Workshop #10 Wholesome Family Entertainment

[JessicaS]

Workshop #10 Wholesome Family Entertainment

Welcome to our Tenth Natural Family Living discussion: Wholesome Family Entertainment; This discussion will key in on
Part 5 – Family Matters from Peggy O’Mara’s book Natural Family Living.

Some of the topics we'll discuss are;

Chapter 20 - Wholesome Family Entertainment


The Magic of Books


Lost Art of Storytelling

• Cull from your own childhood
• Involve your children as characters
• Use characters from your childhood
• Modernize familiar tales
• Don't Preach
• Tell ongoing tales
• Take turns doing the telling

Storytelling springboards

• Places
• Magical Beings
• Magical objects
• People
• Creatures

Poetry Fun With Words

• Creating Poetry
• Start a line
• Pick a subject
• Pick a letter
• Describe an image

Making Music

• Do fingerplay songs
• Dance together
• Take music classes together
• Form a family band
• Sing Sing Sing

Nurturing Your Budding Artist

• Paints
• Drawing and Coloring
• Paper
• Sculpture
• Art Appreciation

Discovering the World of Science


Getting Down and Dirty

• Playdough
• Uncooked playdough
• Baker's clay
• Sand Dough
• Peanut Butter playdough
• Slime

Good Clean Fun

• Bubble soap
• Bubble paint
• Monster bubbles

Sports and the Great Outdoors

• Exploring the Night
• Creepy Crawlies
• Forts and Playhouses
• Sewing Projects
• Children's Museums and other child-friendly places

On the Road: Traveling With Children

• Involve your children in the planning
• Take the back roads
• Pack distractions
• Pack snacks
• Plan travel times around your children's rhythms
• Take school with you
• Keep lasting memories of your trip

More Ways To Have Fun With Your Family






Please join us in discussion on Wholesome Family Entertainment. We welcome everyone to share their personal experiences, what works for your family, your struggles and your ideas. This is an open dialog and we ask that everyone be respectful of others' opinions. Take what feels right to you and leave the rest behind. Please be respectful to all our members so that the workshop can be a place of meaningful and respectful discussion for all our members. If you have a favorite quote from Natural Family Living, please share it.

We would like to invite everyone to join us no matter where you are in your thinking or feelings. These discussions are meant to be nonjudgmental so please keep in mind when reading members' responses that this is a true discussion based on Natural Family Living and not a place to debate or criticize. For more ideas and information, please see our Parenting or Ages and Stages.

We’re excited to offer this workshop and hope it will give our members a glimpse into the grassroots of Mothering magazine and Natural Family Living.

This workshop will be facilitated by QueenOfTheMeadow, MamaMonica and Abimommy. They are here to guide the discussion and keep it on topic. They will occasionally post references or ask questions to keep the conversation flowing. Please feel free to contact them at any time with questions, suggestions or concerns. Please keep in mind our workshop guidelines and current user agreement at all times.

We are compiling a Natural Family Living Resources Sticky which we will update with each workshop. Please feel free to refer to it for more information.

[bluebirdiemama]

Yay! This looks like a lot of fun
My ds will be two in April and we have another due in a few weeks....:
Im wanting to home school and looking for ideas for educational/mind expanding books to read, songs to sing, crafts, ect. This would be a great place to share resources for ideas of the sort.... although I dont really have any... ... at this time anyway, I lost my entire list of bookmarks
My ideas for this spring and summer include laying in the hammock with my babes reading them chapter books (ds loved the chronicles of narnia), baby in the wrap while ds and mommy garden... we got him a wagon for his bday in april so he can help move stick and dirt, etc. I dont know if Ill actually give him a space in the garden this year to manage.... although it might be necessary to save what I actually want to keep intact! We love to cook over an open fire in the back yard so maybe we'll keep it going and tell stories after it gets dark
DS is just getting into conversations so I bet he'll like this
Also we are planning to take them to a music festival this summer, three days long, 8 hours away, so I will be very interested to read what/if anyone posts about travelling with kids. Car songs and games.... maybe ideas for cassettes or something. I remember when I was little and we travelled by car we would play a game where when you saw an animal you'd state the name and make the sound, get one point. But that was in Canada and we had more animals visible by road! It's pretty boring here just saying "cow, MOooO" over and over

[MamaMonica]

The alphabet game in the car has saved my sanity many times. We drove across the US with a 2 year old and 5 year old listening to Wee Sing Fun and Folk over and over. That's a good car CD. Looking for excavators, trains and unusual trucks is also fun. When ds was two, he lived to see road construction

[amnesiac]

I've posted this before but I thought it would be great here too-

If you're looking for something to get out & about, this is something really cool we did with our kids:
http://www.atlasquest.com/
http://www.letterboxing.org/

We found several first to get the hang of the different ways people do them & then we placed some of our own. Some are really cool to try to figure out & it's a fun thing to do as a family. When we placed ours the kids really got a kick out of going to check on them to see how many people were able to figure out their clues & what sort of nice comments were left for them. Mine also think it's fun to look them up when they go like to grandma's or something.

You can buy pre-made stamps to use too but we carved our own.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by bluebirdiemama

Yay! This looks like a lot of fun
My ds will be two in April and we have another due in a few weeks....:
Im wanting to home school and looking for ideas for educational/mind expanding books to read, songs to sing, crafts, ect. This would be a great place to share resources for ideas of the sort.... although I dont really have any... ... at this time anyway, I lost my entire list of bookmarks
My ideas for this spring and summer include laying in the hammock with my babes reading them chapter books (ds loved the chronicles of narnia), baby in the wrap while ds and mommy garden... we got him a wagon for his bday in april so he can help move stick and dirt, etc. I dont know if Ill actually give him a space in the garden this year to manage.... although it might be necessary to save what I actually want to keep intact! We love to cook over an open fire in the back yard so maybe we'll keep it going and tell stories after it gets dark
DS is just getting into conversations so I bet he'll like this
Also we are planning to take them to a music festival this summer, three days long, 8 hours away, so I will be very interested to read what/if anyone posts about travelling with kids. Car songs and games.... maybe ideas for cassettes or something. I remember when I was little and we travelled by car we would play a game where when you saw an animal you'd state the name and make the sound, get one point. But that was in Canada and we had more animals visible by road! It's pretty boring here just saying "cow, MOooO" over and over

You can find fun songs on scout websites.

http://dragon.sleepdeprived.ca/songb...book_index.htm
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/boy-sco...cout-songs.asp

I know a shocking number of these due to years in Campfire.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

I'm so excited about this workshop! I need help. I can't play monopoly one more time. Though today we had some wholesome family entertainment today by playing hide and seek in the snow!

Oooo! I know a good one for the long car rides. We either do the game where you each get to tell a story up to a certain point and then switch and let someone else continue the story. Then when we finish that, we listen to books on tape.

[bluebirdiemama]

Thanks abimommy for those great sites. My ds is all about the songs lately, he's going to LOVE this new development
That car game is a lot of fun, sharing in the storytelling. Another good one is start at the A and name a food, Apple, the next person says Apple, Banana. Third says Apple, Banana, Cherries, and so it goes through Z. Oh yeah, we played it as, I went to the store and I bought...A-Z so it doesnt have to be food.
If you need a new board game to play my brothers (9 and 12) recommend Apples to Apples, there's a junior's version for 9+

[MamaMonica]

If Monopoly gets to boring, there's Birdopoly, Horseopoly and Bugopoly The bird one is really fun.

Creativity is big on wholesome family entertainment, don't you think? Telling a fun story in the evening, inventing a goofy game and acting like a kid.

What's the goofiest game you invented or craziest story you told?

Yesterday we spent a half hour on our hands and feet racing around the house like crabs singing "crabs around the house" and everyone was tired after that.

[Amys1st]

Its winter here in the Chicagoland area. We had close to 10 inches of snow in the last 3 days or so. On Sunday we walked to church while we pulled the girls in the sled. I also take dd1 to school this way when we have fresh snow. We have to go over a path w a hill so the kids love sailing down that before we get to school.

But we pulled them to church then on the way home there was a "mountain" of snow in a parking lot the girls wanted to climb. So we spent some time doing that with both waving at cars driving along while atop the big mountain. We then went sledding in the later afternoon. My ILs still live in town so we went to the park behind their house with the huge hill. After sledding we went to their house for hot chocolate. This activity resulted in a hungry appetite for dinner plus an early bedtime since they were exhuasted from all the fun! Of course we were too from climbing up that hill.

For us, wholesome entertainment means no scheduling, no rushing, just taking in the day with each other and seeing where and what it takes us too. We are going on vacation next week. The only thing scheduled is an amusement park one day but the rest of the time is just to kick back and let the day happen. I know families who are scheduled to the max and sometimes they thrive on that. We cannot live like that and enjoy just seeing how things unfold and just enjoy the ride instead of worrying about getting to the station. Besides, the station will come soon enough!

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

It's funny you should mention the scheduling thing. It's so hard, because I like to be a bit of a fly by night kind of mom when it comes to entertainment. Unfortunately, with ds1 having special needs, I've had to learn to schedule things so he knows when and where things are coming. It's kind of like one of those, "mommy will be cleaning the bathroom for the next 45 minutes. Then mommy will sit down and play a game with you for an hour. Then mommy has to clean the kitchen. Then we'll read for 30 minutes."

Reading is my favorite form of entertainment. It's dh's too. I'm hoping that my kids will learn to love it too. Ds1 loves it and he's 9. Ds2, 7 years old, is struggling with reading a bit, but as he develops his skills I hope he'll enjoy it more. ds 3 is only 5, but loves to be read to. Dh reads to them for about an hour every night before they go to bed. I often sit on the floor of their room and listen too. It's nice to spend that quiet time together.

[boigrrrlwonder]

Originally Posted by bluebirdiemama

(ds loved the chronicles of narnia), baby in the wrap while ds and mommy garden... we got him a wagon for his bday in april so he can help move stick and dirt, etc. I dont know if Ill actually give him a space in the garden this year to manage.... although it might be necessary to save what I actually want to keep intact!

Wow. My DD is so not where yours is developmentally even though she's older. I can't imagine her sitting through the Chronicles of Narnia, though I'd love it if she would! At the end of last summer, she was just getting to a place where she could "help," so I'm excited to see where she will be this year - though I can't imagine giving her space to garden (though part of me was tempted to say she was going to garden, since we get it through the park district and maybe then I could take another spot!)

I would love recommendations on more fingerplays. I don't remember a lot of them from my youth, but DD loves the ones I know.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by bluebirdiemama

If you need a new board game to play my brothers (9 and 12) recommend Apples to Apples, there's a junior's version for 9+

I love Apples to Apples.


I also like Fluxx by Looney Labs.

http://www.looneylabs.com/

Settlers of Catan is also fun

http://www.settlersofcatan.net/

[Arwyn]

Originally Posted by MamaMonica

The alphabet game in the car has saved my sanity many times. We drove across the US with a 2 year old and 5 year old listening to Wee Sing Fun and Folk over and over. That's a good car CD. Looking for excavators, trains and unusual trucks is also fun. When ds was two, he lived to see road construction

Hm, I meant to quote the post this quoted. Anyway.

We did a lot of car games, starting when I was five or so (and we still play them), and ones we liked were:

"Aunt Agatha went to Africa and with her she took..." (a memory game: Person A says "...an apple!" Person B repeats the whole spiel and "... she took an apple and a banana!" etc) My mom and I actually took this to an insane extreme on our last car trip a couple months ago, with the second line being "Brother Bob when to Buffalo and with him he took a Book". That took a while.

"I'm thinking of something" (aka True, False, or Ambiguous): it's like 20 questions but without a set number, and the answer can be T/F/Ambiguous. Excellent logic game -- and it can be anything. pi and unicorns and "that last rest stop" were all things we thought of.

"I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with:" and then rather than guessing the word, each player tries to DESCRIBE the word ("I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with tree" "is it a flying insect?" "no it is not a bee" "is it a large body of water?" "yes it is the sea!"). Rules are words of one syllable, and if someone describes a synonym, that counts as guessing the word. Game is over when the thinker gets stumped (if it's deemed a fair description) or when the guesser gets the word. Great for expanding vocabulary (I know what a scree and a czar are thanks to this game! )

And I Spy of course, though that wasn't as popular as the others.

I love car games.

Originally Posted by abimommy

I love Apples to Apples.


I also like Fluxx by Looney Labs.

http://www.looneylabs.com/

Settlers of Catan is also fun

http://www.settlersofcatan.net/

I love all those!


I'm trying to figure out things I can do with my toddler. Or rather, I feel like I SHOULD be doing more, since his exposure to, say, art consists entirely of finding him a pen and a piece of paper when I'm trying to write something. I did make playdough the other day when his world had ended because his dad had driven off with his in the car! It was actually really easy. But I'm not really in to doing things with him (I try to set him up with things while I do my work or reading), and so we don't Do Art. Am I ruining him? Can I let it go? Can anyone suggest anything that isn't going to take all my time or ruin our walls?

[MamaMonica]

Good old fashioned coloring books and crayons are non-destructive (as long as the crayons stay off the walls and windows...) You can also tape a large piece of packing paper or paper from a roll to the wall and let him go at it with crayons.

There's also chalkboard paint you can paint a wall with and turn it into a giant chalboard.

An easel with a chalkboard and chalk is fun...my kids loved that. The easel can also be used with a sheet over it to become a hideout, especially when combined with a couch and kitchen chairs.

[boigrrrlwonder]

*I* love Apples to Apples and Fluxx. We also really dig SET around here - however, the pipsqueak is too young still. I so can't wait until she's old enough for these kinds of games. I went to board game parties up until she got too mobile.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

We love the outdoors, but I hate hate hate being cold. It makes the winter a bit difficult. We go for walks and look for prints. There are a lot, since we live on a wildlife refuge. But I get cold. Any suggestions?

[betsyj]

Getting cold stinks. Have you considered those little foot warmers you can buy? I find if my feet can stay warm I will stay warm.

[MamaMonica]

I hate being cold, too. We invested in really warm gloves, wool socks, etc. I don't know what else to do.

[kakies]

:

[*LoveBugMama*]

What a great thread!!

LoveBug is very, very active, and looooves to be outside. Right now it`s winter here in Norway, and pretty cold. We often go iceskating. And we often just play in the snow. When it`s warmer, we just stay outside playing soocer, I sit on a bench while he rides his bike, we go to the nearest park and play, we go for a walk etc.

Indoors we used to play boardgames ALOT. Now we haven`t done that in a while, but it might be time to start doing it again. LoveBug doesn`t like to draw/paint/craft much, so that makes things a little harder when we are indoors, actually. He also doesn`t like books much, to my great sorrow. I`m trying to think of a way to make that more fun for him, cause I think books and reading is sooo important. I always thought that when he started reading on his own, he would finally start loving books. But it hasn`t happened yet, and he reads pretty good.