fhe ideas

So, I've been thinking a lot recently about Family Home Evening. I'm lousy at it, and I'm thinking of trying to do a better job. Lousy as in perhaps have had one fhe since Sarah was born. It was a totally awesome one, though, if I do say so myself. Jenn and I chatted about the family home evening thing recently, and I told her I would come up with some ideas. Here's what I've got so far:

• help the kids make family trees (This is the one I did fairly recently with Sarah. She really enjoyed it. We used pictures I had on the computer of different family members and cut them out into little squares which we then glued onto a clipart tree on a piece of paper. We talked about who each person is and how she is related to them back to like her great grandparents. Now that I think about it it would have been easy to carry this over for a few weeks telling her some stories about each person or reading her their testimonies or something like that.
• focus on different prophets and tell stories about them or important things about them--both modern and ancient (show pictures and start with President Monson, talk about what a prophet is, etc.)
• make a gratitude tree (This could obviously be done close to Thanksgiving and could be as elaborate or as simple as you wanted to make it. It could also be started during a fhe and carried on throughout the week or even throughout the month of November.)
• using the gospel art kit, pick a picture a week and tell the story about it (You could pick the picture before-hand or let a child choose the picture and try to remember the story on the fly--it's written on the back, I think.)
  
• talk about tithing, have them pay tithing, fill out slip, etc.
• talk about faith, read the scripture in Alma about the seed, plant a seed, and watch it grow (and hope that you have a green thumb)
• talk about missionary work--tell your own experiences, show nametag or other mission paraphernalia or pictures, talk about the mission experiences of someone else in the family, talk about how you can be missionaries now even when you are young, encourage them to do one thing during the week to share the gospel with someone around them
• stories about the pioneers
• talk about the temple and go take a walk outside your local temple if you have one; talk about how your family can be together forever
  
• http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/lds/resources/index.html This website, although I haven't looked at it in great detail, seemed to have some good stuff.
• If all else fails, play some games (red light, green light; mother, may I?; don't eat pete; board games; no bears are out tonight; etc.) Most of the point is being together as a family, and games are a great way to do that.