Some great ideas that I want to remember!

Phew! I'm not sure how Christmas has already come and gone, but it sure was fun! I have been madly attempting to clean, organize, and put toys together today. As I look around at the chaos surrounding me, I just have to keep repeating to myself, "There's always tomorrow. There's always tomorrow." During one of my many 'breaks' from cleaning, I happened across a couple of ideas that I really liked and want to remember.

First, some neighborhood friends have a great idea for family together time during the holiday break. Since the kids are out of school, they try to get as much family time as they can. Each day during the holiday break, they assign one day to each member of the family. Each parent and child gets a special day to be in charge (sorry to any families that have more kids than holiday break time!)--you get to choose the meals and the activities for the day. This is what the mom posted about today:
So each kid gets a day to pick food and fun this week. Today is Aspen's day. We saw Moana and Assassins Creed (ok Dad wanted this one and its $5 day) and we had scones for breakfast and will do Leatherby's for dinner. So much fun to give them a day to decide what we do as long as it is all together!
For their other daughter, yesterday, they  ate French toast for breakfast, played games and had homemade fried chicken and cheese potatoes for dinner.
What an AWESOME idea! I'm out of time to do this this year, but maybe come Spring Break! I already know that my kids will love having a whole day all about them! Thanks, Emilee, for the great idea!

The second idea comes from amomwithalessonplan.com/family-game-day . She calls it Make Your Own Family Game Day. Here's how she describes it:

Family Game Day Prep

It was important to give everyone a chance to shine. That meant picking the right games. The easiest way to pick the right games? Have each family member “bring their own game of choice.” 

Pick the games – I gave everyone the chance to choose a game. It could be a game we owned or a game they made up. Tip: if someone is using a made up game make sure to get the rules clearly understood before the game starts.

Make medals – Ours were very simple. Cardboard from an old cereal box cut into a circle, two holes punched on top and yarn tied to make them wearable. Have everyone decorate one medal for their game.

Game Training – Spend some time training each other. The person who selected the game will be the coach. This is a great way to let your kids teach you something new. Think about what tricks, strategies or techniques you use when playing this game and pass it on to the rest of the family.

The games chosen for our family game day were:

• Hold a bridge. Who can hold a bridge position the longest?
• Trampoline laps. Run 10 laps around the trampoline without falling (while being showered with sprinklers).
• Obstacle course. Fastest time wins. Time deducted for knocking down the course.
• Putting. Closest to the hole wins.
• Draw a face. Who can draw the most smiley faces in one minute?

Game Time

Now that everyone is prepped and excited to play… it’s game time!

Play –  Make this time extra fun. Play hard and go for the win. Competing with your kids is a great way to teach them sportsmanship and how to have fun even if you don’t win. Plus, if you play for real they know when they have really earned the win. Like today… I’m the only one who walked away with no medal. I might call for rematch.

Celebrate – Cheer each other on and hand out medals after each competition.

**Just a disclosure: I am receiving an entry for a sweepstakes in exchange for posting this idea from A Mom With a Lesson Plan. However, I really plan on doing this great idea on Saturday!

I love it! My kids LOVE games, so this is definitely happening this week! I will also need to post (on another day though; it's getting past my bedtime!) about some of our favorite board games and about how I've converted some of my favorite board games, such as Cranium and Clue, to be more toddler friendly.