Family Home Evening Ideas

This issue contains articles and activities that could be used for family home evening. The following are some examples.

“Noah,” page 10: Consider telling the story of Noah using shadow puppets. In a dark room, shine a light (such as a flashlight) on the wall. You and your family can use your arms and hands to make shadow shapes on the wall to tell about the ark, animals, rain, dove, and rainbow. Consider finishing the activity by discussing ways we can follow our living prophets today and by singing “Follow the Prophet” (Children’s Songbook, 110) or another song about prophets.

“Living a Life of Peace, Joy, and Purpose,” page 34: Elder Richard G. Scott offers 10 suggestions to help us be successful in life. Consider focusing on two or three of these and discussing how they can be applied in your family’s life. Conclude by reading Elder Scott’s 10th suggestion and watching the Mormon Messages for Youth video “A Secure Anchor” (lds.org/youth/video/a-secure-anchor).

“Nourishing Our Bodies and Our Spirits,” page 68: Review the article with your family and discuss how our actions related to food have both physical aspects (health, nutrition) and spiritual aspects (service, gratitude). For younger children, you could prepare paper cutouts of a ship, a net, and healthy and unhealthy foods. Take turns “fishing,” using the net to scoop up the food. Place the healthy foods on the right side of the ship and the unhealthy foods on the left side.

Family Pulpit

Some years ago, it became usual during our ward’s testimony meeting for the Primary-age children, including our own, to bear testimony. Sometimes I wondered if my children just enjoyed the limelight rather than feeling the spiritual beginnings of a firm testimony. After my husband and I discussed the situation, he decided to build a family pulpit. During our next family home evening, we talked about testimonies and told the children that every week after the lesson, each of us would have the opportunity to bear testimony from our pulpit. Our children were thrilled. This was the beginning of a beautiful family tradition that helped our children develop personal testimonies.

Lonna Heuett, Utah, USA