Articles of Faith

Every once in awhile I get a good idea and even act upon it. This year our Primary has challenged all of the children to memorize the Articles of Faith. So I decided to make our Family Home Evenings about them for the next couple of months. I wanted to help my daughters learn them, but even more importantly, I want them to understand what they mean. So each week we talk about one of them and do some activities to help us understand them. (I've found resources on sugardoodle.net and aboutlds.com and lds.org). I also find pictures to illustrate them as well as I possibly can. Then I'm putting this together into a little 6 x 6 scrapbook that we can take to church and study here at home. The girls are loving it. Ella has #1-3 memorized so far, and Michelle has #1-4 memorized. We've talked about the members of the Godhead and what each of their characteristics are. We talked about the Fall and about repentance and how each of us can choose the right (or not) and that there are consequences for our actions. For number 3, we talked about obedience. We discussed our Savior's atonement. For number 4, we played a game about baptism and discussed the difference between principles and ordinances. So far, I'm really happy with what they are learning and hope that this book with its visual reminders will continue to help them remember not just the words but the meaning of these articles of faith as well.

Little Girls Book Club

I can't keep up with my blogging lately! :)

A week and a half ago, it was book club night. For me. And for Michelle. Michelle is in a book club with other 7-11 year olds in our neighborhood. The book club was started by my amazing friend Aly. Usually Aly holds book club at her house and she always has such fun activities for the girls. January was Michelle's turn to pick the book though, and she wanted to do it at our house, so we did. She chose Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic, a book I had loved as a little girl. Since Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has "magic" cures for common childhood behavior problems such as being a tattle-tale, having bad table manners and not wanting to go to school, Michelle and I thought it would be fun to do some magic tricks. I don't really know any magic and didn't figure I'd be very good at it without a lot of practice, we mostly did math magic tricks.

Then we had ice cream sundaes where they could add whatever magic "cures" they needed (or wanted) on top of the ice cream. We had licorice drops to get rid of tattle tales and oreo cookie crumbs to get rid of "I thought you said-itis". They could put chocolate syrup to combat the "I don't want to go to school"ers. Since interrupters start to talk like goldfish, we even had goldfish crackers (which surprisingly many of the girls put on their ice cream!).

One fun thing about this was that after their little girl's book club, I headed over to my book club. We had read The Magic Lifein which magic plays a major role. A magic-filled night with lots of great people...cute little girls and then my friends. :)

Here's just a couple of my magic tricks (I found them online--they aren't actually mine):

Unfold the Paper - Magic Number TrickTell someone to write down a 3 digit number (example: 746). Tell them that you are each going to write down 2 more 3 digit numbers and add them, but before you do, you are going to write down the answer on a piece of paper and fold it up.
You obtain the answer by subtracting 2 from the last digit of the first number and placing a 2 before the first digit--thus 746 becomes 2744 for the answer. Now ask the other person to put their two digits down, either both at once or in succession with you. Either way, they must go before you. Now, whatever they put down, make each number, when added to the number you put down add up to 999. Don't do this but once with each person; they'll catch on otherwise. Example: (original number) 746... (Their first number) 325... (your first number) 674... (their second number) 841... (Your second number) 158...
Total 2744
They unfold the paper and you're a hero!

Name of the Dead
For this trick, you hand out three slips of paper, and ask three people to help you. Two are to write the names of living people on their slip, and the third person, the name of a dead person. These slips are folded and placed in a hat, without your touching them. You are then blindfolded, or the hat is held high over your head so that you cannot see into it. You are able to reach in and bring out the slip with the dead person's name.
This is a very easy trick. Take a sheet of note paper, and tear it into three pieces. The top and bottom pieces will have one smooth edge and one rough edge, but the center piece will have two rough edges. Have someone in the audience write a dead person's name on the center slip, and two other spectators, the names of a living person on each of the other two slips. Have the slips folded and dropped into the hat.
When you reach into the hat, all you need to do is feel for the slip with two rough edges. When you have found it, don't bring it out right away. Have the spectators concentrate on the names to make it more of a mystery. Then reveal the slip in your hand as the one with the dead person's name.