Advice On Family Home Evening

by Traci

posted on 07/01/2009

Family time is a rare and sacred commodity these days. With all of our obligations, family bonding time can be easily neglected. A great way for families to bond is through holding weekly family home evenings. Setting apart time for the family will increase love, trust, and harmony in the home. Family home evenings are simple, but have a big impact on the relationships in the family.

Choose A Night of the Week
Set aside one night of the week as family night. It can be any day of the week. Once a day is chosen, then everyone marks their schedules. If, for example, Monday nights are chosen, then everyone schedules family home evening on their calendar each Monday night of each week, every month. No one is allowed to schedule anything else on family home evening nights.

Rules
1) Everyone needs to keep family nights clear on their schedule.
2) Everyone needs to put away cell phones, IPods, Computers, Blackberries, etc. Family night is strictly for families, face-to-face.

Structure
The family home evening works well when there is structure. Assign each family member a task to do during family home evening. The following week the tasks rotate to a different family member. The tasks are: Prayer, Song Leader, Thought, Lesson, Activity, and Treat.

Prayer
If you are a religious family, it is also appropriate to begin and end family home evening with a prayer offered by a family member. If your family is not religious, skip this task.

Song Leader
The song leader will choose an opening and closing song for the family to sing together. The songs can be religious, funny, folk, pop, country, etc. It doesn't matter if there is any musical or vocal talent. The task is purely to sing together. The song leader makes sure that there is a copy of the words for each family member. Families can sing unaccompanied or accompanied by an instrument or CD. Don't give up on this! Family members might feel a bit awkward at first, but week after week it will become more comfortable.

Thought
The person giving the thought will choose a quote, scripture, poem, or passage of text that inspires, promotes reflection, or is meaningful to him/her. The thought giver reads the selection and shares why he/she chose it. It should last 2-5 minutes.

Lesson
The person giving the lesson chooses something to teach the family. The lesson doesn't need to be difficult or long. If there are small children, a 2-5 minute lesson is appropriate for their attention spans. If family members are teenagers or adults, a 10-15 minute lesson is appropriate. The lesson can be something as simple as how to be a good friend or how to show honesty in daily life. It could also be something specific to a family member's talent, for example, how to make jewelry or how to dribble a soccer ball. The options are endless. It helps to keep people's attention if the lesson involves illustrations, props, physical movement, or equipment.

Activity
Each week a person is in-charge of choosing an activity for the family to do together. The activity can be a board game, a sports game, a walk, a hike, going to feed the ducks, watching a movie, miniature, golf, building something, planting a garden, making holiday decorations, doing a service project, etc. It doesn't need to be complicated or expensive. The task is simply to do something together. The activity should be 20 minutes-1 hour depending on the activity and ages of the children.

Treat
Each week someone is responsible for making a treat the family can enjoy together at the close of family home evening. It can be cookies, a cake, chips and dip, fruit, candy, etc. After the closing song, the family can enjoy the prepared treat.

Setting aside one night of the week for family time is an easy way to increase friendships and understanding in the family. Family members learn to have fun together, to trust each other, and to care for each other.

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