Other Helpful Ideas from Our January Meeting

Surviving Sacrament Meeting/Mass:
Bring a book of photos of extended family for children to look through.
Turn 5x7 Gospel Art Pictures or other pictures of the Savior or scripture stories/characters into lacing cards.
Print off coloring pages from The Friend magazine
Make a gospel-oriented BINGO-like game with felt and velcro. (Chelsea Whitby for details.)
Draw stick figures and have your kids design their clothes.
Learn hymns as a family.
Speak the words in your child's ear while they sing with the congregation.

Family Prayer & Scripture Study:
Listen for a word or phrase, and at the end, tell me if I said it. (I tried this, Lindsey. Thank you!)
Let kids follow along with/look at the illustrated Book of Mormon (or other) Stories while you read from the actual book of scripture.

Book Recommendations:
Raising Your Spirited Child (author?)
The Happiest Toddler on the Block (author?)

Other:
Kaylyn asked, "When do you say your morning prayers?" I'm not sure if she got any practical suggestions (certainly not from me!), but it made me write down: Say morning personal prayers.

Both Lindsey and Tricia do a variation on the following:
At dinnertime, they take turns sharing events of the day and how they felt. Lindsey gives her kids emotions (Tell me a time you felt nervous/happy. Tell me a time you felt frustrated/grateful.) Tricia's family shares their High/Low moments.

High Fives

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of you for contributing to the conversation on how much our children need physical touch on a regular basis. I don't consider myself a super touchy-feely person, but I notice a difference myself when I am the recipient of hugs, kisses, high fives, holding hands, pats on the back, and even the occasional surprise attack and being wrestled to the ground by my kids. So I've been more conscious in my efforts to provide them with physical reassurances of my love.

Some of you know that for quite a while now the focus of my personal scripture study has been reading the Book of Mormon as a parenting guide. This has been a very eye-opening experience for me. Just yesterday I was reading 3 Nephi 11, and because of our recent mothering discussion, these words reached me in a completely different way. The Savior invites the people to come and feel the nail prints for themselves, the evidence of his love for us. He recognizes the importance of physical touch and invites it.

I know this is second nature for some of you, and I want to thank you for your examples to me. You are helping me to learn what it means to be more like Jesus, to trust his words, his ways, and to ultimately help my children want to know and be like him. Motherhood matters.