Tonight's Family Night was a bit all over the place, but still enjoyable. After conference on Sunday all the kids said that they really liked the talk on Tithing given by Elder Pratt. We all agreed that we could do better on paying a full and honest tithe. Mike began family night by reading the scripture from Malachi about "Will a man rob God." Mike tried to emphasis to the girls about paying your tithing RIGHT when you get money.(The Spirit might have been there, but I was too busy asking Ellie to sit still, and to be quiet, and to sit up, and to stop playing with Jack....ya, she lost her family night treat tonight. ) Anyway, after Mike's short lesson, we headed up to Annie and Ellies room where which lies the hugest white board that has no business in any one's room, but gets used quite a bit. Mike wrote down sums of money and the girls took turns telling him how much tithing you would pay if you were fortunate enough to have all that money. Then we passed out some change and told them to separate what you would keep and what went to Heavenly Father.
When we were satisfied that they were knowledgeable about how to calculate tithing, we closed our family night with a prayer and started our family council...(aka another attempt to get the kids to clean up after themselves)
The plan of the week was this:
A laundry basket. Anything left in out goes in the basket and you have to pay a quarter to get it out OR wait until Sat morning and you can take it for free...BUT....at precisely 10 am (or whenever I remember) the basket will be emptied into the DI bag, or the trash....(pant..pant...pant..) If the individual has no funds where which to pay for the item in the laundry basket, they will be allowed to perform a small or large task in order to earn the needed quarter to remove the desired item from the basket....(drink of water) Furthermore, if the adolescents in the household happen to notice that an adult member of the family has left his/her item in one of the common areas of the home, (bed rooms don't count) That child is entitled to place that item in the basket and must mark the item with her name so that the parent can pay the child who placed their belongings in the basket. (sweat dripping down forehead) In conclusion, because rooms do not count, we have also added that if a child wants to play with friends or watch TV they can only do so if their said room is in proper order. (Near the state of unconsciousness)... Also.....if you take an item out of the laundry basket WITHOUT the proper payment, you will hear by be sentenced to life in prison WITHOUT any possibility of parole!!!
Whew...why can't they just pick up their stuff without all this hoopla! Oh well...here's to another try. Wish us luck...
Mike set up papers with money amounts written on them all surrounding Jack's basketball hoop. Everyone got 10 shots from where ever they wanted to stand. A close to the hoop paper said .10. One that was further away was .25. There was a .75 behind the hoop. And a 1.00 REALLY far away. It was actually fun to see our girls personalities and thought processes come out as we played this game. Casie took every shot from the dollar mark. She made 2 out of 10 on the first try and 0 out of 10 on the next. Ellie tried a couple of tries from every single paper and ended up with .80 on the first try and 1.25 on the next. Annie took every single shot from the .25 and made the most money out of everyone with 3.75. Jack earned .20 when Ellie lifted him up for a shot. Anyway, onto the trick of our game........
Because we had talked about tithing first and our laundry basket of belongings second, Annie and Casie immediately started talking about using their earnings from our game to buy back some of their items they had lost that day. Only Ellie went straight to the table and counted out her tithing! I was watching this all go down and as soon as I saw what Ellie had done I shouted, "Winner!" I awarded her with an extra quarter and praised her for remembering to pay the Lord first. Annie and Casie were smiling sheepishly and realized they had forgotten. (you may be thinking that Ellie deserved to earn her FHE treat back by doing such a good job on paying her tithing....but no. I am trying to do better at sticking to punishments with her. Sorry Ellie. But as usual in true Ellie fashion, she accepted her punishment with no malice or crying. We will see if she is better during our lesson next week)
Just to prove that our FHE was truly all over the place, I will add that we ended the night with scripture study and me teaching the kids how to do the bunny hop.
When we were satisfied that they were knowledgeable about how to calculate tithing, we closed our family night with a prayer and started our family council...(aka another attempt to get the kids to clean up after themselves)
The plan of the week was this:
A laundry basket. Anything left in out goes in the basket and you have to pay a quarter to get it out OR wait until Sat morning and you can take it for free...BUT....at precisely 10 am (or whenever I remember) the basket will be emptied into the DI bag, or the trash....(pant..pant...pant..) If the individual has no funds where which to pay for the item in the laundry basket, they will be allowed to perform a small or large task in order to earn the needed quarter to remove the desired item from the basket....(drink of water) Furthermore, if the adolescents in the household happen to notice that an adult member of the family has left his/her item in one of the common areas of the home, (bed rooms don't count) That child is entitled to place that item in the basket and must mark the item with her name so that the parent can pay the child who placed their belongings in the basket. (sweat dripping down forehead) In conclusion, because rooms do not count, we have also added that if a child wants to play with friends or watch TV they can only do so if their said room is in proper order. (Near the state of unconsciousness)... Also.....if you take an item out of the laundry basket WITHOUT the proper payment, you will hear by be sentenced to life in prison WITHOUT any possibility of parole!!!
Whew...why can't they just pick up their stuff without all this hoopla! Oh well...here's to another try. Wish us luck...
Ok, after the court hearing...I mean family discussion on how to do better, we headed back downstairs for a game. (I did mention our FHE was all over the place didn't I?) OK, to be honest, it turned out to be more of a trick than a game, but we still had fun. Here's how it went down.
Mike set up papers with money amounts written on them all surrounding Jack's basketball hoop. Everyone got 10 shots from where ever they wanted to stand. A close to the hoop paper said .10. One that was further away was .25. There was a .75 behind the hoop. And a 1.00 REALLY far away. It was actually fun to see our girls personalities and thought processes come out as we played this game. Casie took every shot from the dollar mark. She made 2 out of 10 on the first try and 0 out of 10 on the next. Ellie tried a couple of tries from every single paper and ended up with .80 on the first try and 1.25 on the next. Annie took every single shot from the .25 and made the most money out of everyone with 3.75. Jack earned .20 when Ellie lifted him up for a shot. Anyway, onto the trick of our game........Because we had talked about tithing first and our laundry basket of belongings second, Annie and Casie immediately started talking about using their earnings from our game to buy back some of their items they had lost that day. Only Ellie went straight to the table and counted out her tithing! I was watching this all go down and as soon as I saw what Ellie had done I shouted, "Winner!" I awarded her with an extra quarter and praised her for remembering to pay the Lord first. Annie and Casie were smiling sheepishly and realized they had forgotten. (you may be thinking that Ellie deserved to earn her FHE treat back by doing such a good job on paying her tithing....but no. I am trying to do better at sticking to punishments with her. Sorry Ellie. But as usual in true Ellie fashion, she accepted her punishment with no malice or crying. We will see if she is better during our lesson next week)
Just to prove that our FHE was truly all over the place, I will add that we ended the night with scripture study and me teaching the kids how to do the bunny hop.
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| Mike showing us how it's done.... |
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| Making Tithing Envelopes |
4 comments:
I love hearing about your FHEs. At our house "THE CONTAINER" is about the worst threat. Eden gets a warning before it comes out and usually that is enough to get the job done. When something does end up in the CONTAINER there is much weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth. I can't wait to tell her that her VM cousins have the same deal.
Your FHE's are the best...! We're lucky to get through the "Little Friends" story in the Friend and maybe sing a song. Keep it up. I'm excited to hear how the laundry basket works:)
I love all of your FHE posts- they are so cute! Miss you guys TONS!! :)
You are a super-mom, Jill. I tried the basket and money thing too, when you were little. It's so much easier to just pick up behind them!
Mom
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