Family Home Evening: Visual Aids That Teach Twice

Nothing is as adorable to parents as the sight of their young children teaching a family home evening lesson. Helping them prepare for their occasional lessons however, can be a struggle. I must admit that I have switched assignments more than once because it was easier to prepare a lesson myself than take time from a busy day to help one of the children prepare. But I knew my family was missing out by my doing this.

One day as I was cleaning the house, I found a wonderful, simple solution right before my eyes. There on the floor was a cute little handout one of my children had brought home from Primary. Suddenly these handouts, which I’d never known quite what to do with, seemed like gold. They could serve as springboards for lessons prepared by my children for family home evenings! I gathered some from the refrigerator door, others from my desk, and still more out of a drawer. Then I started a file for each of my children to be kept with our family home evening supplies. As the children bring home pictures or handouts from Primary, I gather them up and add them to the files.

Now when one of my young children has the lesson assignment for family home evening, I get out the appropriate file and let him or her leaf through it for ideas. Sometimes choosing a lesson is hard for them because each handout brings back a special memory. But at last they happily choose just the right one for their lesson. Later, as they teach us a principle that they were once taught by a caring teacher, I give thanks for that instructor and for the inspiration that has helped us include our youngest children in preparing family home evening lessons.—Linda Jones Brandolino, Ojai, California

Photography by Maren Mecham

Illustrated by Jerry Harston