Out of the ordinary FHEs

[Erudite]

Last week in Sacrament Meeting, the fantastic speaker suggested that, among the many things we should be teaching our children, we should teach them about such things as the Constitution, Dec of Ind, and how our freedoms are fought for and maintained. My initial reaction was...they get that in school, don't they? But then I wondered, would that learning include the inspiration Columbus received? Would that learning include the faith of the founding fathers? Would those lessons cover what those freedoms mean? I realized they wouldn't...not at all.

So I've added those to my list of "lessons to consider" and then I began to wonder what other kinds of lessons should I be teaching that are out of the ordinary. We’ve taught honesty and gratitude and reverence MANY times. We done prayer and the atonement and the repentance process several times. Our children have given lessons on Samuel the Lamanite and the good Samaritan more times than I care to count.

I know this is really a matter of prayer and consideration, but "information leads to inspiration". What out of the ordinary lessons have you taught or think might need to be taught? How did you go about teaching them?

[runamyrun]

We have had lessons on being kind to everyone, and sharing.

Last night we had a lesson on having a good attitude. I have a child that whines a lot, so this lesson was mainly for them, but a good reminder for the rest of us. Each of us put a rock in one of our shoes, and I was supposed to give everyone a piece of gum to chew while we walked, but I forgot. Dh ran home in the middle to get it. Then we went outside and walked (it was raining, which added to the lesson). We decided to walk by 20 houses and then turn around and go home. Obviously there was some complaining, but for the most part the kids were having fun. When we got home I talked about how we had something bad (the rock in our shoe) and something good (a piece of gum), but often it is easy to concentrate on the bad. I thought it was something fun and out of the ordinary.

Oh, and sometimes we have done some of our son's scouting stuff for FHE. I have one son and three girls, and I feel that they are great skills for my girls to learn too.

[natickgirl]

We've had some great FHE activities/lessons on church & national history since we lived close to so many great historical sites. We had a lesson on the history of the Bible after that wonderful Conference talk a year or so ago. We also discussed how everything (Lehi's journey, Columbus, the printing press, the pilgrims, John Calvin, etc.) made it possible for the Gospel to be restored when & where it needed to be.

Talents & Beauty: Have a talent show. Go to an art museum. Go to a concert. Talk about inner beauty. Talk about personal hygiene. Learn a new skill.

We've helped children complete Faith in God requirements, had lessons on fasting & praying for others who are ill, menu planning & nutrition, fire safety, how to deal with peer pressure, discuss what we like about each family member & what unique characteristics they bring to our family, etc.

One memorable time we discussed fast offerings & the Church's welfare system, then toured welfare square. You could do the same with tithing & church/temple nearest you. Or discuss the creation and how we can feel close to God in nature, then go for a hike.

Talk about how both the Church and the family need every member to do his/her part to make it all run smoothly. (Like a vehicle needing each part.) Use the scripture that talks about the head & the hand thinking they don't need each other.

I think a fun one would be discussing the tower of Babel & learning about different cultures/languages. Or, you could turn it into a lesson on the importance of good communication.

I'd love to hear others' ideas!

---------- Post added at 01:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 AM ----------

Oh, just thought of one of the best FHE discussions we've ever had:

We were in D.C., and couldn't make it to the local ward in time, so we went to a Lutheran church just down the block from our hotel. After the worship service, we discussed what was similar & what was different to our sacrament meeting: The pastor was a woman. They used wafers & grape juice for their communion. They taught only from the Bible. They stood to sing, and had contemporary music accompanied by a mini band. Their "sanctuary" was adorned with stained glass windows w/pictures of Jesus, but also of John Calvin, Martin Luther, etc. They had a few recitations where the pastor said something & they answered back in unison.

It was a great segue into emphasizing the importance of the priesthood, and "reformation" Churches vs. "restoration" of the Gospel.

[5ft Diva]

Great ideas!

[Erudite]

I did an "out of the ordinary" (does that make it extraordinary?? ) FHE that I wanted to share. On Sunday, my kids, to entertain themselves, took a notebook and began to fill it with all the Harry Potter spells they could come up with. They had around 30 by the end of Sacrament meeting. I looked at that and inwardly rolled my eyes and wondered how I could direct this fascination to something spiritual and valuable. I thought, does God have "spells"?

Spells, in fantasy land, are a word or sequence of words that you say to get a usually instaneous result. Is there something we can say or do to have God give us instaneous results on something? In nothing-flat, I had a list started, because guess what? He does give instaneous results for specific actions.

I gave the FHE lesson the next night. First, I talked to them about fiction (kids have to be told that aliens don't really exist, not even on other planets), to point out the difference between Hogwarts and real life. We love fiction and good imaginations, but we do need to recognize that much of it can't come true.

Second, I talked to them about Satan's counterfeits for God's power. Satan does have power to do some things; for example, he can tell fortune teller people about your past so that they can astound you with the things they "know" about you. They cannot tell you your future because Satan doesn't know your future, he only knows your past. We also talked about the "powers" that we get from Satan: anger, deceit, discouragement, violence, etc.

Third, we talked about the powers that God gives us: strength, happiness, love, etc. And then we talked about the "spells" that bring those powers to us. They aren't words, they are actions and choices that we make. For example, the "spell" for the power "righteousness" is obedience. And we talked about how righteousness is a defensive power, that is a power that defends us from temptations and evils. The spell for LOVE is "give love"; we can do this by finding the good in others and complimenting them. Love is an offensive power....a power that can affect other people and bring love to us. And so on. It seemed to really work for my kids, so I made a chart to hang up in our kitchen to remind us. I've attached it if you're interested.

I ended with my testimony that making these good choices truly brings God's power and blessings into our lives.

[natickgirl]

What a great way to take something the children are intersted in & turn it into a Gospel lesson! Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by Erudite

I did an "out of the ordinary" (does that make it extraordinary?? )

Spells, in fantasy land, are a word or sequence of words that you say to get a usually instaneous result. Is there something we can say or do to have God give us instaneous results on something? In nothing-flat, I had a list started, because guess what? He does give instaneous results for specific actions.

E, this is a FANTASTIC idea! Thanks for starting this topic and for this idea-- I'm thinking we could also do some lessons on specific stories, for instance, my DD was asking why the seagull is the state bird, and DS #3 told her the story. Wouldn't that have been a fun FHE? And easy for him, too. Thank you!!

I'm totally going to do the fantasy/reality FHE soon. That is excellent!

[Erudite]

One more thought with fantasy/reality...I've had to tell my kids several times that aliens, sentient beings NOT created in God's image, do not exist. I said that above. But today in the car, my daughter was saying that a friend had asked when Adam and Eve came to the Earth. My daughter, having recently watched a documentary that talked about proto-humans and neanderthals, reasoned out that they must have appeared between ice ages. And then my other daughter, holding new fish for their tank, said something about the development of humans because we used to fish...thank you discovery channel.

I intervened and told them that we were NEVER fish nor were we ever neanderthals. We are of divine lineage and humans that held the spirits who are spirit children of God started with Adam and Eve; these are our first parents and no one preceded them on this Earth as far as we've been told. We don't have fish or monkeys or dinosaurs in our divine lineage. Those beings who were human-like on the evolutionary scale did not contain spirits who were children of God and thus we are not actually related, so please...don't say "we were fish"; we are Children of God.

Anyway, it's just one of those things that we have to be careful about in correcting. I love discovery channel documentaries, but they don't operate with a revealed gospel perspective, so they occasionally need some additional information added to them.

[5ft Diva]

We did this tonight. My kids paid attention AND I could tell they felt the Spirit. Thanks, E, for this great lesson. It really connected with my kids.