March 2009 Sharing Time, Week 1

Fathers preside over, provide for, and protect the family with love.


Chorister: My Eternal Family is the song for the month. It’s found in the outline. The song focuses on how the child is a builder, building a family. Try to avoid any use of building that might turn out to be rowdy, but you can have fun with the building theme.

Teach the first verse in this segment.

First, ask the children if they’ve ever watched someone building something. What things did the person do to make the project successful? Guide them to suggest the builder had to have a plan and then carefully follow the plan. If you have access to blueprints, you might want to show them to the children. Otherwise, just talk about them.

Tell them that building a family is much like building a house. You must have a plan. Where can we find a plan that can help us build a good family? (Scriptures, church leaders….) Ask the children if only grown-ups can build a family. Help them see children also have a part in how special their family is, and when children do their part, the family is always built better.

You might want to use a brick design that forms into a home for teaching the song. Packet pictures can be the bricks, and when arranged on the board, could form the base. Then draw a roof and place a picture of the temple or Jesus inside the roof section. When the children begin to know the song well, you could remove one picture at a time until they no longer need pictures. I’m listing some pictures here, but the same pictures are found in many manuals.

First sentence: Picture 2-40. (boy standing with folded arms.) or 2-50 (children building with blocks.)

Second sentence: 3-27 (Child pushing another child on tricycle)

Third phrase (through learning each day) 2-35 Jesus with the children, one boy standing tall  in His arm.)

Fourth phrase (through help each day) 7-5 family with little boy touching nose of new sibling.)

Fifth phrase (through He knows I can be): 2-31 baby being blessed

Sixth phrase: 2-11, Jesus working in shop with Joseph
Make sure they understand what each word means.

Sharing Time Leader: This lesson focuses on what the children can do when they are fathers to have good homes, and also on what they should do now to prepare for this day. This is an especially helpful approach if you have children who don’t have fathers or who don’t have good fathers.

In this lesson, a child will serve as the future daddy. Each time the children get an answer right or discuss a point of the lesson, you’ll add something to his daddy costume. Try not to do this in a way that will cause the children to get silly or irreverent, which means thinking carefully about what types of things to add.
Possible items to use: Hat, tie, glasses, large shirt, jacket, big shoes (?) briefcase, cell phone, baby doll (if you do this, choose a very young child who won’t be embarrassed.), bills, housekeeping/cooking items.

Tell the children that this week you’re talking to the boys about what kind of daddies they can be and to the girls about what kinds of daddies they want their children to have. Next week, you’ll talk about mommies.

Ask a few boys to tell you what kind of daddy they want to be when they grow up. What will they do?

Choose a young child to be the future daddy. Let him sit in the chair of honor while you learn about daddies.

Let children come up and choose an item from the box or table. This will contain the dress up items you’re using. Each item will have a question attached about fathers. The child can answer or ask someone else. Each time, ask the children questions about it—what their fathers do, what they will do about this when they’re grown, anything else to help them think more about it. You might want to allow more children to answer some of the questions also, such as what job they’d like to have.

Questions:

  1. Some daddies go to an office. Some daddies work at home. Some daddies work in other places. Ask three children to tell you what their daddy’s job is. What job would you like to have when you grow up?
  2. Many daddies also work in the church. Ask three children to tell you what their daddy’s calling is. What calling would you like to have when you grow up?
  3. Many daddies also do jobs to help out around the house. What kinds of jobs do you think you’d like to do to help around the house when you grow up? Ask three other children to tell you what jobs they’d do also.
  4. What will you play with your children when you grow up?
  5. What are some things you will do to help your children be good members of the church when you grow up?
  6. If you were a daddy and your child was sad because she wasn’t very good at her school work, what would you do?
  7. When you’re a dad, if your child wants to do something dangerous like walk to the store when she’s too little, what would you tell her?
  8. When you’re a dad, if your child doesn’t want to go to church, what will you tell him to help him want to go?
  9. When you’re a dad, how will you help your children learn to like doing chores?
  10. When you’re a dad, how will you help your children learn to like to read?
  11. When you’re a dad, how will you help your family keep the Sabbath Day Holy?
  12. When you’re a dad, how will you help your wife?

Singing Time: Teach verse two.

First sentence: ( through prayer) Gospel Art Kit has one numbered 605.

Second sentence: Gospel Art Kit 617 (Is in many packets, also)

Third sentence:  Gospel Art Kit 602

Fourth Sentence: Your favorite picture of Jesus

Fifth Sentence: Repeat the pictures used in the chorus during the first singing time session.

Sharing Time: Invite some fathers to come in and tell the children how they feel about being a father and what things they do that fit the theme of this sharing time.

Singing Time: Review the entire song. Sing I am a Child of God, reminding the children that even if they don’t have a father on earth, they all have a Father in Heaven who loves them. Review songs from the previous months.

Sharing Time: Have the children draw a picture of themselves as a father. If all your children have fathers in their lives, have them instead make a gift for their own father.

Return to Sharing Time List

Read 2009 Sharing Time, March week 2: Mothers nurture the family