A Paper Chain of Peace

I was having one of those days.  You know the kind.  When it feels like the things you're trying to do to bring your family closer and make this season more meaningful just aren't making any difference.  I was so on the ball though!  It had to work out! We had decorated the tree the first Monday of the month and I had this cute poem about service and two paper stars to pass out for people to leave every time they did some anonymous service.  Whoever found the star was supposed to pay it forward and do something nice for someone else too.  Well, over a week had passed and the stars had moved twice. (Mommy sigh...)

I decided we needed to try something else before the month was over and I felt like the Grinch.  I knew we were on the right track as far as serving each other,  For the monthly theme of Peace we've been working on memorizing "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14)  Peace truly comes from doing good for each other.  That is what the Savior did every day of his life and I wanted my kids to really feel the peace of serving this month.

So, we did what any mother of small children would do.  WE MADE A PAPER CHAIN!!!  Every time someone did some service they got to write it on a strip of paper and add a loop.  The writing is on the inside, so there's not a lot of praise or recognition, just a beautiful visual representation of the love that is spreading in our home.  And the PEACE that is spreading in our home...

Tonight, after getting to add some additional loops for donating some of their toys to charity, this is how long it reached...in just 3 days!!!!  And it was a very sweet surprise to hear them say to me "Mommy we have a surprise for you in our room!  You've got to go see it!"  We had worked on cleaning it together for over an hour, so I knew it was clean.  What could they possibly have done?  I didn't know that they had placed one of the original stars there  where they had cleaned.

Nothing brings more frustration to me than feeling like I'm not getting through to my kids and helping them understand the basic virtues of charity, patience and selflessness.  The bickering and complaining really gets to me.  It's so easy when schedules are busy and we see each other every day to take each other for granted, to not take the time to treat each other as kindly and carefully as we should.  But when they DO GET IT, that is the BIGGEST sense of peace.  There is nothing in the world I want more than the feeling of "Yes.  They are understanding the joy that comes from choosing the right."

I think we are all excited to see how long this Paper Chain of Peace becomes this month.  It's our way of remembering Christ and trying to be more like him.  To close I want to share this quote from Elder Richard G. Scott that brings it all home:

"The ideal place for... peace is within the walls of our own homes, where we have done all we can to make the Lord Jesus Christ the centerpiece."

Good luck in your teaching efforts this week!  The Gospel IS true!  Your efforts ARE WORTH IT!
Merry CHRISTmas!
Love, Eva          
P.S. One more picture of the chain and Sammy flexing his muscles!
P.P.S. The poem about the star is right beneath this last picture.

May the Christmas spirit warm your heart 

As you serve and do you part

Looking out for those in need

Careful that you are not seen

Making beds and hanging coats

Leaving love notes that you wrote 

Then leave a star so they will feel

That the light of Christ is real

For secret acts of love and hope

Bring his Peace into our home

Thanksgiving (And Turkeys!) Through Prayer

Since this is a month of thanksgiving, I wanted to do a Family Night discussing one of the greatest ways we have of showing gratitude, prayer.  I wanted to get back to the basics of prayer and stress the importance of gratitude, which is one of the most valuable personality traits we can have.  Personally, it has been the greatest tool in fighting Depression.  I also wanted to make some turkey art to put in our front window, so this is what I came up with...a paper turkey that explains the parts of prayer.

 

We started by making the face of the turkey as we remembered who we speak to when we pray (hence, the beak) and look to for answers (and the eyes.)

The body of the turkey represents the body of the prayer.  That is hopefully the majority of it!  For every thing they said they were thankful for they got a feather to put on their turkey.

  It was nice to remind them that while we are thankful for a lot of the same things every day, it's also good to come up with new things we are grateful for and mention those too.  We got pretty creative!

Next we added feet to represent the last two parts of prayer, asking for blessings and closing in the name of Jesus Christ.  The mercy of God & Atonement of Christ are our foundation, what we rely on in our lives.  One foot represented the blessings of God.  We taught how near the end of our prayer we ask Him for blessings we hope he will bestow in His wisdom if it is what we need.  I explained we don't always get exactly what we ask for, but since He is our Father we trust His wisdom.  The other foot represents ending our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  

I was really touched by the following quote from the recent General Conference of the LDS church: "One of the most meaningful things we can do as parents is teach our children the power of prayer, not just the routine of prayer...As parents, we can teach our children to pray for things of eternal consequence- to pray for the strength to be morally clean in a very challenging world, to be obedient, and to have the courage to stand for the right."

This quote comes from a talk titled "Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of Their Children" that you can read here.  If there is anything I hope I can teach my children it's the importance of fervent prayer.  When we give thanks we improve the quality of our own lives.  We see the good we sometimes overlook.  Praying gives thanks to the ultimate Giver.  When we pray we can talk to someone who understands us and loves us unconditionally.  And when we choose to ask for those things we feel line up with His will for us, we are a greater force for hope and good than we can ever be on our own.  Hope you have a happy FHE!  Love, Eva

 

FHE: Latter-Day Prophets!

We have been working on memorizing the 6th & 7th Articles of Faith these past couple months.  So I thought it would be good to have an FHE focused on prophets and specifically, our latter-day prophets.  We believe in revelation today from God to His servants & that is something that sets us apart from many other Christian religions.  I was really happy with the object lesson Dad did & the craft I did, & the hand out.  Hope it can spark an idea for how to teach your family about the wonderful gift we have of latter-day prophets!  The Gospel is true!  Keep up the good work teaching your children values & hope! It's a crazy world, but we don't ever have to feel discouraged when we have faith in Christ.  Love, Eva

Prophets & Patriotism

I love having a knowledge of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It can make everything more meaningful.  This past week of course there were BBQ's and red, white and blue streamers.  There were pancakes breakfasts and parades.  But there were also some moments of spirituality.  I loved reading the inspired words of The Star-Spangled Banner with my kids and explaining that's why we have fireworks every year.  And I couldn't help but get teary eyed as I watched the incredible display of lights with them and I imagined watching that across the water over 235 years ago.  All of the verses of our anthem are incredible, and worth reading and singing!

To remember more the sacredness of our country we read in 1 Nephi Chapter 13 where it's prophesied that the Americas will be colonized, and I explained how this country had to be created so we could have freedom of religion.  That was part of God's plan.  We read the 11th Article of Faith and parts of the Declaration of Independence.  I explained how all these men, the founders of our country and the prophets of the scriptures, risked their lives for truth.  And that truth and freedom is what we celebrate on the 4th of July.

These moments together weren't the most fun necessarily, but they were special.  And they brought meaning to the "fun" moments.  I loved that my children wanted to see all the names of the men who signed the Declaration.  I'm grateful for the history of our country and those who gave all they had to shape it.  I would encourage taking some time if you haven't already to read some of these scriptures or documents.  Kids understand more than we realize.

If you want to add a craft or activity to a patriotic-themed lesson you can...

Try writing with an "ink and quill" on newsprint like the Declaration of Independence was printed in the newspaper way back in 1776.  Finger paint and craft feather work great!

Have fun with your own "rocket's red glare!"  Or sparklers...

 The never-gets-old Finger-Paint American Flag...

 

 Or just red, white and blue food!  We learned the red color stands for bravery, white for liberty, and blue for justice!  Here are some options we've done from the past patriotic holidays...

easy Firecracker popsicles,

 Jello jigglers,

 "Strawberry" Floats (any red soda works!,)

or some kind of flag dessert.  Yummy!

I hope these ideas inspire you to spend some time reflecting on the divine roots of our country and the privilege it is to live here.  The Gospel IS TRUE  and even though spending time teaching it can be taxing and hard at times (trust me, I know!) it IS worth it in this life and the eternities.  

Time spent with family is time well spent! Love, Eva

Spreading JOY

 I left off writing a few weeks ago, and have been so busy with homeschooling and Christmas activities it's been hard to squeeze in time to catch up.  But I am going to try!  Our last activity of November actually ties in nicely with Decembers'.  In remembering Gratitude we learned about what President Brigham Young said, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!"  So we used up some apples nobody was finishing for a craft...bird feeders!  This transitions nicely into December, where we have been learning about Joy and trying to spread it.  Feeding the birds brings some joy to both parties!

 For this activity you simply cover the apple with creamy peanut butter...

 Roll it around nicely in a plate of bird seed...

 Tie a piece of yarn on a nail and stick it in real good!

 Ta-daaa!

Or you can share some joy feeding them the old-fashioned way!

 If it's as cold where you live as it is here the birds will be very happy...

 ...and friendly!

 Christmas time is a season for Joy!

We've tried to some kind of service every day to share some joy, including feeding the birds, making and taking a sack-lunch to Dad at work, doing extra chores around the house (that was to help mom have some joy,) 

painting this poster and...

hanging it up in our front window for passerbyers to see, 

BAKING and taking cookies to friends' houses

and having extra good manners and tipping a waitress well when we went out for dinner.

  The best thing about teaching joy is seeing the kids realize that when you try to give someone joy you can't help but get some for yourself too.  EnJOY the season!  Love, Eva

Thankful Hands...

 I'm a little behind on posting (I don't recommend catching a bad cold and getting a back injury in the same week...) but I'm trying to catch up, so here goes!  We did three activities with this one night's hand-stamping craft activity.

 First we talked about how thankful we are for HANDS!

 There are SOOO many things we can do with our hands it was nice to talk about it.  Eat, brush our teeth, play catch, carry things...

                                         

I talked to them about a man in out neighborhood who doesn't have hands.  He has to carry his grocery bag in his mouth.  They asked how he ate food, and I said it was probably challenging.  It was good to spend sometime talking about how something as simple as our hands is really a great thing to be thankful for.

 Next we talked about prayer since that's also something we get to do with our hands.  We talked about how wonderful it is to be able to pray and all the things we get to say thank you to God for.

 We made this picture with our hands and then once it dried, put it in a plastic cover that had this poem, "Thankful Hands" so they could put it on the wall with some reminders of things to pray and be thankful for.

Here is the poem text...

Thankful Hands

By Eva Barnett

I'm thankful for hands that pray

They thank the Father every day

For caring friends and family

For autumn air and falling leaves

For my body and my mind

For my home and what's inside

For the food I get to eat

For the scriptures I can read

For the preisthood, prophets too

For the fun things I can do

For my Savior's loving plan

I pray & thank God with my hands

 Next, we let all those hand prints dry and cut them out.  This was an activity that took us a couple days...

 And the kids got to work writing names on the hand "leaves" of people who love them and are willing to be helping hands to them.

 Aaaaah!

 Sophia asked Michael how to spell his name so she could write him down.

 Michael wrote Sophia's name too!  Too cute!

  We got out some pictures of extended family to help them remember more people that love them.

We wrote teachers' names and classmates and ran out before we even got to the General Authorities!  There are SO many people to be thankful for that love and support us if you take the time to list them!

 Then we made our tree!!!

 Chad helped with the ones on top.  This tree is a wonderful reminder of the many incredible people we have to be thankful for...

 I love that my kids get to see it everyday this month and remember who loves them as they fall asleep...

Hope these ideas are helpful and inspire you to spend some time talking about how wonderful it is to have hands, pray and have so many helping hands of friends and family in our lives.  The Gospel is true!! Luv, Eva