FHE Update

We have been having so much fun with our Family Home Evening Activities lately.  A few weeks ago we made a mural of Nephi's journey.  We each took a story and drew part of it on a big piece of butcher paper.  It was pretty awesome.  We assigned each of the kids a topic and a night to be in charge.  We let Derek go first.  He was supposed to teach us about the stripling warriors.  He made some visual aids a week in advance.  I kept asking him if he needed help, or wanted me to review the scriptures with him.  Nope.  He had it taken care of.  He asked every day for a week if it was time for his lesson.  This is how it went:
   He welcomed us and we sang a song of his choosing and then had a prayer.  Derek handed each of us a piece of paper and a pencil and told us to write:  STRIPLING WARRIOR on it.  He then gathered all our papers and looked them over and gave us a check mark if we had done well.  Then he showed us his pictures he had drawn of the stripling warriors and asked us to draw our own, just like his.  Then he told us that they were young guys who had to fight the bad guys.  They had to fight because their dads had no weapons.  :)  Then we played Don't Eat Pete.
He loved being in charge (and getting all the attention).  It was fun.

Austin taught us this week.  He was supposed to teach Jonah and the Whale.  He basically told and sang all the parts to the Jonah Liken the Scriptures movie.  It was pretty funny.  It included dancing and when we couldn't remember the words to the song, we finally pulled out the soundtrack so we could listen and dance.  It was fun.  Fun to have a specific time set aside for family, with no interruptions (okay, minimal interruptions.)  Next week Zack will be teaching us about Apostles and then it is Matt's turn to teach us about testimony.  Fun, fun!!  

FHE

Do any of you remember Elder Bednar's conference talk from a few years ago when he said that their family FHE nights were fully of crazy wrestling boys?  Yeah.....that is how ours have been.  These last few months I have done a lot more planning for FHE.  Instead of throwing something together at the last minute, I have been planning, at least a few hours in advance :) our FHE lesson and activity.  We have always had a lesson, but the fun, activity or game part has always been an afterthought for me. 
I decided I wanted my kids to love family home evening and so I have 1.  Relaxed my expectations of what Family Home Evening should be like and
2.   Planned much more interactive things to do along with our lesson. 
It has been so fun to do some different things and to look around online and see what others are doing as well.  One of my favorite things we have done recently is, after reading about Noah and the Ark, we let the kids take tuns sitting in a laundry basket and then we had animals of all shapes and sizes laying on the tile from the front door, around the corner and into the kitchen.  We pulled the kids through the maze of animals and they had to gather as many as they could.  They loved it!!!  I can't remember whose blog I stole that off of.  I have a friend with a bunch of boys and they frequently have a Missionary moment where they practice things that they will have to do as missionaries....sew a button, shine shoes, etc.  Awesome, huh?  Most of you probably already do all this cool stuff...but I am just figuring it out! 
Another fun one we did recently was watch the old Disney movie, "Follow Me Boys."  I love that movie, and my kids loved it too.  After it was over, Matt asked each of the boys to tell us something that Scouts do.  Austin piped up with:  Obey your parents!  Derek followed up with:  Do something nice every day!  My boys all love Scouts and the younger ones can't wait until they are a part of it.  As a result of this activity, we started a new dinnertime tradition.  For the last year or two, while we eat, we always ask everyone to share the best and worst parts of their day.  Now we also share one thing we have done for someone else.  It has been so fun to see what the boys say.   Sydney babbles and pretends she is part of the conversation too!
One of our best FHE lessons has been one that Zack gave about Joseph Smith.  It was so neat to see how seriously he took the responsibility and how much thought he put in to it.  Here is a short list of some of my favorite lessons/activities we have done recently or plan to do in the next few weeks: 

*Noah's ark lesson and animal gathering activity
*Family History, showed pictures of ancestors, told stories and taught the kids how to fill out a pedigree chart...the spelling was HILARIOUS.
 *Family talent show (no explanation needed)
*Family Testimony Night (give everyone the opportunity to practice bearing their testimony)
*Missionary Call and game about the importance of obedience
*Nephi's Journey:  make a mural following the highlights of Nephi's journey
*Have each kid choose a favorite scripture story and they get to direct a re-enactment. 

As I put more thought and preparation into our Family Night, I can see that my excitement is contagious and my kids enjoy it much more than when I am doing it as something to be checked off my list.  We are having fun!!  And learning!!  And growing as a family!!  It has been pretty awesome, if I do say so myself!!
I would love to hear your tips on making Family Home Evening Fun!!