Family Night Chart

Every Monday night at our house is Family Night.  We love it!  With as busy as life gets it's nice to know that we have some uninterrupted family time each week.  No matter what comes up Monday night family night is always the priority. My kids look forward to our family night each week.

For quite a while I've been wanting to make a chart to keep us organized on our family night and to give each family member something to be in charge of.  I couldn't find anything I liked for the longest time until I saw this and then I was in love.  I had to make my own.

And here it is . . .

The surface of the board is magnetic to allow the little frames to be rotated around it each week to show who is in charge.

I got my frame at JoAnns for half off so it ended up being only $10.  Not bad considering the size.  I took out the mat and glass and replaced it with sheet metal that I picked up at The Home Depot.  I then added my vinyl monogram to the center that I got from E.A.D. Designs.  At the time I had it specially made but they must have become popular since then because they have them in their shop now for $8.

Then came the challenge of finding some little magnetic photo frames.  You would think they'd be all over the place, and maybe they are, but I couldn't find these things anywhere!  Finally after searching and searching and thinking I'd never find anything to finish my family night board I was at JoAnn's and they had a whole wall of magnetic photo frames by the checkout isle.  It was my lucky day, and they were 40% off!

They didn't have exactly what I wanted, but at this point I wasn't complaining.  I snagged six and brought them home to see what I could do with them.

Luckily I was able to easily pull off the existing paper matting and make my own.  I experiment with a couple different colors and patterns and finally decided on plain old black.

I wanted to hang my chart low on the wall so my kids could easily reach it.  To keep it from looking too funny so low on the wall I ended up adding some vinyl lettering above it to help raise the whole thing.  I originally was going to have the vinyl say "Family Home Evening" but ended up going with "This is the night we've waited for..." since it's one of our favorite family night songs.

I'm so in love with my family night chart and am thrilled how it turned out.  My kids love it too.  They have fun moving the frames around each week and taking their turn with the different responsibilities.

So glad I finally got this project check off the list.



There are so many different ideas out there for family night boards.  Here are some others I liked:

The Picture Board

 Simple as That
 


 Life in the Motherhood

 
 NataLee Allen Designs

Deseret Book

Simple Sayings

Have you made a Family Night board?  I'd love to see!

DIY lacing cards

 At the beginning of October our church held its semi-annual General Conference--2 whole days of listening to inspiring and uplifting messages.  I love listening to Conference . . . but with 4 little boys in the house sometimes it's a challenge to actually get to sit and listen.  I try to come up with distractions for the boys that will allow us all to listen.  One of the things I came up with this year was lacing cards.  Mr. J has been bringing home lacing cards from school and loves to do them. 

Honestly, this was such an easy project that I don't know why I didn't think of it before!  First I got online and printed up several pictures of temples.  (I chose temples because I wanted something church related but you could do this for any picture . . . in fact, it might be fun to do pictures of extended family that your kids might not see very often or artwork from your own kids!)  After cutting and laminating them, I took my hole punch and punched holes around the edge.  I wasn't very exact . . . I just eye-balled it.  Then I looked in my ribbon stash for something to use as the lace.  I just tied it onto one corner and viola!  And just like that I had my own personal lacing cards.  I also ended up using some masking tape to tape the end of the ribbon to make lacing a little easier.

My older two boys loved this--and now I stash them in my Sunday bag to bring to church . . . a perfect quiet activity.

A few more . . .

 
I'm sure you're all very tired of all this white board/magnetic stuff by now, but I just had to share a few more things.

I recently found this site. I think it is a little gem. It has links to Bible flannel board stories that you can print out. The bonus is that they're already colored. My favorite! We've enjoyed using them on our magnet board for Family Home Evening lessons.


Also . . .

We subscribe to the Friend Magazine. Over the past few years we've come across these stories that we've enjoyed using in FHE too.

Lehi and Nephi Obey God
 

Joseph's Operation

The Christmas Story

Lehi's Vision


Have Fun!

The Easter Story

This is a fun way to share the story of Eater with your children. A lot of you may have seen this before. This was probably one of my favorite Family Home Evening lessons as a girl.

The eggs tell the story. So the next time you run out of eggs save that carton.

In each egg you place an object to represent part of the Easter story.

1. The Last Supper -- Mark 14:22-24 (Sacrament cup and piece of a saltine cracker)


2. The atonement -- Luke 22:40-46 (Picture of praying hands)


3. Thirty pieces of silver-- Matthew 26:14-15 (Three dimes)


4. Crown of thorns -- Matthew 27:29 (Peat moss twisted and tied together to look like a crown)


5. Scarlet Robe -- Matthew 27:28 (Scrap of purple fabric)


6. Wooden cross -- John 19:15-17 (Toothpicks tied together to make a mini cross)


7. Vinegar -- Matthew 27:34 (Small piece of a sponge soaked in vinigar)


8. Earthquakes -- Matthew 27:51-54 (Small rocks)


9. Linen cloth -- Matthew 27:59 (Piece of white cloth)


10. Stone -- Matthew 27:60 (Round smooth stone)


11. Sweet spices -- Mark 16: 1-4 (Potpourri)


12. Empty Tomb -- Matthew 28:2-8 (Empty egg)


When I was a Primary leader I used these eggs for a Sharing Time lesson along with pictures from the gospel art picture kit. I had the children come sit up close on the floor so they could all see. I let the kids take turns picking an egg and showing what was inside. Then we would talk about it. This was definitely my most successful Sharing Time. The kids were so reverent and attentive. They loved it.

We did this the other night for Family Home Evening with my daughter. She loved opening each egg and learning about why we celebrate Easter. Now that she knows the story she likes to open the eggs and tell us what it's about.

***Amy***