FHE 2011--the Evolution of a System.

My new calling in the church is INSTITUTE teacher for Coastal Carolina University. SO-I may have more posts on spiritual stuff as things come up.  

Thoughts from my first class:

Something I have learned in 2.5 years of teaching gospel doctrine and two weeks of teaching institute is that we, as Latter-day Saints take some things really seriously, and some things not at all seriously. When I find a student who comes into class with noting but keys and a cell phone with a scripture app, I know that person is just not going to learn much. No matter how much spiritual tap dancing I do, nothing of note will change in that person's spiritual capacity.

I think all of us, in our hearts, want God to take us seriously--our wants, our needs, our health, our children etc. etc. but few of us want to take GOD seriously. There are many ways to do this, of course, and some methods work better than others, but one thing is a physiological fact:  when you actually take a pen and write something down, IT GOES INTO A DIFFERENT PART OF YOUR BRAIN. YOUR PROCESSING IS IMPROVED. YOUR MEMORY IS IMPROVED. Do I sound like I am ranting and raving about this? I am. We, who buy paper and pen for pennies and have the education to write, somehow think it's "uncool" to write notes in church, by our bedside tables, or as we study the scriptures.  I spent 2.5 years emphasizing this in my gospel doctrine class. Maybe 5% took me up on it.  Those are the elect. The ones that DO.

SO--where is this post going? A few months ago, as my 8 year old Holly was clearly bored in Sacrament and I was frustrated by her lack of listening, I thought--NOW is the time to have my girls start writing notes in church. They've watched me take notes every Sunday during Sacrament since I wasn't holding a squirming child. Why not them? The next Sunday I brought out cute medium-sized spiral bound notebooks for Victoria and Holly and.....Voila! It worked! Holly--driven as ever, watched me like a hawk. She wrote every tiny little word, doodle or punctuation mark that I did (in and of itself a lesson in mothering!). Victoria, a little more independent and visual driven, drew pictures and notes. We now talk about our notes during Sunday dinner and they their Dad and I ooh and ahh about how much they have remembered. MUCH more constructive than shhushhing them throughout Sacrament. 

Tonight at FHE I decided to pair a few teaching techniques together. Sidenote: It's only taken me 10 years to get to the point where my kids  are old enough  to  have the type of FHE that I always envisioned having as a mom--kids not screaming, kids listening and involved, kids learning and remembering, etc. Up until this past year, well, let's just say, I've been cultivating patience and long-suffering.

I began by telling the girls about my Institute class and about how it is hard for people to understand the importance of taking notes. Then I showed them the big white pad with the FHE lesson we did a few months ago on D&C 93. They all remembered each page, what they had written, the game we played and what we had learned.  We talked about how we remembered because we had WRITTEN IT DOWN and kept a record. Tonight, that big white pad turned into our FAMILY RECORD of teachings, just like Lehi's family had a FAMILY RECORD. 

Next, I had them get our their journals, which they write in on Sundays before dinner. These journals have three dividers in them, and we turned to the last divider. I told them that this was their PERSONAL RECORD of family teachings. They were to write notes on FHEs in this section. (the cool thing about having girls is that they are excited about these types of things!).

Tonight I taught the same lesson I taught the institute class last week--D&C 76. 

I used 2 big sheets of paper from the flip chart pad.

First sheet: We wrote the 3 heavens and what people in each heaven do (or don't do!). We talked about becoming a "celestial family". We looked up the word VALIANT in the dictionary, everyone wrote the definition down in their books and we talked about what Valiant meant for them.

Second Sheet: I then divided a blank page into three sections for Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial and said: "We each make Celestial choices, Terrestrial Choices and Telestial Choices each day. Can you think of any?" They loved being able to come up to the front and write their choice in a category. We talked about each choice they came up with, and discussed together why each one would go in a particular group. 

To End: I invited each of the girls to come to the front to teach us what they learned. We did this before with D&C 93 and they loved looking back at what they had taught.  Having them individually teach the family reenforced ideas, and left them feeling 10 feet tall. 

Supplies: The scriptures, 4 cheap notebooks, one easel and one flipchart pad.  No bookshelves of FHE idea books and magazines. Just the basics.

Pro's of the new System:

Very easy--no prep work for me.

We have a family record to review the concepts weekly

My Girls are gaining confidence as teachers and learning as they review

We are beginning the habit of taking notes of spiritual things--something essential in receiving and remembering truth.
My girls are taking more ownership of their spiritual education versus sitting back and having everything "hand fed" to them.

I must say, I am thrilled about this new system. It is something I wished someone would have told me about years ago!

Ideas? Comments? What's your system?