A New System

Do to our "lax" schedule over the Christmas holiday, I've found myself less motivated and inspired as a parent.  I've also found that the girls just want to play, play, play.  Don't get me wrong, playing is fabulous, but I want to be sure we're intentional about some of it. So, I'm implementing a sort of new system around here.  It's nothing fancy, but just something to help us get back on track in training our whole-selves. And, the girls always love new things (at least for a while).

Each day, we are going to engage in heart time, head time, hand time and health time. The rest of our time will be free time that the girls can do whatever the wish (within reason of course). Here are my initial ideas on each of these:

Heart time:

I love to engage my girls in scripture memory. We are not hard core about it, but I do post a verse on this chalk board that hangs in our kitchen.  We see it every day and have many opportunities to discuss. It makes it easy for them to memorize and apply the scripture (which I think is the most important).  Heart time may also include reading Bible stories, discussing things that glorify God (or don't) and role playing scenarios in which we can choose to honor the Lord and bless those around us. Obviously, this is not just dedicated to a certain time throughout the day - hopefully it is woven through each day - but I want to be sure I'm teaching them the discipline of time with the Lord, even at their young ages. 

Head time:

This will be a bit more studious. It will be reading books that are more challenging, working on phonograms, numbers, early-readers, puzzles, patterns, etc.  Again, nothing fancy. I'm just hoping this prepares them for homework which is coming sooner than later. 

Hand time:

This is simply craft time. We have a closet full of crafts and we do a lot of them. But, there are also a lot that have been untouched for some time. This is going to nurture their artistic sides, as well as help with fine motor skills, etc. 

Health time (I couldn't take picture of our hokey pokey lesson today since I was the leader):  In other words, exercise. Anything from dance parties, the hokey pokey, running laps around our house, trips to the park, "Simon says", etc. I want to be sure they learn the value of taking care of their bodies. I've been a very poor example the past 7 1/2 months, so they've seen a lot more lounging around than moving around. 

I'm hoping these things will teach them the value of discipline, help keep us from getting in a rut and add a little excitement to things around here.  I'm thinking about a game of some sort that will determine when we do the various "H times." It may be as simple as tossing a bean bag onto different note cards labeled "heart," "head," "hand," and "heath."  We'll see.  If you're in a rut, maybe this will help you too!