Bible Basics for Mormon Mommies: The Creation

First off, I'd like to explain the title:
As a home-schooling parent we were having some difficulty with my #1 son's reading.  On a trip to visit my sister and her family, I whined about the trouble and my sister took me to see her classroom and the curriculum they use in her private Christian school.  I loved the curriculum, but was a little hesitant to order the Bible Pack that goes along with it as we are practicing Mormons and I didn't want to have to weed out the places where the theology is not exactly the same.  That said, I started looking for a good Bible book or FHE book to help add in that bit of Gospel learning that I feel we've been missing out on.  My husband is what I'd like to call a "home-study-generic-christian" meaning he has a strong Bible foundation and beliefs, but doesn't go to church and is VERY guarded about his religion.  His contribution is that he wants the kids to know at least as much or more about the Bible as they do about the Book of Mormon.  I'm inclined to agree with him--there seems to be a deficit in basic Bible concepts for Mormon kids.  I know I only vaguely remember learning bible stories as a kids, granted we didn't always go to church and I frequently hid in the mothers lounge, but still--I feel it's my duty to help them understand their religion as much as possible and gain a testimony of their own.
Having not found exactly what I was looking for--I decided to write my own.  We'll be doing morning devotionals and studying basic basics so when my kids meet other christian kids who know the bible stories--so will they. 

Here we go, week 1 of Bible Basics for Mormon Mommies:

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THE CREATION

Day 1:  This lesson was based on the nursery lesson about the creation (one of the ONLY lessons I could find on the subject.)   We looked at pictures pictures of the creation, Earth shots from space and paintings that had lots of animals and plants.  Read Genesis 1:1  "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." and we basically introduced the idea that the world being made is called the creation and that we'd be talking about it this week.

Day 2:  Who created the world?  Jesus Christ Created the world for me.  (Read Moses 2:1- "... By mine only Begotten I created the heaven, and the earth upon with thou standest.") Again, we looked at pictures of the creation and talked about Jesus creating the earth and Heavenly Father telling him how to do it. 

Day 3:  What was created on what day?  This time we read Genesis 1:1-27 and Genesis 2:1-3.  We stopped at every place where it says "and the evening and the morning were the _____ day" and talked bout what happened that day.

1. Created light.  Divided the day from the night.
2. Created the sky (firmament) and the sea--my boys understand science little bit so we went into water in the air and the atmosphere and water on the earth.
3. Divided the sea from the land and created plants.
4. Created the sun, moon and stars.
5. Created birds and whales.
6. Created cattle and land animals--AND Adam and Eve. 
7. Rest!  We also talked about how this was special and the reason we now have the Sabbath.

Day 4:  The Creation shows God's love for us.  We talked about the things on the earth that my kids like the most--like God created dogs so that we could have pets, plants so we could have fruits and vegetables to eat, and animals so we could have meat. 

Day 5:  We made a picture of the creation and talked about it a little more. 

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Thanks for stopping in, I hope this helps out a little in your morning devotionals with your kiddos!  Next week we'll be talking about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden!  See you then :-)

Jesus: The Original Super Hero!

So my 6 year old son has recently developed this concept that sense the movies and superheros aren't real, that neither is Jesus... I have been at a loss for what to tell him.  We've talked about faith, and how we know the Gospel is true.  We go to church.  I feel like I'm doing all I really can to help him.  Today during a break from school (he's home-schooled, so he was at home playing with duplos) he told me he doesn't want to do Family Home Evening because Jesus isn't fun.  My approach went something like this:

Me: What makes a superhero a superhero?
Izz:  They are cool.
Me: What else?
Izz:  They have special powers and can make stuff.
Me:  What is the difference between a superhero and a super-villain?
Izz:  One is the good guy and one is the bad guy.
Me:  But how do you know which on is the good guy?
Izz:  Because they help people.
Me:  So a hero rescues people and makes them safe--he saves them.
Izz:  Yeah, and he doesn't super cool stuff.
Me:  Did you know that Jesus is like that?  He rescues us from our sins--when we do something wrong, that's called a sin, and when we repent, He takes that sin from us and rescues us.
Izz:  But Satan is the bad guy?
Me:  That's right, because Satan always tries to make you do what's wrong. 
Izz:  So  Satan doesn't want us to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus?
Me:  No he doesn't--he's like a real super-villain.

So there you have it--Jesus is a Super Hero!

The Suphero Birthday Party

This is Isaac, my 6 year old superhero!

The table with all the goodies!  Everything on this table was gluten-free, peanut-free and homemade: chocolate and white cake/cupcakes, lemon buddies chex mix and muddy buddies chex mix with Nutella and a little cream instead of peanut butter, chocolate dipped GF cookies from Glutino.

My super CTR-Boy cake!

That's layers of chocolate and white cake with cherry Ganache filling! 

(I'm still recovering from the sugar high!)

And it was good!

 

Every year we have a Pinata--this year I got a pirate because it was the only "bad guy" character I could find--the boys loved it!

 

That's it--thanks for looking!