Columbus Day Quills

For so many years our kids have had Columbus Day off from school, so for so many years we've taken the opportunity to do some sort of Columbus Day-realted craft/activity together.

Some of our favorites have been:  painting pumpkin globes, making puffy paint earths, painting ocean scenes, and building ships that really rock.

This year, in our new house and in a new town, we were pleasantly surprised to see that our new school district also takes the day off.

I was almost stumped for a fresh craft/lesson idea, and the kids really wanted to repeat one we had done previously, but I managed to pull a new one out at the last minute.

During Family Home Evening tonight, we read some excerpts from the 1992 Ensign article "Columbus and the Hand of God."  We mostly read Columbus' own words about how he learned things, where he felt that his talents came from and the purpose he felt those talents were given to him for.  Christopher Columbus was not highly educated formally but he was highly driven  to learn and felt that all of his gifts and knowledge were gifts from God who had a higher purpose for him.

As a family we talked about these attributes of Columbus.  He was driven to fulfill what he felt the Holy Spirit was guiding him to.  He wasn't afraid of hard work. He was persistent, and he gave the glory to his Creator.

We also talked about how important it was that Columbus kept a journal.  That is the only way we know what motivated him. 

We talked about how important it is for each of us to keep a journal to record our beliefs.  We can also record times when we have felt the Holy Ghost guiding us and how we've used our talents.  I challenged the children to figure out what the Lord wants them to do with their lives and stop at nothing to accomplish that.  Be willing to make sacrifices and to give credit to God.

We then followed some online tutorials and did our own hackjob version of making feather pens or quills.

The kids were impatient with the making of the pens at first, but then kept writing and writing their testimonies.  They were very slow to break away from that activity, so I'm calling that a win!