FHE (Family Home Evening) Ideas for 4 and Younger

I have an almost 4 year old who is brilliant, see here if you don't believe me, and a 17 month old who is just as quick. We have good times at our FHE's and I think there are a couple factors at work for success, as follows:

1. We pray for the spirit to be with us at Family Home Evening.

2. We keep it short.

3. We keep the girls moving.

I'm going to 2 baby showers within the next couple weeks for ladies that are having their 3rd child. I wanted to do something different so I'm giving them FHE ideas that would last for a month. Perhaps these could help you! They are specifically designed for 4 and under. Prayer is not included in the format because I usually assume that is a given to do!

I Have A Body FHE

Song: I am a child of God (p.2 CS)

Opening Activity: Have the children point to their eyes. Nose. Ears. Shoulders. Have them choose a body part to point to. Ask them why bodies are important. We have bodies, just like our Heavenly Father and Jesus!

Scripture: Read Genesis 1:27. Show GAK 403, picture of the first Vision. We have bodies, just like our Heavenly Father and Jesus! To be created in His image means that you look like your Heavenly Father. It also means you can become like Him.

Poem: Have the children do what they hear in the poem.
Jacqueline Schiff, “My Busy Body,” Friend, Nov 2007, 7

My face can smile.

My hands can clap.

My feet can dance.

My toes can tap.

My eyes can blink.

My knees can bend.

My nose can sniff

The garden scents.

My arms can reach.

My head can nod.

My body’s busy.

I thank Thee, God.

Activity: What was your favorite thing to do with your body in that poem? Now as a family go to each room in your house. Bring a camera! Take a picture of each person’s favorite thing to do with their body in that room. (E.G. The kitchen. Mom poses cleaning the counter. Dad poses doing the dishes. Children pose eating. Take pictures of each pose. Go to the living room. Take a picture of Mom playing the piano. Dad reading the newspaper on the couch. Etc. Be creative!)

Read 1 Cor. 6: 19 (Bodies are temples of God) Bear Testimony of the importance of our bodies.

As you enjoy your treat, look at the pictures you took on your computer or TV. You could even make a posterboard attaching some photos of the FHE and the words “We love (draw a big heart) our bodies!” and hang it up in the kitchen to enjoy over the week.

The City of Enoch FHE

Song: Give Said the Little Stream (p. 236 CS)

Opening Activity: Display GAK 600, the world. Ask the children if the world is a perfect place? Is the city we live in a perfect place? Ask the children if everyone in the world is happy? Are there some people who are sad? Have the children tell you what a perfect place would be like.

Scripture: Moses 7:18-19 Show GAK 120, city of Enoch. Summarize the story. “When Enoch was a young man the Lord told him to tell the people to repent. Enoch told the people what the Lord had said. Many believed Enoch's words, repented, and were baptized. These people built a city, Zion, where they lived together in peace, sharing all they had. The people in Zion became so righteous that they were taken up to heaven to live forever in the presence of God.” (From GAK Summary)

Activity:
Joyce Grisham, “The City of Enoch,” Friend, Apr. 2002, 41 click here for the print out page then

1. Trim the page along the heavy solid lines. Cut out the city on the broken lines.
2. Using the pencil point, punch small holes through the circles at A, B, C, and D. Thread one end of the string into B, down the back of the city, and out C. Then thread one end of the string through A, the other end through D, and tie the two ends together behind the page.

Play the Zion game. See if we can get the city up to heaven little by little by answering the questions.

1.In Zion people share all they have with each other. Can we share in our home?
2.In Zion there was no poor. What can we do for poor people?
3.In Zion they listened to the prophet Enoch. Who is our latter day prophet?
4.In Zion there was repentance and baptism. What can I do when I make a mistake? Who will baptize me and through what power?
5.Zion was full of righteous people. Can I be that good too?
6.Zion was taken up to heaven. What can I do to get to Heaven?

Song: I’m trying to be like Jesus (p.78 CS) Jesus was perfect. Zion was a place that lived as Jesus would live and made choices like Jesus would make.

Bear testimony of Jesus as our perfect example and of Zion. For treat, suggest sharing some with a neighbor, after all isn’t that what the people of Zion would do!


The Prophet Job FHE

In opening prayer, have a blessing on the treat, as it’s incorporated into lesson.

Opening Activity: Hold up a box of band-aids. Ask the children if they have ever been sick? Have they ever felt sad? Tell them tonight we will talk about a prophet who got really sick and really sad! But band aids, doctors, even his own friends- could not help him! Only His faith and the power of Jesus Christ could.

Song: Follow the Prophet (p.110 CS) with this made up verse
By Silly Ol' Me

Job was a prophet, tested, tried and true!
Faced with boils and blisters, just to name a few!
Even though he suffered, he would not give in.
Our Redeemer liveth! O’er trials we shall win!

Activity: Dress up a member of the family as Job. Have lots of props corresponding to the story. Have fruit by the foot to attach to the body as boils and sores. Act out the story.

Jane McBride Choate, “Scriptural Giants: Job—He Would Not Deny God,” Friend, Jun 1987, 48(See Job 1–42.)

In the land of Uz lived a faithful and obedient man named Job. Job had been greatly blessed by the Lord. He had seven sons and three daughters, whom he loved very much. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yokes of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a great deal of property.

Job was grateful to God for all the blessings that he had received, and he worshiped God.
Satan was displeased because Job was so obedient and humble. So Satan complained to God, saying that Job was only righteous because he was so rich. If his riches were taken away, Satan argued, Job would quickly deny God. Then Satan challenged, “But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that [Job] hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.”

Because of His faith in Job, the Lord allowed Satan to test Job. Everything Job had, including his children, the Lord would allow Satan to destroy, but he was not to physically harm Job. Satan agreed.
One day a messenger came to Job and reported that all his oxen and donkeys had been stolen and that his servants had been killed. A second messenger immediately followed the first, carrying the news that Job’s sheep and shepherds had been struck by lightning. While Job was still speaking to the second messenger, a third arrived and said that Job’s camels had all been stolen and their caretakers killed.
Finally, a fourth messenger arrived and told Job that all his children had been killed when a wind blew down the house of Job’s oldest son while all Job’s children were inside.

Heartbroken, Job tore his clothing and shaved his head, as was the custom then, to show his great sorrow. But despite his grief, Job did not blame God. Instead, he continued to worship Him, saying, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job’s faithfulness angered Satan. He now claimed that if Job were to suffer physically, he would deny God. But the Lord still had faith in Job. He allowed Satan to afflict Job with pain and suffering, but not death.
Satan caused boils to break out all over Job’s body, and they pained him continually. His friends told Job that he must have sinned terribly, or such a punishment would never have been sent from heaven. Even Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. But Job knew that he had been obedient, and he would not deny God. He held fast to his faith and said, “I know that my redeemer liveth, …

“And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
The Lord was very pleased with Job’s faithfulness. He healed his sores and blessed him with another seven sons and three daughters and with twice as many animals as he had previously owned.

As you enjoy your treat, (the fruit by the foot boils that came off when God healed him) ask the children what they’ve learned about the prophet Job. Listen to the hymn, I know that My Redeemer Lives while looking at different pictures of the Savior.

Bear testimony that even though we are sad and have problems, God is watching over us and we should always have faith in Heavenly Father, just like Job.

I Can Have Peace FHE

Song: I feel my Savior’s Love (p.74 CS)

Opening Activity: Turn on the radio loudly and the TV and anything else that can make noise. Ask the children if they can hear you? Should we have FHE with all this noise? Turn off everything. Sit and listen to the silence. Isn’t that more peaceful?

Activity: Have a couple cardboard boxes and tell the children they are boats. Show them the picture of Jesus Stilling the Storm (GAK 211). Talk about that story. Tell them we are in a storm and we’re going to have to find stories about peace and calm. Take some masking tape with you also. You can make X’s on things that are noisy and that can distract us from peace. (Like the TV or radio or video games... talk about Why too!) Take them in their boats to different parts of the house where the following pictures and scriptures are hanging up;

GAK 307 (King Benjamin “The Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come” Mosiah 4:3)

GAK 311 (Anti-Nephi-Lehites “And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace” (Alma 24:19).

GAK 602 (Gift of the Holy Ghost) “Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11).

A picture of Mommy and Daddy at the temple. Talk about what it feels like in the temple.**

A set of scriptures (on a table). Talk about how the scriptures can help us feel peace.

End with the following scripture D&C 19:23. Bear testimony that though storms can happen in life and it can get really noisy at times, we can find happiness and joy through the peace of Jesus Christ.

** I know not everyone has had the opportunity to be sealed in the temple. Please, I do not mean to offend or hurt anyone. One of my favorite scriptures of all times is Isaiah 55:8-9, God's ways are higher than our ways! It will all work out in the end, Heavenly Father knows what he's doing.