Family Home Evening:
Play Together…
Stay Together
Families that play together stay together, especially when their play is uplifting and wholesome. Family vacations, holidays, birthday celebrations, and other activities build strong bonds and feelings of self-worth. The phrase “Remember when we…” is sure to bring love and laughter in the years to come.
“Near the end of his life, one father looked back on how he had spent his time on earth. An acclaimed, respected author of numerous scholarly works, he said, ‘I wish I had written one less book and taken my children fishing more often.’ Time passes quickly. Many parents say that it seems like yesterday that their children were born. Now those children are grown, perhaps with children of their own. ‘Where did the years go?’ they ask. We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present.” —Thomas S. Monson
“Plan and carry out meaningful vacations together, considering our children’s needs, talents, and abilities. Help them create happy memories, improve their talents, and build their feelings of self-worth.” —Robert D. Hales
“Music, literature, art, dance, drama, athletics—all can provide entertainment to enrich one’s life and further consecrate it. At the same time, it hardly needs to be said that much of what passes for entertainment today is coarse, degrading, violent, mind-numbing, and time wasting. Ironically, it sometimes takes hard work to find wholesome leisure. When entertainment turns from virtue to vice, it becomes a destroyer of the consecrated life.” —D. Todd Christofferson
“Create meaningful family bonds that give your children an identity stronger than what they can find with their peer group or at school or anyplace else. This can be done through family traditions for birthdays, for holidays, for dinnertime, and for Sundays.“ —M. Russell Ballard
For more on happiness in families, including helpful resources on planning family nights,
Games and Activities
Four Corners—In a room, designate corners by numbers 1 through 4. One person covers his eyes and counts to ten slowly and then without uncovering his eyes calls out, “Corner number____ (pick 1, 2, 3, or 4).” Everyone that is in the corner he calls out sits down. Repeat until only 1 person is left. The last person is the new counter. - Leah Marley
Lights-Out Hide 'n' Seek—This is played just like the original, just turn the lights out and give the seeker a flashlight. In my family we take turns being “it” starting with the oldest on down. Playing in the dark gives us some unique hiding places as well! Have fun! - Renae Peck
Killer Frog—One person will need to go out of the room- this person is the detective. While this person is out of the room, choose one person to be the killer frog so that everybody knows who the killer frog is except the detective. Then get in a circle. Ask the detective to come back in and stand in the middle of the circle. The killer frog will stick his tongue out at the other people in the room and they will make a dramatic death. The detective will try to guess who the killer frog is. If the detective finds out who the frog is then he wins and gets to be the detective again, if the frog wins (by killing everybody before the detective finds out who he is) then he gets to be the detective. - Rachel
Holy Ghost—As a family, make an obstacle course with pillows, chairs, blankets, etc. Then pick one person to be blindfolded and another one to be the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost tries to direct the blind folded person through the course with only words (left, right, straight, stop, etc.) while everyone else yells trying to lead them astray. - Tim Bitner
Noah's Ark—Noah says: You have all been invited to come on the Ark, but there are only certain things that you can take with you. Take turns around in a circle and call out what you would like to bring. Pam may want to bring some pancakes; that would be great to eat Joey may think that's a great idea and want to bring some syrup with it but he can't. But he can bring some jam; whereas Susan can bring some syrup. The goal of the game is to bring only items that start with the first letter in your name. The players will not get it at first and you may need to do a few rounds. (Make sure players only bring one item at a time as they go around the circle). Players who figure it out should be told not to say anything. - Palmquist Family
10 Commandment Hopscotch—With side walk chalk make a 10-space hopscotch. As each person throws the rock or bean bag on the numbered space they have to say the commandment that corresponds with that number. If you’re right you get to keep going if wrong you have to keep trying. Each time you move to the next number up you have to say the previous numbers. - Mandy
Build a Foundation—Get a deck of playing cards. Get the same number of cards that you have people (more people works best). Designate one card to be the Prophet. Have everyone draw one card without looking. Don't tell if you received the “Prophet” card. Turn out the lights. The “Prophet” goes around the room when everyone is wandering and taps someone. They become the foundation for the temple, and freeze. When someone comes across the foundation they turn on the lights and everyone tries to guess (not the foundation) who the “Prophet” is. - Hannah
Sardines (Backwards Hide and Seek)—There is an 'IT'. It hides while every else counts to 30. When the people who are not IT finish counting to 30, they will go and look for the IT separately. If you find the IT then you have to hide with them. When everyone is hiding with the IT except for one person, the people hiding will shout SARDINES! - Leah
Chocolate Bar Race—What you'll need: Winter clothes, a die, a bar of chocolate (left in the wrapper) and 2 butter knifes. How to play: the first person dresses in the clothes and then takes the two knives and tried to get a piece of the chocolate, while the second person tried to roll a six. Once a 6 is rolled, player two gets the clothes on and tries to get the chocolate while player 3 rolls. It keeps rotating until all the chocolate is gone. - Nathan
Who's the Animal—You need a person that is it. Everyone stands in the circle, except the person who is it, they stand in the middle. Put a blindfold on the person who is it. Have them say “Go” everyone runs around, not making any clue of where they are. When the person who is it says “Stop,” all of the people stop in the circle again. The person who is it points in a direction, saying an animal. Whoever he/she points to has to make the animal noise that they were told, trying not to sound like themselves. The person tries to guess the person who made the noise. If he/she guesses right, the person who did the animal is it, if not you just pick someone else to be it. - Maren
Murder in the Dark—Get small slips of paper and write each player’s name on each slip of paper. Write IT on one of the papers and put the slips into a bowl or some sort of container. Everyone sits in a circle on chairs and holds hands. Everyone looks away until you say, “Go” or “Start.” The person who is it winks at someone (who dies dramatically, trying not to get caught doing “the crime”). If the person it doesn’t get caught by the end of the round, they win. If someone guesses wrong they must dramatically die. - Jenna
Thimble Game—One person fills a thimble with water (or we use a squirt bottle). He chooses a category (colors, flavors of ice cream, holidays, etc.) aloud. Then he silently makes a choice from that category (blue, chocolate, Christmas, etc.). He then gives each member of family a chance to guess what he is thinking. The “lucky” winner gets the water in his face. (A thimble holds a lot more than you think!) Try this with gospel categories: Modern day prophets, Books of the Old Testament, Articles of Faith, tribes of Israel, etc. - Cheryl
Tithing Tag—Our family loves to play this game. One person is “bishop”. The bishop goes out of the room, and everyone else chooses someone to hide a penny. The bishop comes in when the penny is hidden, and the bishop finds the penny, and tries to guess who hid the penny. If he guesses right, the person who hid the penny is bishop. - Sarah
Flour Penny Tower—Materials: Flour, a Penny, a butter knife, bowl and plate. Pour flour onto the bowl. Pack it in. place plate on top of bowl and carefully tip the bowl over. Take the bowl off. You should have a perfect nice round flour hill. Put the penny on top. Take turns cutting a chunk of the flour off with the knife. Try to keep the penny on the top of the flour. Eventually the penny will fall. The person who made it fall has to pick the penny up with their teeth (no hands allowed).
Screaming Toes—Everyone stands up. Get in a circle. Everyone chooses someone and looks at their feet. Everyone yells, “SCREAMING TOES!” then looks at the persons face. If they're looking at you, SCREAM! Step out of the circle. The last two people in the circle wins!
Follow the String—You will need lots of string! For every family member have sting, and make them all start at the same place. Then make each person's string go its own direction around the house. Each person follows there string until they can find the end of their string. At the end you and place a prize. This is very entertaining for the whole family! My mom used to make it easier for the younger kids and pretty hard for the older ones!
Marshmallow Mania—Have a bunch of Questions and a bag of marshmallows ready. If someone answers a question correctly, throw a marshmallow at them. The next correct question, throw two, and so on. Before long everyone will be throwing marshmallows and having a great time.
Button, Button, Who Has the Button?—We play button, button, who has the button. For those who may not know the game I will explain. All you need is a button. Everybody sits in a circle. One person in the middle is 'IT'. The button gets passed around in a concealed manner. Of course, one person must hold onto the button without passing it. The others must pretend they are passing it. After all have passed (or not) 'IT' must point out the person with the button. That person becomes 'IT'. - Caryn Stapp
Big Toe Wrestling—Everybody takes off their shoes (socks too, if you're a close family) and sits on the floor. One person is 'IT'. He/She must try to grab at big toes of other family members. If a big toe is held that person is 'IT' or out, whichever. - Caryn
Sabbath Charades—Act out things to do and not to do on the Sabbath. Cut out these actions, place them in a hat and take turns acting them out. (Add more of your own if you like). After someone guesses one, have them say whether or not it is a good Sunday activity. See who can guess the most.
A to Z—Sit in a circle. Go around in a circle and starting with "A," name a thing that Heavenly Father has given us (ant eaters, apples, afterlife, etc.). The next person says a “B” word and repeats the previous given word. By the end of the game, the last person should have to list all 26 words.
Music Concentration—Print out two of these pages (on cardstock if possible). Cut out the squares (make sure they are all the same size). Turn them over, mix them up and see who can find the most pairs. Sunday, at church, see if you can find all of the symbols in the hymn book.
Scripture Chase—Make up scriptures and put it in a hat. Someone will pick a paper and read it out loud and then everyone will open there scriptures and will try to find it. Whoever finds it first will read it out loud and then will get the point. Whoever has the most points wins.
Make a Family Flag—Make a flag for your own family to fly. - Wendy Sorenson
Word Scramble—Use the lesson you are teaching to make up your own game. Take some words out of the lesson, for example if your lesson is about the first vision you could use “grove” “Joseph” Prayer”, etc. Scramble up the letters and put each one on a piece of paper. Let everyone have a word to unscramble and have them tell how that word fits into the lesson. (Use short words if you can. Long words are pretty tough.)
Who Am I? —Everybody has a sticker of a Biblical character name on the back of their shirt. Everyone has to ask different questions to figure out who they are. - Lynnette Schetselaar
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