Sharing Time April 2014 Week 1: The family is central to God’s plan. AND Week 2: Parents have important responsibilities in families.

Since, we have General Conference this Sunday, I am going to take the opportunity to get ahead with my Primary Sharing Time Outline posts.  I will now be trying to post the sharing time outlines two Tuesday's before the Sunday they will be used.  April is kind of a different month, since we will only have 3 Sundays, in which sharing time will be used.  I have decided to combine Week 1 and Week 2 sharing time topics this month. Here is the plan that our primary will be following for the month: April 13, 2014- Week 1 & Week 2, April 20, 2014- Week 3 & Easter, April 27, 2014-Week 4.  If you are not combining week 1 and week 2, see some suggestions below of how to separate this outline into two sharing times.

Preparation:
Prayerfully study and think about what the specific needs of your primary are and how you can teach them this doctrine.

Identify the doctrine: The family is central to God’s plan and parents have important responsibilities in families. Prepare the word strips (see the printable below)

Help the Children Understand the Doctrine: prepare to sing "I am a Child of God" and "Families Can Be Together Forever", prepare the paragraph from The Family: A Proclamation to the Word (see printable below)

Help them apply the doctrine in their lives: Gather items that could display ways parents can rear their children in love and righteousness. 

Board Idea: (If using the outline, here is what the board should end up looking like, after the words have been rearranged and the circle drawn)

Free Printables: (Printing Tip: Click on image to open and then save image to your computer.  You can then print the image from your computer.)

Sharing Time Instruction:

Draw a Big circle on the board with chalk. See Example above. Above the circle place the following words on the board in random order, "The Family Is Central To God's Plan" (See printable above). Ask a child to come up and put the words in the correct order.  Give them a hint that the word "Central" will be in the center of the sentence. When the words are in the correct order ask the children to repeat the sentence with you. Or A thought just came to me as I was going over my sharing time for tomorrow. I was thinking about putting the words strips, each word onto a large puzzle piece. Have a child come up to put the puzzle together on the board, not giving them the puzzle piece that says Family. Have them put the puzzle together, when they are missing the piece explain that, that piece of the puzzle is necessary for the puzzle to be completed. Have them read what the puzzle says, "The -------- is central to God's plan". Explain that central means necessary. Ask the children what they think might be necessary to God's plan? Thank the children for their responses. Give the last puzzle piece to the child. Have them place the puzzle piece into its spot. Have them read the whole sentence now with "family" in it.  Explain that families are necessary to Heavenly Father's plan.

Ask the children what Heavenly Father's Plan is? Make sure to thank them for their answers.  Explain that as we have learned in prior months, that Heavenly Father's plan is for us to gain a body here on earth, to be tested and tried, to obtain our saving ordinances and keep the commandments, so we can return to live with him in the Celestial kingdom someday.  Explain that at the center of that plan are FAMILIES. Right the word FAMILY inside of the big circle that is on the board. Explain to the children that the word central means that it is necessary.  It is necessary to Heavenly Father's plan that we have families, everyone is a part of a family. Ask each child to hold up a finger for every member of their family. Explain that each family is different and no family is perfect.  But as member's of a family we work together and help each other along the path that leads to Eternal life. Just like our fingers work together as part of our hand to grab an object or accomplish a task, each member of our family works together to help each other accomplish our goal of exaltation and eternal life with our Heavenly Father.

Ask the children to sing the first verse of,  "I Am a Child of God", with you. Ask them to think about who our Heavenly Father has sent us to.  After the song, have the children answer that question.  Explain that Heavenly Father has sent us to PARENTS.  Explain that in the song it says, "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, Help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do To live with him someday." (lyrics to "I am a Child of God" text by Naomi Ward Randall, 1908-2001. Children's Songbook.)  Explain that this is the parent's responsibility, they help us and teach us the things we need to know to find our way back to our Heavenly Father. Ask an older primary child or a teacher to read the following statement from the The Family: A Proclamation to the World: "Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. " 

Hold up an item and ask the children how a parent might use that item to teach them in righteousness? Items might include: Scriptures, Family Home Evening Manual, Children's Songbook, Ensign or Friend Magazine, Hand Rake (for service), etc.

Have the children sing,  "Families Can Be Together Forever".

Bear your testimony about the necessity of families in our Heavenly Father's plan and important responsibility parents have to raise their children in love and righteousness. 

If you are not combining week 1 and week two, you could separate these out into two sharing times.  To do this, for week 1:

Follow the above outline but stop before you sing "I am a Child of God". Instead sing, "Families Can Be Together Forever" and then give them the printable "The Family is Central to God's Plan" and have them draw and color pictures of each of their family members inside of the big circle.

To do this for Week 2:
Start Sharing time with singing, "I Am a Child of God". Follow the rest of the outline.  At the end read, "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners." (The Family: A Proclamation to the Word). Ask a boy to come up and pantomime a way that a father could preside, love, provide or protect his family (ideas: work, read a child a book, help with homework, teach a gospel principle, play a sport with a child, etc.). It might be a good idea to have some ideas written on pieces of paper that they can draw out of a container.  Then ask a girl to come up and pantomime a way that a mother could nurture her children (ideas might include: Hug, teach them a gospel principle, help teach them to tie their shoes, tuck them in bed at night, read them a story, show them how to serve, rock a baby to sleep, cheer for them at an event, etc.) End by bearing your testimony about the importance of each parents roles and responsibilities in teaching their children.

Click this link for past Sharing Time post: LDS Primary Sharing Time Ideas 

***Basic ideas for this sharing time came from the 2014 Sharing Time Outline, you can find a link here: 2014 Sharing Time Outline.