Family Night 4

This week we sat around the table and played Pick and Draw.  Pick and Draw is a fabulous cartoon-drawing game.  No one wins or loses…you just have fun drawing funny characters and sharing about them.  We normally give our characters names and make up a description of what they like and what they do.  Click on the links to visit the website, where you can try your own hand at drawing a character.  Also, you can read my (unofficial) review of Pick and Draw HERE on my homeschool blog.

 

Here are a few of my characters:

Week 8 in Photos

February 19 “Church of All Saints”

February 20 “Shoes”

February 21 “Camera Reflection”

February 22 “Towers”

February 23 “Fresh Paint”

February 24 “Wreath”

February 25 “Cheap Picture”

Photography: Notes to Self

NOTE: This has been reposted from my blog Our Cup of Tea. I thought it would be appropriate since I'm posting my photography each week!

I’ve been looking through my pictures, and I’m thinking maybe if I do this post I’ll be more careful in the future about my picture-taking.  I’ve had a lot of good pictures of the kids I didn’t end up posting because I didn’t do the following:

1.  Pay attention to background.

(Yucky banana peel sitting on top of yucky container full of compost)

(My long underwear hanging on the line…oops!!)

2.  Wipe child’s nose BEFORE taking photo!

(Don’t look too close or you’ll gross out.  Actually I had already deleted the yuckiest ones.)

I’m sure I’ll be adding to this post in the future, lol!  What photography lessons have YOU learned?

Family Night 3

We had our family night on Monday this time because Greg took some neighbors to the airport on Sunday night. 

This week we had story time and popcorn!  Each of us selected a book to be read, plus Isaac and Moriah each selected an extra book to read aloud to the rest of us.  It was neat seeing which book each person chose, and we really did have fun reading together.  I also like giving the older two kids a chance to read aloud for practice.  Isaac is a very good reader anyway, but I’d like to give him more opportunities to read aloud to his sisters.  Moriah is a beginning reader and doing very well, and I think it boosted her confidence to get to read aloud to the family.  This was her first time reading aloud to all of us, and she was thrilled to do it!

Here are the books we read:

 

Greg chose There’s a Wocket in My Pocket (Dr. Seuss) to read, while I chose Good Work, Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish).  Isaac chose Handa’s Surprise (Eileen Browne) for me to read aloud, and he chose The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! (Mo Willems) to read aloud himself.  We’re big fans of The Pigeon books because they’re so funny!  Moriah chose Bad Kitty (Nick Bruel), which is another very funny book.  I read that one aloud.  Moriah also chose Biscuit (Alyssa Satin Capucilli) to read aloud herself.  Gabriela chose Pancakes for Breakfast (Tomie dePaola), which is actually a wordless book.  Greg “read” that one, making up the story to match the pictures.  The kids love to read and to be read to.  We used to read them a story every night before bed, but we haven’t done that in awhile.  We must get back into that routine!

 

I’m very happy that we’ve done so well remembering to have a family night every week.  It’s fun trying to come up with different activities that we all can enjoy together.  In the past we’ve tried popcorn and a movie for family night, and to be honest, I don’t think watching a movie is the best idea.  I remember back (ages ago) when I was dating, I once heard someone say that going to the movies for a date was not a good idea because you don’t talk during a movie, and as a result you don’t get to know the person as well.  It’s the same for family time.  You may all enjoy the movie, but you’re not having conversation.  I think the best family nights are ones where you do an activity that allows you the freedom just to talk to each other…as a family.  That’s how you grow in your relationships anyway!  Sometimes our family activity has been only 30 minutes, but that’s 30 minutes of talking, giggling, and sharing.  Even though we do things together throughout the week (like homeschool) and also talk to each other a lot, we look forward to family night because it’s a time set aside just to have fun together.

Family devotions is another thing we once tried to get started (but failed).  We do say prayers together every night and also when a need arises, and I do teach the kids Bible in school, but I’d love to incorporate some more spiritual activities into our family nights, whether it’s something brief in addition to the regular activity, or whether it’s THE activity of the night.  Any ideas?

Week 7 in Photos

February 12, 2011 “Quarry Bank Mill”

February 13, 2011 “Untitled”

February 14, 2011 “Frosted Valentines”

February 15, 2011 “Little Artist”

February 16, 2011 “Peace”

February 17, 2011 “Bat Puppeteer”

February 18, 2011 “Three Bottles”

Family Night 2

This week we decided to color together!  We have a large collection of coloring books and a can full of crayons, so each of us got to choose a coloring book.  After coloring for awhile, my husband came up with the idea of drawing with our eyes closed.  One person would name an object to draw, and the other person would close their eyes and draw.  This activity brought a lot of laughter as we all took our turns.  Just doing something together as a family and laughing together is so refreshing!

 

 

Week 6 in Photos

February 5, 2011 “Caught on Screen”

 

February 6, 2011 “Marble Doors”

February 7, 2011 “Pink Stuff”

February 8, 2011 “Heart Cutters”

February 9, 2011 “Moriah’s Pine Tree”

February 10, 2011 “Button Sorting”

February 11, 2011  “Big Eyes”

Family Night 1

We’re trying to have a family night once a week—just a time we spend together doing something!  We’ve tried this before and failed, so hopefully it will work this time.  Since our church has service only on Sunday mornings, we’re going to try to have our family night on Sunday nights for now and will see how it goes.

For our first family night, we all played marbles!  I got this cute marble board in Holland.  Normally I prefer playing on the carpet, but Greg doesn’t like getting down on the floor, so we played on the table.  We thoroughly enjoyed it!  Even my 3-year-old had a great time, and she did quite well for her age.  After the first few rounds, she was ahead of the rest of us!  However, Greg ended up winning. 

Even though we played only for about 25 minutes, it was still time spent together.  Every Saturday we try to get out of the house together, too, but family night is just a time to do something together at home.  We have a Nintendo Wii and a whole closet full of games, and we have several family movies.  We could make cookies, put a puzzle together, color, have a storytime, or maybe even have a slumber party in the living room.  I don’t know, but I’d love to find some great ideas for making wonderful memories as a family.  I want my children to grow up with a deep appreciation for family, and with a love for us and for each other, and with memories they’ll talk about for years to come.

Do you have a family night?  What do you like doing together as a family?

Week 5 in Photos

January 29, 2011  “Almost Sunset”

January 30, 2011  “Pink Coat”

January 31, 2011  “Austen Reading”

February 1, 2011 “Doorway Smile”

February 2, 2011 “Spelling Test”

February 3, 2011 “Isaac’s Pencils”

February 4, 2011 “Buttons Galore”