Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ides for FHE with Toddlers

Okay you guys, since I know that many of you who read this blog, have little children, I'd like you to share what you do for Family Home Evening. I think that there's a misconception that everyone else is having these long, elaborate, consistently great family night's, but I don't think that's the norm. So SHARE! Even if you think what you do is lame, or boring, or not spiritual enough, it doesn't matter, I want you to share some of your ideas.

And I'll go first. Last week we decided to try one of my reader submitted responses and watch the scripture stories at lds.org. I figured I'd be lucky if little Ben sat through one of them, but lo and behold he sat through 2! And my older kids wanted to watch more (we watched about 5 of them). We also sang nursery songs that Ben knows so he was able to participate. It was fun and simple and easy. Afterwards we rode our bikes over to the gas station and got a treat.

Ok, so now it's your turn. Click on the comments box and SHARE! (And seriously, if you don't share, then I'm going to boycott you all and stop posting. Ok, maybe that's a little extreme, but come on, I know you can do it!) Oh, and by the way, my contest ends this week. I'll post the winner next week.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, we just started with Ethan to have family night for the first time 6 weeks ago and we are still doing pretty good. Our entire family night lesson last about 5 min and we try to just talk about one very basic thing. Last week for example after watching conference we talked about the 1st presidency and taught him each of their names. I also like to use pictures of family to get points across, this last FHE was on the temple and we looked at a photo of me and Jake at the temple on our wedding day. He really remembers better than I would have expected. Last Sunday for example when the opening prayer was given Ethan heard Pres Monsons name and perked up and said "She is talking to Monson?"

Right now the longest part of FHE is our family game. Ethan really likes it because it is not often that Mom and Dad both sit and play with him anything he chooses. He loves and askes for FHE now.

Unknown said...

We like to tell simple bible or BOM stories and then act them out. We did Noah and the ark, and built a boat out of kitchen chairs. We talked about Captain Moroni and then made swords and a fort. The kids loved it. I also do powerpoint presentations with lots of pictures. Visual aids are awesome. And we keep the lesson part pretty short 5, 10 minutes max.

The Mike and Heather Thomas Family said...

We tried the learning the Primary Song idea for FHE and it worked great! We did "Search, Ponder, and Pray." Ben really liked it. Mostly what has worked the best is for Mike to draw pictures of the lesson or scripture story as he teaches. This keeps Matthew's attention because he loves to watch Mike draw.

autumn said...

Well, lets see. The last one I did, we told Gracie she needed to share and that we loved her. It was 3 seconds long. I've got a goal to do better. :)

The Taylor Rawson Family Blog said...

I am loving your FHE ideas. Thank you so much.

One of my kids' favorite FHE was when I went around the house and found all sorts of items/pictures/laminated things that represented different "gifts" from our Heavenly Father (food, home, scriptures, etc).

Then I wrapped them all and the kids took turns picking a present from our bag and opening them, then identifying what "gift" it represented.

Brianne said...

I have a two and three year old. Their attentions spans are seriously so limited. So They love looking at the pictures from the gospel art kit. They love to use tape and put them up on the wall.

They love learning the apostles with this youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaL6mOExf4g&feature=related

my little three year old seriously knows all of them now!! It's so dang cute!

We also have TALENT TIME and have them do something silly at the end of the lesson. my little girl likes to dance for us and my little boy does a somersault or something funny!! We of course do something silly too! That's always fun!!

Muir Family said...

I have 2 1/2 year old twin boys. We usually do a FHE lesson from the nursery manual. Last week was on sharing. I put objects in paper lunch bags, like yogurt raisins, crayons, books. The boys took turns opening the bags and then we practiced sharing what was in each bag. They love anything they can touch.

Anonymous said...

I have a 2 year old and a three year old. Last week we did a lesson on Gratitude. I we all took turns tossing a ball to eachother and saying I am thankful for.... My three year old really got into it and said some really surprising things. Then we had a prayer thanking heavenly father for all of our blessings.

Anonymous said...

One FHE my toddlers loved was on the scriptures. We talked about how important and special they are. We let them hold mommys scriptures and turn the pages carefully. we also talked about how they have stories of Jesus inside-and looked at a pic. of Jesus. Then we had a SIMPLE treasure hunt. I printed off 4 or 5 small clipart images of furniture around the house for clues (example.. I showed them a pic of a couch and we ran to the couch together and found a pic of the kitchen table etc.) and laid them in plain sight. At the end we found our treasure. Scriptures and a treat!

Another favorite was our I am a child of God lesson. We used the nursery lesson and then made crowns like princes and princesses together- they have them on the lds website in the children's friend section. They have lots of coloring pages and flannel board images that I use all the time.

Josh & Teddie said...

So there is a series of books called Whos your hero and they are scripture stories that also have FHE ideas at the end of each story. They are complete with scriptures, extension activities, songs, etc. Its great. We use them with our 3.5 and 15 month old.

News with Naylors said...

I've used the nursery manual for help with toddler based family home evening lessons. I've put together an index of all the lessons we've done. They are short and very interactive. Some of them take some prep time, but my 2 year old has loved them! Thanks for your ideas!

http://newswithnaylors.blogspot.com/search/label/Family%20Home%20Evening%20Index