White: Little LDS Ideas: {Sharing Time Idea} Family Prayer, Family ...

Sharing Time Ideas from the 2013 Outline IDENTIFY THE DOCTRINE AND ENCOURAGE UNDERSTANDING?(seeing an object lesson): Have a child hold a bundle of sticks. Explain that the sticks represent members of a family. Write ?family prayer,? ?family scripture study,? and ?family home evening? on three strips of paper. Ask the children how these activities strengthen or help hold families together. Invite children to wrap the papers around the sticks. Explain that these activities invite the Spirit into our homes and lives and bring us closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, which makes our families stronger. ENCOURAGE APPLICATION?(drawing pictures): Give the children pieces of paper, and invite them to draw pictures of activities they have done with their families that have strengthened them. Invite them to share what they drew with their families at home. Sharing Time Ideas from Little LDS Ideas I love the ?Identify the Doctrine? idea from the outline. That would be a great way to start your sharing time. You could even invite a child up and hand them one stick and ask them to break it. They should be able to break it quite easily. Then give them the bundle of sticks and have them try to break them.
You could also share this great story from ?The Friend:? ?Do you have a rope?? the man in the boat called out. The man?s?family had been fishing when their boat motor stopped. They had no way of getting to shore. Weldon?s dad steered his boat closer. Weldon?s brothers got a long rope and threw one end to the man. When the rope was securely tied to both boats, Weldon?s dad slowly towed the man?s family and their boat to shore. Looking at the rope, Weldon asked his mom, ?Is our rope strong enough to pull the boat?? ?Look closely at the rope,? Mom replied. Weldon could see the rope was made of lots of individual strands twisted together. ?When all the strands work together, the rope is strong?just like our family,? Mom said. Weldon asked, ?What do we do to make our family strong?? Mom said he was strengthening their family each time he answered, ?I will!? and happily did his assigned jobs or was kind to his brothers and sister. What are you doing to make your family strong? Do you show love for each family member? Do you answer, ?I will!? when asked to help? An important way to have a happy family is to do things together, whether working in the garden or taking a trip. You can contribute to the happiness in your home. When asked who will help, you can answer, ?I will!? {From ?The Friend,? September 2004}

?Family Match: Explain that when we do wholesome activities with our families we invite the Spirit into our homes and lives and bring us closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, which makes our families stronger.

For this activity you will be playing a matching/memory game. You will need to find several pictures of activities that you could do as a family. You will need 2 copies of each picture. Attach colored pieces of paper or cardstock to the back of each picture. To Play place all of the pictures on a table or have them on a wall, chalkboard, or bulletin board. Invite a child to come to the front and flip 2 pictures over. If they match discuss what is going on in the picture or what activity it represents. If the 2 pictures do not match have the child flip them back over and pick another child to come and flip 2 other cards over. You could also have a picture of a family with the phrase: I can strengthen my family by..... As the children find the matches, have them attach the card to the picture. At the end of the game you can read the phrase and then have the children say each activity that is on the card. Family Win, Lose, or Draw: For this activity you will need a chalkboard, dry-erase board or large paper to draw on. Have several different ways you could strengthen your family written on small pieces of paper (for example, making your sister?s bed, sharing your toys, and so on). Or you could have the child think of something and then have them tell you what it is. Give the child 30 seconds to draw the scene, and allow the group to guess what it is. Choose another child to draw and repeat. You could also give them the option of drawing or acting. I also thought of focusing on the ?Strengthening? part of this week?s topic. Here is another idea that I had that you could use: You will be using the stick idea from the beginning of the lesson.

Have a stick with a picture of a family attached to it. Tell the children that this is the ?Miller Family? or any other name.

Break the stick. Explain that in order to have a strong family there are things you need to do. Show the picture of the family that was on the stick and say that this family really wants to be a strong family, but they need help knowing how to make their family strong. Do you think you can help them become a strong family? Before Primary you will need to gather lots of sticks. You will also need to write several different activities that can strengthen families onto pieces of paper and also activities that do NOT strengthen families. You can have the pieces of paper inside of a container or you can?make a ?Punch A Box??(Click Here to see a Punch a Box)?and place the pieces of paper in there. To Play: Have the picture of the family and one stick displayed on a table at the front of the Primary Room. Invite a child to the front and have them choose a piece of paper from the container or from the Punch-A-Box. Have the child read what is on the paper and have them tell you if it is something that will strengthen families. If it is, have them add a stick to the previous stick (you can use a string/rope/rubber band to keep the sticks together). If the piece of paper that they picked is something that doesn?t strengthen families you could have the children throw it away. Keep doing this until you have read all the pieces of paper or until time runs out. And Keep adding a stick to the bundle every time you read a piece of paper that has something that strengthens families. By the end of your lesson you should have a large bundle of sticks. Attach the picture of the family to the large bundle and try to break it. Explain to the children that because the family chose to do things that would strengthen their family they are now a strong family.

And that's it. I hope you enjoy my Sharing Time Ideas for this week.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day & a great Sharing Time!

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sheena