Role Playing

An idea for Family Home Evening is to do some role playing. We all know of things our children need to work on. It could be sharing, it could be responding happily when given an instruction, responding to friends, etc. These things are most easily addressed in what you call "role-playing." This is also best at times of non-conflict. You don't teach about sharing while two children are fighting over a toy. 

You best teach before the child is in the situation. Our church teaching our youth with this idea all of the time. We implore our youth constantly to have a plan for situations (drugs, dating, parties, etc.). You respond best if you have a plan already in your head. 

We recently chose answering the door for our Family Home Evening Lesson. We have a couple of extremes in our house. If our son answers the door, you will be greeted in a not-very-friendly manner. If our oldest daughter answers the door, you will be asked to come in and relax. That is great unless a stranger comes by. 

We talked about what to do in each scenario (someone we know, someone we don't know, a friend, someone for mom, and so forth). We then practiced. We dressed up, knocked differently, and had a lot of fun with it.

You might be wondering what this has to do with Family Home Evening and church-related lessons. I think learning proper manners is a great thing to know for life and especially for missionary work--whether from home or out in the actual field. We sometimes expect children to just know things like social customs. Some are socially adept enough to figure it out, but others need help. I think even the adept children benefit from teaching (like my daughter and strangers). 

Role Playing