Spiritual Prep: More FHE In A Jar!

Here are three more lessons to add to your FHE In A Jar. Again, these are for nursery/pre-school age children and are kept very short, sweet, and to the point to accommodate their attention spans (or lack thereof). 🙂  Just click on each of the three links below and either save them to your computer or print them out. Add them to your FHE jar (and add the activities to your images folder) and you’re ready for more Family Night Fun! Hope you enjoy!

1. FHE in a Jar- lessons
2. Sabbath Day Matching Game
3. I Can Work- Coloring Page

{For instructions, information, as well as more lessons for FHE In A Jar, click HERE for the original posting.}

And in case you want some refresher tips for having a successful Family Night with small children, here are some suggestions:

• Have a picture of Jesus Christ easily accessible so you can grab it for Family Night and the children can look at Him as you talk about the things He teaches.
• Follow a routine each week so that your children can become familiar with the family night process.
• Use a gathering activity for the lesson. In our home, we sing the following song (to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”) when it’s time for the lesson: “If you’re ready for the lesson come sit down (clap, clap), If you’re ready for the lesson come sit down (clap, clap), If you’re ready for the lesson it will surely be a blessin’, If you’re ready for the lesson come sit down (clap, clap).” (And we all gather in a circle on the floor while we sing.)
• Involve the children as much as possible. Try to have a lot of interaction, ask a lot of questions, and have them repeat important parts.
• Share your testimony with your children each week to help them feel the Spirit.
• Keep it short and sweet. Small children have small attention spans and it will only frustrate you and them if you try to give a big, elaborate lesson.

Good luck and best wishes!

Feature Friday: Family Home Evening In A Jar!

Howdy all! Happy Friday! Have I got a fun treat for you today (well… for some of you anyway)! As I was browsing through some websites, I came across this idea for ‘Family Home Evening in a Jar’ (explained below) and thought it was such an awesome concept… not to mention just what I needed (since I frequently wait till the last minute to prepare something for Family Night). However, the one I saw was set up so that it just gave a topic to discuss for the lesson. This would work if I had older children that I could actually have a ‘discussion’ with, but seeing as I’ve got a 1 and 3 year old, there isn’t a whole lot of ‘discussing’ going on during our lessons. 🙂 I knew I needed something with more structure to it. So I came up with my own version of ‘Family Home Evening In A Jar’ and geared it toward nursery age children (or basically 1-5 year olds).

Here’s how it works: It’s Monday night, you haven’t planned a lesson yet for Family Night, so you run to your jar, grab a strip of paper out and ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, Family Night is ready. Each slip of paper lists a song and scripture that coordinates with the lesson topic. The lesson section gives a quick (since that’s all toddlers can handle) lesson and references a coloring page or activity (also included) that also coordinates with the lesson. So easy, so fun.

I really hope this can help someone. My apologies to those of you with older children to whom this will not be of much help… maybe I can start work on one of those at some point. But honestly, this took a lot of time and a lot of effort, so an older version may just have to wait until my kiddos are older as well. 🙂 Or if you have a family you visit/home teach with young kids, this could be a great present to give as well. Just doll up the jar with some ribbon or something cute and you’ve got one inexpensive, but very useful gift! 🙂

There are currently 12 lessons on this PDF file, so that’s a 3-month supply of FHE (or more, if you don’t use it every week). 🙂 I’ll continue to come up with more lessons and share them as I get the chance. Until then, I hope you ENJOY!
(Oh, and warning… it’s a large file! So please be patient if it’s slow.)

Download ‘FHE In A Jar’

{UPDATE: I’ve created a few more lessons to add to your jar as well…  Click HERE}