Week 7: Chapter 7 - Building the Ship

The Book of Mormon
Chapter 7: Building the Ship


My apologies for the post delay this week. LQ and I have already started our scriptures for this week, but another project has consumed all my "LQ nap" time. So today I made myself sit down and work out what else LQ and I are going to do this week for scripture study.

LQ is still responding well to the quicktime version of the stories. Dal was making fun of them last night - whatever works I say. LQ also enjoyed flicking through my scriptures this morning while I explained to her that Heavenly Father blesses us when we keep the commandments.

This week Nephi and his family are building a ship. His brothers are being naughty again and Nephi gets to shock his brothers by touching them. I had a thought for an object lesson, I could build up a bit of static electricity and let LQ have it..... Bordering on child abuse, you say? Ok, I may let that idea slide then. Other non-abusive activity ideas include:

• Using blocks to build a boat
• "Sewing" a sail for the boat (you can make a sail out of cardboard and punch holes around the edge. Then your toddler can have fun sewing with string or wool)
• The Living Scriptures has an activity book to go along with their dvd "Journey to the Promised Land". Remember you can download these activity books for free if you register (for free). There are a few colouring pages that can be used for this particular story.

Ideas from the Friend:

• March 1992 - Sharing Time: Nephi Builds a Ship (diorama)
• March 1988 - Nephi Builds a Ship - you could do as the article suggests, or you could also use the pictures for a matching card game.
• November 2000 - Journey to the Promised Land - This one is too old for Toddlers but is a great game to play with the entire family

My favourite scripture from 1 Nephi 17 is verse 3. I have been reading this one to LQ over the last two days. It is easy to summarize and it has a great message to it.

As always,... I am eager to know how you are doing. Send me an email sometime.

Teaching Our Children to Love the Scriptures

I am giving a talk in April the topic is "How can we show our love for the Saviour to our Children?". I am supposed to fluff this topic out for 10 - 15 minutes and I am a little unsure how many times I can say "example".

Enough about my talk topic woes. In a desperate search for an article that covers that exact topic, I found this talk by Ann G. Wirthlin. It just reconfirmed the importance of reading the scriptures with LQ.

Week 6: Chapter 6 - Lehi's Dream

The Book of Mormon
Chapter 6: Lehi's Dream


Ok.... this one's going to be rough. I won't pretend that reading the story of Lehi's dream to a toddler excites me. It does in fact leave me sweating bullets.

I am considering just mumbling my way through this chapter, but I think I can make some pretty poignant points with this one.

I have decided that I will start to eat Maltesers in front of LQ and then explain that I will share them with her because I know that she will like them too. Then explain that's what Lehi did in his dream... except it was fruit.... and it was actually GOOD for his family (we will skip lightly past all that). So that may be my first day.... OR I may do it every single day this week.

Some other ideas I have had include:

• Following mummy around the room by holding on to the broomstick (iron rod, duh!)
• Sing the chorus of the hymn "The Iron Rod" while marching around the room.

Look to the Friend for some ideas:

• July 1998 - Joseph "Holds to the Iron Rod" - a flannel board story
• August 2006 - For Little Friends - a story and activity ideas
• August 2002 - The Lord's Temple - it's a stretch, but it's a poem with actions and talks about holding to the iron rod
• January 1996 - The Wonderful Fruit - cards to be printed out can be printed twice to make a match up game. You could also do the suggested activity if you have a child prodigy.

I am going to read 1 Nephi 8:10 to LQ each day.


While I love researching and planning LQ's scripture study, I would also love to hear if you have a successful day with your toddler or if there is something that your toddler particularly likes to do. I am eager to post your successes and ideas, so go ahead and email me at toddlerscripture[at]gmail.com

And the winner is...

I am so pleased with the turn out I had from the quiet book competition. Each comment helped me feel just that little bit better with my efforts in raising LQ.

It seems that staying in your pyjamas all day is a rite of passage for all new mothers. I do appreciate the more experienced mum's letting the rest of us know, that it is just a season. I think I will call this season of my life the "Pyjama Season".

“to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; … a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away (a time for pyjamas and a time for makeup).” (Eccl. 3:1, 6.)

I also appreciate those other mothers who admitted that they experience the same pyjama struggle.

As I read each of your comments and blogs (yep, I visited your blogs, the ones who allowed me) I realised that this competition probably wasn't such a good idea after all. I am terrible to watch sports with, because I will barrack for the losing team because I feel sorry for them.... this means I may even change my allegiance halfway through a game. It is because of my soft approach to losers (and because I know that each of you would have loved getting that book) that I find myself struggling to announce just one winner... I want everyone to have a quiet book!

But I only have one Quiet Book, so I will be happy for the winner instead of sad for the "non-winners".

Congratulations Nannette!

Could you email me (helencluff[at]gmail.com) and let me know your address so the quiet book can be sent on to you. Did you know Nannette has a little boy who just turned one on St. Patricks Day? Dal and I were married on St. Patricks Day. Fun.

Don't forget that if you still want that Quiet Book, you can visit Knot Sew Shabby's etsy store and buy one for yourself.

Week 5: Chapter 5 - Traveling in the Wilderness

The Book of Mormon
Chapter 5: Traveling in the Wilderness

For those of you who are new, I base LQ's scripture study around the chapters of the softcover Book of Mormon Stories book that can be purchased from the LDS Distribution Services for US$7.00. It can also be found online. If you look back through my posts you will see that at the moment LQ doesn't sit very still while I read to her from this book. She does, however, sit still if I have her watch the Quicktime movie from here. It is also available in other movie formats.

LQ and I are going to do Chapter 4 this week, because we didn't get anything done last week. And I just can't go past the story of the Brass plates - it just wouldn't be right skipping a good chance to play sword fights.

BUT, it is always good to get ahead with my planning, so here is chapter 5.


This chapter seems to be a bit long but I am prepared to summarize the part about the "boys" going back to get the "girls". I don't see any complaining this time from Laman and Lemuel about going back to Jerusalem, silly boys. I am going to tell LQ that Heavenly Father wanted the boys to have someone to marry so they went back to Jerusalem and encouraged Ishmael's family to join them. That pretty much sums up the first page.

Then we can get on with the Liahona, the bow breaking and Laman and Lemuel getting into trouble again.

Scriptures that I will read to LQ from the Book of Mormon include: 1 Nephi 16:4, 1 Nephi 16:29 (last sentence). These are just scriptures that I feel contain an important lesson that go along with the chapter.

Here are some resources I will be using for activities this week:

• The Friend

June 1987 - Sharing Time: Compass of Faith (some great ideas and activities in this article)
May 2000 - The Liahona and the Holy Ghost (LQ will enjoy turning the pencils)
October 1998 - Liahona Colouring (I will use the picture of the Liahona for a colouring activity)

• We may marry off LQ's Fisher Price Little People
• Make a bow and arrow and "shoot" some of the Fisher Price Little People farm animals, cleverly disguised as wild animals
• Why not have a hat day? Wear some tea towels on your head so you can be a part of Lehi's family. Get out your wedding veil (if you kept it) and pretend to have a wedding.

If you have just recently found this blog, I encourage you to look through some of the older posts. There are some failures, successes and suggestions for reading to your toddler (which I am sure you probably already know).

Let me know how you go this week!

Ideas?

Because I am going to have THOUSANDS of people visit this blog in the next week, I thought I might use the opportunity to get some ideas thrown around this rattly blog.

This week I have been a little lackadaisical in my approach to furthering LQ's eternal salvation. In fact things seem to have completely stopped for me. Are you ready for the excuses? I had a bit more on my plate... and LQ has been waking up in the middle of the night for the past four days, so when she wakes up at six I am JUST NOT READY to be the spiritual giant that I usually am.

I have also come across a few different things on the internet that have had me thinking. So my questions to you are:

If you already do scripture study with your toddler, or older children for that matter, do you just read whatever book you are reading consecutively or do you actually study the scriptures with a particular topic in mind?

OR if you don't do scripture study with your toddler and never plan on doing it and are just here for the chance to win a fantastic QUIET BOOK then tell me this - When raising a toddler, what gets you (or what got you) out of your pyjamas each day? Because most days.... I'm still in mine when Dal arrives home from work.

Found

In a desperate search for something else, I found right at the bottom of the ldsfamilyfun download page a boardgame called The Quest for the Brass Plates game.

Ummmm .... FANTASTIC! It's a PDF that you download and mount the game and cards on cardboard. I wish LQ was a little older so we could play this.

Week 4: Chapter 4 - The Brass Plates

The Book of Mormon
Chapter 4 - The Brass Plates

Finally we get some action! This is a bit of a long story, but the sentences that are associated with each picture are quite short, so I am hoping that the entire story will hold LQ's attention. I will use the downloaded "movie" again because it worked so well last week.

This week's plan includes only reading one scripture this week. I will concentrate on 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do, etc." I am planning on reading this to LQ every day in the hopes that she will become very familiar with it.

While discussing the story with LQ I am also going to have her do the following activities:

• Colouring pages from the living scriptures
• Make the brass plates from orange cardboard and pipe cleaners
• Make and use paper swords
• Dress up and pretend to be Laban like Nephi did
• "Read" Old Testament stories from our made up Brass Plates like Lehi did

I have also found a few related activities in the Friend that would suit older children:

September 1996 - Brass Plates Code
March 2004 - Nephi and the Brass Plates
February 1996 - Nephi gets the Brass Plates (this could be used as a matching game for your toddler)

If you are doing any of these activities or have found something that works really well for you, let me know. I'd love to hear from you - and you, Denae ;)

Lehi's Journey

The first title I thought of for this post, was "Lehi's Ass". Because here it is in all it's glory.

But to be on the safe side, I thought I'd include his Camels too.

And then there's his motley family with the dog that is just as big as Lehi (who used to be known as Noah in his former life).

I think I had more fun doing this than LQ did!

Success

This morning, instead of turning the TV on as soon as LQ woke up (this is usually done so mum can get a few more minutes of sleep time), I took her to the computer to have her watch and listen to this week's scripture story.

It worked! She sat on my lap, listened to the story and pointed to things in the pictures that I was pointing to. I was so pleased she was so attentive. I was also pleased that I had made an effort this morning.

LQ also prayed and read the proper scripture with me before sliding off my lap and running to her toys. I am high on a successful mummy moment.

Week 3: Chapter 3 - Lehi Leaves Jerusalem

Book of Mormon
Chapter 3: Lehi Leaves Jerusalem


Instead of using our scripture picture book this week, I am going to download the story to Quicktime and have the computer tell us the story (you can follow this link which will give you several media options to watch the story). LQ enjoys sitting at the computer and just watching me play Mickey Mouse games for her, so I think this will have the same sort of appeal. As well as the excitement of a new medium, it is also someone else telling the story. This means that while the story is being told, I can point out in the pictures what is going on. I am excited to try out this new method.

As we continue on in the chronological order (Don't tempt me otherwise, DeNae!), I am really becoming eager to get to a story that has some ACTION! Until then, I will try and make the "lead up" stories seem as exciting.

Activities that go along with this story include:

• Build an altar out of blocks
• Erect a tent out of chairs and blankets
• Pretend to be in Lehi's family and pack only the most important things - The July 1995 Friend gives a good FHE activity idea that is perfect for this particular story. I thought to simplify it for LQ, I will have her pack her Tinkerbell suitcase with "important" items.
• LQ has a couple of different Fisher Price Little People sets including Noah's Ark. I am going to take the camels and Noah from that set; the farmer, horses and mule from the Farm set; and two other little people to create a scene of Lehi's family departing into the wilderness.

Once again, the living scriptures activity booklet has colouring pages as well as a connect-the-dots activity for older children.

Particular scriptures that I will read and discuss with LQ include 1 Nephi 2:2, 1 Nephi 2:3, 1 Nephi 2:7, 1 Nephi 2:16.

All wrapped up

It is Sunday, which means week two has disappeared behind me in a cloud of dust made up of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, dirty clothes, a trip interstate and a few scriptures thrown in for good measure.

Dear old Lehi has not played as prominent part in my toddler's life as much as I would have liked this week. However, I am determined to stick with this project. Mostly because I don't want to be labeled a "quitter"!

LQ and I did sit down this week and read and discussed the scripture "having been born of goodly parents".

One thing I have discovered is that example plays a vital part in the process of LQ's learning. Therefore, along with reading with LQ, I will make a point of doing my personal scripture study while LQ is awake and aware of what I am doing. Maybe this will encourage a little more attention from LQ.