Friday, August 1, 2008

Jesus Calms the Storm


This is both of our boys very favorite family home evening. We have done it many times. We change it up a little bit each time, but Andrew asks for it whenever it is his turn to "teach." It is really easy to put together on a really busy day. It takes virtually no preparation! (Those of my friends who are immersed in Edward and Bella's world right now might need that this week). This past FHE we really focused on the obedience part of the story and how we need to listen to the things Jesus has taught us to do.

Listening: At the dinner table we read the story from the Children's Illustrated Scriptures, Jesus Commands the Wind and Waves. Andrew actually knows this one by heart, so he tells the story to us.

Pretending: We create a storm in our living room. We use our rain stick, musical instruments, and shake a blue blanket to create a storm on the water. Andrew turns the lights on and off to make lightening. I hold up the picture of Jesus that is shown above. When I hold up the picture, all noise and lightening stops, and the winds and the waves obey Jesus. Both boys enjoy this game and we can make it last a long time. We talk about how we need to obey Jesus, too.



Scripture Memorization: To memorize our scripture we all take corners of the blue blanket and shake it up and down while we say the memory verse over and over again. Luke 8:25 "for he commandeth even the awinds and water, and they obey him."


Singing: We sing the chorus to "Master the Tempest is Raging" and then a song of the boys' choice.

Fun Activity: We have included water play at our water table outside with this lesson during the summer.



Snacking: For snack we make Banana Boats . These are fun camping treats we make in the oven. The boys are able to stuff the boats themselves with their favorite treats.



5 comments:

Katie said...

This one looks like fun! We'll have to try it. Last week we did a lesson about Shadrack, Meshak and Abednego. Davin has been talking about throwing me in the fire all week.:) Do you have any recommendations for teaching some of the more challenging concepts to little ones? It has made me really rethink some of the stories in the Bible and what kids must think about them. For example, what do you tell a little guy about Joseph being sold as a slave by his brothers, Abraham trying to kill his son, or Moses being put in a basket on river by his mother? Is this just too big for little ones?

Danielle said...

Thanks for the feedback Katie! And for the question. I had those same questions and decided for our family, we were going to use the primary manuals as kind of a guideline. They have an entire curriculum committee whose job it is to decide when it is developmentally appropriate to introduce some concepts. So since my boys are Sunbeam and Nursery age, I look a lot at that manual. For example, they introduce the story of Jonah and the Whale (next week's post) at that age, but focus on the fact that the Lord sent to fish to help Jonah. So if I teach about Moses, we will focus on how his Mommy was helping him get to a safe place. When I taught about Joseph, I talked about how the Lord protected him and didn't really focus on the whole murder attempt. I will probably wait a while to introduce Abraham sacrificing his son. Although we did talk about the Savior's sacrifice at a young age. I didn't want primary to be the first place Andrew learned that Jesus died. I wanted us to be the ones to answer his questions, address any concerns or fears he might have. I prayed about that decision and I felt the Lord led me to know what to teach Andrew. Does that answer your question? I'd be happy to write a whole post about it if you have more questions or if I didn't address it fully. Thanks Katie!

Jill McQuade said...

Thanks Danielle, we tried this one yesterday- great fun!! Lorelei loved it too! I find that we are done in about 25 mins, but I a lot of that is from combining parts. For example I noticed we did the memorizing part during treats. I need to get better at starting FHE earlier than 7:30 ;)

lujeank said...

This looks like something that my family will love. I am excited to try it out tomorrow evening.

lujeank said...

This looks like something that my family will love. I am excited to try it out tomorrow evening.