A typical Family Home Evening in our house goes down like this:
Mr. Brown Eyes or I will offer the opening prayer.
We'll sit down at the piano and tell Brown-Eyed Boy we're going to sing a song. He will either a) sit on my lap and take over the piano so thoroughly that I can hardly plunk out a tune or b) keep turning the piano off (it's electric) and, after the fifteenth or so time of being told no, he will fall down on the floor and wail.
When we finally get him calmed down, we'll sit down for a lesson. This is about the time Brown-Eyed Boy decides he wants to do anything but sit down for a lesson, and he'll beg for Mighty Machines, or chase after the cat, or grab our hands and demand that we run around the house with him. Sometimes we will be able to distract him with a picture or a visual aid. Most of the time we have to tell him, "No, we're not playing right now," and he will fall down on the floor and wail.
Undaunted, we press forward and give the lesson (short and sweet, usually from the Nursery Manual) with his cries in the background. In between sniffles, he'll finally crawl onto our laps, but he's in no mood to cooperate with us, despite our efforts to draw him in:
"Look, is this a picture of Jesus?"
"No."
"Jesus loves you very much."
"No."
"Mommy and Daddy love you very much, too."
"No."
"Do you want chocolate for dessert?"
"No."
Or, with my luck, he will say yes, and then I will discover that our house is completely devoid of chocolate. When I tell Brown-Eyed Boy this, he will fall down on the floor and wail.
And at that point, so will I.
So how do you do Family Home Evening? How do you make it fun for two year-olds, or kids of any age?
Looking forward to Monday nights,
The Brown-Eyed Girl
2 comments:
We aren't very good at holding FHE but what popped into my head is that you can go for a walk or something nature related and then tie in a lesson, for example if you go for a walk you can point out the trees and horses and whatever and talk about the creation. Or go to the Temple grounds and walk around and explain that this is Jesus's house. I don't know if that would work or not. Even if you keep doing what you are doing, he will surprise you one day by repeating the things you say. Kids are super smart and they listen even when you think they aren't :)
Sounds like FHE at my house, with a little fighting thrown in! As long as our younger kids are in the room with us, we consider the night a success! We do try to draw them in with pictures and activities, but it doesn't always work. About the time they turn four they seem to take a greater interest in what is going on in FHE. Until then, keep it a part of his routine and he'll come to look forward to it.
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