I’ve been thinking about Easter and its religious significance, and I wanted to make this year’s celebration a more personal and spiritual experience for myself.  So, when I read Eric Hunstman’s article (here) on how his family observes Easter, I jumped on his tradition of reading in the New Testament each day of the week before Easter about that day on the last week of the Savior’s mortal life.  For each day of the week, he’s posted a simple list of scripture references from the four Gospels detailing what happened on the correlative day of the week of the first Easter.  I’m sure this isn’t a new idea and that I could probably find a similar list in the LDS Bible Dictionary or by googling it, but that’s where I found it and I give him credit.

Each day’s reading so far has only taken a few minutes to read, and I’ve found myself coming away wanting to know and understand more.  So I checked out the New Testament institute manual lessons about that time period here.  It’s really helpful to have the added context of maps and historical details and discussions of how the passages of scripture relate to each other.  I definitely recommend spending the extra time reading about the events of Easter there.

Easter and Passover overlap this year, and I’ve been thinking about their intertwined messages.  Since I was a little girl when we lived in Israel, my parents have participated in a Passover seder every year.  I haven’t been able to join them in a long time, but I remember our seders as some of the most meaningful celebrations of my life.  I miss them!  I really should find a community seder to attend someday.  I wonder if Colin would want to go with me.  I just looked it up and there’s one in Berkeley tomorrow.   That would be a totally appropriate Family Home Evening…but it’s $45 each!  Eeek.   And how would I explain the wine to my kids… and our no alcohol thing to the hosts?  Maybe another year.  And I have a box of Matzah in the cupboard for my own mini-celebration of the Exodus.   There is a lot to be grateful for this week.

Speaking of Family Home Evening, we should have an Easter FHE tomorrow.  If we do, and it were to go the way I planned it (it never does), this is how I’d do it:

Song: Did Jesus Really Live Again?

Prayer

Lesson: Watch the DVD of “To This End Was I Born” (or on YouTube here), or the shorter “Lamb of God” video if we have less time

Talk about what we saw.  Discuss how the symbols of eggs and flowers and Spring itself point to Jesus Christ and the resurrection.

Activity: Dyeing eggs is an obvious one.  Or we could perform our talents for our family reunion talent show–Grandma wants at least one of the kids to recite the 13th Article of Faith. I’m not totally confident that any of them will be able overcome their stage fright, but maybe practicing would help.

Song: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Prayer

Refreshments:  How about these cute little chocolate “nests” with jellybeans for eggs?  They look super easy.  They have the added advantage of being gluten-free, which is good because we found out a couple of months ago that Colin is gluten-intolerant so he has to eat food that has no wheat in it.  If we wanted to get more complicated, I’ll bet we could use our favorite 5 Minute Cookies recipe to make the nests.

Simpler, we could just distribute Peeps.  I’m not all that into them taste-wise, but have to admit they are cute.  And it would get the kids in bed sooner.

Possibly more yummy, but certainly less dessert-y, would be deviled eggs.

Hey, these bunnies are adorable and look easy and kid friendly!

Can you tell I like dessert?

Opening Song: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (Heidi can enthusiastically say “BEAM!” now, so we sing it a lot–”We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet” would be equally appropriate)

Opening Prayer

Lesson:

I had one of the kids hold up a picture of the First Presidency (Pres. Monson, Pres. Eyring, and Pres. Uchtdorf) and asked them to identify the Prophet and President of the Church.  They pointed him out and I asked one of them to tell us his name (“President Monson!”). One of the other kids was wiggling, so I gave her an old Conference issue of  the Ensign to hold and show everyone–President Monson was on the cover, smiling, and we talked about how he loves children and wants us to be happy.

I explained that the Prophet is the one who Jesus Christ has called to lead the Church, and that when he wants the whole Church to know or do something, he tells the prophet.  I asked Colin if he knew any scriptures about prophets, and he opened to Amos 3:7 and helped one of the kids read “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”  Colin explained the verse to everyone.

Then we read a scripture about prophets from  D&C 21:5 that says “For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.”  Colin and I chatted a bit with each other about what “patience” means in that verse and the kids got bored.

I planned to have our family look at a talk from President Monson from the most recent General Conference and decide together what we could work on this month to do better at following the prophet, but the attention span had been exhausted and it was time to move on.  Maybe we’ll do that part this week instead.

Activity: Follow the leader around the house

Closing Song: Follow the Prophet (Children’s Songbook)

Closing Prayer

Treat: Oatmeal cookies Grandma baked earlier in the day

I’ll try to come back later and add links and pictures, but the Church web page is apparently having technical difficulties at the moment.  I can’t get to anything but the scriptures right now!  I guess if you can only get one thing, the scriptures are the thing to get.

Tell the children that you are going to pretend that a special visitor is coming to your house. His name is Jesus. Ask them to think how excited they would feel to have Jesus come to visit them.

• • What should we do to get ready? (Clean the house. Dress in nice clothes.)
• • How will we act when Jesus comes?

The children could act out the things they would do.

Explain to the children that if Jesus were here they would have a good feeling. They would know he loves them.

Tell the children that if Jesus were in your home they would want to try very hard to be good and to show their love for one another.

Explain that each day they can have that good feeling in their home by sharing, by not fighting, and by being kind to one another.

Sing “A Happy Family” (Children’s Songbook, p. 198).

• • What does the song say we all do in our family? (Love each other.)
• • How do you think mother knows you love her? (Help the children name some things they do that show love.)
• • How does father know you love him? How does sister? How does brother?

You might use pictures from books and magazines to illustrate some of the things you talk about that show love.

Explain that you always want to have love in your home so that a good spirit can be there.

Little children can also participate in helping with the chart entitled “Love One Another.” Explain that when they see someone who is showing love in the family they can come and tell you. You will write that person’s name on the chart for them. You could also help them color in a part of the chart.

Explain to the children that they can also be a good example in showing their love throughout the week.

Show your family the chart entitled “Love One Another.” Explain that each time they see a family member showing love to someone in the family, they are to color in one of the rays around the heart. They are also to write that person’s name down on the chart. Each family member could have his name on the chart several times.

Put the chart up in a place where all the family members can easily see, read, and color it, such as on the refrigerator or a bulletin board.

Challenge each family member to show love in your home throughout the coming week so that all the rays of the heart will be filled in before your next home evening. Challenge them to feel the spirit of love in your home.

For an activity we could play “spin the bottle,” only when the bottle lands on the person everyone says something they like about that person.

For dessert, I’m thinking it would be fun to make a heart-shaped cake, or maybe heart-shaped cookies like these.

So, we talked about families and how we’re related to people in our families.  Both kids were fascinated the entire time and that makes me think it was a great success.

Last night we didn’t do my Repentance lesson for FHE because I’d forgotten that we’d invited the missionaries over to teach the lesson!  They came over to teach us a lesson on the Preach My Gospel book that they use to help them learn to be better missionaries.  I’ve been trying to read through it a bit at a time for a couple of months, and discovered there’s a lot of helpful stuff in there for me, too, and not just as a “member missionary.”  There’s stuff on setting goals, time management, and basic gospel doctrine.  I’ve found that it’s really helpful when I’m preparing for a Primary sharing time–I like to check my facts about the basic doctrine in it sometimes just to make sure I don’t accidentally veer off into a “Bethany opinion” tangent with the kids.

Anyway, the kids really enjoyed having the missionaries over since they got to climb all over them and look at the pictures in their books.  We sang “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” as the opening and closing songs at Degen’s request, with a “The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock” and several “Popcorn Popping” songs sprinkled into the lesson.  The missionaries gave us a tour of the book and helped us practice with a role-play giving a pass-along card to a friend or stranger.  We had a great time and it was good to get to know our missionaries a little better.

So, if you’re out of Family Home Evening ideas or just need a change, call the missionaries in your ward and invite them to come give a lesson in your home.  They’re probably supposed to visit and teach members anyway and may not have gotten to you yet (or are too shy/busy to ask you).

Sharing Time ideas on Repentance

and more Sharing Time ideas on Repentance

Coloring picture Jonah Repents

Roller-box story about a boy repenting for taking some toys

Roll-play the following stories: GAK 309 (Alma Baptizes in the Waters of Mormon), GAK 310 (Ammon Defends the Flocks of King Lamoni), GAK 311 (The Anti-Nephi-Lehies Burying Their Swords). Each of these stories tells of people who lived lives of rebellion, repented, and turned to serve the Lord.

FHE Resource Book lesson on repentance.

Momorize Article of Faith #3 or #4

An online compilation of these and other Repentance lessons.

An object lesson using “sins be as scarlet” Isaiah scripture.

Watch the Book of Mormon Stories video segment on Alma the Younger.

Steps to repentance lesson with printable word strips.

Now, for our family, here’s the plan:

Song: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Prayer

Lesson: I think we’ll do the object lesson with the food coloring, then watch the segment on Alma the Younger.

Activity: Duck, duck, Goose

Song: I am a Child of God

Prayer

Treat: Strawberries, or maybe a piece of candy out of the Halloween candy stash in the cupboard

Adapting this to little ones is a bit challenging for me, but I have a couple of ideas.

1. Go on a treasure hunt where the three clues are the three pieces of the treasure map Pres. Monson mentions.  Have treats at the end of the treasure hunt.

2. Pres. Monson quotes The Music Man in his article saying “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”  Read that, discuss goals we need to quit procrastinating, and then watch The Music Man as a family.

3. Pres. Monson quotes someone as saying “Don’t save something only for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion.”  Do something you would on a special occassion.  Have everyone tell everyone else they love them.  Have a treat on your best dishes/china.  Wear fancy clothes to FHE.  Make a cake with candles to show that today is special.  Make one goal as a family that helps you live in the present.

4. Pres. Monson talks about preparing for the future.  Talk about things like emergency preparedness (food storage, 72 hour kits), financial preparations (savings, missions, education, etc.), and/or education.  Use pictures representing each topic on a flannel board.

Sing “Keep the Commandments,” Hymn 303 and “I Hope They Call me on a Mission” CS 169.

Treat: chocolate gold coins would be an ideal “treasure” for this lesson, or a cake with candles to show it’s a special occassion

Church leaders have instructed members to set aside Monday night as "family home evening." This is a time for families to study the gospel together and to do other activities that strengthen the family spiritually, create family memories, and increase unity and love. (Click here for more official church info on FHE)

Here's what I found: 

Deseret Book puts out an FHE packet on a new theme each week.  Click here for a link to their archive.

Families in Zion has FHE lessons on a bunch of topics.

There are a couple of Yahoo! groups dedicated to FHE ideas and lesson.  For example, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fhe4children/ or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LDSsharing/ or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FHEIdeas/ are a good start.  Some have archives you can search through and ideas for forming FHE Co-ops to share lesson ideas among several families.

The Primary manuals are a great place to get lesson plans.  In all the Church magazines you can find ideas at the end of articles, and The Friend is great in particular for children.  Of course, the Family Home Evening Resource Book is the perfect place to start.

You'll find a FHE Planner here.  And more church quick tips here.