Tuesday, January 20, 2009

* FHE Introduction BEGIN HERE

Date: January 1, 2009

I'm going green! No Paper - Electronic FHE

Dear Friends & Family,
THE TASK!!!!

I have pondered and prayed greatly on the task of organizing ideas for Family Home Evening lessons to be used weekly in our homes. I pondered the idea of making packets (as have been done in the past), or going electronic. I decided to go green: Electronic. If you would like to print any part of the lesson, that is something you can do! Whatever works best for you and your family. There may some activities that require printing for your family to participate, ie: coloring pages, games, or other activities.

INDIVIDUAL FAMILY UNITS WITHIN OUR WARD FAMILY
As I gathered, I needed to take into consideration the different family units we live in. I hope I have included something in each lesson that fits your specific family.


A Family Unit may consist of:
Single Family Member
Married Couple Members
Single Parent with Children
Parents with Young Children
Parents with Teen Age Children
Grandparent Members
Empty Nester's
..... and the list goes on.

FHE Family Home Evening.
What is it?

INDIVIDUALIZING THE LESSONS
You will need to prayerfully study and select those parts of the lesson that will best fit your family. Although you may not have a teen in your home, you may feel the spirit to use selections from The New Era, and even though you may not have young children in your home, you may feel the spirit to use selections found in The Friend in your study/lesson. You are responsible to supplement, through the spirit, areas that are not “gathered” in the lesson. You are the person whom your Heavenly Father has called to teach your family. My job is to give you some ideas!


RESOURCES
Ideas for each lesson will be compiled from any combination of the following:
1. The Scriptures
2. Preach My Gospel
3. Ensign
4. The New Era
5. The Friend
6. Teachings of the Presidents of the Church : Joseph Smith
7. The Church Web Sites
(see sidebar links)

8. Church Music Files

Lessons will include links to these amazing sites!

A Brand New Year just launched TODAY, January 1, 2009, and promises to be amazing!!!


ELECTRONIC WORLD
We live in an ever growing and powerful technological world. There is A LOT of GOOD things available for teaching our family on the Internet. The Church is on the “cutting edge” of using these tools to help us learn and teach the Gospel.


In each lesson I have included links to follow allowing you to view media of many types:
Talks
Pictures
Stories
Music
Video

Planning for the Lesson Night
Family Home Evening Planner

This link will take you to a planner which lists a variety of items and activities that might be included in a family home evening. Use it to plan your family home evening and to print an agenda if you like.


Possible Assignments May Be:

Opening Song
Opening & Closing Prayer
Poem or Scripture
Lesson
Activity
Treat

WHERE DO I START?

1. Always begin preparing to teach with Prayer!

2. Gather your family together and determine a time and day of the week that best fits your families needs. The LDS Church has set aside Monday as FHE Night. If Monday doesn't work for you... find a date and time that does. Be consistant each week.

3. Look through the lesson on the blog. Decide which parts of the lesson will fit the needs of your family. The lessons require some reading, and may require simple props or materials. Gather these ahead of time.


4. Make assignments. Who will pray? Who will lead the song? Who will give a scripture?
Who will help with the treat? Who will help with the activity? Try to give everyone a responsibility. Make it FUN. You can make a simple rotating chart or FHE Assignment Board if you choose to, or you can keep a log of how each family member participates each week. Keep the log in a document file... go green!

5. Because everything is easily accessed, you can come back to any link as needed! For example: One of your children (or you) is struggling with a challenge. Pull up the link and review it with the child. Pray together with the child asking Heavenly Father to help the spirit teach as you re-teach. HOW WILL I GET THE LESSONS?

“I’m going GREEN!” (No paper!)

Okay... If all goes as planned, I will email you when a new lesson is posted— 4 per month. If there are 5 Monday’s... you will need to plan something for that extra FHE.


And so...
I felt inspired to begin with the January 2009 Ensign, New Era, and Friend... and spring (bounce, Tiger!!! Wa-ha-ha-hooo) from some of the material there! This makes it easy because we should all be reading these materials every month, and the material is given to us by inspiration from our Prophet and the Leaders of the Church! Feel free to broaden any topic to fit your family’s specific needs.

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