Create your own "Pot of Gold" (Developing Talents)

For this activity we taught the girls the importance of paying tithing and having a savings account.

Malachi 3:10
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

First we talked about the importance of paying tithing. I told them a personal experience that I had. When I was a freshman in college our appartment got broken into and my tithing money was stolen. As a poor freshman, it was really hard for me to make that money up but I did it. The day I paid my tithing, two things happened. The first was I found an envelope of money under my pillow that was the same amount that was stolen from me ( my older sister came to visit me that day and i'm pretty sure it was her...she won't take credit) and I got a paycheck in the mail from a job that I had a few months earlier that I just didn't realize I forgot to go pick it up. The paycheck was the exact same amount I had to pay in tithing to the penny. Pretty cool.

We also talked about the importance saving money and spending it wisely. My personal goal in talking about this was to tell the girls that EACH and EVERYONE of them could go to college if they wanted to. I knew too many people who didn't go to college because they didn't feel like they could pay for it because thier parents wouldn't help them. I told the girls that my mom told me from the day I was old enough to know what money was that I would be paying for college and I'd better work hard and save my money. It's not that my parents couldn't pay for me to go, its that they chose not to. I told them I was able to pay for my schooling without any help and without going into debt and that we are presently doing that for my husband. I told the girls that they should each come up with some goals... short term and long term and spend thier money wisely. We also talked about never spending more money than you have.

I think there are a lot of ways you could do this activity. I'm not personally thrilled with what we came up for this time around... but they worked.

We got white boxes and put two slots in it... one for "Tithing" and one for "Savings". We let the girls decorate it how ever they wanted it and then we tied it shut so they could open it again. This one is not decorated... but i'm sure you can imagine:




Another idea I had was to get some jam jars or clear cylinder tupperware. You can give the girls some paper and when they are done tape the paper inside the jar. Also you could use an empty can and use the same idea only tape it on the outside. The problem with the can is you would have to create a lid somehow (didn't quite get that far). I'm sure there are a lot of really good ideas on what to use to make this "penny bank" or "pot of gold". The girls were all really happy to have a place to keep thier tithing and had fun coming up with things that they would save thier money for.

Valentine's Pizza (Developing Talents)

So for this activity the girls make some "Valentine's Pizzas"!! I was super excited for this activity but unfortunely I got food poisioning the night before and was just not feeling well enough to make it. Sister Thomas did it all by herself!! I don't have pictures either... but I'm sure ya'll can imagine!

What you will need:
-rhodes rolls
-cheese
-sauce
-toppings (i think pepperoni is enough)
-tin foil

So a few hours before the activity you'll want to put two rhodes rolls on a piece of tin foil (about 8x8). You'll let the rolls rise during the day (it says on the package how long... I think if they are frozen its 8 hours). Then when the girls get there they can shape thier dough into a heart, add the sauce and then cheese and then toppings. If you have quite a few girls like we do, it worked to put the tin foil on a cookie sheet to easily get in and out of the oven. Depending on the size of your cookie sheet you can fit about 6 on each and if your oven has two racks you can cook 12 little pizzas at a time.

After the pizzas cook for about 15 minutes on 425, they are ready to eat! This is something the girls could easily make at home for their families and of coarse they all LOVED pizza!