CONTROLLING Craziness: Think Good Thoughts (FHE)

Last week for Family Home Evening we had a very simple lesson about thinking good thoughts. Most of my lessons for FHE are short and simple. With a toddler, I can't do anything too lengthy, and with a son with Asperger's I like to make accommodations for him since he doesn't like making crafts or playing games (competition is a real challenge for him). So working together for a common goal and letting the girls do the crafty part at the end of our lessons has worked out good.

Anyway, back to last weeks lesson. I got the idea from HERE. It's an eight week series of lessons to teach children how to live the Gospel from head to toe. It's based on the song Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (a great song for toddlers). We started with the first lesson that focuses on the head, specifically thinking good thoughts. I plan to go through all the lessons but not in a row since we'll do some special Thanksgiving and Christmas FHE's in between.

We started off by singing the song Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

"Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes, knees and toes
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Eyes, ears, mouth and nose."

Then we talked about what's in our head. My son quickly answered, "thoughts". So we talked about how we should think about Heavenly Father and Jesus every day. We should think about what they want us to do. We should try to have good thoughts in our heads and when a bad thought comes in, to throw it away.

I read the scripture from Alma 37:36, which states:

"Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. "

For the activity, I had prepared a jar with a head taped onto it to represent our head.
I had 10 strips of paper with thoughts (good and bad) on them.
The kids took turns picking a slip of paper and reading it. We decided if it was a good thought, something that we wanted in our head, then we put it into the jar. If it was a bad thought we threw it aside. The kids had fun with the throwing part. This simple activity got everyone involved and having fun.

As for a treat afterwards, we made heads out of a scoop of ice cream, a cone for a hat and some chocolate chip eyes. The kids added some gel icing to make a mouth and to decorate the hat.