Moms,
I'm trying to think of a cute idea to help my little family focus more on love and service. I saw this cute idea on Supernanny where she had the parents write on a heart something they were proud of for each child. I want to do something similar each night. Maybe have each person say a kind thing about each family member, or maybe even think of something nice they did for that family member?? My children are only 4.5 and 2 right now (and we have one on the way!), but I think it would be fun to start a tradition now. Maybe write the thoughts on hearts and put them on our hallway wall or keep them in a notebook or something... Any ideas? Thanks!!
Love that idea! You could staple the hearts and make a decorative paper chain. After it gets so long, put it in a special treasure box and start a new O.!
It would be fun to do a monkey in the middle type game. My husband and I play it with our kids, one stands in the middle and we toss a bean bag over their heads... we of course let one of them catch it and take our turn in the middle as well. You could always have a game like every time someone tosses it, they have to say something nice about another.
Or, you can put a sliver of paper balloons like a name, and pop balloons. Whichever name they get, has to say something nice about that person. We do lots of little things like this.
You could write names or something on a a popsicle stick and draw names.
We also make up songs at night about our kids and in our nightly prayer, always thank God for are kids and list their attributes that we are grateful for. The kids seem to really like that.
I like this too, found it yesterday, a 'compliment' board:
http://www.goodlookcookbook.com/2011/02/free-compliments-...
Kudos to you mommy for wanting to bring more love into your kids lives! I think that you've gotten some fabulous ideas. I think that it is never too early to start some loving traditions! Here are some of the things we do.
Like a couple of other moms said, we also to the "Good/Bad thing" at dinner, but we start with our bad and end with our good. My daughter (5) has now decided that we need to have at least 2 good things instead of just one!
At Christmastime, we did a "Gingerbread Man" game. We made a gingerbread man out of cardstock & decorated him all cute. Then I read a poem about service (it was a cute little rhyme about a gingerbread cookie man that goes around the house doing service). We then talked about different acts of love & service that we could do for each other. So, the next morning, I was the one to start. I did a small act of service for my daughter. Then I left the gingerbread man on her pillow. Then, my daughter had to do something for somebody else & leave the gingerbread man on their pillow, and so on. It was fun & my daughter really liked it. My son sort of got it (he'd just barely turned 2). You could adapt that however would fit your family.
We also save some money throughout the year and buy things for the local homeless shelters/food bank/rescue missions. When we go to the store & buy the items, we talk with our kids about what we're doing and why we're doing it. We are so blessed & so many others aren't. It has been great for my kids to see how really blessed we are & get that warm fuzzy feeling after serving. We've also put together Humanitarian Kits (LDS) & dropped them off. We did a bunch of Newborn & Hygiene kits right before the earthquake in Hati. My daughter saw it on the news & was very excited that some of "our" kits would be able to help them.
Also, a couple of times a year, we find out who in our neighborhood is struggling financially. Then, we go to the store & buy them all the things for a nice dinner. We also have gotten some little "treats" for the kids in the family. Then, we put the stuff on their porch, ring the doorbell & run!
We've also done a thankful jar. We keep a BIG jar on the counter/table with some colorful slips of paper next to it. At least once a day, we each write/draw a picture of something we're thankful for. I ask my son & then write it out for him & let him color it too. Then, when the jar gets full, we pull them all out & read them. It has been fun too.
Good luck! I hope you get some more wonderful ideas that can help bring more service & love into your home!
Shellie
I like all those ideas you're gotten so far. :) If you have a wallway in your house, especially by the bedrooms, that'd be a neat place to put them. You could decorate in hearts with good thoughts on them.
When I was dating my now husband, one year for Thanksgiving I put 1 reason I loved him or was thankful for him each in a balloon and would blow it up. I stuffed his SUV full of balloons, so there were like 75-100 reasons. I had a little wooden box that's pretty but "manly" ready. He stores his "reasons" in there and smiles when he sees the box. That was 7 years ago, and just yesterday morning he dreamed about that box and all the reasons. So I think it'd be neat to have reasons posted around the children's bedrooms or hallway.
I'm really firm on our family eating dinner together at the table (our one day off is Wednesday nights because my son goes to Awanas so I feed him an hour earlier than we'd normally eat, so this is also the day my husband works late to get everything done and in order, so he's home the rest of the week on time)...we pray together, we do the "1 good thing, 1 bad thing" at dinner as someone else mentioned. We are casual with it, but everyone gets a turn to do that and then we just talk.
At bedtime, I hold the little guy (he wants to eat books) but I've learned he does better when he gets to hold a board book, and my husband reads the boys a story. Then we give kisses and pray, put the baby to bed. The oldest (4) has a little Mickey Mouse calendar by his bed and we discuss the day a little more. If he earned a star that day (doing his list of chores and responsibilities, making good choices, having a good attitude) then we give him a star to put on the day. This is helping him understand days of the week too. If it was an exceptional day, we talk to him about it and he gets 2 stars. On the occasional bad day, we do make an X through the day and remind him that it can be a good day tomorrow when we start all over again. We look at the next day to see if there's something good to look forward to (preschool, karate class, awanas, church, soccer, a party, whatever). On Saturday nights, we count how many stars he earned for the week and he gets a quarter for those days (a bonus star could be anything from a nickel to a dollar, depending on what it was about). We divide that total up for him and he is able to put the money into the bank in the appropriate slots (savings, church, spending). We pray with him too, then kisses and lights out. Then we finally get our time alone and take turns rubbing feet or shoulders and talking, the more grown up version of recapping the day.
we play "roses and thorns" or as we call it one good thing one bad thing at dinner, basically we talka bout one nice thing that happened and one thing that was disappointing or sad most of the time it is always good.
I have two small children, the oldest being 4 1/2. Our family sits on the floor in a circle each night before bed and we say a few prayers together. Then, we go around the circle and say what we are thankful for on this day. We also say someone special who we would like to pray for. My oldest son LOVES this. We started doing this when he was about 2 1/2. Remember, a family who prays together, stays together!
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