Thursday, August 13, 2015

Small and Simple Things ~ Family Home Evening

Today for our blog post we will be continuing the blog series of Small and Simple Things~ Daily things we can do with our family that are simple and make a huge impact! We have been going off of a beautiful quote from Elder L. Tom Perry, which you can find HERE . The part of the quote that we are focusing on today is this, " Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by.... one family home evening" .

What is Family Home Evening or FHE as it is commonly called ? President Hinckley tells us in this quote :

" We have a family home evening program once a week ( Monday night) across the church in which parents sit down with their children. They study the Scriptures. They talk about family problems. They plan family activities and things of that kind. I don't hesitate to say that if every family in the world practiced that one thing, you'd see a very great difference in the solidarity of the families of the world." (Boston Globe Interview, August 14, 2000)

Another quote in the same Ensign article talks about what the Lord expects of us as parents. It's important!

" The Lord expects us to have Family Home Evening- one night a week to gather our children together and teach them the gospel. Isaiah said, ' And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.' That is the commandment : All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And the blessing, ' And great' he said, ' shall be the peace of thy children'. ( Isaiah 54:13) " ( meeting in new caledonia June 17, 2000)

You can read the rest of that fabulous article on Family Home Evening by President Hinckley HERE

                                                       ( image from inevergrewup.net)

It is important to do this each monday night. Be consistent. A small and simple thing we can do that will have powerful effects and blessings on our family. Once a week. It can take 15 minutes, it can take hours if you want! Each family is different and will have to adapt FHE to their specific family. Parents of toddlers can do simple lessons , I have pinned a bunch of cute ideas to my Family Home Evening Pinterest board.. there are simple lessons for toddlers, lessons that require some work and fun, lessons that are good for teenagers, lessons that go by specific topics and things like 55 plus fhe ideas and lessons for the year! I have also pinned some really cute free printable charts for FHE and some cute crafts to make FHE boards for the family. Put it in a prominent spot! We have been so incredibly blessed with so many resources for family home evening ! Now that we understand the importance of it, and how to go about doing it, we can discuss some great resources! First of all, here is my pinterest board for Family Home Evening... I will continue to add to it, because I'm addicted to Pinterest hehehe!


Follow Jaelle Kaylor's board Family Home Evening on Pinterest.



The church has had a Family Home Evening Resource book out forever... I remember my mom using it when I was little and I used it with my kids too, a link to that is HERE



A website that I adore and I have had a button on the sidebar for it here on the blog for a really long time, because I love it so much, is A Year of FHE . This woman is crazy talented and has taken a lot of time to write up hundreds of FHE lesson plans and she has them listed by topic etc and she has over 400 coloring pages to go along with the lessons and a bunch of cute freebie printables for your own use for your family. The lessons and coloring pages are free, it's just a crazy awesome site. It makes it so incredibly easy to plan FHE each week.

Living Scriptures has an amazing site at www.ldsfamilyfun.com and they have tons of family home evening lessons that go along with the DVD's from Living Scriptures. It has links to download all of the activity books that go along with the Animated Scripture DVD's and more... it just has tons of great resources for FHE and it is so much fun to use the DVD's as part of FHE . We are doing that right now as a family, watching the prophet series and learning about our prophets. But this website makes it so simple to be able to use the DVD's and then apply them to real life now, and to be able to have the downloads to the activity books and lessons ? Well that's just awesome. Remember The special codes are still available for you to use... from 7:30 am - 2:30 pm MST contact Misty and give her the code M98B and tell her that JL from LDS Parenting sent you. From 1 pm - 8 pm MST contact Paula and give her the code P9CN and tell her that JL from LDS Parenting sent you. They will set you up with a free gift and then help you be able to get set up with the dvd's and they are always running awesome promo's where you get free stuff ;) The number is 1-800-727-0828. 


The Red Headed Hostess site also has an amazing bunch of products to help you with FHE... you can go HERE to see just a few of the products that can be used for Family Home Evening. Until December we have been given a code to use that will give you a 25% off discount, one time use per customer, you just load up your digital cart and then at the checkout enter the code : ldsparenting 

So basically, we have a ton of resources for FHE, we know why it is important and we know how to do it. So let's make this a habit. A small and simple thing we can do each week to teach our children and gain blessings as a family. 

Happy Parenting! Love, JL~ 

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Small and Simple Things~ Family Scripture Study



I love this song! I remember being in primary ( a million years ago haha!) and when we learned this song we would clap our hands really loud every time we said the word power! I thought that was super cool as a kid. I still think it is super cool. ;) You know what else is cool ? Family Scripture Study! For today's blog in our Small and Simple Things blog series we are continuing to focus on the quote from Elder L. Tom Perry, and it states "Parents must bring light and truth into their homes....... one Scripture study session... at a time. " This is the part we are focusing on today.

I was actually going to write this post last night and I got busy with the kids and ended up putting it off until today. I'm glad I did! The new themes for 2016 were announced today for the church and I'm just so excited because the primary theme is perfect for this post! I wouldn't have seen it , if I posted this last night! The 2016 primary theme is : I Know The Scriptures Are True. HOW PERFECT!!!! Just think of all the new resources that will be coming out for us also, to teach our children about the Scriptures and to help them to gain a testimony of the power of the Scriptures. :)

Just like Family Prayer which we discussed yesterday HERE , family Scripture study takes just a few moments each day. In fact you can do Scripture study at the same time as family prayer. You don't have to sit for an hour each day and just read from the Scriptures. You can do what is right for your family! If you have little ones, it may work out to just read a few verses each day and then look at a picture from the gospel art kit that corresponds with the Scripture story. If you have older kids and teenagers, you may be looking for something more in depth. I will show you what we are using as a family later on in the post.

There are lots of neat ideas out there on how to make Scripture study more streamlined, efficient, make it a habit, and make it fun! I love the idea of keeping Scriptures in a basket near where you have your Scripture study. Everyone can just grab a Book of Mormon or Bible etc and plop down on the couch and you can begin! That is a great idea! One of the blogs I read had the funniest idea and I wish I had thought of it when my kids were younger ( heck they would probably like it now haha!) she gets a snack... something like teddy grahams, or goldfish crackers etc and the kids sit in front of her and she reads the Scriptures. They are to listen quietly for the phrases "Behold" and "It came to pass" and when they read those words, she tosses them a treat! They love it and I think it's fun! There are just so many great ideas!

So what happens when we start doing family Scripture study each day ? This small and simple thing can bring about powerful blessings. One of my favorite quotes talks about what happens when you read the Book of Mormon daily in your homes.

So beautiful! It takes just a few minutes each day and we can add it in with family prayer. Here are some fun ways to enjoy Scripture study with our families.



(image from redheadedhostess.com)

Once again The Redheaded Hostess has an amazing resource. This is what my family will be using this year for Scripture study. I actually got the digital download so I can print off 3 copies of the page we will be doing that day so that the kids will eventually have a binder full of neat Scripture notes, etc. Just look how cool her Book of Mormon study guide is! She is so amazingly talented! She is a seminary teacher and wow... I'm a little jealous of her seminary students... although we are blessed too because we get to take advantage of her great talents!

(image from redheadedhostess.com)


Here is a sample page close up... how cool is this ???? I can't wait to get started. We are starting school monday ( we homeschool) and this is what we will be using for our family Scripture study which we do at the beginning of our school day. I can't wait.

You can go HERE to check out all of the great resources from
The Redheaded Hostess! 




CLICK HERE TO GET FIRST MONTH FREE!


Another awesome resource is the LIVING SCRIPTURES STREAMING LIBRARY
I was able to have a really long amazing conversation with one of the reps, Misty, and we had a blast throwing around ideas on how to make Scripture study fun and meaningful.

 There are so many resources and family friendly videos etc with LIVING SCRIPTURES STREAMING LIBRARY. Some of the things we talked about were to watch one of the Animated Scripture Stories and then focus on that Scripture story throughout your week in Scripture study.
Choose one of the Scriptures from that particular movie and practice memorizing it throughout the week as a family!

The best part about the streaming library is it is FREE the first month! It costs under ten bucks each month and you have over 1000 different family friendly movies that are targeted especially for Latter Day Saint families. What could be better ??

Just click HERE if you are interested ! 




(image from bookofmormonforkids )



The last resource that I want to share with you for family Scripture study is this awesome interactive Book of Mormon from BOOK OF MORMON FOR KIDS . 

 I had the opportunity last year to check out and use with my family ~and then I gave it to the nursery at my ward and they have loved it so much! This is a wonderful way to do Scripture study with younger kids.

You can find it at  : INTERACTIVE BOOK OF MORMON

And here is a youtube video that explains about it and shows you some of the cute pages!





Good luck with your family Scripture study! 
Small and simple things.... we can do this!

 What are some of your favorite tips and tricks for making sure that you make time daily for Scriptures and what fun things do you do to keep it exciting ? Comment below!

 Happy Parenting! Love, JL~

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Small and Simple Things ~ Family Prayer

*image from susanfitchdesign.blogspot.com 


For our first post in the blog series Small and Simple Things, we will be focusing on family prayer. The quote from Elder L. Tom Perry that we are using for this series states that, " Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer......." This is the part of the quote that we are focusing on in this post.

Family prayer is a small and simple thing we can do each day to bring our families closer together and to gain blessings. It takes just a few minutes each day. Truly a simple thing. Some families do well by having their family prayer early in the morning before father rushes off to work, kids rush off to school, etc, etc .... some families do well by gathering at bedtime and kneeling together to pray before they retire to bed. There are many ways to have family prayer, you just need to find what works best for your family and your schedule and stick to it! Be consistent. Even if you are doing it early in the morning and you are practically falling asleep.... be consistent! Don't give up! There are so many amazing blessings just from doing this one small and simple thing. Kneel together with your family and pray.

In the new nursery manual, Behold Your Little Ones, it states that " by praying together, families can grow closer to Heavenly Father and to each other and invite the Holy Ghost into their home." That is so beautiful! It truly is a beautiful feeling just to kneel together in a circle as a family. Sure you may have little ones trying to crawl away, teens who are rolling their eyes, you may feel like me and want to cry at the thought of being on your poor aching knees... but oh how the Spirit warms your heart as you kneel together and you look at your beautiful family and you being to pray each day. I love the idea of inviting the Holy Ghost into your home also. We want our homes to be havens. This is an amazing and simple way to do that. Teach your children to pray in a reverent, respectful manner. Eyes closed, arms folded, heads bowed, and on your knees if possible. In the manual , lesson 12 gives some cute ideas on how to teach really young kids how to have family prayer. You can go HERE to find the lesson.

I am super excited to tell you guys about a wonderful website that is going to be a big help to my family for sure, and I think your families will really benefit from it. www.theredheadedhostess.com has some amazing resources for families. They have graciously allowed us to have a discount code where we can purchase any of the digital downloads on the site for 25% off. It is a one time use per customer code so load up your cart and take advantage of it! I am telling you this now in this post, because they have created a really beautiful Prayer flipbook that is wonderful for teaching your children about prayer. It even has a page on family prayers.


To get your 25% off discount please go to :    www.theredheadedhostess.com
When you get to the checkout, their will be a place for you to enter a coupon code, or a discount code.
Our discount code is : ldsparenting


There are countless blessings to having family prayer daily. President Hinckley gave a beautiful talk on the blessings of family prayer in the February 1991 Ensign, you can read the article HERE .  I also really like this graphic from the redheaded hostess and it comes in a pdf form to print when you purchase the prayer flipbook, but here is what it says and it is so true!


It would be worthwhile to print this out and have it framed near where you decide to hold family prayer each day. Whether it be in your living room , in your dining room around the table, or even in mommy and daddy's bedroom before bed, this pdf printable would be beautiful to have near your special spot, to remind you of all of the blessings, and also to remind you to do it!

Family prayer is important!  It will become a habit easily, and if you can be consistent with the time and place etc, then I think that it will become so easy to include this small and simple thing that will have such a huge impact on your family.  Happy Parenting! With Love, JL~

Small and Simple Things ~ A Blog Series on Families


Most of you know, how hard I have studied and prayed and tried to learn how to be a good LDS mommy. I am not perfect in any way, but I love learning about what the Prophets and apostles teach us, what our Father in Heaven wants us to do, etc. and how I can try harder. I have a lot of work to do! A long way to go! But I love learning and trying out ideas and most of all , I love parenting my precious children. Lately, I have been impressed with the fact that the prophets and apostles have been talking so much about doing simple things. Little by little. Doing the small and simple things each day with our families and being blessed from that. I am going to focus the next week on writing blog posts on the small and simple things that we can do daily to improve our families.

 I love this quote by Elder L. Tom Perry. He was my favorite. I know you aren't supposed to have favorites! But oh how I loved this man. I loved his big smile, and the way that he just glowed with happiness and the light of Christ. What a wonderful example he was to me. This quote is what I want to focus on this week on the blog. These are small and simple things we can do, to become the righteous, conscientious, persistent parents that our children need us to be.

These are the latter days and our children are special spirits! They need us to work hard! But it doesn't have to be such hard work that we get frightened or tired and stop trying. We need to do the small and simple things. I hope you enjoy this blog series. We have a great offer on the Scripture Study blog post that will be up in just a couple of days. I hope to include some great ideas for us to be able to do these things with our precious families. Feel free to jump in , here on the blog in the comments or on the facebook group, and share some of the ways that your families do these small, simple things daily. Happy Parenting! Love, JL~