FHE: Heavenly Father's Creations




This Family Home Evening idea comes from the February 2007 issue of The Friend (p.51)
If you'd like to do something similar with your family, you can copy and paste the following into a document that you can print.


Song: My Heavenly Father Loves Me (Children's Songbook #228)

Prayer

Scripture: Genesis 1:1

Activity: From the February 2007 Friend magazine, read the poem "God's Love" (p. 7) and enjoy Strawberry Squares (p. 43) as you draw pictures of Heavenly Father's creations.

Prayer



God’s Love
By: Elsie Palmer

God made the sun to rule the day.
It gives us warmth and light.
He made the moon and glistening stars
To guide us through the night.

He made the water cool and clear
To fill the lakes and seas.
He made each blade of thirsty grass.
He made the flowers and trees.

God made the bees and butterflies,
And every creeping thing,
Like busy ants, and wriggly worms,
And feathered birds that sing.

And every form of animal
Was made to roam the land.
Some hike the highest mountain peaks;
Some thrive in desert sand.

The lion and the bear He made,
The cuddly bunny too.
He made the horse and elephant
And bouncy kangaroo.

And when God saw that all was good
And glorious to see,
Then in His image He made man
That you and I might be.

We thank Thee, Heavenly Father,
For Thy watchful, loving care,
For this wondrous, gift-filled world
With beauty everywhere.


Strawberry Squares

2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 8 ounce package of frozen whipped topping
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons orange extract
24 fresh or thawed strawberries, havled

1. Mix the flour, powdered sugar, and butter until crumbly. Coat a 9x13 inch (23x33 cm) pan with nonstick spray or butter, and press the flour mixture into the pan. Bake the crust at 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) for 16 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

2. Beat cream cheese, frozen whipped topping, sugar, and orange extract until smooth. Pour the mixture over the crust and refigerate for 1 hour.

3. Cut into squares and place a strawberry half on each one.




Family Home Evening





The family is such an important part of a child's development. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we believe in strong families. And one of the best ways to build a strong family is by spending time together.

For many years, our Church Leaders have encouraged families to have "Family Home Evenings." This is where families set aside a special time each week where family members can come together to build unity, and grow in love & faith.

To help me be prepared, and to perhaps help anyone who would like to join in, I'm going to post on Sundays what we will be doing that week for Family Home Evening.

Many times our focus will be on the things we believe and building faith in Jesus Christ & His teachings. Please feel free to modify these activities as suits your family and your beliefs.

However you choose to do it, I invite you to join me in having a weekly Family Home Evening, and enjoy being together as a family!

Homemade Bean Bags

Bean bags are so much fun to play with, AND incredibly easy to make. As I am not much of a seamstress, I prefer quick and easy sewing projects like yesterday's post: Baby Tag Squares, and these bean bags.


Again, sorry I didn't take pictures as I made these to show the how to. But if you can understand my layman's sewing terms this is how to do it:

  1. Cut out 2 squares. 
  2. Place squares with the inside of the fabric facing out on both sides. (Inside out.)
  3. Sew along the edges, leaving a small opening.
  4. Push the fabric through the small opening, so that it is inside in, outside out. 
  5. Fill with beans.
  6. Sew the opening closed.

Once again, I apologize for a lack of pictures and lack of knowledge to describe this process. If you are thoroughly confused, I'm sure you can find something online that shows you how to make these. Good luck!


And an ice cream pail was the perfect place to put them! And to practice throwing them into.


Here are some ideas of bean bag activities:

  • Throwing into the pail.
  • Throwing to each other (practice catching)
  • Throwing to colored paper squares that match bean bag.
  • Throwing while counting.
I'm sure there are lots of other great activities to do with beanbags. Any ideas?

Homemade for Babies


While most of our activities & projects have been for LM, I thought I should do something for LB (4months). So, a while ago I made these Crinkly Tag Squares. I saw this idea on Little Hands, Big Work, who got it from Chasing Cheerios.  (Sorry I didn't take pictures as I was in the process of making these, but if you need a tutorial, you can check out those websites.)




LB is getting old enough that he is reaching for & grabbing things, and has had fun with these little squares.

With some extra material, I made a little Crinkly Snake. Just sewed the squares together, with a plastic grocery bag inside. (That's the crinkly part.)

V-Day Cards Matching





In practically every store right now you can find some great Valentine's Day items at amazing clearance prices. Today I picked up a box of Valentines that was 75% off, making it only 75 cents. We opened it up, and instantly had a fun matching game!



These valentines are especially perfect for my boys because they are all about sports, and can be used all year long. And an added bonus is that each card provides a message to boost self-esteem: You're a Star!, You're Smashing!, You're a Kick! and even You're a Hat Trick! (Which is on the Hockey card. I have no idea what it means, but I think I'm going to start saying that to my husband.)

So next time you're at the store, go check out the Valentine's clearance shelves!

Puzzle Songs

We like to make up songs around here. Some are simple, some are silly, and some are a surprise.....because even we don't know how they will end until we sing it!

A while ago we made up a song about things that go, and today we sang it using a puzzle.

Here's the puzzle we used:


We put all the pieces in a little bag and pulled them out one at a time. We sang this little song with each piece:




I'm driving my ______, driving my ______,
Down the street.
Down the street.
I'm driving my _______,
Down the street.


(With the airplane & helicopter, we sang it this way: I'm flying my ______, In the sky. etc.)

Pretty basic, but a song that LM loves to sing because of all the things you can drive, fly, and so forth. And using the puzzle was a fun way to spice it up a bit!

It would be fun to make up a simple song like this with other puzzles too. We have an animal puzzle. You could use this same simple tune and sing,

I see a ______, In the Zoo
or
In the Jungle
or
On the Farm

There's definitely not much to a simple song like this, but that's what makes it so fun -- It's easier for little ones to learn quickly!


Thrift-Store Find: Racecar Dominoes

Much like LM's affinity for race cars, finding a good deal is one of my most favorite things. And when you combine the 2, the result is extremely pleasant for all of us!  I present to you a recent Thrift-Store Find:

Race Car Dominoes, 50 cents.




I tried to teach LM how to match the colored tiles, but he wasn't too interested in that part yet. For now, he likes to just lay them all out in a row.


And I'm sure this 50 cent bargain will be used for many more fun activities.

Parking Lot - Numbers




Here is a fun little idea to help your little ones practice numbers, especially if your little ones are like my little one and love little cars. (That's a lot of littles!)

Anyways, I saw this idea over on Counting Coconuts and knew LM would love it.


As you can see, it was quite simple, which is the way I prefer things to be. Just take a piece of paper, draw out parking spaces with numbers and have at it! LM got his basket of cars and each time I would say a number, he would choose a car and drive it into that parking spot.


He has had a lot of fun with this, and it was a great way to practice numbers in a way that he really enjoyed.

Do you like this idea?

Looking for more activities for your little BOY?
http://www.littlefamilyfun.com/2012/03/crafts-activities-for-boys.html

Homemade Car Book


A while ago, I was at my favorite home decor outlet rummaging through the clearance bins (my favorite section of any store) when I came across a treasure: a small race car photo album for only 10 cents. That's right.....10 cents!!!

Perfect for my little boy, and even more perfect for my tight-wad budget!

I didn't know exactly how I'd use it, but a few days later I had an idea. I found some of those magazines that advertise local cars for sale. You know, the ones they have in the entrances to stores and on city streets? The ones that are FREE. (Which is even better than 10 cents!)

So, I grabbed a couple of those magazines and we put together a homemade car book.


I cut out some 4x6 pieces of cardstock to fit into the photo pockets, and had LM color each of them a different color.

While he was coloring, I flipped through the magazines and cut out cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc. of all different colors. We glued them onto the cards to match LM's coloring and put them into the photo album.


It was fun, practically free, and it's become one of our favorite reads!


Build-a-Truck!


 Like many young boys, LM loves anything with wheels! So, for the next few days, I'm going to share some ideas we've done lately with wheeled objects.

A while ago I saw a cute idea similar to this on No Time for Flashcards. They cut out shapes with foam, placed magnets on the back, and used them to build all kinds of different robots. With that same awesome idea, we cut out shapes that could be used to build all kinds of different TRUCKS!


Here are the basic shapes I cut out:


  • 5 circles
  • 3 small squares
  • 2 rectangles
  • 1 big square
  • 1 triangle
 And here's a heaping handful of the many trucks we came up with:

 

And even a few trucks from the future, built exclusively by LM:

 It only took me a few minutes to cut out these shapes and put the magnets on, but it has already provided at least a good hour's worth of imagination, entertainment, & fun!

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