Will continue lessons in June!

going to start up the lessons again in june. need a little extra time right now to get the rest of the books and such to everyone. plus my computer totally crashed this week :( there were several weeks that i did two lessons so if you were doing one a week we should still have some left. also, decided that this summer im going to do a book of mormon lesson for my blog with the boys, but also get a bible lesson in as well. thanks for your patience!

King Benjamin

King Benjamin was a very good king who liked to work hard, take care of his family and he loved God. At this time, there were many wicked people. They liked to lie and fight. King Benjamin did a good job of taking care of these bad people and making the land a peaceful place.
King Benjamin had three sons: Mosiah (the oldest), Helorum and Helaman. He taught his sons about God and how they are to praise Him and give Him thanks in all things. His sons did these things and they were good too. King Benjamin taught them to read their scriptures and bore his testimony to them.
King Benjamin was getting very old and decided to make Mosiah the new king when he died. Being a king mean taking lots of responsibility. Mosiah was going to be responsible for 4 things: the brass plates, the plates of Nephi, the sword of Laban and the liahona. King Benjamin asked all the people in the land to come and hear what he had to say. Lots of people came and set up their tents facing the temple so they could hear what the King had to say. King Benjamin told the people that it is good to work hard and keep the commandments. If they did then God would bless them. He also told the people that Mosiah would be their  next king.
Shortly after King Benjamin was done talking, he died. Mosiah was then the new king and he was a good king too.

Made a job chart. King Benjamin said it was good for us to work hard!

Lunch was "pizza towers". When King Benjamin talked to his people, he stood on a tower so they could hear him.

We made/wore King Benjamin hats while eating our towers.

We also colored the picture from the handouts but forgot to take the picture.

I had two sock puppets and told the boys to tell me to STOP when they were fighting. I told a story about the two "puppets" and when they got mad at each other they yelled STOP!

Went thru the ten commandments again.

We made a "Work Book". It had a few pages in it for the boys to cut out magazine clips of people working or things that needed worked on.

Questions:

1. Who was King Benjamins sons?

2. Why do you think Mosiah was chosen to be king?

3. What are some jobs you can do to work hard?

4. Have you ever heard a testimony? What was it about?

Let's meet Enos

After getting settled in the Promised Land, the children that Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob and Joseph had in the wilderness and in the promised land grew up. One of them was named Enos. Jacob was his father. Jacob taught Enos lots of things about how God wanted us to live. Jacob told Enos that people are happiest when they do things that please God.
Enos decided that he wanted to be rightous and follow God's word. One day he went into the forest to hunt beasts for food. While there, he knelt to pray. Enos prayed so long for God to forgive him and show him how to be good that the prayer lasted all day and all night. Enos heard a voice that told him his sins were forgiven because God knew he had faith. This made Enos very happy.
Next, Enos prayed for the Nephites. The Nephites were the family of Nephi and they were very good. They loved God and kept his commandments. Then he prayed for the Lamanites. The Lamanites were the family of Laman (and Lemuel). They were very naughty and did very bad things and didn't like God. The Nephites had tried to help the Lamanites to be good, but the Lamanites wanted to stay wicked. They wore little clothing, shaved their heads and liked to fight and tried to kill the Nephites.

Pictures colored from the handouts.

What is Enos thinking about???

Pretending to be Lamanites. I was trying to get them to be "mean",  but they still look cute! The vest is just a grocery bag (that I now know I cut wrong so it looks a little funny).

I had two tiles so I wrote the ten commandments on them for each of the boys. I read thru them but I think they were still a little difficult to understand as written. We just talked about how to be good and bad.

The discussion about the Indians and the Lamanites was still pretty fuzzy for them to understand the sameness. It was hard to get them to understand that they Lamanites were bad, but that the "indians" today aren't. Trying to get them to understand and still function in the world today was difficult at their age. Trying to carefully piece the parts together is diffucult with all the extras (like the movie Pocahontis and being taught things in school).

We talked about things that we can pray for. Family, church, school, friends and to be good came up.

Another craft you can do is gather some small twigs, glue on green cotton (or craft) balls so make little trees for a forest.

Questions:

1. Was Enos a Nephite or a Lamanite?

2. Why do you think the Lamanites wanted to stay naughty?

3. Who do you think talked to Enos in the forest?

4. Do you ever pray for people that are naughty?

Headed to the Promised Land

Lehi and his family had traveled thru the wilderness for a very long time. One day, God told Nephi to go up to the mountian. When Nephi had made it up in the mountian, God told him he wanted Nephi to build a ship. Nephi didn't know how to build a ship so God showed him how.
Nephi was going to need some tools for building the ship. God showed Nephi how to get ore out of the rocks by placing them in a hot fire and melting the ore out of them. Nephi used the ore to make the tools.
Laman and Lemuel didn't want to help Nephi and said bad things about him. This was a bad idea! God gave protection to Nephi from his brothers. Everytime one of his brothers tried to hurt Nephi, they felt a big shock. The shock reminded Laman and Lemuel that God was in charge and then they decided to help Nephi with the ship.
When the ship was finished, Lehi, Sariah and their families went aboard the boat headed toward the promise land. While on the boat, Laman and Lemual and their wives began being bad. They decided to tie Nephi up so they wouldn't have to listen to him anymore. Since they were being bad, the Liahona that was giving them direction, stopped working. God sent a terrible storm and everyone was afraid. After quite some time, Laman and Lemuel finally decided they needed to be good and untied Nephi. Nephi prayed to God for the storm to stop and all would be safe. The storm stopped and the liahona started working again.
When Lehi's family finally arrived at the promised land, they thanked God. They planted seeds that they had brought with them and started their new life.

The boys made a picture of Nephi getting ore out of the rocks.

We melted ore (chocolate chips) and put it in a tool mold to form a hammer and saw.

We used a mini greenhouse to plant seeds like Lehi's family did when they got to the Promised Land.

They boys finger painted a picture of Lehi's family on a boat in the ocean.

We colored on paper boats and made Nephi Banana Boats!
http://www.ehow.com/how_5204906_make-paper-boat.html

We also talked about how it feels when we get shocked! I was going to have the boys hammer nail in to a block of wood but didn't get to it.

Questions:
Do you think Nephi was afraid when God spoke to him?
Is there another story you know about building a big boat?
Why do you think God choose Nephi to build the boat?
What do you think it would be like to be in the middle of the ocean for a really long time?
What did Laman and Lemuel do to Nephi while they were on the ship? What happened?

The Liahona and the Bow

One morning Lehi woke up and walked out of his tent. He was suprised to see a strange looking metal ball on the ground. This strange present was from God. It was called a Liahona. The liahona had spindles (points on the top and bottom) and a pointer. A liahona is like a compass. The liahona was God's way of telling Lehi which way he wanted him and his family to travel and sometimes it even had words written on it. The liahona was great, but there was on trick! It only worked if Lehi and his family kept faith in God, if they didn't have faith or if they were being wicked, it didn't work.
Lehi's family followed where the liahona took them. In the wilderness, the only way to get food is to hunt and gather your own. Nehi and his brothers had bow and arrows to hunt for wild beasts. Laman and Lemuel's bow and arrows had lost their spring and Nephi's was the last one to work. Then it broke. Laman and Lemuel were very angry at Nephi because everyone was hungry. Nephi managed to make a new bow and arrow and then asked Lehi where he should hunt for food. Looking at the liahona, it directed Nephi up into the mountians. When in the mountians, Nephi found wild beasts and shot them with his bow. He brought the food back to his family and then thanked God for sending them food.

James (left) and Andrew (right) made wild beasts out of two handprints and a foot!

The boys went into the backyard and found a stick. I tied stretchy string to each side to make our own bow and arrows. We also have a plastic one I found at the Dollar Store for just $2 if that would work better for you.

We made Liahona Balls for a snack. We used the rice crispy recipe but used fruit loops instead and attatched gumdrops to toothpicks for the spindles.

I cut out a bunch of arrows and tapped them around the house. They boys went on a journey just like Lehi did when following the Liahona. They skipped a few because they saw what was up ahead. I made them go back and follow arrow by arrow in order and told them just because they saw ones further down the line didn't mean that was the right path.

This didn't turn out quite the way I planned...but I'll put it up anyways :) I paper machaed a balloon and painted it gold. I think it was enough to show the boys what the liahona kind of looked like.  Here's a link for a better example. http://www.maskeryandlund.com/liahona.html

This was a iron on transfer I found from a site I'll post below. My printer didn't print it off color and I didn't want to wait to post these so I just used fabric markers to color it in. Super easy and this will probably become a favorite jammie shirt. http://www.freeldsart.com/lehis-tent.htm

Lehi's Vision

First Book of Nephi 2:41-87

41 And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the wilderness he spake unto us, saying, Behold, I havedreamed a dream; or in other words, I have seen a vision.

42 And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I have reason to rejoice in the Lord because of Nephi, and also of Sam; for I have reason to suppose that they, and also many of their seed, will be saved.
43 But behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because of you; for behold, methought I saw in my dream a dark and dreary wilderness.
44 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.
45 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.
46 And it came to pass that as I followed him, and after that I had followed him, I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.
47 And after that I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness I began to pray unto the Lord, that he would have mercy on me according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
48 And it came to pass that after I had prayed unto the Lord, I beheld a large and spacious field.
49 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.
50 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet above all that I ever had before tasted.
51 Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.
52 And as I partook of the fruit thereof, it filled my soul with exceeding great joy;
53 Wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
54 And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit.
55 And I looked to behold from whence it came; and I saw the head thereof a little way off;
56 And at the head thereof I beheld your mother Sariah, and Sam, and Nephi; and they stood as if they knew not whither they should go.
57 And it came to pass that I beckoned unto them; and I also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me and partake of the fruit, which was desirable above all other fruit.
58 And it came to pass that they did come unto me, and partake of the fruit also.
59 And it came to pass that I was desirous that Laman and Lemuel should come and partake of the fruit also;
60 Wherefore, I cast mine eyes towards the head of the river, that perhaps I might see them.
61 And it came to pass that I saw them, but they would not come unto me, and partake of the fruit.
62 And I beheld a rod of iron; and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood.
63 And I also beheld a straight and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood;
64 And it also led by the head of the fountain unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a world;
65 And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree by which I stood.
66 And it came to pass that they did come forth and commenced in the path which led to the tree.
67 And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceeding great mist of darkness, insomuch that they which had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost.
68 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron;
69 And they did press forward through the mists of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.
70 And after that they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed.
71 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld on the other side of the river of water a great and spacious building;
72 And it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth;
73 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female;
74 And their manner of dress was exceeding fine;
75 And they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those which had come at, and were partaking of the fruit.
76 And after that they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.
77 And now I, Nephi, do not speak all the words of my father.
78 But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.
79 And he also saw other multitudes feeling their way towards that great and spacious building.
80 And it came to pass that many were drowned in the depths of the fountain;
81 And many were lost from his view, wandering in strange roads.
82 And great was the multitude that did enter into that strange building.
83 And after that they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me, and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not.
84 These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded them, had fallen away.
85 And Laman and Lemuel partook not of the fruit, saith my father.
86 And it came to pass after my father had spoken all the words of his dream or vision, which were many, he said unto us, because of these things which he saw in a vision, he exceedingly feared for Laman and Lemuel;
87 Yea, he feared lest they should be cast off from the presence of the Lord;

We had apples and "wild" honey for our snack. I told them that some of the places Lehi's family went in the wilderness had LOTS of honey. Also it was our white supersweet fruit from the tree in our pictures!

This is what the boys drew when we talked about the dark and dreary forest. I told them to make sure they draw Lehi and a person wearing a white robe. James (left), Andrew (right)

4 and 5 year olds interpretation of a large and spacious field with a tree most desirable bearing white fruit. James (left), Andrew (right)

James and Andrew did GREAT jobs in coloring this part of Lehi's dream. They included the Tree of Life, Rod of Iron, the Fountian, Great and Spacious Building and the good and bad people. I told them to also include paths where people got lost on and people drowning in the water trying to get to the Building side. Also, told them the people in the Building were wearing very fancy clothing because it was more important to them to look nice and have nice things rather than knowing God and following his word.

James (left), Andrew (right)

Example of the dark and dreary forest including Lehi and man in white robe. (above)

Example of tree in field with exceeding white fruit.  We used glitter on our trees. (above)

Example of all componets of dream put together. Rod of Iron, Tree of Life, Fountian, Forbidden Paths, Great and Spacious Building, Good and Bad People. (above)

Questions:

Why do you think Lehi had a dream?

What was the dream about?

Why do you think the fruit on the tree was white?

What kinds of people do you think were in the great and spacious building?

Where do you want to be in the picture?

Becoming a Larger Family

When God told Lehi to take his family into the wilderness, they went. But they went alone. After some time (enough time for Lehi and Sariah to have two more boys, so at least 3 years) God told Lehi to have his sons travel back to Jerusalum and ask a man named Ishmael and his family to join them in the wilderness. Ishmael said yes so the brothers and Ishmael's family traveled thru the wilderness back to where Lehi's family lived. Ishmael had 2 sons and several daughters.

Soon Laman and Lemuel, of course, and 4 of Ishmael's children started being angry with Lehi, Nephi, Sam and some of the others for bringing them to the wilderness. Laman and Lemuel decided to tie Nephi up with a rope! The rope was so tight that Nephi couldn't get out, but Nephi was smart and prayed, asking God to make him strong enough to break thru the ropes and he did. Laman and Lemuel then felt sorry for tieing Nephi up and asked him to forgive them.

After a while, God told Lehi that the sons of Lehi and the daughters of Ishmael should get married and they should continue to travel farther into the wilderness.

I cut out 20 (yea, i know) footprints for each boy. I layed them out and told the boys to walk down the hall carefully making sure they didn't miss a footprint. I told them they were doing what Lehi's family did. Lehi's family walked in the direction God told them to. When the footprints got a little unorganized, I told them to look at them carefully. Did it look like anyone can find their way if the footprints are disorganized and going different directions? They were able to understand that the path needs to be straight and narrow for us to get to the right place. Also, I numbered them 1-20 so they could count as they walked. Could also do ABC's or spanish numbers or whatever you'd like. This could even teach them a song if they could read well enough.

I had the boys get on their backpacks and

pretend to travel to the wilderness back to Jerusalum. What I should have done was put something heavy in their packs for them to feel what kind of weight Nephi and his brothers had to carry when they traveled. I did mention however that there were no cars or anything to carry heavy bags so they only took what they absolutely needed.

 Decorating wedding cakes.

 

I decided to make a "wedding cake" for the marriages between Lehi and Ishmael's families. It worked great for our snack too. The boys got to have a part in creating their piece of cake. The figures on top of the cake are from a store here in Independence. They are actual Lehi's family characters. Way cool. I was super excited to find them. James loves them and I know they help him to understand the story a little better. If anyone would like to know where you can get them, give me a shout. If your from out of town I would be happy to figure out a way to get them to you!

I traced a hand and cut out a bunch of copies. We glued all the hands together to show that the families became one when they got married. This little "wreath" craft was made into a refrigerator craft by slapping a magnet on the back to proudly show off :)

I'm trying to add as much extra learning into these crafts as I can, the boys are in preschool right now and it won't hurt any. Plus something like this is super easy to do and they can see that they accomlished something in the end.

Another thing you could do (these boys don't have the patience to color this long) is have your child draw a picture of the 4 sons of Lehi and 4 daughters of Ishmael on their wedding day standing next to each other. You could talk about the day you got married, or make a family scrapbook page.

Questions:

Why did Lehi's sons travel back to Jerusalum? Who did they get?

Why do you think Laman and Lemuel are naughty so often?

Have you ever been to a wedding?

Who do you think can get married? Who can't?

Do you think you will ever get married?

The Brass Plates

Lehi had a dream from God about some special plates. God wanted Lehi to tell his sons Nephi, Sam, Laman and Lemuel to travel back to Jerusalem to get these special plates. Laman and Lemuel of course didn't want to do it because they thought it would be too hard. Nephi didn't complain and this made his father happy.
Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi went back to Jerusalem to get the plates from a man named Laban. (this would be a good time to talk about different metals and how these plates were made from BRASS) They didn't think it was a good idea for all them to go to Laban's house so the decided to cast lots. Laman was chosen to go and talk to Laban and went to his house to see about getting the brass plates. When Laman asked Laban for the plates, Laban got angry and said NO! Laban made Laman leave. Laman and Lemuel were done trying and wanted to go back home. Nephi decided it would be best to try again since God asked them to do this special job. Nephi knew these plates were sacred.
All the brothers went to Laban's house a second time. They offered Laban gold, silver and all sorts of precious things in exchange for the plates. Laban got angry again and his servants chased the brothers out of town, taking all their gold and silver away from them.
Laman and Lemuel were mad at Nephi and Sam for making them try again and started hitting them with a rod. Suddenly, an angel appeared to Laman and Lemual and told them not to hurt Nephi and Sam because they were following God's word. Before leaving, the angel told the brothers if they tried one more time to get the plates, it would work.
Even though they had just spoken with an angel, Laman and Lemuel complained again, but decided to go ahead and try one more time with Nephi and Sam. When it had gotten dark, Nephi went into the city and told his brothers to wait for him on the outside.
Being very brave, Nephi went by himself to get the brass plates. When he got near Labans house he saw him, laying on the ground. Nephi took Laban's sword and chopped Laban's head off! Next, Nephi decided to pretend to be Laban and dressed up in Laban's clothes. One of Laban's servants named Zoram didn't realize the man in Laban's clothes was really Nephi. Nephi asked Zoram to take him to the brass plates and he did. With the brass plates in Nephi's hands, Zoram followed Nephi out of the city.
When Nephi's brothers saw him they were afraid because they thought he was Laban. Nephi called out to his brothers to tell him it was safe. Suddenly, Zoram realized Nephi was not really Laban and started to run away. Nephi took ahold of Zoram and told him not to be afraid and that he needed to go back to the wilderness with the brothers. Zoram promised to go with the brothers.

James' Brass Plates

We just covered cardboard with foil and tapped the back. They were "written" with the back of a paintbrush...but had to be very careful as it ripped easily.

Andrew and James painted some brass plates. We mixed up food coloring and water and literally used paintbrushes to paint our "plates". They seemed to really like this and it's and inexpensive craft they will remember!

Just like Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi did to see who was going to talk to Laban first, James and Andrew played CASTING LOTS to see who was going to do a task for me. (I just had whoever got the shortest crayon get me a book)

Not really sure what else to include with this picture, but have been thinking about things kids could cast lots for: doing the dishes, who gets to ride in the front seat, who gets to say the prayer at meals, (these two boys always fight about who gets to say it so we always end up with two prayers!) maybe deciding on a snack...really there are endless possibilities.

There is a little play that goes with one of my books and these faces are from it. I'm going to try and make packets this week so I can get these extra little things to everyone! We just taped the face to colored paper and then attatched it all to a craft stick. The boys liked holding up each character while I read the short play.

We made a family to tree and compared it to the brass plates and how they held the records of families and why it was important to know these things. I told the boys to go and disquise themselves like Nephi did in Laban's clothing. This is what they came up with :)


Got this idea from one of the books and was able to just use Word to create my own personal PROMISE SHEET. Makes the kids accountable for something just like God made the brothers accountable for getting the plates.

The boys did such a good job with so many projects I printed out a TRYING HARD LIKE NEPHI award. They were pretty proud to have it. It will also be a good reminder when they don't want to do something because all I will have to say is..."Don't you want to try hard like NEPHI?"

One more thing, the boys were eating lunch and asked for some water. I just flipped up the faucet and filled up the cups. Andrew says...hey, this doesn't even have ice in it!!! Due to me thinking it is absurd for a child to HAVE to have ice in water said, "do you think Nephi got to have ice in HIS water?" The answer was NO and from that point on, when the boys got thirsty, I told them I was giving them NEPHI WATER. They thought it was way cool.

Questions:

What were Lehi's 4 sons names?

What happened when Laman and Lemuel were hitting Nephi and Sam with a rod?

Why did the 4 brothers go back to Jeruselum?

How did Nephi kill Laban?

What does casting lots mean? How do you do it?

Who was Zoram?

Do you think the brothers were afraid to go on such a dangerous mission?