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Family
Home Evening on Monday nights is a staple in our home. If we
even try to skip it, our kids let us know, in no uncertain terms,
that skipping is not an option. I clearly remember the first
one that we ever held. Our oldest was about a year old. I had
just read an Ensign article about how to have Family Home Evening
with toddlers, and I was inspired to try. It was winter, so
I went out, got a bowl full of snow, and put it on his high
chair tray. Placed him in the chair and let him "discover"
snow. It wasn't the best one that we've had in our home, but
it was the start of something that continues to grow and change
as much as our children have. Since then I have turned to many
of the Church's helpful resources for assistance in making my
Family Home Evenings successful.
Resources
The Church's Family Home Evening Manual is an excellent source
for ideas. If you are not sure where to start, or if you need
a basic outline on how a Family Home Evening is put together,
the 37 regular lessons on basic subjects are a good place to
start. Most of them have adaptations for younger children, teenagers
and adults. Many of these lessons contain extra suggestions
that can help develop future lessons on the same topic. The
last lesson in this group is "Special Occasions."
These are designed for special events and holidays, such as
a family member receiving a patriarchal blessing or going on
a mission.
The Lesson Ideas section has a wealth of ideas on a number of
different topics arranged alphabetically, from Adversity to
Work. Each topic contains brief lesson outlines with additional
references to scriptures, the Gospel Principles manual, and
hymns and songs to further enrich the lesson. This is a great
way to go if your family needs instruction on a specific topic,
or you are ready to branch out from the regular lessons.
Another resource for lessons is the Church Magazines. Every
month in the Ensign, New Era, and Friend are ideas for Family
Home Evenings lessons. Those in the Friend are designed to help
a child prepare and present the lesson on their own using stories
and activities from that month's magazine. Even if it is the
parent who prepares and presents them, these lessons work very
well with young children. The same is true for the ideas offered
in the New Era and Ensign magazines. All three offer suggestions
for adapting the articles to various Home Evening lessons.
If you are looking for hints and ideas to make your Family Home
Evenings more successful, the Ensign has a monthly section in
the Random Sampler section entitled "Family Home Evening
Helps." Here, Church members tell how they've managed to
make their own Home Evenings more successful. I have used a
number of their suggestions over the years and have found that
they significantly enhance our Monday night experiences.
In
addition to the Family Home Evening Manual and the Church Magazines
another helpful resource is the Church website. There is a whole
section devoted to Family Home Evening, how to get started,
how to prepare and even lesson ideas. Click here
to check it out.
Teaching
It can be a challenge to prepare a lesson if you have children
of varying ages. In our home we have a teenager, pre-teens,
one just about to turn eight, and a two-year-old. If every lesson
were geared to the two-year-old, my Deacon would be climbing
the walls with boredom. I have found that when I cater to the
older children, the younger ones rise to the occasion. It is
amazing what a 7-year-old can understand when taught properly.
We also take turns teaching the lessons. When it is the 5-year-old's
turn, he teaches on his level. The older ones are willing and
able to sit through these lessons in part because they don't
happen every week.
Allowing teenagers to teach the lesson is an excellent way to
help them learn. It has often been said that, in preparation,
the teacher gains more than the student from the lesson. If
there is an area with which a teen is struggling, assign it
to him/her as a lesson topic. By doing so, your child can find
answers to questions or solutions to problems without mom or
dad having to say a word! Having the teenager teach also helps
to keep him engaged in Family Home Evening. President James
E. Faust stated in the June 2003 Ensign:
"I
wonder if having unplanned and infrequent family home evenings
will be enough to fortify ourselves and our children with
sufficient moral strength to meet the complexities of our
day. Infrequent family scripture study may be inadequate to
arm ourselves and our children with the virtue necessary to
withstand the moral decay of the environment in which we live.
Where in the world will we learn chastity, integrity, honesty,
and basic human decency if not at home? These values will,
of course, be reinforced at church, but teaching them in family
home evening can be particularly consistent and effective.
To combat the world's evil influences, we need the strength
that comes from family home evening."
Our challenge
as parents is to bring that spiritual strength into our homes.
As President Faust says, we cannot do it without holding regular,
well-planned Family Home Evenings.
Preparation
To help everyone feel involved, make sure each family member
has a responsibility. If you have a family of 6 you might break
FHE down like this:
- Assign
Opening & Closing Prayers
- Chose
Opening & Closing Hymns
- Spiritual
Thought
- Lesson
- Treat
- Conducts
the meeting
This is
just an example of one way to break down the night so that everyone
has something to do. You can add or subtract from this basic
list to meet your needs, I have even heard of families assigning
someone to teach the family a new word and use it in a sentence.
You might make a rotating list, or even a wheel (using brads
and two different sized wheels). Whatever you do, make sure
children have ample time to prepare and that you help to facilitate
where you can (taking the little ones to the store to pick out
the treat).
Family
Business
A lot of families will discuss things other than a lesson during
family home evening. Having a "family business" segment
at FHE will give you an opportunity to discuss things that are
pertinent to your family. You may want to coordinate everyone's
schedules that night- marking the calendar, you can plan family
vacations, help mom and dad make a grocery list by offering
dinner suggestions etc. This can be a great time to connect
with your children about important things.
Make
the Memories Last
I just have to tell you about the funniest thing my husbands
family did growing up. They took minutes of their family home
evenings! One of my brother-in-laws with great dry sarcastic
wit wrote the minutes, so reading those family minutes today
is a real treat! They are hilarious, even though I didn't know
my husbands family when they were kids I can still appreciate
the words. This will be something that the children will appreciate
when they are older.
If you have
family nearby have a monthly extended family home evening. Invite
aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents to join you. Each family
can take a turn being responsible for planning the evening.
This is a great way to help your children get to know their
relatives.
However
you decide to hold your family home evenings is irrelevant-
just have them. The blessings that the Prophets have promised
us for having FHE far out weight the stress of planning and
holding them.
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Great
FHE
Ideas
Ideas
for spring
As spring begins our thoughts sometimes turn to our gardens;
what to grow this year and when to begin planting. Why
not turn some of your planting into a Monday night lesson?!
If you don't have a garden, you can plant a potted plant and
still have an effective FHE. Below are four topics you
can choose from to go along with your spring planting:
-
As you plant,
discuss with your family how plants die in the winter but
come back in the spring (bulbs) and how this relates to
Jesus' death and resurrection. Depending on the age
of your children you might want to use this to lead into
more talk about the Atonement.
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Faith, like the
little seeds you are planting, grows a little at a time
as we nourish it with prayer, scripture study and righteous
actions.
-
Testimonies also
grow as we "fertilize" them, by attending our
church meetings, sharing our testimony, prayer and the "light"
of the Gospel/Scriptures.
These ideas can be
great starters for Family Home Evening lessons. You can
adapt them to fit your family, just don't forget a great lesson
is always followed by a great treat!
Ideas
for Children 3 & under
Your chapel library
probably has copies of the current and older nursery manuals
that you can check out. These can be great resources for preparing
lessons! The manuals are geared toward younger children and
are short- which we all know are perfect for nursery age kids!
FHE
Websites
>
Integrating secular education with gospel topics
>
The Idea Door
Great
articles about FHE
>CraftyChic
- FHE Charts, Boards, Scripture Costumes, Family Night Lesson
and Activity Ideas.
>MommyChic
- Great Ideas for Great Family Home Evenings. Lessons for all
ages, resources - where to find more lesson ideas for young
children and teens.
>GospelChic
- Tips for incorporating Conference into your Family Home Evening
Lessons.
> Glenn I. Latham,
" 'Do
We Have To?' Another Look at Family Home Evening"
> Stories
about the FHE Manual
> Jan Whitley Hansen, "The
Calling I Didn't Know I Had"
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