Family Home Evening-Manners, Monsters and Bullies

Every Monday night, we gather our family together to learn more about the gospel and to strengthen our relationships with one another. We are trying to have a weekly lesson, something that our young children can understand and will help them in their everyday lives. I want them to learn to make positive choices and develop their faith. We attempt to keep it short and sweet and interactive. We also pray together and sing a song or two during this time. If the kids are lucky, I might even include a fun treat afterward.

Our family home evening lesson came out of a need to address speaking kindly to one another, after an especially dramatic shouting contest between one little child who shall remain nameless and a little friend...

We started out with a prayer and this song from the Children's Songbook.

"Jesus Said Love Everyone"

Jesus said love ev'ry-one;
Treat them kindly too.
When your heart is filled with love,
Others will love you.

I found this wonderful article in the Friend about bullying. We read the story and the scriptures and talked about bullying. We focused on the idea that using mean words and yelling are a form of bullying, and that we can't have love in our home when we bully one another with hurtful words.

Then, we played this little game from File Folder Fun called Monster Manners. It was a perfect reinforcement of what words we want to use in our home.

Last, we had our family scripture study, prayed and sang "Kindness Begins With Me."

I want to be kind to ev'ry-one,
For that is right, you see.
So I say to myself,
"Remember this:
Kindness begins with me."

I hope my little family can remember that "kindness begins with me."

An added bonus: Mike and I had fun later that evening, talking and coloring the little monsters for the game (that I didn't finish before our lesson). Love is spending time together, even if it's just coloring a file folder game.