Family Home Evening

A lot of families have designated 'family nights' each week, where they dedicate at least one evening to spending and enjoying time together as a family. In the busy, fast-paced and hectic lifestyle that many families have, it's a great idea to know that at least one night a week everyone is going to slow-down, turn everything off, and focus on family.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and our church leaders have counseled and advised us for many years to have what we call a weekly Family Home Evening (FHE). A time to have fun together as a family, but also a time to teach values and religious principles and to strengthen family ties. Traditionally it is held on Monday evenings, but sometimes families might change that a little to meet their schedules and needs.

FHE has become one of our family traditions that my children look forward to and enjoy. There are times they are even the ones reminding us about FHE and letting us know that we need to do it.

First off, to help us keep everything organized we have a FHE board like this one:

My sister gave it to us several years ago for a Christmas present, and we have loved using it ever since.

Each week, every one takes turns doing a different thing. My kids all love it especially when they are in charge of the activity.

We start off FHE with an opening song (usually a Primary song) and a prayer. Then I pull out my planner and our calendar and we go over all the things going on in our week. We only take a few minutes to do this, but it's been a great way to keep the entire family updated and so all family members know what's coming up and what we need to be prepared for.

After that, we have our lesson. Most of our lessons are focused on values or religious principles we want to teach our family, and many times we include scripture references in our lessons. When it's the children's turn, they get to pick what they want to teach.

After the lesson, it's activity time! This is our kids' favorite part...whoever is in charge gets to pick our activity. Activities for our family have included playing games at the park, going for a walk or bike ride, playing video games or board games together, visiting and taking treats to others in our neighborhood, getting ice cream cones or shakes together, and playing Hide-and-Seek around the house. Really the possibilities are endless.

After our activity we finish up with a treat. Everybody loves that part too. :)

This is a picture that's over a year old...we combined the activity and treat to get half-price shakes at Sonic. :)


That's how our family does FHE! While this is an important thing my church leaders have asked its members to do, I think that no matter what your beliefs or religious denomination is...family night can be a fun, family tradition for anyone.

So, what about you? How does your family do family night or FHE? Any ideas you want to pass on or share?

If you want to know more about Family Home Evening or need some resources for planning lessons or activities you can check out this page, it has a lot of great ideas.