Mitten Strings to God ~ Memorial Day with our Kids

Teaching the meaning of Memorial Day to your children can be a challenge.

For many Americans, Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer. We enjoy getting out camping or having a barbecue, but to military families, the meaning runs much deeper than a casual barbecue.

We as the general public should remember and teach our children why there is a day of observance to honor those who sacrifice for our country.

 

The simplest thing you can do to explain and honor this holiday with your children is to spend time talking to them about what Memorial Day means to you. Take the day to talk & reflect on the subject of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Here are a few ideas for things to do with your kids as you talk to them about the meaning of Memorial Day.

* Honor and Respect

        Put flowers on graves at the Veteran's cemetery.

* Visit and Pay Tribute

        Take a Thank You to a Military Relitive.

        Take Thank You cards, cookies, books, or movies to 

        the Veteran's Hospital and visit those who don't have 

        regular visitors. 

* Support

        Go to www.anysoldier.com and send something to a 

        Soldier.

*Remember

        Tell them a story about one of their ansestors that served 

        in the military.

* Celebrate with a Parade

        Watch the Memorial Day Parade on TV or dress up and 

        make homemade instruments and hold your own parade.

* For older kids you can tune into the History Channel or the 

        Military Channel or rent a movie about some of the 

        famous battles of the past.

* Teach your children about Medals of Honor, go to the link 

        http://www.homeofheroes.com/coloringbook/  for a free 

        Medals of Honor printable coloring book.

* Make it fun with activities or crafts

        Here are a few ideas:

 

Paint Rocks for Table Cloth Weights

Decorate Jars for Candles for the Barbecue Table

 

 Get Red, White and Blue sidewalk Chalk and create Patriotic Art

 

Make a Patriotic Hand Print Picture

Make fun Patriotic Treats Together

  

HAVE A GREAT MEMORIAL DAY HONORING OUR MILITARY

AND APPRECIATING OUR FREEDOM!!

 

Mitten Strings to God ~ Meaningful Easter Ideas

With Easter approaching it is time to think once 
again more deeply about the wonderful 

GIFT the ATONEMENT 
is to our lives.

This incredible gift is sometimes so overshadowed by the 

Easter Bunny and Baskets and Hunts etc....

Here are a couple of ideas to help teach your young children about the atonement and the resurrection.

Easter Breakfast – Resurrection Rolls

You need just 5 ingredients:
crescent rolls, marshmallows, sugar,
cinnamon and butter

Give each child one triangle shaped section of crescent roll.

(you can make your own roll dough if you prefer)

This represents the tomb.

Each child takes one marshmallow.

This represents the body of Christ.

Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

This represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon burial.

Lay the marshmallow on the dough and 

carefully wrap it around the marshmallow.

Make sure all seams are pinched together well. 

(This is a REALLY important step! Otherwise the marshmallow will “ooze” out of the seams)

Bake according to package directions

or 20 minutes @350 degrees 

if you made your own dough.

Break open the tomb and the 

Body of Christ

is no longer there!!

 

Talk about where he is now that he has been resurrected and what the

Atonement means to us.

Another idea:

Easter Story Cookies

This is a great way to share the the story of the atonement in an interesting and meaningful way with your children and grandchildren!

Ingredients:1 cup whole pecans1 tsp. vinegar3 egg whitespinch of salt1 cup sugarzipper baggiewooden spoontape

Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important to do before you start the mixing)

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. 

Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Romans soldiers.Read John 19:1-3.

 

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. 

Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

 

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

 

Sprinkle a little salt into each child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.

Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers. 

Read Luke 23:27.

 

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar. 

Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. 

Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.  

 

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. 

Explain that the color white represents the purity in God’s eyes of those whose use the atonement to repent. 

Read Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

 

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. 

Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid. 

Read Matt. 27:57-60.

 

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. 

Explain that Jesus’ tomb was sealed. 

Read Matt. 27:65-66.

GO TO BED!

Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the Oven overnight. Jesus’ followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! 

On the first Easter, Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. 

Read Matt. 28:1-9.

*Ideas taken from womenlivingwell.org

Happy Easter Everyone

Thanksgiving 2013

*An Attitude of Gratitude

"This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth.  Our opportunities are limitless.  While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help."

"We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.  If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues." 

Thomas S. Monson - Ensign, May 1992

Even in our trials we have much to be grateful for.

Let us have gratitude 

for even the smallest of blessings in our lives.

Here's some ideas for the kiddo's  for 

Thanksgiving this year.

Help them make a "Thankful For" 

Turkey for your table center piece.

Play Gingerbread Man blackout

*Draw a gingerbread man for each player, put lines through him and randomly 

put numbers in the sections

Here are the rules:

Going around in a circle, each player takes a turn rolling a dice or die. 

The player then gets to color in one of the segments with that number in it. 

Then, it's the next player's turn to roll and color.

The first player to color in their whole gingerbread man wins!

Have fun playing!

*Here is a link to some ideas from last year.

Kids ideas for Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 8000 calorie poem:

May your stuffing be tasty 


May your turkey plump, 


May your potatoes and gravy 


have nary a lump. 


May your yams be delicious 


and your pies take the prize, 


and may your Thanksgiving dinner 


stay off your thighs! 


-Unknown

Mitten Strings to God / Promoting Positive Behavior in Children

"It is not what you do for your children,

but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."

Check out this link for some great ideas on:

Promoting Positive Behavior in Children

Mitten Strings to God / 24th of July family night kids activity

With the 24th of July upcoming, here is 

a fun idea for Family Night

1st - Discuss what Pioneer Day is all about:

The 24^th of July was Pioneer Day, a state holiday in Utah that honors the day in 1847 that the Mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley.

Mormon's were pushed out of their homes and had to find a new place where they could live safely and practice their religion.

They packed up just a few of their belongings in hand carts and headed on the long journey west.

2nd - Read or listen to a Pioneer story.

Click below to find some

Pioneer Stories

3rd - Sing or,

Watch this video with Mormon Tab singing

Click below

Come, Come, Ye Saints

4th - Make these cute family night treats

• approx. 1 ½ graham cracker sheets
• 2 pretzel sticks
• melted chocolate (below)
• 4 Keebler Fudge Shoppe Mini Fudge Stripes cookies
• frosting (below)
• 2 Barnums Animal Cookies
• 2 marshmallows
• 1 Teddy Graham
• 1 Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel String

One thing I’ve learned through lots of trial and error (and even more messes) is that, when you have kids — especially young ones — helping you in the kitchen, prep work is your friend. So before you invite your child to come help you:

1. Set aside one of your graham cracker sheets. Break the remaining one into quarters. Save one of those quarters. Take two more and cut them in half lengthwise with a very sharp, not serrated knife (follow the dots!). Set aside two of those, then take one and cut it in half widthwise with the same knife. You should have a quarter, two eighths, and a sixteenth:
   
2. Use your knife to trim your pretzel sticks to less than a half inch longer on each side than the width of your quartered graham cracker.
3. Melt about ½ cup (or less, depending on how many of these you plan to make) of chocolate chips with just a touch of oil in a small bowl in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until it’s smooth. Then spoon it into a piping bag or small Ziploc bag with a corner cut off.
4. Place some wax paper on a small flat surface (I used the inside of a large, shallow Snap-Lock container). Take the cookies you’ll be using and place them face-down on the wax paper (the solid chocolate side should be facing you). Rotate the tip of your knife in the center circle to scrape out the excess chocolate and widen the hole.
5. Squeeze some chocolate into the holes of half of the cookies, then place the end of a pretzel stick into the chocolate so that it stands up.
   
6. Once you’ve assembled all of them, stick the whole container in the freezer to set up.
7. Now make your frosting. I whipped a ½ stick of softened butter, then beat in 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ tsp. clear vanilla, a heaping teaspoon of meringue powder, and just enough half-and-half to make it a spreadable consistency. You can use the premade kind too; just make sure that you mix in meringue powder so that it sets and holds everything together. Scoop the frosting into another piping bag or Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off.
8. Pull your container of half-axles out of the freezer. Place the rest of your cookies face-down on the paper, then squeeze the chocolate into the holes & very carefully place the other end of your pretzel sticks into the hole to make a whole axle. Put them back in the freezer until you’re ready for them.
   
9. Okay. Now you can invite the kids to come help.
   
10. Pull out some of your animal crackers. Some face left and some face right. Let your child choose one of each. This way the detail on both cookies can face out when they’re “harnessed” to the wagon. Admittedly, giraffes, camels, and lions aren’t the most historically accurate…
    
11. Grab your full graham cracker sheet and two axles. Pipe some frosting to the bottom of each wheel of your axle, then stick it to one end of the sheet. Do the same thing with the other axle, positioning it a little over an inch in front of the first one. Pipe a line of frosting across the top of the pretzel sticks and lay your quarter graham cracker on top.
    
12. Create “walls” on the back and sides of your wagon with your eighth and sixteenth graham cracker. Pipe a line of frosting on the bottom of each one, as well as the corners where they meet. Bet you never thought you’d get to use your mad Gingerbread House skills in the middle of July!
    
13. Pipe a little frosting on the “feet” of your animal crackers, then stand them up at the front of your graham cracker sheet.
14. Now take your marshmallows and stick them together end to end with a dot of frosting. Pipe the tops of your “walls” and stick the marshmallows on top.
15. Put a big glob of frosting on the front of the wagon in front of the marshmallows. Stand the Teddy Graham on top of the glob so he’s “driving.”
    
16. You’re almost done! Now just put dots of frosting on the tops of the wagon walls near the Teddy’s hands, and very carefully add a dot of frosting to the outside of each animal. Carefully loop your Twizzlers string around to make reins (you’ll need to trim off about 1.5 inches with your thumbnail) with an end in each one of Teddy’s hands. Ta da!

(taken from Alli-N sons web site)