Pioneer-Palooza

In Utah, July 24 is a state holiday marking the date the Mormon Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. As part of our July Activities Days (and Learning and Living the Gospel goal), we took a trip to our local cemetery.

We had the advantage of being able to find the graves of pioneers who had crossed the plains. We talked about the blessings we have living here thanks to their hard work and sacrifices. This same discussion applied to the names of people we found who served in various world wars, in the armed services, etc.

For the activity, the girls were given a clipboard with sheets of blank paper and a crayon. Then we let them loose in the cemetery to make rubbings of headstones that included the following:



- Same first name as their own
- Same last name as their own
- Same birthday as their own
- Name of another country
- A date before 1860 (in our case that likely meant the person had been a Mormon pioneer)
- Something beautiful or interesting (often a picture on a headstone, though we had a few good laughs over some crazy names)

Goal: Learning and Living the Gospel

Family History, Family Fish

Our theme this month is Family History -- and to make passing off our Faith in God goal even more fun, we turned it into a game. The girls each brought names to complete a two-generation Family Tree. [This cute printable thanks to the "A Year of FHE" blog. A bigger family tree available here from SugarDoodle.]

Then, we played a few rousing games of Family Fish and Old Satan—my spin on the classic card games Go Fish and Old Maid. Get instructions and Family Fish printables here. Plan on a good time (or go fish!)

Goal completed: Learning and Living the Gospel