In Treasures of Life, President David O. McKay said motherhood is woman's most noble calling. A mother's most important responsibility is to bring children into the world and to care for and teach them.

The greatest gift a parent can give a child is to teach them the Gospel. The scriptures are the first place most parents turn, even though teaching young children about the scriptures can be difficult. It's hard to get children's attention, and once you have it, it's even harder to keep it. If you want the scriptures to come alive for your kids, then you should make learning fun.

Teaching Through Stories

Try telling scripture stories in a storytelling style to both open the scriptures to young children and hold the attention of children as young as 2-3 years of age. First and foremost, these stories must be engaging, fun, mysterious and energetically told -- the reader or teller must put as much into the telling or reading as the creator did the creating. Make faces, roll your eyes, whisper, build in pace, experience the story as you read, or if you memorize it also include places to act out the more exciting parts and be a kid as you share with your children. Stories should remain in the mind long after the telling with an open invitation to deep discussion with your family.

Other ways to make your stories more exciting include:

Dress Up
Dressing up in a robe and shawls can help take children back to scripture time. Make scripture costumes for your children so they can participate in the story. They can be elaborate, or as simple as paper plate masks. For many families, it's a favorite holiday tradition for the children to dress up and act out the nativity.

Puppets
Hand puppets can be fun to make and the children will love using them to tell scripture stories. Leftover fabric scraps can be made into puppets by using a big mitten shape with a thumb on both sides that become the hands of the puppet. Stitch or glue, then decorate with wiggly eyes, pompoms and other bits of fabric. Use them to tell the children a story, and then let them tell you the story.

Strips of paper glued to form a ring can make for cute finger puppets. Add a head, eyes, nose, mouth and the works to make individual characters.

Popsicle sticks can be painted to make puppets or paired with some felt or cardstock images, they become cute handy puppets.

Flannel board stories can be found in most ward building libraries, along with flannel boards. It’s fun to make your own too; or better yet, find the basic figures and let the children make up their own stories. Sometimes just showing children pictures and talking about what they see in the picture can make a story different.

Easy-to-read Stories
Create your own easy-to-read stories using a combination of pictures and words. You can draw and color your own pictures or cut out pictures from magazines and paste them on. You can even use a computer and use clipart for your pictures.

> Download a free 4th Article of Faith poster from Lori Garcia.

Mapping Scripture Journeys
Try using a Bible atlas to show the children where the story is taking place. If you’re reading from Paul’s letter’s, they can trace his journeys, or trace the journey of Abraham as he followed the Hebrews from Egypt to the Promised Land, or the footsteps of Jesus from Nazareth to Calvary.

Use Everyday Props
The possibilities for enlightened study are at your fingertips. Put together some things for them to see: seashells; miniature tents; heavy rope from a make-believe ship.

Create a Scene
Try changing the setting they are in to make it more like the scriptures. When teaching a lesson about Jesus and the Sea of Galilee, Janet and Joe Barlow of Brigham City 11th Ward, put a fan and an open can of tuna on a table in the classroom, then they had the children lay down on the floor with their eyes shut and they told them the story, every once in awhile they would mist them with water from a spray bottle. The feel of water and the smell of fish might just help little imaginations travel back to the seaside.

Don't under estimate your child's ability or need to have his/her own scriptures. Some kids love to pour through their pages even if they can't read them yet.

"Last year we gave our girls (Rebecca, 2, and Emily, 1) their own Book of Mormons for Christmas, so they'd have their own scriptures to do with as they pleased," Kathleen Gordon-Ross (Lawrence 2nd Ward, Topeka, KS Stake, USA) said. "Rebecca loved to look through the pages and 'read' her scriptures. She'd find the pictures and tell stories about the different characters she knew about. When we do family scriptures study, she doesn't want me to read the beginning reader Book of Mormon, she wants us to read from her scriptures... adult language and all."

Teaching Through Games

Homemade Board Games
If you want to teach your kids about honesty, why not create a board game where each game square allows them to choose between honesty or lying. Be creative. Turn a popular game of the day into a children-friendly scripture version. .

Scripture Trivia
There are several store-bought versions available at Church bookstores, but save yourself money and have fun making your own. This way you can tailor your questions to your daily family scripture study or your recent Family Home Evening lessons.

Scripture Hide and Seek
Write out a scripture on a piece of paper and let one child hide it while everyone else leaves the room. Then everyone hunts for it. Whoever finds it gets 100 points. When the scripture is found the discoverer reads it aloud, and then everyone says it together. When the verse is committed to memory, another person is chosen to be “it." Your kids will love playing this game and they'll memorize scriptures in the process.

Scripture Charades
Allow each child to act out their favorite scripture story while the other children try to guess what or who it is. There is no need for teams or competition. It is just a fun activity that will review the scriptures. It might be a good idea to explain what you will be doing so they can come up with ideas before you begin. This will make them feel more confident and everyone will have a great time. Bear your testimony of the importance of scripture study and challenge them to study the scriptures every day. Kids will love searching for the missing words to find the ingredients for these scripture recipes.

Gospel Memory
Create your own memory game with whatever theme you are studying: latter-day prophets, Noah's ark animals, the nativity, etc. Start by finding high quality images at LDS.org or by copying or drawing your own onto 2" by 3 1/2" cards. Make sure to make two identical sets for each character. Laminate for durability and you're ready to go.

Puzzles
Make your own puzzles to help reinforce scriptures and gospel principles. To learn the 6th article of faith, create a church puzzle. As you rehearse the article of faith, attach the parts of the church as you say the words.

How-To: Draw a church on a letter-size piece of cardstock or paper. Make sure there are nine divisions or sections of the church. In each part write the different key points of the article of faith: deacon, teacher, elder, priest, high priest, evangelist (patriarch), seventy, apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ. Copy the church drawing on nine different pieces of colored paper. Cut out one part of the church for each color so that each section is a different color. Discard the other pieces. (Note, if you need to make several of these for a FHE group or Primary class you don't have to discard the waste. Instead, you can use all the pieces just make sure all the parts for a puzzle are different colors.) Attach Velcro to each section on the church and on the individual pictures.

Word Searches, Crossword Puzzles, Mazes & More
For older kids, create your own word search, crossword puzzle, maze and more with a few clicks of the mouse. Using Discovery.com's Puzzle-Maker, you can easily create customized games in any theme. The best part -- it's free!

The Friend also offers many fun stories, games and activities that every LDS child should read. To subscribe, talk to your ward/branch's media representative.

Teaching Through Treats

Scripture Cookies

To find each ingredient, look up scripture reference and fill in blank.

Scripture Cookie Answers:
3/4 c butter, 1/3 c milk, 1 1/2 c sugar, 2 eggs, 2 c flour, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t salt, 1/2 t baking soda, 3 c oats, 1 c raisins

Scripture Cake

To find each ingredient, look up scripture reference and fill in blank. Some clues are subtle, so check list of ingredients on bottom of page before making the cookies...just to be sure!

Answers For Scripture Cake & Icing
—2/3 cup cooking oil, 1 3/4 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons almond flavoring, 3 cups flour, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/4 cups milk. Icing—6 tablespoons butter or margarine, 4 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar, 1/4 cup hot water, 1 1/2 teaspoons almond flavoring, few drops red food coloring.

Singing Songs Can Help
Make the Scriptures Fun

The Children’s Songbook says, “Music is a language that everyone can understand. Children all over the world sing these same songs. As you sing, you may feel good inside. The Holy Ghost gives you warm feelings to help you understand that the words and messages in the songs are true.”

All of the songs in the Children's Songbook teach and praise the Savior. Some of our top picks are:

A Young Man Prepared – page 166

Search, Ponder, and Pray – page 109

Seek the Lord Early – 108

The Articles of Faith – 122 – 132

This is My Beloved Son – page 76

Making Singing Time, Fun Time

Hide the Eraser Game
Have one child leave the room. Have another child hide the eraser or some small object. Have the child in the hallway return. As the children sing, the child will look for the eraser. They sing louder as the child gets warmer and softer as the child gets colder.

Song-o-meter
Create a simple song-o-meter out of a piece of strong posterboard and red and white ribbon in the same width.

To make: Draw a thermometer on the front of the poster board. Cut a slit at the top and bottom of the thermometer. Measure the red ribbon to be slightly longer than the length of the thermometer. Measure slightly less of the white ribbon. Hot glue one end of the red ribbon to the white. Slide the ribbon through the two slits on the thermometer's front. Flip the posterboard over and hot glue the remaining ribbon ends together to complete a loop.

To use: Pull the ribbon to create up and down so that the "mercury" looks like it's rising. You can label the different degrees on your song-o-meter as "nice," "good," excellent," and "super singers."

Super Singer Metal
This is a fun idea to do especially during the Olympics. Award one child or class the "Super Singer Metal" after each song. The metal is to inspire singing with friendly competition. With younger children, be sure that everyone gets a chance to win the metal.

Song Wheel
A fun way to get kids to repeat a song is with a song wheel. Each section of the song wheel contains a picture that represents a different group or way of singing: children, boys, girls, teachers/parents, buzz, hum, whistle, etc. Have children take turns spinning the song wheel.. Whatever the pointer lands on, that's which group or which way the song is to be sung. For example, if the pointer lands on "boys," the boys have to sing the song by themselves. If the pointer lands on "parents/teachers," then the parents or teachers have to sing the song by themselves. If the pointer lands on "buzz," "whistle," or "hum," then everyone has to sing the song by buzzing, whistling or humming.

Follow the Prophet Mask
A fun way to learn the song "Follow the Prophet," is to create a prophet mask. On the front of the mask, have a small piece of Velcro where a name of the prophet can be attached. Change the name and sing the different verses.

Scripture Learning Tool Box

When you're teaching kids, it's good to have a tool box filled with essentials for making different visual aides. Here is a partial list of some key elements:

- Laminator

-Popsicle sticks (skinny and wide)

-White school glue

-Glitter

-Old containers, like oatmeal containers,

- Velcro

- Brads

- Markers, crayons, colored pencils and paint

. Construction paper, cardstock, letter paper and colored paper

- Magnets

- Hot glue gun and sticks (Note, children should always be supervised by an adult.)

- Paper plates and cups

Helps for Teachers

Helps for Primary Teachers

> Primary Page

> The Primary Page

> Primary Etc

> Cherishing Children

> Learn the Article of Faith with SoftLore

Helps for YW Teachers

> Primary Etc's YW Page

> Young Women Page

> The Young Women Connection

> LDS Young Women

> LDS Young Women Page on AngelFire

Helps for YM Teachers
(Sorry, we couldn't find any web sources for teaching YM.)

Helps for Seminary Teachers

> Primary Etc's Seminary Page

Free High Resolution
Pictures from LDS.org

LDS.org offers free high resolution images that "may be reproduced by media personnel for use in traditional public news forums." (SEE FULL DETAILS)

Media page and go to the upper-right corner of the page. Check only the "photos" box, and type in the word you want to search in the "search" box. Press "search" and you will be taken to the results page.