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Okay, I need help. I just found out that I'm in charge of my BYU FHE group's activity on Monday. There are about 10 of us and the bishop asked that I dont spend any money. Also, we're freshmen so we cant go far (no cars). I would love any help!
Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I was the "dad" in my FHE group at BYU last year. We played a whole heckuvalot of ultimate frisbee. It was good times.
Posts: 42 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Umm..it stands for family home evening and is a night set aside to spend time with your family in the form of lessons, activities, and other such fun Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Well I hope she finds her way to this thread because I would welcome any ideas given. I'm especially nervous because this is my first actual calling and its hard to know what to do Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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We made cakes once and decorated them. That was really fun with the guys, 'cause we didn't go the normal girly route. I think one group made a map of the world.
A good get-to-know-you activity was a spontaneous game where we all sat down and said our names, then got up and changed seats, gave our names again, and then started quizzing each other over and over until everyone knew everyone's name regardless of where we were sitting.
Board games are always fun, as are sports. Scavenger hunts are fun, but they take planning. You can go to that park up north of the temple and go ice blocking.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I wasn't kidding about the frisbee. It's easy to plan and carry out, and usually people actually show up, which you will find to be an incredible struggle, unless you're a lot better parent than me, which now that I think about it is likely the case. And you can always get refreshments on the cheap from folks who've dining plus.
Posts: 42 | Registered: Aug 2005
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you can play the question game, all you need is a big cup, about a hundred little slips of paper, and enough pens/pencils for each person.
Here's how you play: give everyone a slip of paper and a pencil and ask them to write down any 'why' question they can think of. Then they all go in the cup and mixed up and redrawn until everyone has a different question slip than they wrote on. Then they write an answer to the question on their new slip. Once all the questions have been answered, you go around in a cirlce answering the questions, only with a twist: person 1 asks their question, but person 2 on their right gives the answer to *their* question, and so on. It results in more than a few laughs, and you can play as many rounds as you feel like with any of the Ws or H.
Was that totally confusing? It's really fun, and I've always used it in a pinch for an FHE game. Or you can see if someone has Apples to apples.
Ruth's on to something with get-to-know-you games, especially this early in the school year. I played one last week where everyone sits in a circle except for one person in the 'mush pit' holding a rolled-up towel (everyone had already introduced themselves by this point). One person in the circle starts out by saying the name of someone else, and that person has to give someone else's name, and so on. The person in the middle whacks whoever can't give a name in time, and then they switch, and the former towel person starts a new round with someone's name. It was pretty fun.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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How about making a bug collection or a leaf collection? Is that too cheesy? Or going fossil hunting or get hold of a telescope and do a star party. Another idea might be Pictionary which is always fun in groups. Being a single sister in a family ward, I've never actually had FHE though sometimes I gather the cats and we discuss our issues and pray. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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You can do pretty much anything that people are interested in. I was an FHE mom and a grandma, so I can commiserate.
We took our "family" to the morgue for a tour. That had a HUGE draw - other families joined ours because they liked the idea so much. We did loads and loads of service projects. Scavenger hunts, like, um, Brinestone suggested.
As a ward, we had a movie competition - each family could do 10 minutes of whatever, and we had our version of the Academy Awards after the viewing. That was a load of fun. My family did the Mans Search for Happiness parody - a huge hit.
We did cooking lessons - a huge benefit for college students, especially living away from home. We worked nutrition into it and had quick & easy recipes - less than 30 minutes to a well-balanced meal type of thing.
We did a lot of outdoor sports in the summer - cheap. Lots and lots of that.
What we also did was each week, have two or three members of the family responsible for planning the next FHE. Well, we actually had them volunteer a few weeks in advance so they'd have time to think of the ideas, but basically, the moms and dads weren't responsible for everything and that way, it was more likely that everyone would have something they enjoyed. Plus we had a wider variety of activities. Oh, tie-dying t-shirts. The moms and dads were still responsible for making sure everything was done, but not everything fell on their shoulders.
If one of the kids in the family was sick, we'd make them meals.
Basically, we fostered the idea that the family unit in the ward was a substitute for the real family at home, and we were supposed to support and help each other. It worked, and very well, too. We had unbelievably high FHE attendance that year, along with VTing and HTing stats. A well-run FHE can make a difference.
That was, oh, more than a decade and a half ago, so I'm a little hazy on some of the stuff we did. If I think of anything else, I'll post it.
Good luck.
Edit to add: we played the game that sarcasticmuppet mentioned, and it was ALWAYS a huge hit. HUGE. Go with it. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Er. . . the standing in a circle with a rolled up newspaper and thwacking people one. But see, we used newspapers instead of towels. Cause more damage, plus they fall apart, adding to the hilarity. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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One of the most fun YSA FHEs we ever did was one where I printed out recipes for "scripture cookies", we had a kind of "scripture chase" in small groups to get the ingredients, and then we baked the cookies for our snack. If you have a lot of people, each group could make their own cookies, or be responsible for one ingredient, or however you wanted to work that. And I tied it into being obedient and following instructions and everything, too. (When I taught the lesson, I always had an outline and everything. Yeah, I know.)
I had really gorgeous handouts made up, too. I wonder if they're still on my dad's computer... In any case, I'd be happy to provide anyone with the already "LDS" version of the scripture cookies (or scripture cake) (as opposed to the version that's just ingredients from the Bible; these have scriptures from LDS scriptures, too.)
Oh, another one we did was when one girl made up cards for an LDS game of "Taboo" (have you ever played that?) She found the questions pre-made somewhere, but re-formatted them to be printed out on note cards or something. (I actually liked the idea so much that I did it for a family I "secret leprechauned". I wonder if that's still on my dad's computer, too.) Anyway, the winning team got Smarties for a treat, and the losers got Dum-Dum lollipops! Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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FHE is such a fun calling! I secretly desired to do FHE for years, and it's been my calling for the past year.
Be sure to get your group members to help- Since you've got a small gropu, I love Quid's idea of really fostering the family idea.
As for some ideas, here's some things we've done in the past and some of our future ones- if you want more details about any of them, just e-mail me (or post here) and I'll get them for you
I think the key to good activities is to make it something that everyone can do- you don't have to be good at sports, or cooking, or a gospel scholar to succeed. Also making sure that people have a structured form of interaction really helps the people who might be more likely to stand back and watch (me, for example).
Warning: These activities were planned for 40-50 people- I didn't see the part about 10 group members- that will be so much easier to plan for
Scripture chase basketball Murder Mystery night (an absolute hit) poetry night (one of my ward's best) quidditch tournament (Most. Fun. Ever.) karaoke Skit in a bag Marshmallow towers (groups have bag of marshmallows and toothpicks- build highest tower) Salsa cook-off Live Clue Bunko (not the gambling version) checkers tournament Taffy pulling Personality tests Paper Airplane night Quote night (bring fav quote, break into groups and then use the quotes to perform a skit- works best with movie quotes, but hilarious if people bring more serious ones too) Human Foosball Pumpkin carving Book night- everyone brings best recent book they read- shares with group Bigger and Better (very fun in Utah where people understand the concept of FHE) Summer Service Car Wash- get a place to let you have a car wash- do it completely for free, no donations accepted. So fun. Water balloon volleball Tug of war Salsa dancing lessons (or any dance lessons) Speed dating (find a creative way to advertise it or no one will come, but as much as people hated to admit it, they had fun) Invite the Stake Patriarch to speak on Patriarchial blessings (powerful night) Make a short film Picture scavenger hunt (with digital cameras it's not costly) Fluffy bunny Dodgeball (my ward's personal favorite) Write letters to servicemen and missionaries (bake cookies and send care packages too) Cranium Apples to Apples Make gingerbread houses
It's really not about what the activity is for most people, it's that they know that they will have fun and have something to do each week. Refreshments are always nice, but decide if you want to always have them or make it a "special" thing- trust me once it becomes a weekly expectation, it's hard to stop. Ask others to bring them as it can be costly.
Your bishop should give you a budget- it doesn't cost much to do FHE, but it does cost some monet. I have $10/week (and we have FHE as a ward, not a group). I don't always use it, but sometimes I use more so I figure it evens out in the end.
Have fun! Enjoy! Let us know what you do this week!
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Another variation of sarcasticmuppet's question game (that has always gone over well for people I've played it with) is to have everyone sit in a circle with a piece of paper. You all write a sentence at the top of the piece of paper, kind of small. You then hand the paper to the person sitting to your left, and they draw a picture to illustrate your sentence. (Again, kind of small and near the top of the page.)
Once they are done drawing, they cover up the original sentence and pass the paper to the person to their left, who then writes a sentence to describe the picture. This continues until the original person gets their paper back. Often it's undecipherable.
I've had things like, "Goldilocks ate some porrige" progress to "A giant frog blows up a military base." What's funny is that no one can draw. Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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We had a very small group, and didn't have a budget, but our bishop did ask us to have a spiritual thought or message tied into every lesson or activity. So I have some ideas on that if you want them. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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These are all awesome. I knew that you guys would be able to help me out.
Coccinelle: thank you for that huge list; i know that i'm going to need tons of ideas for this year.
Kq: that would be great to get ideas on the spiritual side of things as well; i would appreciate that.
Thanks so much to everyone who gave me ideas and advice- they all sound great and lots are things i hadn't thought of. Posts: 137 | Registered: Apr 2005
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