August 2014 Sharing Time Topic: Participating in Wholesome Activities Will Strengthen My Family August 2014 Scripture: “Successful . . . families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repen- tance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”). August 2014 Week 1 Topic: “Pray in your families unto the Father . . . that your [families] may be blessed” (3 Nephi 18:21). Preparation: Prayerfully study and think about what the specific needs of your primary are and how you can teach them this doctrine. Items to gather: Sticks and twine. Jesus & week topic printable (see below), picture of family praying, Paper people cutouts (see below), prayer hearts (see below), pencils Prepare: Make stick raft using twine and sticks cut to roughly the same size. You could also use popsicle sticks and glue them together and use the comparison of the glue holds them together like family prayer holds a family together, if you do not have sticks and twine. Print and cut out enough paper people for every child in primary. 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. Week theme poster Prayer hearts Girl Paper People Boy Paper People **NEW** PDF Printable Download: August 2014 LDS Sharing Time Ideas Week 1 Sharing Time Instruction: Begin sharing time by showing the children the stick raft. Explain that to make the raft the sticks were placed close together and then linked together with the twine. Explain that the twine holds the sticks together and strengthens them, so they are able to float along and hold an object. Show the children the picture of Jesus and read, "Pray in your families unto the Father . . . that your [families] may be blessed” (3 Nephi 18:21)." Ask the children to repeat that scripture with you. Show the children the picture of the family praying together. Explain that prayer is like the twine that helps to strengthen and hold together the raft. Prayer strengthens and blesses our families and helps to hold our families together. Give each child a paper person and a pencil. Invite each child to write on their paper person something that they could pray to Heavenly Father about as a family. Give them a couple minutes to write something down. Ask one of the children to share what they have written. They can either bring their paper person up or you could write their idea on another paper person and place it on the board. Invite another child to give you another idea. Place that paper person on the board touching the hands together. Continue with 6-12 paper people forming a circle as you go. Place one of the paper prayer hearts on each of the linked hands. Thank the children for their participation and re-emphasize that our families are held together, blessed and strengthened as we pray together as a family. Close by sharing your testimony on the weeks topic. 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.