We Are Family!

A few months ago, our family started having Family Night.  We do this at the start of the week, usually Monday evening after dinner.  My husband and I decide ahead of time (usually just earlier that day) what topic we want to discuss and both of us look for a kid-appropriate story, a coloring page, a game or a worksheet online that illustrates the topic we want to discuss.

We started doing this as a way to address issues that we thought were important in a more light-hearted way, to make it fun, but also to get the kids comfortable with having family discussions about all sorts of topics.  To give you an idea of some of the things we have covered, here are a few examples: My Fears, Self-Control, Sharing, Fairness, Being a Good Friend, Honesty, Strangers, and Chores.

We wanted it to be something easy on us as parents so we don’t spend a lot of time preparing.  We choose our topics based on how the kids are behaving the week before and if we see any issues pop up that need addressing.  Sometimes it’s something at school or even in the news that alert us to the importance of talking about a certain thing. We ask the kids for input too.  With a quick google search we have been able to get free materials on pretty much any topic we could think of and the kids seem to enjoy it. We also pair it with a special dessert which helps!

Our older child is 7 and will be 8 this summer and we want to make sure that our line of communication is as open as it can be.  He will be in middle school before we know it and the reality is that there will be things that come up that we may not be prepared for.  So it is our goal to make it as easy as possible for our kids to talk to us and to each other about their lives and their feelings and not be afraid.

We hope to keep this tradition going (or some form of it) as the kids get older.  It isn’t a huge effort on our end and it’s nice to have some down time together as a family during a busy work/school week.  I wanted to share this idea in case another family out there might want to try something like this too!