Family Time

We had a lot of fun making Mother's Day cards! Well, the boys had tons of fun. I, being the neurotic mother I am, worried about the mess the paint would make on clothing, the table, the floor, the carpet if they flicked it far enough...you get the idea. But I tried really hard to let them have fun and not be a complete perfectionist.

A flower

This will become a horse

The whole picture: paints, palettes, and a washcloth to try to keep things under control

The finished products...beautiful!

Next, I found a book at the library called "The Family Book" by Todd Parr. Cute, colorful pictures and a great message about how all families are different but we all love the members of our families the same. It facilitated a great discussion with my boys about families.

Family Time

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/05/family-time_09.html

Family Time

It's been a sick week in our house, so we haven't been too enthusiastic about projects. However, here are some things we hope to accomplish over the weekend.

These ideas are adapted from those listed on this page, at lds.org. FYI, there are plenty of fun activity ideas under several different headings listed in the Family Home Evening section. Go see for yourself.

1. Family Scavenger Hunt: rather than send the list out to all the family members (as suggested), I'll have the little one call/video/chat with various members of the family to find his answers.

2. Interview Family Members: have A. ask what the most important/interesting thing to happen this year has been. Then we'll compare everyone's answers and see if it overlaps.

3. Mother's Day Video Cards (not on lds.org): we video, then post up on Vimeo and send the link to the grandmas back in the states.

My choice in activities reflects the fact that we are so far away from ANY member of our family right now. I suppose I could have focused more on "families" rather than our specific family, but I feel it is so important to keep the relationships strong despite the distance.

Family Time

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/05/family-time.html

Theme of the Week Challenge

This week's theme is a bit broad, but we like it this way. The theme is families. If you choose to, you can focus on mothers in particular in honor of Mother's Day this coming Sunday, May 11. As mothers, our families are so important to us. Let's teach our children why.

Some random thoughts Deneal and I had are: talking about your family tree and ancestors, teaching them about how their aunt and uncle's children are their cousins, great mothers in history, appreciating different kinds of families, understanding the roles of everyone in a family, and making your family stronger.

You can do something as simple as sing "I love Mother, she loves me". You can do something as elaborate as creating a pedigree chart/family tree by drawing or sewing a tree onto a piece of cloth and each little leaf represents someone in your family (if you are going to do that, you deserve a medal!) We are going to make Mother's Day cards for my mom and my husband's mom and stepmom, so I'm sure I'll post about that later this week. (If any of you three are reading this, SURPRISE!)

For a little laugh only somewhat related to this theme: my husband was talking to my children about heroes in church history. Then my five year old said, "Daddies can be heroes too!" My husband said, "Yes, and so can moms." E said, "Really? They really can?" He seemed skeptical! I want to be a hero in his eyes so I'm not quite sure how to help him figure that out. Maybe that's what we'll work on this week...

Theme of the Week Challenge

http://laugh-learn-love.blogspot.com/2008/05/theme-of-week-challenge.html