I love these pictures. Hopefully this gives you a little idea of what goes on at our house. My kids love playing hide and seek. For FHE on Monday, we played Sardines. I had never heard or played this game, but found it on the FHE website. Maybe many of you have played and heard of it. It is now the favorite at our house. I don't know if it's because Brad and I played with the kids or not. To play the game, you choose one person to go and hide and everyone else counts. They all look for the person individually and when they find her, they hide with her. You do this until everyone finds them. The kids caught on very well. When they would find the person hiding, they would wait until no one was around to go hide with them. Can you beleive we all fit under Hailee's bed. Ashlyn was so cute because she would always pick the same hiding place as the person before. Zack got a little scared because he didn't know what was going on. We were all laughing and having a blast. It made me think that Brad and I, as parents, need to spend a lot more time playing with them. I found this article by Gary K. Palmer, Professor at BYU and it was awesome. He couldn't have stated it enough that it's so important to PLAY with our kids. This quote is kind of long, but well worth reading:
"If we will learn to laugh and play more with our families, not only will we feel better but so will they. On average, children laugh 400 times a day, while adults laugh about 15 times. Why the gap? Did we lose something? Have we forgotten the way we used to be? Why is it that children seem to cope with life’s oddities better than adults? Perhaps it’s because they do not fully understand. But I think it’s simpler than that—they laugh. As we grow older, we get far too serious. Watch children play. They don’t need expensive toys to entertain them. Everything is fun. They are spontaneous. Only when we become adults do we start to get boring. Do we need to cultivate a different attitude? Humor is in the way we see things, the way we think. It’s an attitude, not an event. Perhaps the key lies in becoming more childlike. "
I'm alway making sure they clean their rooms, do their homework, practice piano, practice gymnastics, dance, and their chores; I feel maybe I'm always nagging at them. They would drop dead if the first thing I said to them when they came home from school was "Before you do anything, let's play a game." But that is totally what needs to happen I think. This will be my goal to work on. I did start dancing during High School Musical 2 when all their friends were here and they all looked at each other first and then started laughing. Let me know if you have any "family favorite" games your children love.
7 comments:
When we're in the car driving around town we play I Spy. Sometimes I'd rather just zone out and drive, but my kids LOVE to play I Spy and it forces me (and them) to look at the world around us, rather than just zone out and drive!!
Dustin is really good at turning a five minutes game like Connect 4 into a tournement, which is way more fun and everyone gets to play. Uno is big, too. For Christmas last year the boys got some Book of Mormon character memory cards, and that's good because they're becoming familier with all those hard names while we have fun. I agree with Shelly, too, that in the car is a great time to observe the world outside (but it doesn't work so well on the freeway! Everything is a blur, or it's gone before we can guess what it is!). Sorry this is so long!! :)
That was supposed to say "five MINUTE game" not "five minutes". Sheesh. Can't blogger have spell check on comments? :)
What a great quote and a great thing to do! We need to play more with our kids too. The only time we do is during FHE and the kids love it so much that we really should do it every day! My kids love hide-and-seek too. I played sardines when I was little but haven't played it with my kids. Thanks for the reminder! I had forgotten about it. My kids love to do puzzles as a family or play games like Memory and Candy Land, etc. They love to put on music and dance or play together as a family outside (especially on the tramp), or go on family bike rides or walks. Thanks for a great post to make me want to be a funner mom!
I love this reminder! As I read it, I realized I laugh all the time--with adults. Not so often with my kiddos. I really like the quote by Bro. Palmer, reminding us how important it is to just plain-out have FUN as a family. THANK YOU!
p.s. lovin' the Romance Box!
Great post Karri! I'm not one of those moms who enjoys playing with kids. That's why I had more than one of them! Kidding (kind of), but this was a good reminder. Hearing them laugh is one of the best sounds in the world.
Sardines was one of my favorite games in college...I am surprised you hadn't heard of it! Fun game!
I think unless we are a "yellow personality" it is difficult to let other things go and play with the kids all day. I know it is hard for me! But always rewarding when I do.
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