{photo by Viktor Hanacek}
Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.
~Catherine M. Walla
Hooray for Friday! And hooray for family fun! Here are this week’s 5 ideas:
1. Try geocaching.
2. Read under a blanket.
Make a giant blanket fort in the living room and do your family reading of Treasure Island in it.
3. Attend a star party.
There's one scheduled for tomorrow night, July 30th.
4. Have an etiquette night.
Read Real Simple’s Proper Etiquette for Every Occasion for a refresher, or try a manners game at dinner such as this one called 5 Pennies.
5. Have a “bad manners night.”
Once the kids have mastered etiquette (ha!), try doing the opposite just for fun, and to reinforce proper table manners. Because it’s fun to do all the things you know you’re not allowed to do at the table. For example, everyone can put their feet up on the table, speak over each other, grab food, etc. (This is an idea from Mrs. Milligan, for those who remember her!) Make sure they know this is a silly exception to the norm, of course. And don’t do it too often…
Bonus: Another fun idea for “bad manners night” is to assign each family member an etiquette quirk, maybe by writing them on slips of paper and having each person choose one randomly. Then everyone can guess what the quirks are, and discuss how to fix them. Ideas for quirks:
- “Eats food off of other people’s plates”
- “Interrupts everyone”
- “Makes a mess and doesn’t clean it up”
- “Chews with mouth open”
- “Talks while eating”
- “Has to one-up everyone”
etc.
