Family Night Startup, Part 2

In his brilliantly practical book "Teaching to Change Lives", Dr. Howard Hendricks explains seven laws of teaching that are extremely valuable to every parent who hopes to impress God's truth onto the hearts of their precious children.

I. The Law of the Teacher
The effective parent-teacher is a student among students. We can only hope to impart what we have learned. Moms and Dads, share with your children what God has taught, and is still in the process of teaching, you.  As a learner still learning, tell them of your successes and stumbles, your triumphs and struggles as they directly relate to the topic of your Family Night. Parents, by your example, you will establish levels of vulnerability. Your children will respect you for your openness.

Josh McDowell has put into an equation form the following:
RULES + RELATIONSHIP = RESPECT
RULES — RELATIONSHIP = REBELLION

We need to spend as much time as we can with our children. We need to be intentional and at times, quite sacrificial. We must build solid relationships with our children. We need to share what we have learned about life. As parents when we lay down rules, lots of times our children do not like them, but we know they have a purpose. My parents' purpose was for us to do better than they had done. That's the purpose of Family Nights — to teach our children, by God's grace, to do better than we did. Family Nights earn respect for parents because they build relationships.

II. The Law of Education
The effective parent-teacher realizes that the way people learn determines how you teach. Each person learns differently. There are three distinct ways of learning: a) auditory = listening, b) visual = by sight, and c) psychomotor = by touching/testing. Realizing that no one person learns exclusively one way only, it does seem that people favor certain senses more than others from which to gather and process information. The wise parent-teacher incorporates within Family Night  the chance to use any or all three learning styles that best address their children. For the listener, more illustrative stories or music can be used. For the visual learner, use videos or white boards. For the psychomotor learner, you can use object lessons or crafts.

III. The Law of Activity
Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement. The more the learner is engaged and involved, the more learning takes place. Dr. Hendricks believes, and we strongly agree, that Christian education today is much too passive. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Notice those verbs, they're action verbs. They're words that convey passion, strong intent, and maximum involvement. Our hope for Family Night is that they be intentional, strong, passionate, and action-filled. Herein lies the key — action-filled. The element of fun comes through a strong object lesson. The object lesson creates a fun anticipation for the unknown. An object lesson provides involvement to help the children experience the points and enhance their understanding. Half the fun is in the actual setup of the object lesson. The curiosity of the child is heightened.

IV. The Law of Communication
To truly impart information requires the building of bridges. It involves searching for stepping stones of commonality between the parent-teacher and the child-learner. Common experiences and common relationships are integral bridge builders. Many parents are quick to point out the differences between their childhood experiences and their childrens'.  We believe the pointing out of similarities and congruent experiences, feelings of empathy, build strong bridges across which effective communication can flow.  Our children like to hear stories, see pictures or home movies of when we were their age. You will uncover much common ground with your child!

We will continue next week with the last three laws of teaching from "Teaching to Change Lives" by Dr. Howard Hendricks.  We want to recommend the resources of Heritage Builders and their Family Night starter kit which will be available in the faith@home center soon.  Until then, click on the following link to learn more about launching your own Family Night:  Family Nights Explained