Tuesday Tutorial

Finally!!!

I always feel like I've accomplished something when I have something to show for it...no matter how difficult or easy the project may be.  This week (actually for the past several weeks) I was looking at our FHE chart, and I must say it looked pretty pitiful.  Seriously!  It was too the point where I'd ask, "Who's conducting this week?" and someone would answer, "The invisible monkey!" or "The one eyed tiger." 

 Now, we all knew who those animals were, but that's not the point...the fact that our chart was so worn out that we had to say something like that just gnawed away at me.  It was time for a new FHE chart.  

Luckily I got a sale flier for Roberts Craft, and they had a great deal on their magnet boards so...I hit the sale, got everything I needed and more, and went to work.

Here's what you'll need for the board:

*A magnet board (any size will do...whatever works for your fam)

*A 2 oz. bottle of paint (your color choice)

*Modge Podge

*Craft Paper (to coordinate with your paint...opt.)

*Paint brush or sponge

*Letter Stickers (regular or vinyl...I really wanted that cool Crikcut Expressions machine that you can program in what you want, throw the vinyl through, and voila, instant gratification, but at $250+, I settled for the stickers...maybe one day, *Big Sigh*)

*Any crafty embellishment you want to add.

I started by painting the board.  You may have to sand the wood a little to get it all prepped for paint, but mine with just MDF and needed no prep.  As the paint was drying, I cut the paper to the size and shape that I needed.  If you would rather just keep the paint, that's fine too...you can

 just stick your letter's or embellishments on top of that.  After the paint was dry, I Modge Podged on the paper and left that to dry.  Then I grabbed my stickers and went to work on the various FHE jobs that I wanted on the board...Conduct, Prayer, Song, Scripture, Lesson, Activity, Treat.  I added Family Council at the bottom because once a month we've decided that instead of having a lesson we'll have a family council.  To

 finish off the board, I added a few little things to make it more personal...our name, a quote, etc.  Voila...board done!

You could use several things to show who's doing what.  I chose to use magnets with our picture on it because I thought it would be an easy way for our little kids to know who was doing what, but you could use wooden shape cutouts, wooden initial cutouts (this was my second choice), etc...I'm sure the kids would get a kick out of decorating their own FHE chart magnet.  Anyhoo..

Supplies for magnets:

*Decor Accent Marbles

*Glossy Accent Clear Glue

*A picture

*Magnets (make sure they're strong enough for the marbles...I'm gonna have to replace my because my magnets are too weak)

*Glue gun

Here we go...cut the picture so that it is approximately the same shape and size (or just slightly smaller) than the marble.  Use your finger to spread a little bit of the clear glue on the backside

 of the marble. Place the picture face down in the glue, smooth out any bubbles, and then use your finger to spread a little more glue on the backside of the picture.  When the glue is dry, use the glue gun to stick the magnet on the back.  Done!!  FHE board, complete with personal magnets!  Easy Peasy!! 

Wouldn't this be a great way to assign chores in your house too!  I considered buying a bigger magnet board that I could put both and FHE chart and a job chart on, but I couldn't decide where I'd want such a big board.  How about this...if you do a job chart, why not get some of those little magnetic containers (the ones that you can actually put something in), stick the kids names on them, and when they are finished with their chore you could put their reward (money, tickets, stickers, candy, etc.) in the container.  How fast would the chores get done when they can actually see an instant reward??? 

Tuesday Tip

Just a quick post today...
I realized that conference is coming up pretty quick and I still hadn't finished the workbook/journal for the older kids that I had planned on doing. So, here it is. I made this workbook specifically for my older kiddos. (The link for the workbook for younger children is on my right sidebar under quiet books.) I think it's got enough of a combination of "fun stuff" vs. "learning stuff" to keep them occupied for at least 1 session of conference. FYI: I also designed this little workbook/journal to coincide with one of my favorite ideas from the article in the Mar. Ensign about preparing children for general conference. As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my favorite ideas out of the article was to have each of the kids think of 3 (or however many you want) questions as they watched conference and then make a game of it the next night for FHE...who was paying the best attention??? The questions could be anything from, "What color tie was Pres. Monson wearing?" to "Who spoke about temples in the Sunday morning session?" I know my big kids would get a kick out of this...but I think that even my little ones would too. So...with that in mind, in this workbook the kids have to write down 3 things they heard in each talk and then come up with a question at the end of the talk.

Conference Journal - Older Child

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Newspapers kids Workbook

Monday Mombles

So, I just read an article in the March 2009 Ensign that had to do with preparing your children for general conference. I love conference. I love staying home and watching conference in my pj's. I love having our family over for our traditional Sunday morning conference breakfast, but more often than not our conference morning turns into a chorus of: "Do I have to watch the whole thing?" or "move over, you're in my space," or "stop hitting me" or "he took my marker." Does this sound familiar?

Anyway, I loved some of the ideas that were in the ensign and I think that I'll try to incorporate some of them into our conference viewing. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites:
1. Put a bowl of treats on the table. Designate a word to listen for (either in all of the talks or change the word for each talk.) If the kids hear the word as they listen to the talk, they can take a treat. (This would be perfect since I have a ton of left-over m&m's from bribing Rylen when he was potty-training.)
2. Conference Quiz. Have everyone in the family watch and listen to conference and come up with 3-5 questions about it (ie. Anything from "What color was Pres. Monson's tie?" to "What did Elder Bednar teach us about families?") Obviously, the younger the children, the more simple the question. The for FHE the following Monday break out your conference quiz and talk about what was learned during conference this year. (My kids would LOVE this one...and actually, my quiz questions would probably be the easy ones because they would ask ones that would try to stump everyone.)
3. Buy each child a copy of of the conference Ensign (when it comes out) and a highlighter, and discuss the talks for FHE. (Obviously this one is for after conference but I thought it was a good idea and something I might try.)

Typically we do the standard coloring page or conference activity book at our house. (I may even make my own little conference activity book while I'm messing around with photoshop...I'll post it if I do.) Most of the kids still enjoy it, but we might mix it up a little. These ideas could be kind of fun. What do you do with your kids to help them listen to and sit through conference?

Friday Favorites

Favorites.
Favorites!
Hmmmm...so many to choose from.
What will it be??
Ok, I've got it....
2 favorites...a long time fave, and a newly discovered fave!

1. Magleby's OR Magleby's Fresh (the take out version of Magleby's.)
Valentine's Day gave me a small taste of one of my favorite restaurants again...or at least a taste of their dessert! YUMMY!! I consider myself a chocolate connoisseur (ie. I've had my fair share of desserts, most of them chocolaty, over the years.) Anyhoo...for Valentine's day I got Kenny some of my (oops..HIS) favorite chocolate cake. It wasn't planned, but I happened to have to pick something up right around the corner from the restaurant that serves said cake and I couldn't pass it up. In truth, Magleby's is just one of those "special occassion" restaurants for us. It's kind of and indulgence, and definitely a little spendy (although Fresh is a little nicer on the pocketbook) but, oh, so worth it...for the chocolate cake alone. I would actually recommend Fresh more than Magleby's, but that's just me. There you have it. If you're ever out and need a bite to eat, give it a try. And don't forget the dessert. (Our cake is long gone but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I'm tempted to go buy another serving of it for my daily chocolate dose!)
2. A blog was brought to my attention by a good friend of mine. (An aspiring author, who has a pretty fun blog herself. Winded Words...check it out when you have a minute or two. She's always got a new project or two going on and loves feedback on her ideas.)
Chocolate on my Cranium is a fun little blog with all sorts of ideas. I, specifically love the weekly FHE ideas...they're fast, fun, creative, and best of all, downloadable. Perfect for those of us who need a little help with family night. Go to her blog; click the FHE button at the top; choose which lesson you'd like to see/use/download, and voila...FHE in a pinch!