Every Monday night we have two Family Home Evening lessons. One we teach. The other is taught by D. If we dared to even think about not turning the time over to him, he would be mortally offended!
He is getting to be quite the master teacher! Here is what I wrote in his journal a few weeks ago about his FHE lessons:
Tonight was family home evening, and both J and I dropped the ball and ended up, at 7:15 pm, with nothing planned. Luckily for us, D decided that he wanted to prepare a lesson. He usually prepares something, and we usually tell him he has 5 minutes or whatever to do his thing prior to us giving the “real” lesson (though we don’t use the word “real lesson” when we tell him his 5 minutes are almost up—we don’t want him to feel bad). Anyway, tonight D was absolutely thrilled that he would get to “make all the choices” about Family Home Evening, even down to picking what songs we would sing.
When D prepares a lesson, he goes around the house and collects everything that catches his eye, from pictures to toys to pieces of paper, then he spreads it all out on the floor and talks about each thing he has collected. That is his “lesson”. Tonight was no different. He had gospel art pictures of varying sizes. He had J’ s and my framed engagement photo. He drew pictures on paper to use. He had one of our stick horses. He even grabbed S’s basket of foam blocks at one point. And bless his heart, he managed to tie all these random objects together into one common theme for his presentation. The subject of his lesson: the earth! As in, if we didn’t have the earth, we wouldn’t be able to do any of these things (play with these toys, get married—in mom’s and dad’s case, or do anything else depicted in any of the pictures). Several times J tried to make some observations about doctrinal beliefs that related to the lesson, like asking D why we couldn’t do these things without the earth (trying to get D to say that it was because we didn’t have bodies). But every time J would start to open his mouth, D would quickly interject, “Dad! I’m the one giving the lesson. I do the talking!”
It was so funny! It was all J and I could do not to laugh throughout the whole thing. We just couldn’t believe that he could take all these random objects and figure out that what they had in common was the earth! What a brilliant child we have! (I’m laughing as I make that statement….he is a very, very normal child, but at moments like this you do have to wonder just how on earth (no pun intended) he got so darn creative!)
A sweet moment came when he said he wanted to read a scripture, with my help. He knew exactly what he wanted to read. He wanted to read the story of Nephi building the ship. We found the chapter, and I read a few verses while he repeated the words after me. I would finish a verse and ask him if that were it, and he would say that no, he wanted to read some more. So I would skip to the next verse that actually helped advance the story line. Finally we got halfway through a verse and all of a sudden he was done. He stopped and said that we had read enough. And that was that.
So tonight, D planned his lesson to be given prior to ours. It went like this: he pulled out a few pictures--a large framed portrait of he and S taken about a year ago, a small framed snapshot of our family at S's placement, an empty picture frame, and an unused frame still bearing the stock photo that came with it. His lesson was about families and how we should be friends. He drew a game with spaces on a piece of paper, and drew figures of each family member at the top. The way the game worked was that he told us how many squares we got to move, and then with whatever square we landed on, he told us whether it was a happy space or a made space. I guess he got bored halfway through because he said the game was finished. Then he showed us the picture of he and S and talked about how it was nice to have her in the family and how she liked to play with him. Then he turned to the family picture from her placement, in which he happened to have quite the scowl on his face. He noted how mad he was in the picture (though when we asked him why he had been mad, his answer was "I have no clue!"). He talked about how sometimes we get mad, but we are still friends. Then he turned to the empty picture frame and commented that it was good to have a family because if we didn't it would be like the empty frame. (I thought that was pretty cute!) Then he looked at the stock photo, which was of a woman hugging and smiling at a child, and said that we should be happy and be friends like the people in the picture. That was it! Another successful Family Home Evening lesson--and another good chuckle for mommy and daddy.
He is getting to be quite the master teacher! Here is what I wrote in his journal a few weeks ago about his FHE lessons:
Tonight was family home evening, and both J and I dropped the ball and ended up, at 7:15 pm, with nothing planned. Luckily for us, D decided that he wanted to prepare a lesson. He usually prepares something, and we usually tell him he has 5 minutes or whatever to do his thing prior to us giving the “real” lesson (though we don’t use the word “real lesson” when we tell him his 5 minutes are almost up—we don’t want him to feel bad). Anyway, tonight D was absolutely thrilled that he would get to “make all the choices” about Family Home Evening, even down to picking what songs we would sing.
When D prepares a lesson, he goes around the house and collects everything that catches his eye, from pictures to toys to pieces of paper, then he spreads it all out on the floor and talks about each thing he has collected. That is his “lesson”. Tonight was no different. He had gospel art pictures of varying sizes. He had J’ s and my framed engagement photo. He drew pictures on paper to use. He had one of our stick horses. He even grabbed S’s basket of foam blocks at one point. And bless his heart, he managed to tie all these random objects together into one common theme for his presentation. The subject of his lesson: the earth! As in, if we didn’t have the earth, we wouldn’t be able to do any of these things (play with these toys, get married—in mom’s and dad’s case, or do anything else depicted in any of the pictures). Several times J tried to make some observations about doctrinal beliefs that related to the lesson, like asking D why we couldn’t do these things without the earth (trying to get D to say that it was because we didn’t have bodies). But every time J would start to open his mouth, D would quickly interject, “Dad! I’m the one giving the lesson. I do the talking!”
It was so funny! It was all J and I could do not to laugh throughout the whole thing. We just couldn’t believe that he could take all these random objects and figure out that what they had in common was the earth! What a brilliant child we have! (I’m laughing as I make that statement….he is a very, very normal child, but at moments like this you do have to wonder just how on earth (no pun intended) he got so darn creative!)
A sweet moment came when he said he wanted to read a scripture, with my help. He knew exactly what he wanted to read. He wanted to read the story of Nephi building the ship. We found the chapter, and I read a few verses while he repeated the words after me. I would finish a verse and ask him if that were it, and he would say that no, he wanted to read some more. So I would skip to the next verse that actually helped advance the story line. Finally we got halfway through a verse and all of a sudden he was done. He stopped and said that we had read enough. And that was that.
So tonight, D planned his lesson to be given prior to ours. It went like this: he pulled out a few pictures--a large framed portrait of he and S taken about a year ago, a small framed snapshot of our family at S's placement, an empty picture frame, and an unused frame still bearing the stock photo that came with it. His lesson was about families and how we should be friends. He drew a game with spaces on a piece of paper, and drew figures of each family member at the top. The way the game worked was that he told us how many squares we got to move, and then with whatever square we landed on, he told us whether it was a happy space or a made space. I guess he got bored halfway through because he said the game was finished. Then he showed us the picture of he and S and talked about how it was nice to have her in the family and how she liked to play with him. Then he turned to the family picture from her placement, in which he happened to have quite the scowl on his face. He noted how mad he was in the picture (though when we asked him why he had been mad, his answer was "I have no clue!"). He talked about how sometimes we get mad, but we are still friends. Then he turned to the empty picture frame and commented that it was good to have a family because if we didn't it would be like the empty frame. (I thought that was pretty cute!) Then he looked at the stock photo, which was of a woman hugging and smiling at a child, and said that we should be happy and be friends like the people in the picture. That was it! Another successful Family Home Evening lesson--and another good chuckle for mommy and daddy.
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