Conference tecrus::mormonism

A non-denominational project called GENESIS has produced a new version of the
Bible on video cassette.  The stories of the Bible were filmed in the Holy Land,
and the actors and actresses speak the the original languages while a
narrator speaks over them and reads from the King James Version.

The Church has extracted portions of the new Bible into six video cassettes.
Hopefully, our Meeting House Libraries will have them (mine does), and the
cassettes can be purchased by individuals from the distribution center for
about $12 each.

We are using them as part of our home evening "lessons".  They are excellent!

As a general policy in our family, we try and have the "spiritual" part of
Home Evening on Sundays and the "activity" part on Monday evenings.  We seem
to have a lot of conflicts on Mondays, such as my monthly Scout Roundtable,
school functions, town meetings, etc., and have focused on Sundays for the
"spiritual" part.

Allen

    I was just thinking about adding this very topic.  I glad someone
    else thought it was important too.
    
    Along with the cassettes mentioned by Allen there are two others
    that I am aware of.  First is one called Nephi and the Brass plates.
    It is a dramatized version of the story and is very good. (my kids
    have about worn mine out.) They also have one on the Christmas story
    (again dramatized but accurate and well done).  I don't know if
    they are available outside of the wasatch front. (they are $30 each)
    
    Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep 2-5 year olds interested
    long enough for FHE?  My kids last about 3-5 min and it is difficult
    to get anything across. 
    
    One that we did have some success with is a treasure hunt for pennies
    and then a short discussion on tithing.  They thought that was fun
    and now want to pay their tithing, so I guess it was successful.
    
    Any other suggestions.
    
    
    One other item that could be discussed under this topic or maybe
    a new one is actual FHE lessons.  My sister has a group and they
    all come up with one lesson then every one photocopies it and they
    then have 10 lessons each.  These might have the possible format:
    
    Main topic
    story
    (including pictures)
    applicable game
    treat
    
    They have had great success.  I imagine the age groups in our families
    vary a great deal but any lessons you have had success with would
    be greatly appreciated.
    
    Your brother 
    Russell Murray
    

Re < Note 27.2 by XROADS::MURRAY >
>    Along with the cassettes mentioned by Allen there are two others
>    that I am aware of.  First is one called Nephi and the Brass plates.
>    It is a dramatized version of the story and is very good. (my kids
>    have about worn mine out.) They also have one on the Christmas story
>    (again dramatized but accurate and well done).  I don't know if
>    they are available outside of the wasatch front. (they are $30 each)
    
The Meeting house libraries have many film strips, video cassettes, etc.
Our librarian lets Ward members check things out for use during HE.  Do
the librarians in other Wards do this?  The library is a super resource
for home use!


>    Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep 2-5 year olds interested
>    long enough for FHE?  My kids last about 3-5 min and it is difficult
>    to get anything across. 
    
Sounds like your lessons should only be 3-5 minutes long and then have
some fun games.

Allen

    Some ideas that have worked well for us in Family Home Evening:
    
    Games:
    
         We always try to play some kind of game with the family.
         Last night we had fun playing Bingo. Even the little kids
         can do that. Another fun family game is UNO.
         
    Stories:
    
         There are lots of good stories in the FRIEND magazine,
         which is published by the church. Sometimes we'll read
         these to the kids, and they like it. Generally the stories
         have a very good principle that you can discuss with the
         children.
         
    Activities: 
         
         Recently we had a fun activity bowling. There is a bowling
         alley near here that will put long flexible hoses, four
         or five inches in diameter, in the gutters. This makes
         it so the balls don't go in the gutter, and the little
         kids have a great time.
         
         Another activity that we like is flying kites together.
         
    Rich

    Last night for FHE my wife, my boy and I sat down to watch the Sesame
    Street Special.  It was one of the few times when we could all watch
    something that we all liked!
    
    Steve

    We try to keep our FHE short and to the point, but with the emphasis
    on reading the BOM this year, we find we are reading a lot.  The
    littlest kids love to listen as we take our turn reading.  We still
    have to limit ourselves to 15 minutes or less (about 2 chapters).
    
    Tom

          Tired of dreary Family Home Evenings?  If so, borrow a
          technique from the Seminary program and have fun with
          Scripture Chasing!

          What is Scripture Chasing you say?  It's having fun, it's
          playing games, it's testing your skills, and most
          importantly, it's learning to apply the scriptures to your
          life.

          Sounds good?  Ok, let's give it a try.  Take a copy of the
          Book of Mormon and hold it upright so you are looking at the
          edges of the pages; keep the book closed.  Now, I want you
          to locate the book of Jacob, and you only get to open the
          Book of Mormon one time.  Study the edges of the pages and
          estimate where you think Jacob is.  Ready?  (speed is not
          involved with this) Ok, open the book.  Is one of the two
          pages that are open in Jacob?  If so, give yourself one
          point.  This form of Scripture Chasing is called ONE-TIME
          OPENING, and it helps you learn to quickly locate the
          various books.

          Next, close the book.  I'm going to give you a "typical"
          scenario, and you have 30 seconds (or what ever time you
          feel is appropriate for your family) to find a scripture
          from the Book of Mormon that will help you survive (or enjoy
          as the case may be) the situation.  Ready?  The scenario is
          as follows:  "Your dad is being transferred to a distant
          town." The clock is ticking...  Remember, you can approach
          that situation from any one of several viewpoints such as
          your dad will be separated from the family, or you will have
          to leave your friends, or you will have to go to a different
          school, or ...  This form of Scripture Chasing is called
          SCENARIO, and it helps you make the scriptures meaningful to
          your life.

          Ready for some fun and a lot of laughs?  Good.  I will give
          you a scripture and you have to do a pantomime about it
          while the family guesses what the scripture is.  I'll
          whisper it to you (I Nephi 3:7) ...  Hey, you did a super
          job with that one!  This type of chase is called PANTOMIME
          and is a lot of fun.  Similar to it is DRAW where you draw
          instead of act the scripture.  And of course, there is
          always TALK.

          Lets see who can be first to find the correct pronunciation
          of GIDGIDDONAH.  Wow, 10 seconds--not bad!  How about the
          date when Lehi's family first reached the promised land?
          You're getting too fast for me--8 seconds.

          There are other things you can do while Scripture
          Chasing--let your imagination go and think of some of them.