My Teaching Matters

What does Gospel Teaching  look like in your home?  How do you do scripture study with littles, what about with teens?  Do you do Family Home Evening or Come Follow Me lessons?  How long does your teaching last?

There are as many different answers to these questions as there are people.  So while each family is different, it can still be helpful to see how other people are making it work in their homes.

In this episode, we take you behind the scenes to look at what gospel teaching looks like in our homes. 

Linsey shares how she does family scripture study around the breakfast table.  Her young kids seem to be more attentive while they keep their mouths full of Cheerios.  Linsey spends most of her time teaching scripture stories and gospel principles found in the Book of Mormon Reader.

I (Leslie) share how my teens wake up before school and breakfast to get a few minutes of Come Follow Me scripture study in.  While they may look like they are catching the last few minutes of sleep snuggled up in their blanket on the coach, they know they have to be awake enough to share at least one meaningful thing they learned during scripture study with the rest of the family..

Both Linsey and I use Sunday Come Follow Me lessons or Family Home Evening lessons to do a bit longer gospel lesson during the week.  We also both use a monthly theme to make spontaneous gospel teaching easier and to give focus to our learning.

By sharing what works for us, we hope to inspire you to figure out what works best for you.  What works for you might be totally different than what you see here, and that’s ok. It should be different.  The key  in whatever you do and however you do it is to be consistent.  If you are consistent, the results will come!

“There was this moment when I was holding my newborn daughter and I had this strong feeling, like I was holding something divine…” (Amber Corkin)

I think all of us as mothers have felt that divinity of a new born child as we hold them so new and fresh from their Heavenly home, but as they grow how do we help our children understand and remember their own divine nature? How can we help them have a desire to grow and develop those divine Christ-like attributes that they have inherited from their Heavenly Parents?

In today’s episode, we will be speaking with Amber Corkin who will share with us a project she and her twin sister Aubri have been working on for the last three years, to help children, particularly young girls, come to see their divine heritage and have a desire to develop Christ-like attributes as they read the inspiring stories  of 34 unique and talented women from the Bible. (DearDivineDaughter.com)

As each story is told, a unique characteristic such as brave, confident, faithful or just is highlighted. After each story, a short prompt is given, encouraging your daughter to personalize the message and think how she too, could develop that characteristic in her own life.

At the conclusion of the book, there is a space left for your daughter to personalize her experience even further. It is a place to record her own story, of her unique strengths and divine nature.

Throughout the episode, Amber shares her vision of how she hopes this book can inspire young girls (and boys) everywhere to work on developing Christ-like attributes and remembering who they are and their divine worth as Children of God.

In the most recent general conference, Pres. Nelson invites us to embrace a “new normal”.   A new normal that would have us “turning our hearts, minds, and souls increasingly to our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ."

In this episode, we take a detailed look at a group of people who did just that,  who turned their lives to Christ and what happened as a result.  How did their lives, and their children’s lives, even their grand and great-grandchildren lives change because of their decision to come unto Christ?

Join us as we uncover the secret to lasting conversion. A new normal that will change you and the lives of your loved ones for generations to come.

Today we get an inside peak at one family's celebration of General Conference.  For Latter Day Saints everywhere, listening to Corie is like trying to decorate with glitter.  It gets everywhere!  Corey’s enthusiasm for conference is contagious.  Conference weekend is the best two weekends of the year for her.  In this episode you will hear how she prepares herself and her family to be spiritually and temporally fed during General Conference .  From Conference buckets to a full out Conference menu, Corey loves to celebrate the word of God.

What would happen if you were able to use General conference to help create a meaningful experiences for you and your family?  How can General Conference change your relationship with your family and the Lord?  How can we continue to use General Conference in our teaching after General Conference is over?

These questions are answered in this week's episode as we share what we learned from LDS moms all over the country about how they make General Conference  meaningful for them and their family.

Throughout the episode, we give lots of tried and true ideas on  how to keep young kids engaged during conference.  Some of the ideas are how to keep them quiet so you can listen, other are activities you can do to teach them gospel principles or ways to remember the apostles and prophets.

We explore different ways to make  conference a time to create memories and strengthen family relationships as well as  ways to help your children have a spiritual experience during and even after conference is over.

By the end of this episode, you will have tons of ideas of how to make this general conference meaningful and memorable for your whole family.

As parents, our goal is not to TELL our kids what they need to know but to GUIDE them through experiences that will help them learn for themselves.

But HOW do you help your child have these personal experiences?

This week we highlight some simple questions that build on each other to help your child have that "aha" moment themselves.

We role play two different lesson plans: to SHOW you the difference between traditional lecturing lessons and more personal, engaging lessons. 

With these insights and examples, you will see the power of personal questions and how to use them to GUIDE your children’s learning.

Trying to create a lesson that is meaningful for everyone in the family can be your own lesson in frustration.

With a baby who cries when she’s not being held, a toddler who won’t hold still, a kindergartner and a 7 year old who is on the precipice of “knowing it already”, finding something that will hold the attention of everyone is nearly impossible!

In today's episode we will explore the learning styles of different age groups.  By understanding the general learning styles for children as they grow we can better tailor your lessons to fit their natural learning modes.

We talk about the intellectual development of children and how they learn at different ages.

Then we show YOU how you can create a lesson that encompasses all of these learning styles, by using a real CFM lesson plan from this month’s Friend. We  illustrate how simple it is to make adaptions that will include everyone.

Our hope is that you will walk away from this episode with a better understanding how children learn and how to use those learning styles to engage them in your own family lessons.

What will your future family look like?  In 10-15 years who will you all become?  And what can you do now to help your family become the family you desire?

Key Takeaways

We can CHOOSE what we want our family to look like-- okay maybe not the number of kids or what everyone wears or does.  BUT we can choose the culture that we foster in our family.

Think about the family you want to have in ~15 years.  How do get there?

Step 1: Start with the end in mind - Create a vision for your family

Listen to the Thriving in Motherhood episode all about establishing and living their family values.

Step 2: Create a plan

Step 3: Follow through

Dixie Christensen has four children under the age of 5, including a very wiggly three year old boy.  She has tried many different methods of family scripture study and Come, Follow Me study to teach her children about the Savior and has found some things that do and don't work.

Dixie Christensen has some great insights and tips for those of us trying to find meaningful ways to teach our young children the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I don't have time to create an elaborate lesson all the time.  But if I'm going to spend time doing something, I want it to be meaningful.

Is it possible to create an awesome lesson in just a few minutes?

It will be when you learn the 5 step framework we talk about in this podcast episode.

I've used this framework when I had 10 minutes notice that a primary teacher wasn't there and they needed a substitute.  I've also used it on Monday nights when I realized I didn't have an FHE lesson planned so I excused myself from dinner dishes to quickly put something together.