played a family memory matching game. To throw them off a bit, I added in a "unique" picture of each one of the kids (there wasn't a match for this picture). They loved that they got to keep the unique picture.

Here's the back of the family game. I found them here. So cute!

I covered them with contact paper, punched a hole in the corner and put them on a ring, so we could play with them again some day.

Each ingredient played their part well. The cookies were yummy and baked up huge!

FHE

Last Monday, Taylee gave another great FHE lesson. It was on speaking kindly and saying nice things. As part of the lesson, we practiced saying the same sentence in different ways; sad, happy, mad, etc. We learned that it wasn't only the words you were saying, but the way you said it.

To help us work on saying nice things throughout the week, she had a container of rocks and a container of Skittles. Each time we say something nice, we put a Skittle in the jar. Each time we say something not so nice, we put a rock in the jar. At the end of the week, we will review and decide whether we eat the rocks or Skittles. :)

This is a picture of our "treat". It's a "mouth" with a tongue sticking out, reminding us to say kind words. Can you tell?????

Great lesson Taylee!

FHE

Last Monday, Taylee was in charge of the lesson for Family Home Evening. I usually like to help or assist my kids in planning and executing the lesson. This time, Taylee said she wanted to do it all on her own.

First, she talked about how Valentine's Day was coming up. She asked us what Valentine's Day meant to us. Some of the answers were; candy, cards, parties, etc. We eventually got around to love and service. Then we did a little activity she had planned. She had written down things for us to talk about or do, on little hearts. We each took turns drawing a heart out and doing what it said. Some of them were;
"Think of why you love somebody. Think of a family memory. Tell why you like Valentine's Day. Talk about somebody. Say the 11th Article of Faith. Why did Taylee do this lesson? Hug someone. Think of someone you love. Act like someone and let the rest try to guess. Think of a memory with Rylee. Think of a memory with mom and dad. What day is coming up? Happy Valentine's Day!"
The activity went over well. I felt the spirit as we expressed our love for one another and as we talked about each other and our good memories. One thing that I thought was so cute was that before we started the activity she reminded us that what we said HAD to be positive and nice. She also made it a point to write it on the activity envelope; "Remember only tell positive things about each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (There were 19 exclamation points after the phrase.)

Next, we brainstormed different things we could do, as service, for our family members.

Then, she handed out little hearts that said, "Happy Valentine's Day!" and challenged us to do acts of service for our family, in the upcoming week. As we did our act of service, we were to leave our heart behind. Then we were to write our service down and put it in the nicely decorated box she had provided. She also let us know that we could do more than ONE service.

Last night, we opened the service box and read all the things we had done for each other. It was fun to see that we ALL participated and even did more than just ONE. Whew!

I'm so proud of Taylee. She did such a wonderful job with the lesson. Maybe I need to back off more often and just let things go.