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The Road Goes Ever On and On

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. J.R.R. Tolkien
Original image via Flickr

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Family Home Evening: Thou Shalt Construct a FAMILY

This lesson was inspired by a talk given in Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago. The speaker referenced the story of Nephi building a ship – not after the manner of men, but in the way that God would show him. Then, she said, we should build our families the same way. If we construct a family based on the principles of the gospel, it will carry us safely across the turbulent waters of life.

Nephi Builds a Ship

Age Range: Sunbeam, Star, CTR

Song: Nephi’s Courage (second verse if you’re only doing one)

Scripture: 1 Nephi 17: 8

And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.

Lesson: We read the story of Nephi building the ship in the illustrated Book of Mormon Stories. (If you don’t have the book, you can view it online here.) We talked about how Nephi did not know how to build a ship. He had never built a ship before, but by praying and listening to Heavenly Father he was able to build a good, strong ship to carry his family across the sea.

Then we talked about the fact that we didn’t need a ship, but to get us where we need to be (heaven) we need a strong FAMILY. To build a strong family, we can pray and follow the directions that Heavenly Father has given us. Then we moved on to the activity.

Activity: I made a puzzle shaped like a ship out of cardstock (posterboard would have worked better, since I could have just cut out one ship and cut it into pieces instead of hodgepodging) with four pieces. On each piece I wrote one of the four things we want to focus on to construct a strong family: Going to Church, Prayer, Scripture Study, and Family Home Evening.

Thou Shalt Construct a FAMILY

We let the boys “build” the ship by assembling it on the wall with the help of some tape and talked about how we can build a family as strong as Nephi’s ship if we use the tools that Heavenly Father gives us. Then everyone got to color a picture about it, always a favorite.

Construct a Family

Treat: We had cupcakes, but if you’re in the mood you can have Banana Boats.

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Homeschooling with Harry Potter

I recently began reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with my two older boys. They have a lot of Harry Potter themed toys and games (partially due to hand-me-downs from my little sister, who grew up, got married, and passed the magic down to her nephews) and I thought that at six and eight it was likely they would enjoy listening to it.

It has been an absolute hit and we’re already up to chapter twelve. They usually beg for a second chapter after the first and if the twins are still asleep I usually oblige, scratchy throat and all. Harry Potter has started to seep into our daily lives. It’s not often I’ll go a day without an “owl” tossing me a scrawled invitation to Hogwarts, and sticks that used to be swords have seen some new action as wands. It was inevitable that Harry Potter should invade our schooling as well, but I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to find Harry Potter worksheets. (Free, printable, academic worksheets for elementary school aged children?) I’ve tried. I don’t think there are any.

Harry Potter Crossword Puzzle

So I made some. Click here to see worksheets from our Harry Potter ‘Unit Study.’ I still have at least five that we’ve done that I haven’t posted, so check back for more if you’re interested. There’s subtraction, (addition once I get it posted), graph reading, a crossword, word searches, alphabetizing, fill-in-the-blank and coloring. In addition, there’s a new tab at the very top of the page for worksheets and printables which I will try to keep up-to-date.

I hope you enjoy!

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