As a mother of 2 young boys, I often feel overwhelmed by the responsibility I have to teach them the principles of the gospel, to instill in them a desire to choose the right, to have faith in Christ and to be honest, kind, courteous, generous, thoughtful...the list could go on and on. I know that by having regular Family Home Evenings, Brent and I will have a weekly opportunity to formally teach these principles and character traits to our boys.
With this in mind, I asked some of the ward "pros" for their input on successful family home evening tips. Kathy Postert and Wendy Jensen offered up some great advice...
REPETITION
*Kathy tries to plan her Family Home Evenings around what her children are learning in Primary. She uses the Primary Sharing Time guide in the Friend to give her ideas for weekly family nights.
*Wendy has a special "FHE whiteboard" that is used to take notes and do activities during Family Night. The whiteboard is hung and referred to throughout the week and is a reminder to the family of the topic that was discussed on Monday night.
RELEVANCE
*Kathy pays special attention throughout the week at what her kids are struggling with and then focuses the FHE lesson on that topic.
RESPONSIBILITY
*Kathy uses FHE as an opportunity to teach her children how to conduct a meeting. Each child is responsible for conducting the meeting and is in charge of welcoming, choosing prayers, music and leading the discussion about upcoming family events and calendaring.
EXAMPLES
*One great FHE that Kathy's children especially enjoyed was based on "Our Body is Sacred like the Temple." The kids traced their bodies on butcher paper and drew clothes, a face, etc. The children discussed what "My body is a temple" means and then hung their butcher paper bodies on their bedroom doors for the next several weeks.
*This past Monday night, Wendy used our wonderful Relief Society lesson as the topic of her Family Home Evening. Using the whiteboard, the Jensen family listed some Christlike traits they would like to have as a family. They have left the whiteboard list up this week to remind themselves about the things they are focusing on "doing" and "being."
Thank you, Kathy and Wendy, for your wonderful advice!
(Written by Amanda Rasmussen)
