1st Day of School celebration-FHE

I love to use the beginning of a new school year to have a special family night on the importance of education. I begin by sharing this story by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (below).  There are also some great items to discuss in For the Strength of Youth pamphlet under "Education."

This a a great video to also share with your kids-

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-06-1090-education-is-the-key-to-opportunity?lang=eng

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I always want my children to understand the privilege that it is to go to school each day and receive an education.  It is a gift.  This point of view changes the attitude about school every day and gives more purpose and reason to work hard each school year. 

We then set some family goals for the new school year, which always include increasing our efforts on family prayer and scripture study, being on time, doing our very best in all classes and giving our best efforts, reaching out to others, being a better friend and most importantly a positive attitude. 

Our dessert (simple and nothing fancy) for the first day of school FHE is usually a celebration cake of the new grades that the children are entering. 

 

 For this year it was fresh peach shakes!

 

Jeffrey R. Holland, while president of Brigham Young University, told this story:

“I’d like to tell you a true story about a young boy who didn’t have the opportunity of going to school for very long. His father died, leaving little money for the boy’s family. One day the boy became very ill with smallpox and had to miss a lot of school.

“Slowly his health improved, and he was glad to be able to go to school again. But he was back in school for just one year, completing the seventh grade, when he had to stop going altogether. He and his brother then had to find jobs to help earn enough money to buy food and clothing the family needed.

“The boy worked very hard, grew up strong, and learned a lot through his experiences. He read books whenever he could, and was interested in learning the things he had missed by not going to school. Often he would say how sad he was not to have had a formal education. He was a wonderful man and worked hard to develop himself. And he kept hoping that someday he could get back to school again. But he never had that chance. This little boy who grew up wanting to continue his schooling was my father.

“Because of my father’s experience, he was very anxious for me to have a good education. When I’d say, ‘But I don’t want to go to school,’ he’d say, ‘Then I’ll go in your place. Do you think the teacher would mind? I wonder if I can fit into the seat at your desk?’

“That always made me laugh because I think it would have frightened my teacher to see a grown man coming to school, and I knew he couldn’t fit into the small seat at my desk. So I would go to school. …

“Later when I had graduated from high school, served a mission, and completed my courses in college, I went on to earn a Ph.D. from a school in New England. …

“When I received my diploma I wanted my father to have it. He had never received a graduation diploma from any school and I thought he deserved this one. I told him that although my name was on it, the diploma should really be awarded to him. I told him they probably just made a mistake in the printing. That made him laugh and then it made him cry. I wasn’t sure then why it made him cry—but I know now” (“Do You Think I Can Fit into Your Seat?” Friend, Sept. 1978, pp. 6–7).