Denae submitted the following post showing how her family does Family Home Evening. Family Home Evening is a weekly gathering (usually on Monday evenings) where a family gets together to study the Gospel and build family unity. Members of our church often shorten the full name of Family Home Evening into the acronym FHE.
Family Home Evening is a night when your family stays home together and has a little meeting. We do it on Sundays or Mondays.
We have a chart that tells each member of the family what their job of FHE is. The chart does not need to be fancy. See ours below.
One person conducts. Tonight it was Macey. She said, “Welcome to Family Home Evening” and then told us what everyone would be doing for their FHE job.
Logan was in charge of leading the song.
Dave was in charge of the lesson.
The children were in charge of listening to the lesson. Because I have little kids, I keep the lessons short and sweet. Just a little Bible story or something like that. It is hard for them to sit still for too long. See the pictures below.
Tonight we talked about Daniel and the Lion’s Den.
Sometimes the kids have random comments and questions. Those are my favorite parts because they often lead to gospel discussions and teaching moments. So, I don’t go crazy on preparing a lesson….. something good comes from whatever I do.
After the lesson, we moved to the kids’ favorite part.
The games!
Our FHE game portion of the night typically includes one of the following games:
Duck, Duck Goose
Mother May I
Red Light, Green Light
Hide-and-Go-Seek
London Bridge
Ring around the Rosy
Tonight we played Duck, Duck Goose
Lexi helped with the treat and put sprinkles on everyone’s ice cream.
Then we ate it.
And that was the end of our FHE!
I know it makes a difference in our family, so I love having Family Home Evening. I think it makes us more unified as a family, and gives us the opportunity to discuss important “life” topics.
Now please share what you do for FHE with your family!
*This post and all pictures were used by permission from the author.
I just loved these pictures! Family Home Evening is a favorite night at our house too. My kids love crafts and word searches, so sometimes we substitute those for games. I always love to hear what the kids pray and thank God for as well.
What a fun little look into your life, thanks for sharing.
You are so right, keep it simple! Overdoing it is sure to lead to hard feelings and a pessimistic attitude about doing it again next week.
Thanks for including pictures!
What a great way to keep your family strong. And in today’s world that is a must!
I am a huge believer in Family Home Evening, for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s a constant in our lives. We keep that night pretty sacred, and it has made a difference in our family.
One thing that amazes me is how often ideas for lesson topics will come. I have so often felt the Lord helping me know what to teach and how to teach it. We have some really great discussions together.
And we have fun activities, too. Recently, we had a basketball game, parents against kids. Lots of fun.
I’m thinking I want to fold more deliberate service into our family nights. We try to do that a few times especially around the holidays, but I am thinking it would be good to get that into our rituals more. There’s nothing quite like service to bring people together.
We are getting to the stage, too, where the children will prepare lessons, and it’s great to see what they come up with. Our seven-year-old is really a master teacher. She always has a message, an activity (usually one she creates herself that coordinates with the lesson), and a treat. I love hearing them teach principles, and sharing their budding faith with the family.
Because of the different personalities in our family, we have to have two FHE’s. Our lessons often go long because we get into role playing (practice applying), and then a discussion with Dad. The kids love it and I just can’t bring myself to interrupt these valuable teaching opportunities. But then we never seem to be able to fit in games or fun activities which I think is equally important, not to mention one daughter is not as enthusiastic about religion and she needs to know that we care about what she wants and not just what we want to teach her… So, we have our lesson on Sunday night, and we call Monday, Family Fun Night, and we take turns choosing what to do. Sometimes it’s just playing the WII together, sometimes it’s baking cookies and taking them to neighbors, or going to a movie or the park.. anyway, that’s how we do it.
I think I was a child when FHE was first emphasized in the church and I remember my mother handing my father a book and telling him we would be back in an hour. We had good times playing games and learning about the lives of old and new prophets and finding what different kinds of angels there were. We learned about service and love.
We live in a new era. There are MANY activities that will take up your family’s time. When the children were under 10 mom and dad have control over time and family efforts. But then soccer, basketball, school plays, band, scouts, etc.,etc. will start to fill in. This is a time when you need a bonding of the family most and your ideals on pro-creation, God Theory, abstinence in dating, and how you feel about drugs is vital for your famiy’s well being.
One practice will go from 3:30 to 5:00, one will begin at 7:00, there will be a piano lesson and then across town will be a ball practice. Cancel everything except family – no not really! Just get creative and every once in awhile take back the night. Vacations are a bonding time for the entire family. Having supper at a park. Play a quick game of Rook after supper. Never turn a TV on until the last child is done with homework. Use your Sunday’s wisely! Tell coaches, teams, teachers, and other parents in advance when you won’t be there. All parents want time with their families and I find they are supportive and non-judgmental.
Read one chapter of Scripture and discuss it in 10 minutes. There will always be one birthday party a year, one recital, one tournament, one play, one..one…one… so we made our choices early when the children were young, it was much easier to follow through when they were older.
I love family Home Evening though we don’t really have one particular night or program anymore. Just different bonding times.
I love this chart idea!! My husband and I do foster care and our family changes often. I love that this chart makes it SO easy to add another family member or change a name as we part and grow again. I will definitely be making a chart like this is the near future!