Happy Valentine's Day!

I made these cute little flowers at the beginning of the month for our Days of Love.  Today, my goal is to give them all away.  When you do something nice, a service for someone, you can leave behind or give that person one of these flowers.  It can be anonymous or you can write your name on the back.  The intent is to emphasize that love isn't just something we say or something we put on a card or piece of candy; its an action.  I'm also hoping my children see that I don't just cook them dinner because I have to; its because I love them.  I have about 20 of these so here's hoping!

Our Valentine's

Time for another holiday already!  Time just seems to be flying past for me.  This year I have two in school needing to bring Valentine's for the class and teachers so this is what we came up:

Gospel Principles Chapter 8: Praying to Our Heavenly Father

Gospel Principles Chapter 8: Praying to Our Heavenly Father

"Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer" by Elder Richard G. Scott (Quorum of the 12 apostles)- How we can recognize the answers we are given and why we may be having a hard time.
"Lessons from the Lord's Prayers" by Elder Russell M. Nelson (of the 12)- What we learn about how to prayer when we look at the prayers the Lord and others have given.
"A Child's Prayer"- I love this song from the Children's Songbook.  This link includes the words, music, and audio.
"The Lifeline of Prayer" by President James E. Faust (Second Counselor at the time)- The importance of prayer and what the meaning of prayer.
"Pray Always" by Elder David A. Bednar (of the 12)- 3 ways we can make our prayers more meaningful.

George Albert Smith Chapter 5: The Holy Priesthood—for the Blessing of God’s Children

George Albert Smith Chapter 5: The Holy Priesthood—for the Blessing of God’s Children

"Keys of the Priesthood" by Elder Russell M. Nelson (Quorum of the 12 apostles)- Includes the history of the priesthood in ancient times and while the Jesus was on the earth then discusses the priesthood in modern times. 
"The Power of the Priesthood" by President Boyd K. Packer (of the 12)- Its power when firmly affixed in the families.  Includes the importance of women and the influence they can have in helping priesthoold holders.

Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 8: Sunday Is a Day to Remember Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 8: Sunday is a Day to Remember Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

Sunday Can- Similar to the bag activity in the manual but has some listed suggestions and where to get the pictures.
Sunday Word Search- for older kids
Sunday Activities- Unscramble the letters for older kids OR use the pictures for the bag activity or to show good Sunday activities during the lesson.  If you want you can glue these pictures on a big piece of paper in a circle.  Add some non appropriate activities for Sunday.  Below each picture draw a happy face or a sad face for whether its a good or not activity.  Then attached another paper circle big enough to cover the faces with one window cut out.  Have the children turn the paper and say whether it is a good thing to do on Sunday or not as they look at the faces.

Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 7: Jesus Christ Created the World for Me

Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 7: Jesus Christ Created the World for Me

The Creation- Some other pictures of the creation that you could us during the lesson.  Try putting them together as a necklace or giving out to each to child to hold when you tell your lesson.
Reverence for the Creation- This one has some pictures to glue onto a box lid to create a scene. 
The Creation Word Search- for older kids.

Valentine Pouches and Love Boats

For our Days of Love, I first had to quickly make our Valentine pouches.  I say pouches because the original idea came with a Kangaroo thought with its pouch being the mailbox and a sign saying "You make me hoppy!" or something silly like that.  Turns out I ran out of time and energy so we ended up with these simple pouches hung over the fireplace just like Christmas and its still great.

Days of Love

Its the night before February which means I'm getting ready for our 14 days of love.  That's where we get out our mailbox (it happens to be a pirate one this year due to our last Spring Break activities) and start sending each other love notes.  Usually we make Valentine boxes for Family Home Evening just before February out of old Kleenex boxes- lots of easy ways to jazz those things up just check this one out- however, this year I've decided to surprise them with Valentine pockets since I'm running behind.

The Help I Needed

Gotta love Pinterest.  I found 3 great things that I've been meaning to do that someone else did for me!  Saved me tons of time.  Thank you so much!
1. I'm trying to teach my children more and more hymns.  We decided to start off with "Choose the Right" since it goes with the Primary theme this year.  I was just about to stop pinning and start it when I came across this one already done!  The best part- its from our primary chorister so all the pictures are the same ones they have started learning already.  They thing its so cool.  Thank you!
2. Article of Faith pass off cards.  This is actually a full size page that so you can learn Article of Faith #1 but I'm shrinking it down and using it for a pass off card reward as well.  Once my children say it to me by heart I will give them the small version to keep on a ring with the words "I memorized Article of Faith #1" on the back.  I also plan on putting the full sized up in our house so they are constantly seeing and reviewing it even though we have moved on to the next one. Thank you!
3. Flannel board stories.  I knew that the Friend had several pictures that I could use to make flannel board pictures, I'd just have to go through and find them all.  Well, guess what?  This nice lady has already done it!  Thank you!

So much time saved!  Love that.

Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 6: The Holy Ghost Helps Me

Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 6: The Holy Ghost Helps Me

"Listen to the Still, Small Voice"- I like the idea of using a blanket to explain how the Holy Ghost can warm and comfort you.  You could bring a blanket and pin some pictures that also explain what the Holy Ghost does or ways to invite Him into our lives- ex. prayer, love, etc. More ideas under the picture but more for older children- great for FHE.

Comforts for Baby Products

As a BzzAgent, I get to try all kinds of great products for free.  This month, I tried 3 Comforts for Baby (a Kroger brand) products: sippy cups, baby wipes, and diapers. 

Here's what I found:
Comforts Sippy Cups- Durable and reliable as long as you put the lid on right (I made the mistake of not checking once and got quite wet).  I like that the lid has a cover but at the same time,

Craft Bucket

This is another present I gave this last Christmas.  This time for my daughter and she absolutely loves it and uses it a lot so SUCCESS! 

Its a craft bucket. 

She is constantly wanting to make crafts.  I have lots of things available but having your own things to use whenever your want is even better.  I picked up a bucket from the grocery store of all places.  Guess what? You can ask the bakery department if they have any extra frosting tubs and they will give them to you for free!  These are nice sized buckets- not quite as big as a regular one from the hardware store but plenty big for us and did I mention, free (these are great for storing food items that you buy in bulk too like rice or flour)!  You will have to wash them out though.  Then I bought a bucket tool organizer that fits over the bucket.  It has tons of pockets for organizing all sorts of craft things like markers, pipe cleaners, crayons, pencils, erasers, stickers, etc.  They are usually around $10 but I bought mine on Black Friday so got it even cheaper.

Inside the bucket, I stuck a ream of paper, yarn, a whole bag of foam stickers, and a few other things.  Now when she wants to make something, she just gets out her craft bucket.  Its easy to carry to wherever she needs.  When she first opened it, she spent the next 10 minutes just organizing everything.  It was great.

Slamming Doors

Do you have this problem? My kids don't purposefully slam the doors (most of the time) but it happens a lot- especially with my 2 year old who is still learning.  In fact, this has happened so many times that their bedroom door came off!  So to prevent that from happening again, I attached these lovely pool noodles to the tops of the doors.  Bonus: no smashed fingers!  The doors still close most of the way but its quiet and softly.  Plus, its super easy to do. 

Homework Games

Isn't it so frustrating when your child doesn't want to do homework?  I agree completely.  To make reviewing material a little less annoying, I try to make up as many games as possible that get them practicing the activity without really noticing or more so minding so much.  Here are a few we do:

Scattergories Phonograms

Get some phongram flash cards and pair it with a Scattergories Dice. You'll want to put your phonograms in alphabetical order for this game.  Roll the dice then show a phonogram flash card that starts with that letter.  If you get a star, the child gets to pick with phonogram to do.  If you can a letter with all the phonograms already done, you get to pick which one to practice.  So far, this one has worked great when they are more hesitant because the dice is so much fun to roll.

Tell Me a Story

Story Cards

Like to tell stories?  My kids love it when my husband makes up stories but every now and again he would get stumped.  So a couple of years ago my children and I made this game for his Father's Day present.  I printed out all the clipart from Microsoft free clipart site in black and white so my children could color the pictures for him.