Family Home Evening
As many of you know, I'm a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints or as we tend to be called Mormons or LDS. Within the Church, we are encouraged to spend together one evening a week together in Scripture Study, Prayer and having a bit of fun.
We call this evening Family Home Evening, (FHE).
Now, don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean we don't do Scripture Study any other day, in fact my post from the other day will prove that we don't!
It also doesn't mean we don't pray together on any other day of the week, we do and multiple times a day too.
It doesn't mean that we can't talk to each other, or have fun with each other any other night of the week.
All it means is we have one evening a week where we don't schedule anything else. Pure uninterrupted family time.
Now, a lot of members have this evening on a Monday night. In fact, up until quite recently we had FHE on a Monday night. However a few weeks ago, Daddy asked if we would mind moving FHE to a weekend night, so that we could all take part in the evening as more often or not by the time Daddy made it home from work on a Monday night he had missed the lesson part of FHE and was just in time for the treat part!
So we moved it to a Sunday.
Now, the way we do FHE, isn't always the way that others do FHE, and to be honest it isn't even the same way that we have done FHE in the past. However, this is how we do it now.
Generally this is me. It doesn't mean that I'm trying to get the rest of the family to behave (although generally I am!), it just means that I organise the evening to ensure that we do everything we are supposed to, that everyone gets to talk without interruption and get their thoughts and ideas across. I'm just guiding the rest of us.
We take a subject we are interested in, or that we feel we should work on, or something that we personally don't know a lot about or even just find one that someone else has prepared and put on the Internet for others to use that we think will interest the rest of us. There is even a book on the LDS website that we can use if like.
In our home, it tends to be the person preparing the lesson that also prepares the treat. We like to theme the treat with the lesson and so that's why. The treat can be Ice-Cream or Fruit Salad or Fresh Bread and various sandwich toppings, like BB prepared for us a couple of weeks ago.
We've had Stickers, colouring pencils and even new board games. The treat can be anything that is a treat for your family.
Being a part-member family (Tops and I are baptised, BB will be baptised later this year and Daddy isn't LDS) there is sometimes a bit of struggle with the songs we sing. Generally we try to stick with Hymns and songs from the Children's Song book that we all know. However if we don't know all the words, we have the song books in front of us and we make good use of the CD's and music files online.
The activities are sometimes linked to our treats. For example, if we've been given a new board game our activity is playing the board game. Or it might be that we use our Stickers or Colouring Pencils to create some art work. One of my favourite activities is that we all go for a family walk, but I also like when we watch a movie from our collection or take part in a conversation about things that we remember from the last few years.
Sometimes this is the person who has prepared the lesson, and it's a Scripture that will start us thinking about the subject that we are talking about. Sometimes it's a Scripture that one of us has been pondering (Ponderize!) over the last week or one that means something to us.
We have two prayers, one at the start and one at the end so technically two of us lead us in prayer, but Sssh! The prayers are assigned by whoever is conducting and it's good because it allows all of us a chance to practice praying out loud and to use the proper language and for want of a better word format. It also means that all of us are a part of our Family Home Evening.
And so, that's how we do Family Home Evening. Do you do anything similar in your family?
We call this evening Family Home Evening, (FHE).
Now, don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean we don't do Scripture Study any other day, in fact my post from the other day will prove that we don't!
It also doesn't mean we don't pray together on any other day of the week, we do and multiple times a day too.
It doesn't mean that we can't talk to each other, or have fun with each other any other night of the week.
All it means is we have one evening a week where we don't schedule anything else. Pure uninterrupted family time.
Now, a lot of members have this evening on a Monday night. In fact, up until quite recently we had FHE on a Monday night. However a few weeks ago, Daddy asked if we would mind moving FHE to a weekend night, so that we could all take part in the evening as more often or not by the time Daddy made it home from work on a Monday night he had missed the lesson part of FHE and was just in time for the treat part!
So we moved it to a Sunday.
Now, the way we do FHE, isn't always the way that others do FHE, and to be honest it isn't even the same way that we have done FHE in the past. However, this is how we do it now.
One of us conducts.
Generally this is me. It doesn't mean that I'm trying to get the rest of the family to behave (although generally I am!), it just means that I organise the evening to ensure that we do everything we are supposed to, that everyone gets to talk without interruption and get their thoughts and ideas across. I'm just guiding the rest of us.
One of us prepares a lesson.
We take a subject we are interested in, or that we feel we should work on, or something that we personally don't know a lot about or even just find one that someone else has prepared and put on the Internet for others to use that we think will interest the rest of us. There is even a book on the LDS website that we can use if like.
One of us prepares a treat.
In our home, it tends to be the person preparing the lesson that also prepares the treat. We like to theme the treat with the lesson and so that's why. The treat can be Ice-Cream or Fruit Salad or Fresh Bread and various sandwich toppings, like BB prepared for us a couple of weeks ago.
We've had Stickers, colouring pencils and even new board games. The treat can be anything that is a treat for your family.
One of us leads us in song.
Being a part-member family (Tops and I are baptised, BB will be baptised later this year and Daddy isn't LDS) there is sometimes a bit of struggle with the songs we sing. Generally we try to stick with Hymns and songs from the Children's Song book that we all know. However if we don't know all the words, we have the song books in front of us and we make good use of the CD's and music files online.
One of us arranges an activity.
The activities are sometimes linked to our treats. For example, if we've been given a new board game our activity is playing the board game. Or it might be that we use our Stickers or Colouring Pencils to create some art work. One of my favourite activities is that we all go for a family walk, but I also like when we watch a movie from our collection or take part in a conversation about things that we remember from the last few years.
One of us shares a Scripture.
Sometimes this is the person who has prepared the lesson, and it's a Scripture that will start us thinking about the subject that we are talking about. Sometimes it's a Scripture that one of us has been pondering (Ponderize!) over the last week or one that means something to us.
One of us leads us all in prayer.
We have two prayers, one at the start and one at the end so technically two of us lead us in prayer, but Sssh! The prayers are assigned by whoever is conducting and it's good because it allows all of us a chance to practice praying out loud and to use the proper language and for want of a better word format. It also means that all of us are a part of our Family Home Evening.
And so, that's how we do Family Home Evening. Do you do anything similar in your family?