Tag: FHE

Christmas RS Lesson

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Today I had a wonderful experience. I got to teach Relief Society (Women’s organization at church) for the first time in a long time. I had the choice of any talk from General Conference and I decided on one called Try Try Try by President Eyring. Here is the talk if you would like to read it (I think it would be encouraging to those of any faith).

The main thrust of the talk is about overcoming hard times and never giving up hope. Naturally it being Christmas time I decided to relate the talk to this time of year. I created a powerpoint to walk through the lesson, which I don’t always do but it just felt like the right approach this time.

try try try

Then I created slides of important quotes from the talk and questions to ask the class:

try try try3

Then just for fun I added in some famous quotes from Christmas movies.

try try try2

I was a little nervous going into it because technology can go very wrong and I am a bit rusty teaching (I was a Sunday school teacher for over 5 years in my late 20s so I was basically a pro!). The RS presidency went above and beyond to help me and were amazing and several of my friends came to listen to my lesson, which was very sweet.

To my relief it all went very well. Everyone made great comments and we had an uplifting discussion. I feel very inspired!

Here is the full powerpoint as a video. Feel free to use it as a family home evening lesson or anything else that might be helpful for you and let me know how it goes.

Merry Christmas!

 

Family Movie Night Update

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Hey everyone!  I just wanted to put a little reminder about my new column over at ldsblogs.com.  I just had posted my 6th piece on Curious George.  It would really help me out if you went on the site and left some comments on the articles.  Please, please, please

Here is a link to each article.

The articles include both my video and a print review that goes into more depth.  I have tried to do a variety of films that will hopefully appeal to a mixture of families.  I would love some feedback from you on the type of films I should review in the future.  The only rule is it has to be a film available on Netflix Stream, as that is the main premise of the column.  If you watch any of them with your family I would love to know how it goes.

So far I have reviewed (I will include links to the column and the video review if you just want to watch those.)

Column 1- Disney’s Holes

Column 2- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Column 3- Anastasia

Column 4- An Extremely Goofy Movie

Column 5- The Boxtrolls

I have been working on learning to use Adobe Premiere software and it is tough.  Curious George was my first video with that software.

Column 6- Curious George

Next week’s pick will be the Rodger and Hammerstein musical State Fair.  Here’s the video (I am a week ahead on the channel to give me time to write for the column).

This is the best video I have done with Adobe Premiere.  I’m kind of proud of it

Family Movie Night 2- Wild Thornberrys Movie

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thornberrys

Today wasn’t feeling great but really didn’t want to miss out on week 2 of my Family Movie Night series.  The goal behind this series is to provide a recommendation from off of Netflix stream that you can watch for FHE or a family movie night.  This week’s choice is The Wild Thornberry’s Movie.

If you haven’t seen the movie it is based on the Nickelodeon cartoon about a family that makes a nature television show in Africa.  The youngest daughter Eliza is given the ability to talk to animals but she must keep this power secret or she will lose it.

thornberrys2In this movie version Eliza is sent to England to keep her safe but she is worried about a cheetah cub she saw abducted.  She sneaks away and makes it back to Nairobi and starts on adventure to find her parents, save the animals and find the poachers.  It’s very exciting, beautifully animated with good vocal performances by Tim Curry,  Lynne Redgrave, Lacey Chabert, Marissa Tomei, Rupert Everett and more.

Quality: Original. Film Title: The Wild Thornberry's Movie. For further information: please contact your local UIP Press Office.

The music is very well done with songs from Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon to name a few.  It’s funny without being too immature and I like that the lead is a little girl who doesn’t always make all the correct choices.  She’s a well rounded believable character.  Her sister Debbie is a bit of a caricature as the snobby teen but you do see some growth from her over the course of the movie (She is kind of like a grown up Angelica from Rugrats).  She does get a lot of the good humorous lines in the movie so I don’t mind her Valley Girl character.   Darwin the monkey is also a source of a lot of laughs.

PhotoELF Edits: 2009:12:09 --- Saved as: 24-Bit 98% JPEG YUV444 --- batch crop --- crop 2009:12:07 --- Batch Resized

There are some moments of peril but they are broken up by humor and I don’t think too scary for little children.

It’s a movie I think would easily work into a FHE lesson about conservation, nature, endangered species etc. Plus, you could talk about how we all have special gifts like Eliza has the gift to talk to animals. She also never gives up no matter the obstacle put in her way.

Here is the trailer.

If you have any ideas for a Netflix film you’d like me to pick for next week’s family movie night pick let me know.  Thanks and thanks for watching my review on youtube, giving it a thumbs up.  Take care.

Family Movie Night 1: Penguins of Madagascar

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Hey you guys I am trying to start up a new series on my youtube channel where I pick a movie available on Netflix stream as my pick for a family movie night pick.  I know most who follow this blog are LDS and have Family Home Evening so I would love for your feedback on this.

What do you think?  Would you like me to include a lesson?  A treat recipe?  Or is it best to keep it very short?  I have found my Mom friends don’t like to listen to long videos so that’s why I kept it short.  I want to keep it fairly non-denom friendly so that anyone can have a family movie night but open for suggestions on that as well.

My idea behind using Netflix was that most families I know have Netflix stream and so it would make the film choice easy for them to pick for Family Movie Night. They wouldn’t have to go to Redbox, pay extra for a rental or the big bucks for the theater. I could do new releases if you think that would be good?  I really am just curious for your feedback.

If you think it is a good concept I would love if you shared the video with your friends/followers on social media.  Also as always any thumbs up or comments on the video are always appreciated.

Thanks in advance for that feedback and for those that have already given me feedback and shared thank you!

FHE for 1

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So, it has always been my greatest desire to be obedient to the prophet of my church.  One of the things that he has asked every Latter-day Saint to do is to hold family home evening.  This has always been a bit of a problem as I do not have a traditional family.  Its just me! (at least for the moment, with no foreseeable change in the future).

This gap in my gospel living has become particularly important recently as I have made the transition from the young single adult ward to a family ward.  In a singles ward they have activities on Monday night (the traditional home evening night) with a lesson and family-type activity.  While I may certainly still attend these activities eventually I have to make the transition to my new lifestyle. After all, I’m not going to be 40 and still going to YSA FHE activities!

So, today I was thinking about this problem and came across an old article in the Ensign entitled Family Home Evening for One by Judyth Barton.  It gave me a whole new idea- I should have family home evening for myself.  I’m a family of one, so why not!  I can certainly use the inspiration in my life and I have learned that any obedience is always a source of blessings- even if it is just the knowledge to get through tough times.  I KNOW it will bless my life.

Plus, it will help me to be ready if Mr Sunshine ever does come.  It will be easy for me to convert a family home evening for one into more.

I have decided to create a new blog that will just be for my lessons and thoughts for FHE.  This blog is designed for members of my faith and really isn’t a forum for debate on what I believe.  I don’t think that is very productive anyway but this blog will remain my main source of discussion and continue to cover a variety of topics.

http://fhefor1.wordpress.com/ is just for my  FHE lessons, progress and experiences.  I’ve already made my first entry.  I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts.  I decided for the moment to focus on the talks from conference for my lessons.

I hope that my friends will include me in their family home evenings and that they will come to be a part of mine. Anyone is certainly welcome to join with me!