Last week, I was thinking about how I absolutely loved how our primary counselor taught the December 2013 lesson, "I will prepare to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again" when I read the January 2014 week 2 lesson.
That lesson (January 2014 week 2) (and future lessons on this subject in years to come, as this is a wonderful topic) would be a perfect application for this visual lesson. Each of the squares shown below were originally turned around so that the titles of the songs were not showing. Most of these songs are from the Children's Songbook.
Our counselor moved the child (shown in the yellow circle below) through the "map" as we sang and briefly discussed each of the primary songs that teach us how we can return to Heavenly Father again.
Obviously, I am not going to re-teach a lesson that was just taught a few weeks ago, but I will refer back to the concept to help the children bridge what they are learning in this lesson with what they have learned in the past.
I will put up the same or part of the same visuals:
That lesson (January 2014 week 2) (and future lessons on this subject in years to come, as this is a wonderful topic) would be a perfect application for this visual lesson. Each of the squares shown below were originally turned around so that the titles of the songs were not showing. Most of these songs are from the Children's Songbook.
Our counselor moved the child (shown in the yellow circle below) through the "map" as we sang and briefly discussed each of the primary songs that teach us how we can return to Heavenly Father again.
Obviously, I am not going to re-teach a lesson that was just taught a few weeks ago, but I will refer back to the concept to help the children bridge what they are learning in this lesson with what they have learned in the past.
I will put up the same or part of the same visuals:
The Week 2 lesson from the manual states:
Encourage understanding (discussing the
Atonement): Draw a straight path on the chalkboard
ending at a place labeled “Eternal Life with
Our Father in Heaven.” Put a picture of a person at
the beginning of the path. Explain that the picture
represents all of us and that we need to follow the
path to get back to Heavenly Father. Tell the children
that we cannot return to Heavenly Father by
ourselves. Erase part of the path, and ask, “What
could help us continue on the path?” Ask a child
to read or recite the third article of faith. Show
a picture of Christ in Gethsemane, and briefly
explain the Atonement. Tell the children that
Christ’s Atonement is like a bridge that will help
us return to Heavenly Father; if we repent and
obey the commandments, we will be able to live
with Him again. Draw a bridge on the board, and
move the picture of the person to the end of the
path. Invite a few children to share their feelings
about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. If
I will use the visuals above, or something similar, but add the bridge discussed above (from the lesson manual), and the picture of Christ in Gethsemane.
To discuss the atonement, time pending, I would like to possibly use this story from March 1989 Friend, or something along a similar vein. Either way, I gave myself a little refresher from the Primary 3 Lesson Manual. Our bishop actually has a similar story in some ways, that he has told the primary, so it might even be nice to go back to that story. I think it does a great job of illustrating what the atonement means to children. When I was a child I thought it sounded too hard to be perfect and return to live with my Father in Heaven again, but that was before I understood the atonement, and how Jesus Christ came down to earth to atone for us so that it's okay that we aren't perfect; that we just need to be faithful and try to be like him, and He will help us.
I also always want to go back to scripture:
D&C 49:5 - For I am God, and have sent mine Only Begotten Son into the world for the redemption of the world (D&C 49:5 ).
