Family Home Evening - Music

I have to say, this was one of my favorite family home evenings ever :) I wanted to do something about music, because Zerin and Liah now want to check out music from the library, and I wanted to somehow show them how powerful music is...either for good or bad. I definately had help with this lesson...thank Heavens! :)

Preparation:
1. Copy pictures (or draw) of different emotions and things (happy, sad, angry, excited, money, cars, Jesus, etc.) enough for 1 set for each family member. Tailor the pictures to your individual family.

2. Glue each picture onto a paper plate, and tape a popcicle stick on the plate so it has a handle.

3. Gather different types of music...instrumental, hard rock, church music, I did 7. My music was a song from Polar Express, If I Had A Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies, 3 songs from Def Lepard (my guilty pleasure), and then a couple of children's church songs. To make it really easy, make a playlist of the music or a cd ahead of time.

3. Make sure each family member has scriptures with them they can mark, and a coloring pencil...no matter how old the child is...they need to participate in this part!

4. Ask one of your kids to perform a church song, either singing, or playing an instrument. If this isn't a possibility, play them a full song of something that will invite the Spirit.

Working your plan.

1. We started with a song and a prayer, then I handed out everyone's signs (for little toddlers, you could do one sign with a happy face on one side, and a sad face on the other). I told the kids that they needed to hold up the sign of what they thought about with each song. Almost all of the kids (and Bryan) held up the picture of the car when we played Def Lepard :). I played just a short snippet of each song.

2. At the end we asked if we could think about Jesus during some of the songs, or at least feel the spirit. We talked about how we don't have to listen to Church music all day long, but our music shouldn't make it so we can't feel the spirit. We talked about the For Strength of Youth pamphlet and what it says about music. For teens and tweens, there is a clip on "Standards Night Live" with John Bytheway about music that is about 5 minutes that is awesome! I have it if you want to borrow it.

3. We then read Doctrine and Covenants 121:45 and had each of the kids highlight it in their own scriptures. We talked about the scripture and how this applies to music.

4. The last few mornings, I have been walking in on Liah singing this song about Baby Jesus...she plays it over and over...and has a whole dance routine to go along with it...it's pretty cute :) So I asked her ahead of time if she would sing the song for family night. She did such an amazing job!!! Not only could you totally feel the spirit when she was singing, but she can be, shall we say, difficult, during family home evening. Last night she was an angel. I can only attribute it to her having an active important role...it was awesome, and definately not my idea :)

5. We wrapped up by talking about how having a primary song that we can think about when we have bad or mean thoughts, or when we are scared...so we all picked out a song.

6. We closed with a song and a prayer. We should have played a game or had a treat, but it was after bedtime, so we skipped that part. Next time :)