Sunday, February 08, 2009

I'd love your advice....



Okay, so here's the premise...

We're working on making the Sabbath more of a day set apart for the Lord. So we are keeping the TV off (aside from things that are good for the Sabbath). Max is used to the preschool channel being a regular part of his daily routine, so he's felt the change. To his great credit, he's been a champ about it for a three-year-old. He'll still ask if he can watch TV, but gracefully accepts the "Oh, remember Buddy it's Sunday, no TV today. Today gets to be a good day to spend time with family, what game would you like to play together?" answer. I must say- it takes a lot more work to keep the TV off! Haha, a day of rest :).

So, my question to all of you is what helps with young ones to keep the Sabbath day holy? I would LOVE your tips, as we have been at this three weeks and my creativity is already waning! (The pic is of Max playing in a fort... this is fun, but only keeps him busy for 45 min.)

My brother-in-law, Ty, has made little LDS pages that are coloring pages that are really Sabbath day friendly. I know you guys also have brilliant (or simple! I like simple!) ideas... and I am begging for them.

THANKS!!!!

(This is Glenn writing now.) I wanted to throw this in here. Every now and then Max will get the hiccups and a while ago Kristen decided to give him "hiccup medicine" which was really just fruit punch in a spoon. Tonight he started hiccuping and I went to get his "medicine". But instead of the fruit punch, I grabbed the apple juice. Max took his first dose and said, "Hey, that tastes like apple juice!". And just like any good story, it was better in the moment. Kristen and I laughed our heads off that he saw right through our bluff. We were caught red handed and still he didn't discover the truth! He just thought he had said something funny and kept right on laughing with us.

Kids rock

addendum: My cousin and Kim sent me some great sites that were fun-
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art18034.asp
http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/bl101sabbath.htm
http://www.sugardoodle.net

10 comments:

Britt Wright said...

This just dawned on me, but maybe you can write letters to family. (by that I mean...draw pics, etc) Also, the Friend magazine has good tips. You could even make your own book. I don't know, but if I think of any more...I'll let you know! Oh...making cookies...or something along those lines.

Brooke said...

That's a great story about the "hiccup medicine"- thanks for sharing! As for ideas to do on Sunday- I know you want to NOT do TV- but I grew up on the animated stories from the Book of Mormon or Bible- and we loved those. You could get "Sunday movies" shows he can only watch on Sunday- sometimes veggie tales are even great for littler kids and they still teach gospel principles with bible stories- like on Hulu they have veggie tales Jonah and the whale. (I haven't seen this one personally but other ones I know are good, and I would let my kids watch them on Sunday.) Also I know for some families they just have quiet time on Sunday- so maybe Max can think up some good quiet Sunday activities to do- kids can be way more creative than me sometimes. O.k. so this isn't that many good ideas- I think you're great for doing it though- good luck- follow up with how it goes and what has worked- it's good to hear others' ideas on this subject.

JaelandSteveThompson.blogspot.com said...

As a young married couple we too tend to lean towards watching dvd from our collection. But I've decided that downloading lds conference on my ipod which is great way to listen to something Holy (love technology! ) . Plus there's the choir and its great! Also - I know blasting some sunday tunez make it harder to have the TV on - So maybe you can get some sunday school kids songs. Games are good,or reading time is fun to. I'm sure daddy meetings can take time to. I'll admit its tough but its cool that your trying. Way to go.

Brandon And Kimberlee said...

Good post! I do love the internet for ideas! A website I love is sugardoodle.net and it's mostly for lesson helps and ideas but you can adapt any activities to your own things to do. Thanks for your example in thinking about this because I could be doing so much better in this area! Kids this age are so impressionable so it's best to start now! BTW, Brandon is busy with his business, but no $ really coming in. We are fine, but it's been a big struggle at the same time! I love that pic of Max and the hiccup story! What would we do without kids to entertain us!?

Brianne & Jarod said...

We do the no TV on Sunday too! I think some of these have already been mentioned, but writing letters to family/missionaries, watching movies about Christ, the History of the Church, the scriptures, etc..,taking pictures of the wonderful things God has given us,baking, acting out scripture stories, learning the ABC's LDS style...

Hope some of those ideas help!

TysonandMarthaGerber said...

I think going on walks would be a great way to spend an hour and maybe coming home to take a nap and cook dinner. I really like watching LDS movies like Legacy, The Joseph Smith Story and some LDS videos. It's hard when you have kids. Ty and I don't even own a regular TV so it's a tough call

Tamlynn said...

Hi! We allow Sunday movies which include Veggie Tales and church movies like Legacy, Testaments, Mountain of the Lord, etc. Elly loves the church movies. Also we watch old home movies. The kids really like those. We also watch Nature as a family on Sunday nights. I love to let the kids zone out with a movie so I can indulge in one of my favorite Sunday activities: a nap.

You could set aside some toys/puzzles/art supplies as Sunday only activities so they are more exciting. Break out the playdoh or watercolors.

Karen said...

The lighting on this picture is beautiful! Max is about the age when we started the boys on their journals. We'd all sit around the table on Sunday and write in our journals. Those who were too young to write, would dictate to me and I'd write for them. Just ask Glenn how much he and his brothers loved their journals!

Morgan and Joel said...

Kill your television. It will be really hard at first, but you'll love it later. -Joel

Kristi said...

Hey Kristin, it's Eric's friend Kristi! Um, sorry to bust into your blog... ; ) Just wanted to say that Gwen loves watching "The Gwenie Show" (ie home videos) on Sunday, so that's what she gets to watch on Sunday, it brings us closer as a family!

Congrats on #3, we just had our unexpected #3 at the end of January and now that she is here we are so excited! Good luck, you have a beautiful family!