Monday, January 5, 2009

Where do I get my ideas? I hope I don't disappoint you...

Trust me, our Family Home Evenings are typically pulled together at the last minute, but I justify it by telling myself "at least we're doing it."

That being said, I think it's time I kick it up a notch and do a little planning and pondering for it before 6 pm Monday night. We have a Family Home Evening Rotation board that everyone else has (Marilyn, can I beg you to make another tag when baby girl arrives?) the boys can hardly wait to switch each week. When it's Brian's turn for the lesson he takes the reigns, but when the lesson falls on one of the children I help out usually.

I don't buy the books out there written for FHE because I think that we have a goldmine of ideas at our fingertips by exploring here, here and here ---all of which can be easily tailored to target different ages. For lessons with younger children don't forget about this at the back of the Friend.

We'll use this idea for the lesson next week. For the activity I think we'll trace their bodies on butcher paper and let them draw their own men of armor and hang them in their rooms. That's sure to be a hit.

I didn't share anything new did I? Where do you get your ideas?

5 comments:

La Yen said...

I found you through my SIL, Amy, and feel like unlurking...

There is a Yahoo group for FHE--to join you have to submit an idea, but then you get 50 or so complete plans from other members. Very nice.

Also, for the younger kids, I love the new nursery manual, which you can get completely online.

(relurking now...)

LKP said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you use the Friend! Aside from the church's FHE manual, we own only one other FHE book and its a tiny one that helps little ones teach too...funny thing is we probably only used it twice =) Daisy loves FHE binder her grandma made for us years ago that HUGE and based on several of the counsels from President Hinckley. Other than that, mine are usually put together in my head on the drive home from work, or based on a concept that really has grabbed us from our scripture study or a hymn from the day before. So, even when its not drawn out or with a flannel board story I still think even 30 minutes before FHE lessons are inspired lessons. (we love our FHE board as well--Daisy's still as eager to switch the tags around as she was when we first got it almost 4 years ago. There's something magical & empowering about FHE! Hope your evening was a success, and the butcher paper idea was a smash! =)

LKP said...

P.S. Also forgot. sometimes Daisy teaches from an assigned topic. she'll usually ask what she should teach on, and either seth or I will give her a topic. she loves this on Sunday afternoons cause she'll spend hours pouring over her Topical Guide or Bible Dictionary plotting and planning...sometimes she'll even make up her own games for us to play (no joke, one time she even made her own game board!) No one ever mentioned how much fun it would be to just step back and let her take the reigns. I've adored her at every age, but this is quite possibly my favorite! you'll be awestruck when your little ones get to that point. =)

Brenda said...

This is something we have been really struddling with! Neither of us had FHE growing up, so we are still figuring it out, but the biggest part of our problem is Kenny's work schedule. So this year we will decide our FHE night for the week on Sunday (and stick to it!) and we have decided to go with using the new nursery manual for our lesson basis. I think it will work great for us... Planning it out is where it is at I have found. It all goes so much better when we spend a little time to prepare for it. Thanks for all the tips - I would love to hear more ideas on good lessons and activities you have used.

Marilyn said...

Thanks Natasha. I guess I just haven't been TRYING very hard. It didn't take much planning yesterday, I used the same lesson you were planning on using. The only problem was that my family isn't used to sitting for an extended period of time (15 min. is all I need) at home and needing to be reverent...we will have to work on that. But at least I put more effort into it than I normally would. Thanks for the inspiration.