New Nursery Manual

In case you didn't know there is a new nursery manual. It is much better for catering to younger children and is a great little addition for FHE with young families. You should check it out.

Teaching in the moment

Because of a volleyball awards night Monday, we didn't have family home evening. So last night, I decided we would just play some games or something together. Mylie wanted to do puzzle races, so we got out the puzzles and got going. It didn't take long at all before Connor and Mylie were going back and forth arguing about who was winning and losing, and there was a LOT of bragging from the winner after each race. This has been a problem lately, so Tony and I took the opportunity to talk about sportsmanship and being a good winner. Then I remembered that we had an episode of the Berenstein Bears on VHS about this exact thing. So, we watched that. The kids really seemed to get it, and it may have been one of our most successful FHE lessons ever, totally unplanned. Family Home Evening is a great time to teach kids, and I feel strongly that we need to have it consistantly. However, our most effective teaching usually happens in the moment.

Jonah and the Whale

A little while back I did the Jonah and the whale story. My boys loved it because I found this great little cut out on lds.org. You actually make the whale eat Jonah. Big hit with boys.

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1f7ee2270ed6c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

If this link doesn't work go to lds.org and search for jonah and the whale. It's the "for little friends" one.

52 Weeks of Family Night

I just ordered this book from Deseret Book called "52 Weeks of Family Night" by Tamara Baggett.  We've only had one lesson from it so far, but I really like it.  Each lesson is short and simple, as they are meant for 'young families'.  At the back of the book, there are 52 cards with pictures that you copy, color, and laminate, and then put in a bag.  Each week you have a child draw a card from the bag, and then you go to that chapter in the book and teach that lesson.  It covers a little bit of everything, from prayer, to music, to pioneers, and the widow's mite, all in very simple and concise way.  If anyone wanted, I could scan and send  the cards from the back of the book, and you could improvise each lesson.  The book was only like 6 dollars to buy if you are interested in that.  

Armor of God

Sometime this summer, our family had a fun FHE on putting of the armor of God. I used pictures from the primary manual to create two soldiers and armor for each one. Go to http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=637e1b08f338c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=0819a41f6cc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1&contentLocale=0
and scroll all the way to the bottom to see the soldiers I used. I colored each one (making them a little different) and colored armor for each as well. We laminated these so that we could put tape on the back of each piece of armor and tape it onto the boy. Then I just typed up several different choices my kids might make. For example, "You shared your toys," or "You said a bad word." Then I put all these into a bowl. The two kids took turns picking a piece of paper from the bowl, listening to the choice made and deciding if that particular choice helps us put on the armor or God or if we take off our armor by making that choice. For each good choice, they got to tape on one of the pieces or armor, and for each bad choice, they had to take off one piece. The first child (or team) to put on the whole armor of God wins! It was really fun, and made an impact on Connor anyway. A couple days later, Mylie was crying in the family room, so I came in to see what the problem was. She told me that Connor had turned off the TV. I asked Connor why he did that. He said that Spongebob had come on, and since it sometimes says bad words, he turned it off. Then he said, "That's helping me put on the armor or God, isn't it, Mom?" It was so cute!

Welcome!

Yeah! I finally got around to setting this up! This blog is dedicated to helping families improve their family home evenings! The idea is that anybody who would like to can post their FHE ideas here to share with others. You can share lesson plans, games, activities, tips for improving family night, etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated by me as well as those who join. I would ask that if you choose to sign up, you try to contribute one idea each month. That way, it won't take too long to have several ideas to choose from. For each idea, please label it with a category, for example: Honesty, Faith, etc. I also ask that you just post your idea and not mess with any of the settings, backgrounds, or other aspects of the blog. Feel free, however, to include weblinks, photos, or other things that will help others with your FHE idea. Hope this works!!!