Needed: Your Thoughts and Tips
October 30, 2017
Attention all teachers, leaders, and parents! What tips do you have for teaching children? What thoughts do you have about successfully helping kids with different challenges and needs? We would love to hear—and potentially share—your thoughts and tips. Simply email friend@ChurchofJesusChrist.org with “Thoughts and Tips” in the subject line, or send us a Facebook message. We hope to hear from you soon!
The Gospel Is a Treasure
By Marissa Widdison
October 20, 2017
Looking for a simple and fun activity for family night or church? Gather a handful of something to represent treasure—pebbles, shiny stones, plastic jewels—and scatter them around a room. (Obviously, don’t do this with really young kids who have trouble with putting things in their mouths!) Then give each child a bag and let them go on a “treasure hunt” to find what has been hidden. After everything is found, talk about the treasures we know about because of the gospel, like prayer, scriptures, the church, and temples. Testify of how valuable these treasures are in your life. Talk about how we should be excited about including these things in our lives, just like we are excited about finding treasure. This simple, activity-based lesson worked great with the young children in my ward!
Blessings of Reverence
By Kim Webb Reid
October 13, 2017
Your children may have heard the Primary song that says, “Reverence is more than just quietly sitting.” And yet they may think that “being reverent” just means “hold still and be quiet.” How can you help little ones experience the deeper, sweeter blessings of reverence?
Here are some ideas:
- Point out times when they are feeling a sense of awe and reverence—gently holding a newborn baby, stargazing for the first time, or hearing a story about Jesus. “How do you feel inside? Can you tell me about those warm feelings? That is reverence.”
- Teach them words that go along with reverence. Words like love, respect, or thankfulness. For older children, you might ask them to draw pictures of those words.
- Help them think about how being reverent helps others listen. “When you are trying to listen to a story, does it help if others are quiet? What if others are noisy?” Explain that they can help church be a reverent, happy place where people listen and learn about Heavenly Father.
- Little ones need lots of practice being reverent. Set a timer for a minute or two and invite them to listen to soft music or a story about Jesus. Share your feelings of reverence and love.
Keep Conference Close
October 6, 2017
Wasn’t general conference lovely? Here’s an idea for helping your family remember conference messages over next six months. Choose a memorable story or quote, and read it out loud or listen to the talk again online. Ask each family member to draw a scene from the story or a scene that represents the quote. Here’s an example from our friend Evan T., in Idaho, USA, who illustrated a quote from one of President Monson’s past talks. What will your children draw for this conference?
