When my oldest child was approaching 8 years old, I really wanted him to gain a testimony as he approached his baptism. So, I decided to dedicate the whole year of FHE (Family Home Evening) to helping the kids have a better understanding of the basics of the gospel and gaining a testimony of those principles. Each month, we focused on a single topic. We had a family testimony meeting on the last Monday of the month. Since I also have a goal of teaching the kids through their heritage, I also asked their grandparents to write up and send us a testimony on focus topic each month that could be shared during our testimony family home evening. During any month that we had a 5th Monday, we chose to do a fun activity. Its been a few years since we completed these lessons and the kids still request more of these types of lessons since they were mostly fun object lessons. I think they learned a lot AND enjoyed it, too. Here’s the list of lessons we used:
Topic 1: The Holy Ghost
Week 1: Using this great lesson idea, show them a full pop can and have the strongest person in the room Dad try to crush it. They can’t because it was filled with the “Holy Ghost”. Once we opened it and poured out the soda pop (the Holy Ghost), he was able to crush it.
Week 2: Turn this baptism talk idea into a lesson. Show how the Holy Ghost can work like a traffic light. I made and frosted sugar cookies and lined up 3 m&ms on each one (red, yellow, green) like a traffic light in the middle of the cookie. The twins (just barely 3 years old at the time) talked about the traffic light cookies for a long time afterward.
Week 3: Inspired by this great idea for a YW lesson, I made up my own lesson that was geared toward younger children. I cut the first page in half and put them out on the table to show what you feel like when you do or don’t have the Holy Ghost with you. Then I had the 2nd page cut into individual strips, folded, and put in a small gift bag. The kids took turns pulling them out of the bag and then we decided which face (with or without the Holy Ghost) the word strips went with.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 2: Baptism
Week 1: We showed the picture of John the Baptist and talked about when he baptized Jesus and how (by immersion). We followed it up with this cute idea. We printed out and laminated the pictures and used the chocolate pudding and wet wipes just as suggested and then compared Jesus’ baptism to what its like when we get baptized (where, when, age, what we wear, etc.).
Week 2: Each child got 3 gummy bears as we talked about the promises we make at baptism and what they mean, using this idea as inspiration! I gave a gummy bear to one child & said we “bear the name of Jesus Christ”, handed them another bear and said we “bear one another’s burdens”, handed them the last bear and said we “bear testimony” and then repeated that with each child — after doing it 4 times, I hope they will remember! We also talked about how the sacrament prayers remind us of these promises.
Week 3: Punch a box review — I used this idea fun idea as my inspiration. I created a punch a box in the shape of an 8 just like she did. But then we filled the cups with questions that reviewed the things we had learned in the previous 2 weeks of family home evenings: 1 – What can we do to wipe away our sins and become clean? 2 – Who baptized Jesus? 3 – Why do we need to be baptized? 4 – What do we wear when we get baptized? 5 – How old do we have to be to get baptized? 6 – What does it mean to be baptized by immersion? 7 – What do we promise to do when we get baptized? 8 – Where do we get baptized? 9 – What do we do every Sunday to help us remember the baptismal promises we make?
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 3: Families
Week 1: Have the kids list names of immediate and extended family members as you write them on strips of paper. Staple the strips together in a paper chain and talk about how we are all connected as a family.
Week 2: Kids love to see pictures of themselves. Have a baby picture for each child to show and tell about how excited you were when they came into your family. Talk about the songs, I am a Child of God and Families Can Be Together Forever and the important truths found in the words of each songs to teach about the eternal nature of families.
Week 3: Use this lesson with a ziploc bag to show how we can be “sealed” together as families.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 4: Atonement
Week 1: Use this cookie dough lesson to help the kids understand that it’s impossible for us to remove sins from ourselves without Jesus Christ.
Week 2: Use this salt & pepper object lesson to show how repentance can remove the sins from our lives because of the atonement. The original link for this no longer works so I found a new one. Its the right object lesson but on a different topic. To relate it to repentance, you’ll talk about our sins being like the pepper that is sprinkled into our pure lives. It would be impossible for us to pick out each piece of pepper to become pure salt again. But the spoon is like repentance that can lift those sins right out.
Week 3: Use a hard boiled egg to teach about repentance. You can mark up the shell with a marker which you’ll relate to sin. But because of the atonement, we can repent, the shell can be removed, and the egg is clean again.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 5: The Restoration
Week 1: Another object lesson with an egg! Use a bowl or plate to catch the mess. Compare the raw egg to the church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the Earth. Tell how it was broken to pieces as you break the egg open. Ask if there is anyone at the table that can put the egg back together again. No person could put the church back together again. They could have pieces of the shell or even some of the insides, but putting the egg back together like it was before is impossible. Just like that, bringing the church of Jesus Christ back together, just as it was when He established it was impossible for man to do. It required Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to bring the church back to the Earth again and they did that through Joseph Smith.
Week 2: Attach pictures or wordstrips to plastic cups and stack them up to show the key parts of the gospel, like this lesson. Make the cups come toppling down and rebuild it one cup at a time talking about how each of these things was restored to bring the fullness of the gospel back to Earth. After doing the demonstration, play this video of sister missionaries doing a “cups” song that goes perfectly with the demonstration you just did!
Week 3: Use the pictures to tell the events that happened then play the game as instructed in this restoration lesson.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 6: The Priesthood
Week 1: Use this lesson, particularly the flashlight object lesson to introduce the kids to the concept of the priesthood.
Week 2: Using this printable, talk about the way the priesthood blesses our lives. You can follow the listed directions, or just print pages 6-8 and show each picture as you talk about how the priesthood helps us.
Week 3: Use this great umbrella object lesson to teach how the priesthood blesses everyone, not just those who hold the priesthood.
Week 4: Testimony Meeting
Topic 7: Service
Week 1: Use this object lesson to show kids how there are opportunities to serve all around them if they are not so focused on themselves.
Week 2: Show how even small acts of kindness/service can have a big impact with this object lesson.
Week 3: Do a service project as a family or use this fun idea to give your kids a challenge for 7 days of top secret service.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 8: The Scriptures
Week 1: Use this cute lego object lesson to teach why we have scriptures and how they can be a guide for us. You don’t have to go out and buy new legos, you can get the point across using ones you already own or even using any kind of building blocks.
Week 2: Make a yummy cake for dessert and use it as part of an object lesson to teach how the scriptures can only add sweetness to our lives if we read them.
Week 3: Use this cute object lesson with a sponge to teach why it is important to fill ourselves up by reading the scriptures daily.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 9: Prophets
Week 1: Have one adult leave the room with a phone while another person stays in the room with another phone. The person who left the room will call the person who stayed in the room. Tell the kids that the person who left the room is like Heavenly Father. He wants us to have great blessings in this life and he has called someone to help direct us to those blessings. The person who left the room will then give the one who stayed directions for everyone to follow that will lead them to a fun treat. The person on the receiving end of the phone is like the prophet who gives us instructions from Heavenly Father that will lead us to great blessings in this life and to live with Heavenly Father again.
Week 2: I really like this sharing time idea. Use her printables and attach them to a footprint cutout and have a sign that says “live with Heavenly Father again” on one wall. As you read the counsel from each prophet, put that footprint on the ground, leading to the sign on the wall, and let the kids follow those footprints/counsel from the prophets to get back to live with Heavenly Father again.
Week 3: Use a picture of a prophet to make a Popsicle stick puzzle. On the back of each stick, write something that prophet has told us to do. Put all the sticks in a jar and have the kids pick them out one at a time, reading the back of each stick before trying to fit it in the puzzle. You could do one of the current prophet and one of Joseph Smith or whoever else you’d like.
Week 4: Testimony meeting
Topic 10: Temples
Week 1: Make a temple puzzle and label the back of each piece with things we do in the temple to introduce temples and their purpose to the kids. Have a child pick a puzzle piece, read what it says, then put it in place to put the puzzle together. Labels I used for things we do in the temple: baptism for the dead, endowment, marriage sealings, family sealings, ponder and pray, ask for answers, learn about the plan of salvation, wear white, give service (work for the dead), be reverent, speak quietly, pray for others.
Week 2: Teach about preparing to go inside the temple with this little temple cutout and cards. When using this link, scroll down to the Activity portion to find the “Building Temples” printable.
Week 3: This cute temple game is a free printable that comes with a game board and question cards. It will be a great review of what has already been learned plus maybe a few new things to think about.
Week 4: Testimony Meeting
Topic 11: Prayer
Week 1: Make a prayer puppet to learn about closing eyes and folding arms when we say a prayer.
Week 2: Get out actual sandwich fixings to teach about a prayer sandwich.
Week 3: Use two phones (pretend or real) to show how prayer is like having a conversation. First, demonstrate how we usually pray: pick up the phone and just start saying a bunch of things and hang up without waiting for any kind of response. Then, show how talking slowly, thinking about what you’re saying, and waiting will allow Heavenly Father to respond to our prayers.
Week 4: Testimony Meeting
Topic 12: Jesus Christ (I like to save this topic for December)
Week 1: Make a tempest in a bottle and tell about when Jesus calmed the sea.
Week 2: Print out or use purchased pictures of some of the miracles of Jesus. Place the pictures upside down on the table (make sure any writing on the back is covered or place the picture on construction paper if you can see the picture through the paper). Have the kids take turns turning over a picture and telling about the miracle in the picture.
Week 3: Have a Bethlehem dinner. This has actually become one of our family traditions because the kids love it so much. We sit on the family room floor with the lights out – only light from windows or candles – and eat foods that are similar to what they would’ve eaten in the time of Christ (we use carrots, cheese, summer sausage, pita bread or pita chips, hummus, grapes, etc). As we eat, my husband reads from the Bible the story of the birth of Christ and the kids sit so reverently and quietly while they eat and listen. Its one of our favorite parts of the Christmas season.
Week 4: Testimony Meeting
Did you make it through all 12 months? Let me know how it went or if you had a different fun lesson you used for any of these topics.
You might also enjoy these other Family Home Evening Ideas
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