Family Home Evening

I'd like to share something that we did for F.H.E. (family home evening) one Monday night. I also used this for a small group of children at church. Just for those who may  not know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members are to set aside one night a week, typically Monday, to spend quality time with their families doing an activity of some kind and/or a lesson. We begin and end with prayer, sometimes include a song, and always have refreshments.
The first thing you'll need is a 3 prong pocket folder:

Fold the outside covers in half vertically so that they meet in the middle of the inside where the prongs are. These type of "books" are sometimes called "Lapbooks" because the child can  hold them in his lap and work on them. Now your book will be long and narrow and your front and back cover will form "pages" in your lapbook.The photo below is showing how the cover of the folder is folded in toward the inside middle where the prongs are.

I folded an orange piece of paper in half and glued the back to the right side of the cover where you folded it to the inside. I folded another green piece of green paper or cardstock in half and glued only one side to the left cover that was folded to the inside. (I think you will be able to understand how I did it by the following photos.)  This will give you 2 more pages to decorate. I then added a paper pocket to the bottom left and cut the orange paper just above the pocket to form a flap that will open. I added some strips of papers stapled only at the top so that the kids could write something about each member of their family (on the green page on the right). I also used some more small squares of  papers to form "flaps" that open where they are able to write more about their family.

The paper that is glued at the top of the orange side has "Tell me about yourself" where they answer questions about themselves. I printed out some fun family  activities on white paper and glued them to strips of green paper and placed the strips inside a little snack size bag to put in the pocket on the left side.These are used as ideas for the kids to select something fun to do on family night. See how the new pages open to the middle in the photo below:

The new flap that was made when you cut the top of the orange page opens and reveals that above the pocket is a poem about "My Family"  which was glued to the inside orange page. I also put a message or article from a church magazine that the child could give for the Family Home Evening lesson.After you insert these in the pocket and glue the poem to the orange page,glue a decorative paper to the inside of the flap and close it over all the stuff in the pocket.

(Glue a photo of the child to the inside page of the flap that you put the decorative paper on).

 Glue a family photo in the box on the right side or cut pictures of families out of magazines for this spot.

Here's what is inside the book. I stacked 3 kite shaped papers together and stapled them in the middle to form "pages" and then glued them to the inside of the folder. You could cover the inside of the folder with colored paper too but I left the pocket of the original folder visible so that the kids could put more things in them. The kites tail has several colored strips of paper to write things about their favorite color,their eye color, the color of their room,etc. The doghouse roof opens and so does the red part of the doghouse so that they can write the names of their pets and draw their pet's picture inside the house.

 Write the songs on the clouds.

They write things about their favorite toys,games and activities on the kite.

The right side folds to the inside and then you will decorate the green page that you added at the beginning,

 I added a pocket at the top of the left page for the kids favorite recipes for Family Home Evening treats. The little cartoon is one of those pages where you can circle things that are hidden in the picture. It also depicts a family sitting around the table at meal time.

 They can draw pictures of their favorite foods at the top of the page on the large blue square or glue pictures from magazines on it.

I also laminated this little recipe from the magazine that I used earlier and put it in the pocket.

I reduced a copy of "The Family-A Proclamation to the World" and laminated it to put in the front pocket and used a knit loop that comes with the kits that little girls make hand-made potholders with to wrap around it so that it would stay closed.

This makes a cute keepsake to give to them when they are older or to give to Grandma for a gift. Here's a final look at the inside with the flaps on the inside closed....

Here is the inside with the flaps open. See how the roof is a large square of paper that is folded in at the sides to form the triangular shape? Inside the door is a picture of a family to color and they are also able to draw picture or paste real photos of their own family member on several pages inside the door.

 The tree is folded the same way but is a circle shape that cut with a scalloped edge.

 This is the doghouse with the flaps open:

 Inside the window flap:

Our Family Totem Pole::

We have a total of 17 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild but we have 5 who live with us who  belong to my 3 biological children.This pole has the faces that they painted of themselves, their moms and my son who died in 2004, my husband and me, and of course they wanted the family pet, Sadie, for the top! We placed this pole to represent the part of the family who live at this address but that doesn't mean that the others aren't family too. These are just the ones who make up the family living here. I wanted to get the other grand- kids to do the art work for their families when they come to visit one day. This was an activity that we did for Family Home Evening along with making a Family Flag.

It has the Hawaiian word Kealani ( pronounced Kay-ah-lah-knee) which means "light from Heaven" or "Heavenly light" and the number 3 to remind us of Heavenly Father,His Son,Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who love us and are ever present to guide us.