Family Night News November 08

Family Night News is a newsletter I started at the beginning of 08 to send to my brothers & sisters, parents & grandparents. It started as a goal to find a way to bring our family closer together though far away and as a way to encourage and share what we've learned through trial and error about family night. I was sending it out via snail mail once a month- and then summer came. Let's just say it's been awhile since I've sent it out and I needed to get back on track. The stumbling block for me was getting to the copy store and the post office- always other errands to run. So, I am now going to start publishing it on my blog instead. SO, if you aren't interested, scroll down to another post, but if you are, here are some ideas we've used for our family nights that have proven successful and fun.

Birthday Spotlight Nights
Birthdays just aren't the same once you're past a certain age and so I really try to make my kids birthdays something special- a memory to sustain them once they've reached "that age". Birthday Spotlight Nights have become part of that tradition. On the monday closest to a family members birthday (kids and parents), we do a birthday spotlight night. We watch videos of that person when they were a baby, look at baby pictures, share our favorite stories, or memories of that person and take turns telling that person something we love about them. Sometimes we'll come up with a silly trivia game to help us really "get to know" that person (it's crazy how you can live with someone and still not know they're current favorite color!). We'll have thier favorite treat for a snack and just enjoy truly celebrating who they are.
An idea we plan on adding to this traditon is a birthday interview video. We'll come up with some interview questions, most of which will stay the same every year to measure growth and change. Every person will have thier own video tape that will be added to each year with thier new interview. I think it will be a fun keepsake as we watch each person grow and change. It will also be a great record of thier voice, thier likes and dislikes and the year by year subtle changes in the way they look. I'm excited to add this to our birthday family nights this coming year. But don't think you can't use this idea if you don't have kids at home. Wouldn't this be a great opportunity to record your memories of a child or your current views on the world for your children and grandchildren? Grandmas and Grandpas, I'm talking to you and would love it if you'd take this as a great big hint!

The scripture we're memorizing this month is D&C 59:7. Our memorization tool of the month is a chart showing only the first letter of each word in the scripture. We'll use this every night at family scripture study for the first couple of weeks as a reminder until we can accurately say it without the hints. This is particularly good for Parker as she is now an official beginning reader and likes to figure out words that begin with certain sounds.