How to play with your kids...

I just started this book last night, and I think it may very well be my favorite parenting book of all-time. It's entitled "Piggyback Rides and Slippery Slides: How to Have Fun Raising First Rate Children" by Lynnae W. Allred. This book has honestly been an answer to many of my prayers recently, and I can hardly wait for my kids to wake up so I can try some of this stuff on them.

Some of my favorite things I have read so far include:

• How one of her favorite memories with her grandmother was when she took time away from all the many chores she had on their farm, and set up a little table in the living room for an impromptu tea party. Decades later, she still remembered even tiny details.
• Bedtime is playtime - goes against everything I thought I knew, but WOW!!!
• Playing games at dinner will bring your family closer...I am giddy to try these out tonight
• "One of the first rules for turning work into play is to relax about the outcome and enjoy the journey more"

There are SO so so many ideas in here of games, activities, traditions...you name it. I don't feel like I can share all of them because she wrote the book and not me, but if nothing else, get it from the library!!! Seriously, it's that good :)

The Most Awesome Scripture Study Book Ever!

So, I love this book so much, I'm actually posting about it on both my blogs. It is called Adventures with the Word of God: Making Scripture Study Exciting for the Entire Family by Rebecca Irvine. This book is so awesome, seriously! I read it today while I was waiting for my van to be fixed, and I cannot wait to start using it for our family scripture study. It's a study guide of sorts for family scripture study. Except instead of reading a book cover to cover, you have a different theme each month (ie. Family Proclamation, Missionary Work, Charity, Testimonies, etc.). But she splits each theme up to have a scripture a day to discuss and talk about...I love that because my kids are still pretty young so actually reading from the scriptures tends to lose everyone but Zerin...and even him sometimes, so this is just awesome. The ideas are so cute and fun and seem simple and managable to implement. It takes some preparation...but I should be preparing for scripture study anyway, so why not throw a little cutting and coloring in for good measure, ey?! I am not doing it justice, so go check it out from the library. You won't be disappointed!