Family Work

Objective: To help children learn valuable life skills and create an environment to foster family relationships.

Opening Song: Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel, Hymn #252

Closing Song: Let Us All Press On, Hymn #243

*Note: This lesson has the same lesson for both younger and older children. This topic applies to the whole family regardless of age.

Younger AND Children:

• Choose some type of simple work to do as a family. (Examples: fold laundry, wash dishes, sweep/vacuum the floor, wash windows, wash the car, etc.) Give each person a job that is appropriate for their age, or take turns doing separate jobs in an assembly line style. (i.e. one person washes dishes, another rinses the dishes, another dries the dishes.) The important thing is to do the activity TOGETHER. Do not do any work that requires the family being split up into separate areas. 
• While working ask your children about their day/week taking time for each person (including yourself) to answer the question to the best of their ability. Some possible questions are:
• Did anything make you laugh today? If so, what was it?
• Did anything make you feel scared today? If so, what was it?
• Did anything make you feel nervous today? If so, what was it?
• Has anything made you feel proud of yourself?
• What is something you like about yourself?
• Did anything bother you today? (Maybe these questions will bother a teenager. 😉)
• What is something you want to learn to do or learn more about?
• If you had $1,000 of your own, what would you buy?
• What is your dream job?
• Continue to talk until the task has finished. Consider setting a scheduled time to work together as a family. This can be done as frequently -or infrequently - as you'd like. But try and make it somewhat consistent. In today's busy lifestyles families are constantly being pulled in different directions, this makes it even more important to schedule consistent family work time into our lives. 
• Quotes to consider:
• "Ordinary household work that is often considered a waste of time can be a time of closeness and fun that strengthens family bonds and develops Christlike virtues." (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives, Chapter 21, pg 213.)
• "Family work provides endless opportunities to recognize and full others' needs. It thus teaches us to love and serve one another, inviting us to be like Jesus Christ." (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives, Chapter 21, pg 213.)

Additional Resources:

• Family Work by Kathleen Slaugh Bahr and Cheri A. Loveless. (BYU Magazine, Spring 2000). 
• Family Work Projects for Fun and Profit by Elwood R. Peterson. Ensign, June 1972.
• The Blessings of Family Work Projects by President Dean Jarman. Ensign, Nov 1982.

Useful Tips for All Lessons:

• I love to use the Sing-Along app on my ipad/phone. It contains all the church Hymns and Children's songs in sing-along format with words and a moving ball for the timing. There are pictures that go along with each song, or you can customize the songs with your own pictures. It's a wonderful, easy app that I LOVE! Another benefit is the ability to make a Playlist in the app. I will quickly make a Playlist of particular songs I am using for a lesson so I don’t have to waste time searching for them during the lesson. It’s great!

• I also frequently use the Sacred Music App on my devices. It’s nice to have the choice of sheet music, words, or both for each song. I also use the Playlist feature to make songs easily accessible during lessons, as mentioned for the app above. 

• Last, but definitely not least, is the Media App. I use this when I am searching for a particular picture or video to help emphasize my lesson topic. Probably my favorite feature of this app is the ability to edit videos. So if I just want to use part of a talk given by a General Authority, then I can cut out the rest and have the succinct clip I need for my lesson. It really is the best! I also like the ability to put together “Presentations” in the “My Media” section of the app. I can save any media I want to use for a particular lesson and it’s all right there ready for me during the lesson.