FHE ideas and tips

No Lesson today but some tips I thought I would share.

Most people say they have trouble making FHE with kids last longer than a few minutes.

When I share that our FHE can often go for hours people are surprised.

So Here are some tips I've used over the years to lengthen out FHE to more than a few minutes.


:: Journal Writing
Use the first few minutes of FHE to write in journals. (I did this more when I had little children) The girls would draw a picture of anything that happened in the last week in their journals. Then I would write the words above for them. I found this helped me as I was now keeping atleast a weekly update of what they were getting up to.

:: Scripture Hero/Story
This is a new to us this year idea. I was helping in Primary and they were holding up a picture of Adam and Eve and asking who it was. I was shocked when neither my 3 or 6 year old answered! They KNOW THAT!. But then I thought about it, and realized we had moved beyond holding up pictures and sharing the bible stories as our older kids grew and moved into more subject orientated FHE. Having 12 years-3 years old in the family we have to make sure we cover both younger and older learners.

Each week the younger children will hold up a picture from the gospel art kit and tell us about it, ask us questions on who is this? What is this story?

::Whiteboard
We have a fairly large whiteboard that we use often. Whiteboard can be used for pictionary, drawing out the lessons, games, for the little ones to scribble on while we focus on the older ones, or for older children to be scribes {give them something to do}

::Song App
We have the Childrens Sing Along Songbook App for our Ipad. It has most of the childrens songs with the words and a bouncy ball when to sing the words. It also has several photos to go with the songs. When we sing we use the app and our younger child slides the pictures for us while we sing. It makes it fun and they want to sing for a long time! My darling Husband sometimes connects the Ipad to our TV to make it LARGE.

::Dinner
Monday Night is our Fancy Dinner Night. I try to cook a better dinner on Mondays, with sides and with dessert. We set the table with a table cloth and try to make it look nice. We start our FHE before Dinner. We open with prayer and sing Love at Home while all holding hands around the table. This is the opening of FHE for us. Once dishes are cleared we go straight into FHE. It helps extend the length and idea of FHE to our kids and they know that Monday night is family night from about 5:30pm-7pm

::Articles of Faith
We printed and laminated each Article of Faith on a separate piece of paper. The girls take turns choosing an article of faith to hold up, read out, make us guess

:: Games
Some weeks the lessons might be short, or some weeks they just seem to want to keep going so we keep a few easy quick games around to play after FHE lesson is over and after dessert. Uno, Jenga, Boggle etc.

::Testimony
We have a shy girl or two so we take time having turns at practicing our testimonies.


Do you have any Family Home Evening Tips to Share?

Love/Valentines

Idea for lesson on Love including Heart Maps and a service and valentines day planning .

Go here  This girl loves to Talk - Love Lesson

Goals and Resolutions

Family Home Evening Lesson
New Year Goals

Opening Song:

Opening Prayer: Child


Lesson

It's never too late to set goals and resolutions.
Because its Summer School Holidays in the southern hemisphere, we are only just now getting back to life and routine here.

So even though late it was fun to do a FHE and set some goals for the year.

I got my children to list things they would like to DO this year

Iceskating
Camping
Rockclimbing
Visit Planetarium
Visit favourite Parks
mentioned a few of their favourite family traditions

We decided that we had enough activities for half a year and will designate one saturday a month to check off the above activities.

Via design mom I heard about these fun questions to ask your children {and keep their replies to look back on over the years}

This year:

Something I want to do
Something I want to read
Somewhere I want to go
something I want to be better at
Something I want

Maybe you can include
spiritual goals, {prayers, scripture reading holding regular FHE}
physical goals {games to play with kids, daily walks together}
Places to go
Mental health/organizational goals {kids helping with chores}



Have fun planning out an awesome year! I find written down goals seem to happen more and better!

Closing Song:

Closing Prayer:

Treat:

Jesus Advent Calendar

Family Home Evening Lesson
Jesus Advent Calendar


Prayer: Child

Song: Once within a lowly stable Childrens Songbook #41

Lesson:

Go here to my personal blog for full instructions Religious Advent Calendar



To make a Jesus Tag/ornament:

Cut pictures from the Ensign Magazine {we borrowed from Grandma's stash}or print some

I just used a glue stick to stick the picture onto regular white copy paper

Cut around leaving a small border of white

Glue onto cardstock. I used what I had on hand - Dark Blue and Gold

Cut again leaving another small border.

Laminate!!!

Cut around lamination, add a bow {12 for $2}by piercing a hole at the top.

Add a string.

Paint some sticks white and use to hang a picture a day for the month of december.

You can talk about what is happening in the picture or add a scripture for extra if desired.


Closing Song: Picture a Christmas Childrens Songbook #50

Closing Prayer: Child


Treat:

Power of Procreation

Family Home Evening Lesson
Power of Procreation

Opening Song: I am a child of God Childrens Songbook #2

Opening Prayer: Child


Lesson: Mum

This lesson was inspired when our 5 year old asked how did she start/become a baby in mummies tummy and how did she grow

We scoured Youtube to find a 'stages of growth of a baby' (fetal development) video we felt was family suitable. There are many around, find one you feel comfortable with.

After viewing a few of them (kids totally loved it! and wanted more) and answering any questions (enjoy!! ;) they had we then had a sit down little more serious talk about:

*Having babies is a miracle and extreme blessing.
We have only had it happen FOUR times in our family!

*One must wait till after marriage to use this very special ability God has given us

*Families are very important and every child deserves to be blessed with a mother father and siblings if possible

*The process of making babies is a wonderful thing but one that must be treated with respect and love at the right time.


Activity:

Look through some of your family photo albums of the children as babies and even mum and dad and other relatives if you have them available.


Closing Song: I am like a star Children's Songbook #163

Closing Prayer: Child


Treat:

Baby food!

Jesus said love everyone

Family Home Evening Lesson

Opening Song: Children all over the world  Childrens Songbook #16

Opening prayer: Child


Lesson:

We recorded the opening ceremony of the Olympics to watch at a later time with our kids.
We thought it would be good to incorporate some of it to FHE

Talk about how God loves all children around the world. We may come from different countries, have different colour skin, speak different languages but God loves us all the same. He expects us to treat eachother kindly and love all people as he loves us.


Game
I printed some Flags of the World Bingo cards here . Using candy to mark the square when they see the matching flag and team marching in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics.

Talk about how it is nice when people can choose to get along nicely with eachother. We want peace and kindness in the world and by getting to know others of a different nationality is a good way to do this.

Closing Song: Jesus said love every one Children's Songbook #61

Closing Prayer: Child

Treat: International foods

Being like the Anti -Nephi - Lehi's

Family Home Evening Lesson
Anti Nephi Lehi's

Opening Song:  Kindness begins with me Children's Songbook #145

Opening Prayer: Child


Lesson:

My older girls taught this lesson based on a primary class they had the week before

Talk about the story of the Anti Nephi Lehi's
Story and Picture found here


Give each child a piece of paper. On the small paper write down bad words that they know they should not use. {ours included things such as stupid, idiot, poop head, I hate..., etc} Talk about how these are not good words and we don't want them in our family anymore. We are going to get rid of them.

Roll up or scrunch the paper and head to the back yard and choose a spot to bury the bad words.

Dig down and have each child lay their words in the hole. Cover hole.


Now we have buried our bad words we are going to try very hard not to use them anymore.

Bad words are just like weapons as they can hurt people.

We want to make a promise like the Anti Nephi Lehi's to put down our weapons and never to hurt anyone. Read out  Alma 24:17-18



Closing Song: Jesus Said Love Everyone Children's Songbook #61

Closing Prayer: Child


Treat: