You better take the phone off the hook!
Hey everybody it's family night
I've already got the family night book!
Hey everybody it's family night
Don't anybody go away!
Come on everybody to family night
I've been waiting for this all day!
Tonight is the night, friends.
Family Night,
Home Evening,
FHE,
Monday PM...
Call it what you will! I've long been meaning to host a family-night-traditions talk on this blog, you know, in hopes of some motivational, synergistic idea-sharing. So here we go...
I readily confess that our FHE efforts over the past five years have been sporadically rewarding at best. Sporadic, because no matter how Wes and I planned our lesson prep, one of us was bound to forget or fall through. We tried alternating weeks. Didn't work. We tried alternating months. Didn't work. In fact, my typical late-Monday-afternoon thoughts often sounded, sadly, like: "Blast. It's my week for FHE." Occasionally, one of us would think up/plan out something brilliant, but I tell you, irregularity ruled.
I am grateful to say that change is brewing in our household, people! The past couple months have been the happiest of our Home Evening career and I admit that I'm falling madly in love with Monday nights. Madly. In love.
Why the change? We realized that our fam-night mentality needed a good dose of simplification. We needed to settle on something easy that we could do every week, something that took no planning. It took me a while to swallow this concept. I felt like failure to plan deliberately was somehow copping out. But I slowly recognized that consistency needed to be our initial goal. We could add frills later.
Happily, we've seen success! Our super-simplified Family Nights currently look like this:
Pray
Choose a Song (often from Lucy's current Nursery list).
Snag and discuss a Picture from the family-night-salvation box (Gospel Art Picture Kit).
Attach picture to the clipboard hanging in Lucy's room.
Finish Family Night with a rousing rendition of The Hokey Pokey (This tradition harks back to Wes's childhood and is a highlight of our Monday nights - it is a highlight, indeed, of Lucy's whole life.)
And...that's it.
I know: it's dreadfully simple!! BUT, it makes for consistent, happy, gospel-centered, family-together time. Lucy loves discussing the gospel pictures (we were a little slow on this one - I'm sure you've all been long attached to these FAB resources!) We used to pull them out sporadically (yes, there's that word again), but using them regularly and hanging them has made a world of difference! The biblical characters on Lucy's clipboard become her friends, and having them visible allows our Monday night "discussions" to last all week.
Lucy (upon rising and viewing the picture of young Samuel): "Good Morning Samuel! You're in your bed too!"
Lucy (one night after the "amen" of an evening family prayer): "We forgot a prayer for the fire!!"
Mom & Dad (eyebrows raised in confusion): Fire? What?
Lucy: "We forgot to pray 'bout the fire!!"
Mom & Dad (eventually spotting Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego overhead): "We thank thee for saving S, M, and A from the hot hot fire!"
Lucy: "That's right!"
And we certainly can't retire without petting Daniel's lions goodnight!
So, that's where we're at.
It's a low rung of the Family Home Evening ladder, but it's progress for us.
We do occasionally remember to honor the "treat" tradition. (The Orange Julius is a household favorite.)
Someday soon we hope to integrate simple lessons about other important topics.
But for now, we're just reveling in a working routine. And we're anxious to amass other ideas...things we can use when our tradition is ready for some tweaking, which is bound to happen as our family grows and changes. So...
What makes Family Night successful at your house? What are your favorite Monday night traditions? How do you keep your kids involved and attentive? (You can comment as usual in the comments section or if you'd rather post about this fabulous subject on your own blog - because you have so many great ideas - let me know, I'll link =)
We're grateful for the prophetic counsel that pushes us, weekly, to keep trying in this sometimes taxing endeavor. And we believe the promises our prophets have made regarding the home evening tradition:
"If the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result. Love at home and obedience to parents will increase. Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth of Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influence and temptations which beset them."
(First Presidency letter, 27 April 1915 — Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose)
Happy Family Night, friends!
25 comments:
that Orange Julius looks sooo tasty! I havent made that forever!
First off... the song you began with was one of my favorite as a child. LOVE IT.
Secondly... I was JUST thinking "what should we do for family night?"
We too have a simple FHE. (much more effective for this age I think). I acutally find it much easier to remember Family Night now that William can be involved. We pretty much do the same: sing some songs (as many as William wants to sing), pray, have a simple lesson, and then a game. Ocassionally I remember a treat. Not very often. I'm sure as William grows older and knows that it is part of FHE we will do it more often.
For the lesson we use the Gospel Art Picture Kit as well... it is AWESOME! Awhile back I bought a book called Home-Spun Fun Family Home Evenings. They have a lot of cute pictures, etc to use. I copied, colored and laminated the ones I liked and then made a file folder for them. That way I can just take a peek, pull out a folder and have a ready made, easy FHE.
Another thing we like to do is if William is having a particular struggle with something (ie: holding still during prayer) then we'll talk about that during FHE (and pull out pictures from the kit to illustrate). Sorry this is really long. I'm excited to see what everyone else suggests!
Yeah, we're not so good at FHE ourselves. I'd like to change that, though, really I would. It's hard, though, when Garrett is often in bed before Blake gets home from work. (And when he does get home, we're both so tired). I keep telling myself it will get better naturally, but I honestly know that it won't unless I make at least some sort of concerted effort to see that it does.
Growing up, our Monday nights were lower rung as well. We'd ALWAYS go over the family calendar, and then we often got a talking-to from my mother about how to sort laundry THE RIGHT WAY. It was also a good time to get some family scripture reading time in to make up for the early mornings when we were half-asleep. I think that my favorite FHE's though were the ones were we were just in the living room talking. Together. I loved that. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what ideas crop up here!
ps. I forgot... the idea of hanging the picture in Lucy's room is genius! I'm totally stealing that idea!
CONSISTANCY....#1
SIMPLE PLAN.....#2 -- Brilliant!
HAPPY....All Important!
and... when little ones get older, I was amazed how memorizing a scripture magically changed our (sometimes bickering) teenage household. A quarter 'bribe' weeks later kept scriptures fresh on the mind???
I'm afraid our 'youngest' got lost in attending older sib's games....BAD!
Does anyone have ideas on how to do family night with a husband who is several thousand miles away (and only cats, no kids)? Usually we would play internet scrabble (at which I usually beat him) or something, but now he has no internet, and that will probably be the same in Iraq. So while reading this post I thought I would appeal for ANY ideas to those who are more creative than me. Thanks!
Okay so you have given me a great idea...I shall post about this, perhaps tonight or even tomorrow, when I get the chance. I will say this we are HORRIBLE about FHE!
I say hooray to you!! The gospel pic discussion alone makes your family night celestial!! Too often in our fam we forget about things spiritual and focus on things fun.
Growing up, pudding was always the special treat for FHE...I now do not like it one bit becasue I had to eat it every Monday night for 18 years. I guess there are two things said with that: Hooray for consistency, it made a lasting impression on me, and don't forget to change up the treat!
I printed out this pdf file found here.
http://www.theideadoor.com/FHE/30FHELessons.html
30 lesson topics. Each has an item to represent that story. I put all the items in a bag one day and I was all set for 1/2 the year! The weeks it is the girls turn to be in charge they reach in to the bag and choose an item. We look up the story in the binder that goes with it. I used the old version at the bottom of the page. The new version has some new ones and an activity (simple from the quick glance i just took) that go along with the story.
The weeks I am in charge I usually do something in the Friend or think about something that they need to work on. Usually last minute of course.
Okay... this is what we did tonight. We sang "follow the prophet." We talked about prophets and I made a simple puzzle. One side was Pres. Monson and the other side had facts about him. We taped it together and then hung it on the fridge (he didn't want it in his room). One of the facts I found was that he likes ice cream... so we had ice cream for our treat.
I don't think William really cared about the facts but I"m assuming that Pres. Monson will be the propeht for a while and that eventually he will remember them.
Clipboard's getting nailed into every little child's wall TONIGHT!
Our usual is exactly what you described. We have a bag that has plastic baggies in it and in each plastic baggie is a numbered item that goes with a gospel topic. I have a folder with stories or a description of the principle that goes with the number on the baggie (am I making sense?). So each week Lainey reaches in the bag and pulls out a baggie. I'll usually pull out the GAK and my scriptures and we'll pull out the picture that goes with the story if there is one and open the scriptures to the story and tell her that the story is in the New Testament, BofM, OT, or D&C. So tonight we did the Word of Wisdom, talked about Joseph Smith praying for the people, talked about good foods, etc. So simple and so easy. We made the bags for an enrichment group and its been an FHE life saver!
And I almost always forgo treats... I should try harder...
Bless you all for these fabulous ideas!
Lindsay, I think you're right: it all comes down to TOGETHERNESS.
Jeanine, your ideas are fab...and yes, FHE makes for good discussion time about needful topics (we had a rather effictive "What should we do on Sundays" chat a couple of weeks ago!!) Love the prophet puzzle!
CJ - I'll remember the pudding problem. That CRACKS me up!!
Melanie - I'm going to look up that file right now! Thanks!!
Carrie - Look at you, so organized with your baggies and folders! Sounds super fun!!
Can't wait to try these ideas, friends! Keep the great thoughts coming!!!
And ALLISON, you're probably in the toughest FHE situation imaginable!! Sheesh - I have no good ideas! Could you write Monday night letters to each other?? Goodness! I don't know! But I do know that I should NEVER complain about our FHE's being hard...cause your situation pretty much takes the cake! Bless you heart! (Way to dominate on the scrabble board, though!)
Wow! Such great ideas. Azure is too young still to have FHE with, so Charles and I just have it after she goes to bed. In the past we discussed the upcoming Sunday Sch lesson for FHE and that worked really well because we always had a lesson picked out.
OH Lori...we went through the same process and it has made our FHEs consistent in our home. Much easier in us too!
Easter ideas!
I have a memory game that tells the story of Easter. Madelyn loves to play memory games so it works out perfect for us. Of course we will be dying eggs this year, but am still looking for other activities.
FHE growing up: (phone ringing) everyone diving to answer before mom does and says, "We're having family night, how about you?"
FHE now: Ry saying sometime between 5 and 7: "Happy Home Evening Wife"
activities pretty much have been the same (sitting in the same room while playing a game or watching some sort of show)but it's the distinction of Monday that we know that we are acting as a "family"
We actually did have a pretty deep gospel discussion last night though. I'm all for the simple GAK pics though :) way to go friends!
I'm with Amy and Ryan - sitting in the same room while husband does homework. I usually call it the husband-does-homework FHE. (He is less fond of this activity than I am...) I definitely need to revamp the FHE night ideas - simplify!! Thanks, Lori.
Allison - Maybe you could synchronize watches and read scriptures at the same time or say "I love you!!" at the top of your voice at the same time. Just the idea of doing the same thing at the same time might be good. Problem - time zone difference might make for screaming in the middle of the night. Or a class. Or some other important activity. Could be fun :)
Hey, this web page has some great ideas for Easter activities that focus on the reason vs. the bunny.
www.theideadoor.com
same place that someone said was good for FHE ideas. You just click on the sidebar that says holidays and then pick your holiday. I love it and can't wait to do some of these with Madelyn and Spencer. (I really like the Resurrection egg hung!)
oooh, this is such a great topic, Lori. I'm heading to bed right now, but I'll be back with thoughts!
Ah Lori,
You corrected one of your ever so charming spelling mistakes. I find them endearing blemishes that add personality to your otherwise perfect writing. I so loved the "Hockey Pokey". Reminded me of this statue of Jesus doing the hockey pokey. http://violinheather.blogspot.com/2008/02/missing-gift.html
Deanna- studying SS lessons is a GREAT idea for FHE
Heather - the Easter ideas look fabulous! Can't wait for that holiday
Amy - I was counting on you and Ryan to contribute your ever so unique perspective on this subject. Love you guys! Hope you had fun in DL!
Melissa - gotta love those homework FHEs =) Do you think there will ever be a time in life when homework is not an integral part of existence?? Bah.
And dear Ryan - to my credit I would like to note that the "Hockey" mispelling was a typo rather than an ignorant mistake (all the others are ignorant mistakes). Glad I didn't catch it sooner so that you could enjoy the moment. Maybe I'll permanently add the image of Heather's hokey hockey statue to our site as a tribute to my spelling abilities.
Hope to delight you with many errors in the future! Keep reading!
Okay, so I have to admit that we, too, are terrible about remembering family home evening. I'm not even attempting it right now, though. We just started nightly family scripture study--don't know if anyone else does this with their little ones. (We had no idea Haley would sit still for it until we visited family at the end of December, and she totally cooperated for their scripture reading!) Anyway, for me the hardest thing about FHE is just remembering that it's Monday! We totally have a book with easy lessons in it (though where it landed after our move...?), but it's just the fact of pulling it out and doing it on Monday that trips me up--though we've done it Tuesdays when we've remembered that we forgot on Monday. Oh, well. The most important thing is to start the habit--then you won't forget anymore!
This just made me and Nate laugh and laugh! I love you guys! I love Lucy petting the lions! That is great!
We always have an FHE, but we don't have any kids yet. Still, we never miss the treat! That is one of our favorite parts! We always sing, pray, have some sort of lesson or gospel discussion, and have a "spotlight." Since there are only two of us, we both spotlight each other every week, but as we have a family, that will probably change. Growing up, we always went around and everyone had to say something nice about the person being spotlighted. Then the spotlighted person had to say something nice about themselves. It was really good for us, since it helped us look for good things in each other and in ourselves more.
Alright... some more ideas... Sugardoodle.net has a whole file of stuff. Sometimes they have some good ideas. Also, a girl that used to be in my ward posts every week what they did on her blog (http://malmfeldtfamily.blogspot.com/) They usually have a more involved activity than we do but I usually get some great ideas from her (like the Pres. Monson puzzle).
Okay... another thought. Often, when trying to come up with a quick FHE idea I will try to do something with the primary theme for the month... or read from that month's friend. Also, we try to sing the song that they are learning in primary for the month.
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