This morning when I got out of the shower and came downstairs, the kids were all up and eating the breakfast they had prepared themselves. To my surprise, the kitchen was quite clean and they were very excited to show me the bowl of oatmeal they had prepared for me.
Yes, it's black.
Years ago, we had read a picture book about a little girl who lived in a pink planet where even her porridge was pink. Since that is what the girls call their cream of wheat, the next morning, I added pink food coloring to their porridge. They loved it and ever since, think they need rainbow porridge all the time. Well, this morning I think they got a little carried away with the food coloring. Yum-O.
Family Night News 12-08
It's all in the planning
Some weeks we are lucky to just get into the same room together, let alone enjoy a well planned lesson, a coordinating song and activity, and a special, gourmet treat. These kind of weeks happen a lot more than I'd like to admit and without some simple advanced planning, they will keep happening. Holding family night isn't always easy. In fact, especially with small children, it can be down-right difficult. But, haven't we always been taught that the most important things are quite often the hardest things? So, what's my solution to avoiding those- oh-crap-it's-monday nights? A few minutes on sunday night.
This is our little system for planning out our family nights (I like systems- maybe a little much). Matt and I, with a little input from the munchkins, decided on a few things that we would like to be a regular parts of our family nights. We made a literal list of these things (ok, I made a list) to refer back to as needed. Then, I typed up a master planning sheet. It contains things like prayers, songs, by whoms, and places for us to jot down family goals or topics we need to discuss. It's our agenda so to speak. This helps keep us on track and makes sure we don't forget anything important. This little agenda fits 4 to a page, so we have a months worth of family nights on one paper. At the beginning of each month, we sit down with the calendar and jot down general outlines for each week. Details aren't filled in at this point, just certain lesson topics we'd like to cover or special events that are on the schedule such as sub for santa shopping and hot chocolate, etc.
Every sunday during lunch after church, we fill in the details for the following night. Avery's got the lesson, she'll be using this scripture story or article from the friend, Sam has treat and wants to make rice krispy treats, etc. This is the time we use to help each child decide on and prepare thier little job. For example, tonight Parker is in charge of leading our family scripture memorization. Since it's the beginning of a new month, she got to color our little cue sheet last night. Since we've talked about it and taken a few minutes to gather supplies, etc. we know what to expect and are ready when the homework, dinner, dishes, family night craziness sets in. It really has only taken a few minutes, but makes a world of difference when monday night rolls around.
So, I wanna know, what works for your family? Children or no children, how do you plan this special night of the week?
The scripture our family is working on this month is: 2 Nephi 25:26. For our memorization tool I've drawn cheesy pictures for the key words in the scripture to help us remember which part goes where. Here's a peek at it. I'm loving the arms Parker colored on for Jesus!
2 comments:
Awesome system and I love that you're working on memorizing scriptures. I may need to copy you on that. Tom and I usually sit down at the first of the month and write on our calendar who has what Monday and what we want our kids to learn. It makes it easy because all we have to do is glance at the calendar a few days before and plan what we want to share. Lauren gets to pick the song and help make the treat. It works for us and the for the ages that we have. But, I know what you mean, some Mondays it's just plain hard work with temperments or timing.
Tessa you are so amazing. When I have kids I am going to come to you for some training and to see that book!
My favorite part of family night is singing hymns. Right now it's just the two of us- but there's just something nice about us singing together-just two voices, but still unified and with family spirit. I will be excited though when there are more voices singing!
I love the porridge story. Thank you so much for sharing. That is so wonderful they call their cream of wheat porridge! You have such cute girls!
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