Family Time

Getting all of us to sit down in the same room and do an activity together is almost impossible.  With Darryl's work schedule, the girls' school, and well my craziness we never seem to have time to pick up all the wonderful things in our house and actually use them, so I am implementing a new system.  As I mentioned before, I abhore the children's shows designated for Kiya's age group.  They are hurtful, idiotic and some are just plain rude. So horrible me is limiting television and replacing it with some family time. 

I have decided to fill a hat with activities that I can sit down and do with the girls and we can all have fun doing and each of us will take turns pulling the activities out and placing them on the calendar.  Examples are girls' nights, where we do our hair and nails and facials (if we have time), movie nights with popcorn and 3D glasses, Wii game nights utilizing the stuff we still haven't opened, and reading nights where we snuggle under blankets in the living room with some good books and quiet time.  Not to mention the crafts, board games, pictures and baking supplies.

With all the technology that kids are exposed to I think it is important to include some get together time in as well.  My family doesn't sit around the table for dinner unless I stamp my foot and put up a big fight so communicating is a little more difficult.  I find this might be the solution I am looking for so that my children can grow up together and learn from each other as much as they learn independently and can lean on each other for support rather than compete against each other.

So although we are halfway through January we are going to start now!  Here's what our calendar looks like:

p.s. The green is our family events, the others are birthdays and other events in life.