Friday, February 6, 2009

New Year's Strategery #2

My second New Year's Stategery involved playing more games with my kids. Last year for a while we were on a real game playing streak and I loved it. I love playing most kinds of games anyway, and as a mom I love the closeness I feel with my kids when we're having fun playing games. So I knew that I had to figure out a way to make this happen.

Part A of my Strategery is actually kind of funny--I've started leaving games lying around. I'm very much an "out of sight--out of mind" kind of person, and I've found that if I have some games sitting on the counter I'm much more likely to play any game.



The other thing I'm doing is making games more a part of some of our school days. Our kids take turns being the child of the day--each gets two days every week. The child of the day is both a bad and good thing--this child has to take the first shower if no one else calls it, but also gets to choose lunch, sit beside me when we're reading, and now they get to choose a game to play during school. They are very excited to be able to choose a game, and we've had lots of fun, as well as several opportunities to talk about good sportsmanship!



The interesting and unexpected side effect of Strategery #2 is that the game playing seems to be expanding. Several times I've come downstairs in the morning to find several pajama-clad children playing board games. The great part about that is that now they can play together the games that I don't want to play, like Life and the Pokemon game.



I still need to figure out how to get more games in with my big boys. But I'm really happy to have figured out this much of it!

2 comments:

  1. Yay for family game time! I love it when my kids play together, too. When Bryan gets "S'quarrels" going a little more, I'll have to hook you up with a deck. It's a big favorite at our house. ;)

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  2. I have the same goal -- to play more with my kids. ANd I will take your strategeries under advisement as I devise my own to help me achieve the goal!

    By the way -- I totally feel your pain about the Bosch. I made bread today, and for the first time, I found dough under the motor when I washed the bowl. Some of it was petrified. Who knows how long it had been there. So -- know any good engineers? There has got to be something you could mass produce and then market, because surely we are not the only people on the planet with this problem!

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