"Love One Another" Visual Aids

Just sharing visual aids I created (using the Children's Songbook illustrations) for the classic song "Love One Another". Whether you're a Primary chorister or you just want your family to learn the song, this might help.

Imagination, Creative Freedom, and a Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz

I remember the first time I was frustrated with the way one of my children was coloring. We'd been doing a unit study on salmon and I had carefully drawn blank shapes of salmon for my kids to color, fully expecting them to color the picture the way salmon actually are. That isn't the way one of them chose to color. I had one of those split personality moments--the kind where I heard myself speaking in a tone and volume not reflective of the kind of mother or teacher I wanted to be, while simultaneously saying to myself inside my own brain, "Well, you are kind of justified. I mean, salmon are so obviously not yellow and purple," while simultaneously arguing with myself inside my own head that I don't want to stifle my children's creativity or be so rigid that learning isn't fun, while simultaneously counter arguing inside my head that this task was not meant to be especially creative, but demonstrate awareness and learning--it was science, not art. It was an exhausting two minutes. I finally calmed down, made more copies of the salmon drawing, and settled on telling my children they needed to color one the way salmon actually look in real life and then they could color one any way they wanted. 

While cleaning out a file of papers today, I came across this poem I found long ago and had forgotten about. It's definitely food for thought.

                    The Little Boy

                    by Helen E. Buckley

                    Once a little boy went to school.

                    He was quite a little boy.

                    And it was quite a big school.

                    But when the little boy

                    Found that he could to go his room

                    By walking right in from the door outside,

                    He was happy.

                    And the school did not seem 

                    Quite so big anymore.

                    One morning,

                    When the little boy had been in school awhile,

                    The teacher said:

                    "Today we are going to make a picture."

                    "Good," thought the little boy.

                    He liked to make pictures.

                    Lions and tigers,

                    Chickens and cows,

                    Trains and boats--

                    And he took out his box of crayons and he began to draw.

                    But the teacher said, "Wait!

                    "It's not the time to begin!"

                    And she waited until everyone looked ready.

                    

                    "Now," said the teacher,

                    "We are going to make flowers."

                    "Good," thought the little boy. He liked to make flowers.

                    And he began to make beautiful ones

                    With his pink and orange and blue crayons.

                     But the teacher said, "Wait!

                     "And I will show you how."

                     And it was a red flower with a green stem.

                     "There," said the teacher.

                     "Now you may begin."

                     The little boy looked at the teacher's flower.

                     Then he looked at his own flower.

                     He liked his flower better than the teacher's.

                     But he did not say this.

                     He just turned his paper over.

                     And made a flower like the teacher's.

                     It was red with a green stem.

                     On another day,

                     When the little boy had opened

                     The door from the outside all by himself,

                     The teacher said:

                     "Today we are going to make something with clay."

                     "Good," thought the little boy. 

                     He liked clay.

                     He could make all kinds of things with clay:

                     Snakes and snowmen,

                     Elephants and mice,

                     Cars and trucks--

                     And he began to pull and pinch

                     His ball of clay.

                     But the teacher said: 

                     "Wait! It's not time to begin!"

                     And she waited until everyone looked ready.

                    "Now," said the teacher.

                    "We are going to make a dish."

                    "Good," thought the little boy.

                    He liked to make dishes,

                    And he began to make some

                    That were all shapes and sizes.

                    But the teacher said, "Wait!

                    "And I will show you how."

                    And she showed everyone how to make

                    One deep dish.

                   "There," said the teacher.

                   "Now you may begin."

                   The little boy looked at the teacher's dish.

                   Then he looked at his own.

                   He liked his dishes better than the teacher's.

                   But he did not say this.

                   He just rolled his clay into a big ball again.

                   And made a dish like the teacher's.

                   It was a deep dish.

                   And pretty soon

                  The little boy learned to wait.

                   And to watch.

                   And to make things just like the teacher.

                   And pretty soon

                  He didn't make things of his own anymore.

                  Then it happened

                  That the little boy and his family

                  Moved to another house

                  In another city.

                  And the little boy

                  Had to go to another school.

                  This school was even bigger

                  Than the other.

                  And there was no door from the outside

                  Into his room.

                  He had to go up some big steps

                  To get to his room.

                  And the first day

                  He was there,

                  The teacher said:

                  "Today we are going to make a picture."

                  "Good," thought the little boy.

                  And he waited for the teacher

                  To tell him what to do.

                  But the teacher didn't say anything.

                  She just walked around the room.

                  When she came to the little boy,

                  She said, "Don't you want to make a picture?"

                  "Yes" said the little boy.

                  "What are we going to make?"

                  "I don't know until you make it," said the teacher.

                  "How shall I make it?" asked the little boy.

                  "Why, any way you like," said the teacher.

                  "And any color?" asked the little boy.

                  "Any color," said the teacher.

                  "If everyone made the same picture, 

                  And used the same colors,

                  How would I know who made what,

                  And which was which?"

                 "I don't know," said the little boy.

                 And he began to make a red flower with a green stem.

Obviously, there are times in life when precision or exactness or sameness are what is called for. Art isn't one of them. Neither is writing. Sometimes teachers think the only way to properly teach is to have children merely copy them. Because we're trying to teach, help, better, challenge, grow children into educated, capable people and, because it's our job to show them and be examples, we think our example is THE way to do it. But there is a difference between teaching technique, form, rules, etc. and dominating a mind or an outcome. We can teach that flowers have petals, pistils, stems, and leaves and let children draw their own based on a live flower. We can give guided assignments/challenges without dictating. We can demonstrate watercolors or shading or any other medium or technique and let children practice and experiment. We can observe great art and artists or great writing and writers and point out what makes it so. And we can still give children creative freedom.

Just think--what would the world be like if someone had stifled Dr. Seuss and he never created pink trees or a Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz because they just don't exist?  What would the world be like if no one ever thought outside the box? We'd have no Mary Poppins, no Star Wars, no Narnia. We'd all be huddled around campfires--not because we want to be but because we have to be. No one would be reading this blog (though maybe they aren't anyway!). We'd live dark, bleak, hard lives. It's the purple-and-yellow-salmon-colorers and the wiggly-can't-sit-still-botherers and the "I-like-mine-betterers" that do most of the inventing and problem solving in this world. 

Just think about that.

Love Quote Matching Game

You may recall that our homeschool curriculum for this year is all about life and as part of that, we host Biography Club once a month. At each gathering, before the students give their presentations, we play some kind of game relating to people. (We've gone through the Who cards of Smart A**, played The Name Chase Historical Figures Edition, etc.) Today, in honor of February, I created a matching game where you match a quote about love to the famous person who said it. (Before beginning, though, I went through the list of people to make sure everyone knew who the people were, or at least a little something about them. For instance, no one knew who William Goldman is off the tops of their heads, but I made sure they knew he was the author of The Princess Bride, something everyone was familiar with.)

Check it out. Play it with your family.  If you need an answer sheet, ping me in the comments.

Secret Valentines - Emulating God's Love

Growing up, February 1-14 was always a little extra exciting in my house. At some point during my childhood, I forget when, my mother instituted Secret Valentines. Everyone in the family drew names on February first and from then until Valentines Day we did secret acts of service for whomever we drew and made Valentines to leave them. My mother would make huge heart-shaped sugar cookies and we would each get solitary time in the kitchen (so as not to be seen and figured out) decorating one for our Secret Valentine. There would be a Valentine making station and a pool of treats to incorporate into our Valentines. For two weeks we'd dote on a family member daily and then on Valentines Day we'd have a nice family dinner where the table was set with some little gift at each place setting that each of us had secretly purchased for our Secret Valentine and then before eating we'd each try to guess who had drawn our name. I especially remember when my father drew my name because he sent me flowers at school!

This year I wanted to incorporate Secret Valentines into our Love and Home Month, but we are just doing it for one week. This morning we drew names and I distributed a paper bag with goodies inside for us each to use in our Valentine capers.

Of course, treats are nice, but the real meat of this activity is to learn to serve each other. We sang the hymn "Come, Follow Me" and discussed each line of verse. Jesus Christ didn't just say he loved us, he showed us in everything he did through acts of service, including the greatest service of them all when he atoned for each and every one of us. 

This week we are revisiting lessons past when we learned about God's love using "14 Days of God's Love" from Not Consumed. This time, we're getting very specific in discussing how we can emulate God's love among each other within our family relationships.

Happy February!

Love at Home Tree of Life

You may recall that we began our school year with a study of the Tree of Life. We continued the theme with a gratitude tree (didn't get that one posted yet!). For February, we now have a Love at Home Tree of Life to help us overcome sarcastic habits. This is a tree of compliments and sincerity, value and support, an effort to bear fruits of love in how we think of and speak to each other.

It would be easy to create such a thing yourself (I have done it with our gratitude tree and other things) but I did happen to come across this super cheap Classroom Kit at Walmart and because it is plastic, I can reuse it if I'm careful.

It fits perfectly on a door (I did cut for the doorknob.)

The goal is for each member of the family to write one thoughtful, sincere compliment or appreciative/supportive statement about another family member every day throughout the month until our tree is crazily blooming in love.

Off to a good start:

Aiming at Love - New Meaning for an Old Symbol

Everyone is familiar with the Valentine image of Cupid or a heart with an arrow shot through it. I've never thought too much of it before, but as I've planned out our Love at Home devotionals and activities, I came across  Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "Aiming at the Center" article and it has given real purpose and meaning to this symbol for me (and I hope now, my family). 

While I read the entire article to my children (and please do read the entire thing) the point I emphasized was that Christ taught us to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Mattew 22:37-40) This means that every other commandment, every other thing we are supposed to do or not do, come back to being categorized under these two commandments. (I  had the kids name off commandments off the top of their heads and we tested each one to see if these two great commandments were at the "heart" of every other we could think of. They are!) Then I asked the kids who their closest "neighbors" were. Each other, of course! 

Elder Uchtdorf had begun his article with the example of archery, and how you shoot at a target that already exists, not that you shoot the arrow at a blank wall and then draw the target around it. Using this powerful archery example and the scripture, I wanted to turn the Valentine symbol into something with more meaning, to remind us of what we're aiming for:  LOVE. Loving God and loving each other.

Here is the end product:

We followed this up with...

This would make a great Family Home Evening lesson and treat!

And if you're wondering what I'm doing with things like this little project...

Love From Home Art

Our second day of Love at Home Month we made color-diffused, snowflake-style hearts to send as Love FROM Home Valentines to our missionary. If you like how these look, here's how to do it.

Get a stack of coffee filters. (So cheap! I bought a bulk package at Sam's Club years ago and it's still going strong.)

Fold the filter in half and cut a heart shape like you would with a folded rectangle.

Now fold it back in half, then fold into thirds.

Cut shapes out just like you would when cutting a paper snowflake.

Open it up and, VOILA!

Now for the color! Using Crayola washable markers, color the heart. You can use just a little bit of color here and there, or you can fill it in a little more, depending on the look you want. You do not need to color the entire piece. In fact, don't! The colors will spread in the next step, when you spray the entire thing with water. (And too much of too many colors will just make everything brown.)

Here is a lightly colored example:

Here is a more heavily colored example (don't color more than this):

The colors WILL drip, so either place your creations in a shallow baking pan to spray them or, weather permitting, spray them outside. Use just a spray bottle filled with water. (We just used an old hairspray bottle refilled with water.) Have a towel very nearby to quickly remove the wet hearts to and allow them to dry.

Once dry, you can either tape them to a window for a lovely display or, as we did, affix them to some colored cardstock to make cards and write our Valentine messages.

This is the dried version of the
more heavily colored one above.

Yep, even Dad got in on the action!

Love at Home Art Project

Today I declared February Love at Home Month. I love doing Valentine-y Love things all month long in February but I really believe it's important to explore real love, especially inside the home with family. Sometimes it's hardest to be your best loving self at home; we tend to think of charity as what we do and give others outside of our families. But if you can't make love work at home, what's the point?

I created a little art project today to kick off the month. It begins with the template I made below. Print this on 8.5x11-inch cardstock and grab a black Sharpie marker.

The first step is to draw sections of "rays" or diagonal lines behind the house.

Next draw stripes inside the house. You can make them uniform or not, any width you'd like.

Doodle a different design in each section.

When you have designed each section, cut a heart out of tissue paper and fix it to your cardstock with double-sided tape. Doodles can be simple or complex, but give each person the freedom to create in his or her own way.