Lesson 1: Marriage between a Man and a Woman is Ordained of God

I brought out my album of our courtship and had a blast re-telling “Our Story” to the kids. They loved seeing the pictures of us and hearing some of the juicy details.

Natalie helped me make these cute bride and groom finger puppets and temple. I did all the sewing, but she helped me pick out the fabrics and buttons. I haven’t done any “freestyle” sewing for a long time and really enjoyed it. We’re scheming about turning it into a 3-D project. It is summer after all!  (Idea from madebybedtimetales.blogspot.com.)

One day, I overheard the girls playing with this and re-enacting me being late to the temple on our wedding day. At least they listen, eh?

Lesson 2: The Family is Central to His Plan

theredheadedhostess.com posted these awesome drawings of the Plan of Salvation, which were fun to use in our lesson.

We used some of our Loving Family dolls to recreate our family. Amy and Andrew weren’t very thrilled with their representative dolls (the pickings were slim).

Tyler, on the other hand, was fascinated by his.

Lesson 3: All Human Beings Are Created in the Image of God

I am so happy for the excuse and motivation to make silhouettes of my kids. Tracing our own images went along very nicely with our discussion of being created in the image of God.

I first took photos of the kids for the official version of their silhouettes, which I printed, cut out, traced onto black cardstock, cut out again, mounted on white paper, and added homemade frames with ribbon. I love the result!

I thought the kids would have fun trying it the “old fashioned” way. They were surprisingly anxious for me to do all the tracing. This method was not very effective (I didn’t know what I was doing), but we had fun. Photos are the way to go!

Lesson 4: Gender is Essential

I really wanted an applicable activity for this lesson, so I made up this “cooperative relay.”

The kids have been pretty jazzed about the lessons. I’ve tried to keep them short with lots of interactive,  visual, and hands-on elements. For this lesson, it was really fun to discuss the “cool things” about both genders. The boy list included “big muscles,” and we discussed why boys have bigger muscles: so they can protect their families, help their wives and children, and provide for them. Our discussion was awesome!

The kids jumped over objects representing baptism, education and missions.

Then they dressed up in the clothes piled at the end. This represented becoming a man or woman. (I placed our homemade temple there.)

Next, they worked together to bundle up a baby doll.

After a picture, they took off the dress-ups and ran back to the start where they tagged the next pair. This had the feel of a race, but wasn’t truly competitive, and the kids had fun participating.

Lesson 5: Obtaining a Body

After this lesson, we made salt-dough handprints. I was curious enough to try making them, but afterwards decided that it was more of an adult-geared art project (at least with me wanting them to turn out nice). The kids had much more fun making “bodies” out of playdough and would’ve loved making bodies out of sugar cookie dough or gingerbread and then eating them!

Lesson 6: We Have a Divine Destiny

This lesson used popcorn as an analogy for fulfilling our potential to become like God. The popcorn made a convenient Family Home Evening treat! And who doesn’t love watching popcorn pop?!

Lesson 7: Families Are Eternal

“Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

“The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave.”

This not-very-planned-out lesson/activity turned out really awesome. One by one I pulled out these framed pictures of the kids’ grandparents and great-grandparents. Jon and I laughed when the kids didn’t recognize a few of them from their younger pictures (those they see quite often). It was so enjoyable to watch their expressions change to amazement when they figured out “That’s Gommy!” When I showed them Gary’s picture, Adam explained, “I knew it was him because of his smile.” Andrew said, “I knew it was Gary because of his hair.” So cute. For those ancestors the kids haven’t met, I asked them to guess who they were by their similarities to the relatives they do know.

We separated the living and deceased relatives and discussed the proclamation’s teaching - how our relationships continue to exist even after someone has died.

I also used some picture-cards my mom made a few years ago and had the kids piece together my family and more ancestors.

Tyler was interested in these pictures, too... and loved showing them to his dad. That was all fine and great until he started throwing them.

We ended with some Pouncing on Dad time.

Lesson 8: Temples Unite Families Eternally

Planning phase (with graph paper): this was somewhat unnecessary, though Adam followed his design pretty closely. He got pretty frustrated when his temple didn’t form up exactly how he had envisioned, so we had to have a little pep talk.

Amy and Natalie worked together to build the Provo Temple “because everyone else is making the Salt Lake Temple.” Amy made the marshmallows into a married couple.

Andrew explained that his temple was still under construction, and that the two cubes in front of the temple were two people coming to get married. (He was the first one to create “people” at his temple.)

Natalie also threw together her own temple in a jiffy.

I couldn’t resist making my own! Like the kids, I learned that it’s harder than it looks. I’d be up for a more complicated design next time, after what I learned.

During the day we built our own sugar cube temples and turned it into a lighted temple village at night! We did the lesson part during family scripture time that evening.

At one point, when several kids (and then mom) got frustrated either with the sugar cubes or each other, we had to remind ourselves that we were making temples, after all! Once the frustration subsided (it didn’t last very long), everyone was so pleased with their temples. I’m so happy that the boys even made their temples completely on their own. I’d do this again in a heartbeat!

Lesson 9: Multiply and Replenish the Earth

We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God...

...and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.

In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body...

...and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.

Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.

We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

Lesson 10: The Sacred Powers of Procreation

The kids had fun multiplying these paper-people chains. (I avoided the word “doll” for Adam’s sake.)

This was another very enjoyable project. Adam got frustrated when he tried to make dragons, so was thrilled when I helped him with a new, successful design.

There was definitely inspiration from the Lord involved in planning this lesson. I used the Creation to teach God’s pattern in creating plants, animals, and then humans each with seeds within themselves to create life “after their kind.” We read in Moses 2 about how the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth. We discussed that each of us has the power within our bodies to create life and about safeguarding that power. It all went really, really well.

The kids were fascinated when I cut an apple in half through the middle so it made a star pattern. Of course, the object was to see the seeds inside.

For the activity, the kids each “planted” a bean seed in a jar. We’ll watch the beans grow this month.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other....”

Lesson 11: Husband and Wife Love and Care for Each Other

Teaching the doctrine from The Family Proclamation has been really, really awesome and fun! I have felt guided in preparing the lessons and activities and hope that the messages are sinking in for my kids. I think they are.

HERE is a copy of my complete lessons and activities. This is also posted on my Favorites page. I posted about the remaining lessons HERE and HERE.

I hope that this work can spread to benefit other families in teaching these important truths to their children.

bride and groom finger puppets

The kids loved looking at their baby pictures as I shared how much we have been blessed by choosing to bring children into our family.

The lesson focused on nurturing the relationship between husband and wife. We helped the kids understand that they can practice now to be good husbands and wives by learning to love and care for their siblings.

Our game perfectly demonstrated the need to be unselfish, think of others’ needs, and to work together. The kids linked arms back to back and had 10 seconds to retrieve their candy bars. They had to keep their arms linked, however. Amy had the brilliant idea that they’d get Natalie’s first and then hurry over to hers. The girls both got their candy bars. The boys, on the other hand, fought every man for himself, so neither got anything.

We stopped, discussed what happened, read Matthew 7:12, and let the boys try again.

It took them two more times and a lot of coaching to figure out that working together earned them both a reward and was much more fun.

A lady in my ward mentioned that her father-in-law carries a credit card-sized card in his wallet that says “What can I do today to make my wife happy?” It reminds him often to do little extra things to show her his love.

I made similar cards for all of us.

We also opened an apricot and passed around the seed.