Starting a Weekly Tradition

For the last six months or so I have been given the opportunity to serve as a teacher in the Relief Society in my ward. At first it was terrifying; how was I supposed to teach an amazing group of women messages of the gospel? As soon as I stopped worrying about preparing the perfect lesson, I realized that the lessons and talks that I was giving in relief society were just as applicable to me as they were to everyone else. After giving the lesson in July I had the thought, "I need to practice what I preach."  I had read and mentioned the importance of Family Home Evening in several of my lessons, however I didn't make Family Home Evening a priority. In fact I used the very young age of my kids as an excuse to not set aside a family night, I figured that everyday was like family night and I didn't need to worry about it, I also assumed that getting my young kids to cooperate would be much to difficult. Shortly after giving my lesson, I came to the realization that I need to take the time one night a week to have an actual family home evening. I needed to have one night that I could spend with my husband and kids, one night that we wouldn't go out or watch a tv show, one night that I, as a mother, could teach my kids the principles of the gospel. So that was that, I made up my mind to start the weekly tradition of family home evening.

The problem I then faced was how was I supposed to teach my kids gospel principles in a way that appealed to them. It didn't take long for me to start thinking about the things my kids were interested in; dinosaurs, trucks, animals, dolls, puzzles, books, and then it hit me, my son loves everything to do with the alphabet! He sings the ABCs, he can recognize all of the letters, and he has learned most of the sounds. So what did I decide to do? I decided to create my own Family Home Evening ABCs. Every week we would focus on a different letter and different principle. As we worked our way through the alphabet I was going to save all of the lessons in a binder to create a book of ABCs for my kids. I was so excited when I started to plan my lessons, but something just wasn't right. I thought about it for a few days before coming up with the idea to share my lessons on a blog. I had the thought that although the ABCs are something  that will be great for my family, I needed to post it publicly for others to try as well. Maybe, if I'm lucky, the short and simple lessons that I've created for my young kids will be beneficial to other families too. Which brings me to today.
Obviously I am posting the first of many family home evening posts. Every week I will post the "letter of the week" and the lesson to go along with it. I will try to be as detailed as I possibly can and will include any links or pictures that I found online. Hopefully it will be successful.