MM: Family Home Evening for Toddlers

So, I decided to start a new section on this blog.

Sometimes it is hard to have age appropriate activities for a toddler in family home evening. So, I decided I actually need to sit down and plan the activities and lessons before hand. I keep reading things about how I need to be teaching my son the gospel. In a recent talk by Elder Nelson titled "The Sabbath is a Delight," he said:

We make the Sabbath a delight when we teach the gospel to our children. Our responsibility as parents is abundantly clear. The Lord said, “Inasmuch as parents have children in Zion … that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.”¹⁶

Years ago the First Presidency stressed the importance of quality family time. They wrote:

“We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.

“We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction, and wholesome family activities. However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform.”

So, I started thinking about how I'm sharing the gospel with my son. We have family home evening every week, but we haven't always made the activities really age appropriate. So, I'm going to start coming up with and sharing my age appropriate activities with others who are struggling with the same thing. If you want to use my ideas, please do. That's why I share them. If you want to share them with others, please just give me the credit.

Anyway, I truly believe it is important to share the gospel with our children. Firm foundations must begin when the house is being built. If we wait until it is already erected, it is super difficult and tragedy may strike while we attempt it. There are a lot of resources out there to help us, if we take the time to look for them. Hopefully I can shorten the research for someone who is busier than I am.

I'll try to put up a new activity at least once a week.

Here's the first week's link!

What to Do When Trapped in the House?

Snow can be a wonderful thing.  People love to ski, sled, and play in it.  Having grown up in the west my whole life, snow was a common sight.  From the months of September through April, we usually had snow on the ground.

I love snow for Christmas, and I really like the first few snowfalls.  I love really, really deep snow.  However, after five or six months, I usually start getting a little tired of it.  By that point, it usually gets black, hard, and disgusting.  The February through April snow if often too stubborn to melt, but not good enough to do anything else with.  It basically becomes frozen mud-ice.

I am pretty excited today, because it is snowing right now.  I'm excited for Kevin to learn to play in the snow.  I'm excited to take him sledding and to build snowmen with him.  

The snow has come pretty late this year.  Usually by Halloween, there is already snow on the ground and we are already half-way through November.  The snow might be around to stay.

Which brings up a new difficulty.  Usually, when Kevin and I get bored, we head outside.  We go on walks or go play on the playground.

Kevin is too young to enjoy some indoor activities, but too old to keep his attention on things for long.  Some days I am struggling to find age-appropriate things for us to do together.  Especially when I'm trying to get things done.

I would love to hear some ideas that other people have had to activities to do with an eleven-month-old who can walk.

We play soccer and we play with toys a bit, but I'm running out of ideas. He likes to help clean and do dishes, but often 'helping' turns into 'getting hurt' or 'not helping'.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions that have worked for you.  Otherwise, it's going to be a long winter.