Communication FHE

 

We had a Family Home Evening on communication, and the above picture in now hanging on our fridge as a reminder.  I knew it was needed in more ways than one!  The kids needed to communicate better with their teachers, friends, coaches and ME!  However, the lesson was probably more for me, as is usually the case.

I had a few communication experiments to start the lesson.  I had Ashley come in front of everyone and I stood behind her.  I then said something that could be taken two ways depending on my tone and body language.  I kept my tone the same, but expressed a lot of emotion in my face and hands, which Ashley couldn’t see me doing.  The rest of the family knew exactly what I meant because they could see my body language, yet Ashley was clueless that I was mad because she couldn’t see my body language to help her understand me.  We then talked about eye contact, hand gestures and facial expressions.

Then I had Rebecca come up for the next example.  I told her to say the ABC’s in her mind over and over as I talked.  She of course was concentrating on her ABC’s and when I was done had absolutely no clue what I had been saying.  I then used this as an example of what happens when others are talking to us and we aren’t concentrating on them, but instead thinking about other things in our head.  I expressed the importance of keeping your mind open to the conversation and the other person.

Next, I had Jacob come up.  I told him that he had to understand what I was explaining without asking any questions.  I was then VERY vague in an explanation of something.   Of course he was clueless as to what I was trying to say, and we then discussed the importance of asking questions so that there are no questions.

We then talked about people that can express themselves well, and how they communicate.  We all agreed that we love people that compliment and make us feel good. 

There are many ways to communicate and we need to always be aware if we are being as effective as we can be.

I finished off the night with a game and treat.  We divided the kids into two teams.  They had to designate a person to relay the instructions and two to carry them out.  We told the two relay leaders a very detailed explanation of where their team’s treats were hidden.  They had to remember the details and relay them to their team.  Their teammates then ran to find their treats.  It was interesting how a few details that were left out created a lapse in getting the treat. 

Days after we had this lesson, I would get Nathan’s comments as I would yell for him to do something … “Oh sorry mom, I couldn’t see your body language with that and couldn’t really understand what you wanted”  He is such a smart-aleck!  :)