Teaching children the gospel

[Shade]

hey all

been some time since i've written anything here. i was inactive for around 16 years or so and last year made a commitment to get my act together and get the spiritual aspects my life sorted out. this has included introducing my fianceé and 2 children (son of 9, daughter of 3) to the gospel. we'll be marrying middle of April, and once we're no longer "living in sin", she can begin to counsel with the bishop regarding what she needs to do in order to be baptised.

but in the meantime, we've been attending sacrament meetings quite regularly, holding family home evenings, having the missionaries around twice a week, reading the scriptures together each day as a family, having family prayers (our goal is every day, twice a day) and we're doing any of it perfectly, yet. it's still tough to break the old cycles of NOT doing all these things — but i'm not beating myself up about my shortcomings for the moment. rather we are doing our best to do our best.

my son has many questions about the gospel. there's so much that i was taught by his age which he is very curious about. he wants to know when he can be baptised (something we'll be talking to the bishop about real soon). he wants to know about prayer. he wants to know about what heaven is like. the degrees of glory. eternal life. how our Heavenly father blesses us, literally HOW??? you can just imagine, a kid that age — FULL of questions...

i guess i took being raised in the church for granted. there is so much which i was taught without even realising it as i grew up at home.

ok, my question then, or rather, the advice i seek is this:

i know that my son will learn in primary lessons and in sunday school, but i also know that it is one of my own sacred duties to teach my children the gospel of Christ.

any ideas or resources you can recommend on teaching the gospel to my children?

[Elgama]

I think best things are teaching stories, and singing songs - you have a huge advantage over me I don't know many of the primary songs and my songs are mostly about Joshua, Daniel, David etc I try to use the scripture stories to teach a point now. I say a prayer with her if she is upset, lost or we need to have a serious talk.

I just want to say though you are doing some amazing things I struggle to get done

-Charley

[dakwilk]

I am so impressed that you are trying to do all of that. We try but never get everything done. It is a lot! We do the best that we can. As for your question, I use dome of the Church resources. FHE manual, and picture bible/BofM, there are really good books that you can get through Seagull Book and Tape or through your local church bookstore that have ideas for teaching children. I have a five year old and I try to use everyday situations to teach. So, if he is hurt and scared that his hurt will not every go away, we pray. Or if he is scared at night, we pray. If I feel the Spirit while we are singing a hymn or looking at a beautiful sunset, I ask him to describe how he feels and then explain that that is the Spirit.

And, the most important thing that I've learned is not to give too much information. Be age appropriate and tell him what he needs to know. I made the mistake of telling my son too much about Easter last year. (Jesus dying so that we can all be resurrected after we die. Then, that lead to lots of questions about if mommy and daddy would die, grandma/grandpa, etc. ) He was just too young to understand. I'm sure you are doing a great job.

[skalenfehl]

One idea might be to share family home evening with friends in your ward where kids in other families are the same age. I remember my family being invited to family home evenings with other families in my ward when I was a boy and they were memorable experiences. Here are a few links to help you a little further:

Family Home Evening
FHE Ideas
FHE sites

Hope this helps.

[Shade]

thanks for the ideas!