FHE Idea: King Benjamin

Teach your family about King Benjamin and what he told his people.  Using marshmallows, toothpicks, and a sheet of paper you can erect your own tower and tents.  Then quiz your family members on the lesson and for every right answer someone gets to eat a marshmallow!

For the complete lesson (with lots of scripture references) see my original post on the yourLDSradio blog.

You can easily liken the story of King Benjamin to modern day General Conference by using our "A Prophet Speaks: King Benjamin Primary Talk".  Not only does it make a great Primary talk for later, but the pictures and text are perfect for little ones with short attention spans!

Freebie Friday: Printable Paper Dolls

Say hello to Macy and Kacy - they're our new printable paper dolls and they are stinking adorable.  Not only that, but they come with a whopping 32 different clothing choices!  And you can get them FREE!

Just click the pdf icon below the preview picture on our site.  (You can also put them in your cart, but then you'll have to pay for them.)

If you like this freebie, make sure to share the deal with your friends, family and co-workers!  (And also possibly the mail delivery guy, if you feel like chatting with him.)

Giveaway: EFY 2012 Music

Especially For Youth always has the best music, don't you think?  This year's theme was Arise and Shine Forth (just like the 2012 YW theme) and the whole album is full of awesome.

My favorite song on the CD is by Kaity Whitcomb and called "My Story".  It's my fave because it was written by one of my bestest friends, Stephanie Mabey.  (In my mind we're total buds and hang out in my imaginary world all the time.  We even have identical twin pegasus unicorns with orange glittery horns. Mine is named Starla.)

We have THREE 2012 EFY CD's to give away and you could win one RIGHT NOW!  yay.

To enter this giveaway:

1- Leave a comment telling us how much you love EFY music.

2- Subscribe to the yourLDSradio blog or facebook page.  (Leave me a comment and let me know you did that too.)

3- Follow our blog/facebook/twitter or sign up for our newsletter.  (And let me know that you did that too.  Too.)

We'll be announcing THREE winners on the morning of Saturday July 28th!

Free Pioneer Printable

I loved this song as a kid, and now my kids love singing it too (you can sing "and walked..." over and over and over, to see who's the most obnoxious - it's great).

Enjoy the free 8x10" printable, and I hope everyone takes a few minutes to remember and honor our pioneer ancestors!

FHE Idea: Pioneer Children

I'll be posting all our new FHE lesson ideas somewhere new!  You can find them on the yourLDSradio blog every monday morning.  Or, if you forget to check there, I'll be posting a recap every monday here too.

This week's lesson idea: Little Pioneer Children

Teach your kids what pioneer children were like and how they can be a modern day pioneer by walking "with heaven in view".  The lesson is based on the song "Pioneer Children Were Quick to Obey" found in the Children's Songbook and goes great with our Day After Day pioneer file folder game!

Click over to the original FHE idea post to get all the details! 

Freebie Friday: Toddler Travel Bingo

'Tis the season for roadtrips so we have one our favorite travel games for the freebie this week!

To get the Toddler Travel Bingo printable game for free just click on the pdf icon under the preview image in our shop.

(If you put it in your cart, you'll be charged - there is this ongoing struggle between good, which is me, and evil, which is our coupon codes not working, but SOMEDAY we'll get back to doing our freebies like normal because good always triumphs over evil.  right?)

FHE Idea: Why are We Baptized?

It was only a year ago that my oldest child was baptized.  It was a really important day for our family.  And while the experience was completely amazing, in some ways I wish we would have talked a little more about it as a family.

So here's an FHE idea about Baptism, one of a few I'll be having with my family before we have another family baptism at the end of the year.

FHE Theme: Why are we baptized?

Scripture: Alma 46:15, Fourth Article of Faith, Mosiah 18:10

Songs: "Baptism" Children's Songbook, and "Lord, Accept into Thy Kindgom" LDS Hymn book

Start the lesson by saying how important you think baptism is.  I know that testimony time is usually closer to the end of lessons, but I think it's good to emphasize that this topic is really special, especially for those who have been baptized or going to be baptized soon. 


Story: Tell the story of your baptism, or the baptism of a close relative or friend.  Mention how you (or they) felt, and how you (or they) made it an extra special day by having a new dress, or suit, or a family gathering, or whatever.


Then tell the story of Jesus being baptized.  Emphasize that baptism is so important that Jesus, who was perfect, was also baptized.  You can find the story of Jesus's baptism in Matthew 3:13-17 - this version includes the part where John the Baptist questions why Jesus wants to be baptized and Jesus answers, "it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness".

Now's the time to tell everyone WHY we're baptized.  Here are some reasons and talking points ( of course you can add to this list):

1- Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to.  John 3:5

2- When we are baptized we are taking on Jesus's name by calling ourselves Christians.  Alma 46:15, Mosiah 21:35

3- When we get baptized we promise Heavenly Father that we'll always choose the right or repent.  

4- Heavenly Father will forgive and forget all of the sins we committed before we were baptized. Moses 6:59, Acts 22:16

If you'd like to add a simple game to your Family Home Evening we suggest Baptism Bingo.  By doing something fun with the kids during the lesson, hopefully it will help even the small ones associate happy thoughts with what they learned.

We'll be adding another lesson or two about baptism later, such as "what will happen when I'm baptized?"  Plus another lesson about being confirmed and getting the Holy Ghost.  So watch for those too!

Freebie Friday: Sight Words Flash Cards

Today's freebie is our brand new Sight Words Flash Cards!

These will come in super duper handy if you have an early reader, or a child who just needs a bit of practice memorizing basic sight words.  You can use the 32 sight word cards to quiz your child or play games and make learning mucho fun!

To get this freebie just click on the pdf icon below the preview picture in our shop.  (You can also put it in your cart, but you'll have to pay for it that way.)

If you like our freebie, let all your friends, family, and random acquaintances know!  Thanks!

FHE Idea: Service

FHE Theme: Service makes us happy.

Scripture: Matthew 22:37-40, Matthew 25:40

Songs: "If We're Helping We'rd Happy" and "Love One Another" Children's Songbook

Story: "We'll Carry You", from the February 2011 Friend, is a great story about service told by President Monson.  Plus it ends with some examples of what four children did to provide service to others.  You can find the article on the lds.org website here.

If you'd like to add an activity to the lesson to make it a bit longer, try our Service Printable Booklet and Smile Handout.  The booklet is fun to fold and color, and includes a page where you have to think of what YOU can do to provide service, so it's great for getting kids to think.  Plus, the smile handout is just fun to hold up to your face!  (I'm thinking family-service-smiles photo opp.)

It would be great to end your lesson with the new video put out by the church:

Freebie Friday: Printable Gospel Puzzles

So I've been slightly MIA from the blog again.  It's because I got some sort of nasty virus that stole two weeks of my life.  Because, you know, why not kick off the summer with being sick?  Anyways, I'm mostly better now, so let's talk shop - we have a brand new product for the freebie today!

You can get our new Four Gospel Paper Strip Puzzles for FREE by going to our site and clicking on the pdf icon just under the preview picture.

(It's available to put in your cart too, but then you'll have to pay, so don't do that, ok?)

If you like our freebie today, could you pretty please share that opinion with all of your friends via facebook, twitter, pinterest, google+, cell phone, or by yelling over your back fence to the neighbors?  Thanks!