Heart to Heart: 175 Things To Do with Family, Photos, Proverbs Book

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

175 Things To Do with Family, Photos, Proverbs Book

IN THIS ISSUE:

175 THINGS TO DO WITH FAMILY
UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHY IDEAS
PICTURE BOOK OF PROVERBS

Dear "Heart to Heart" friends,

This is not "Homework," ladies, but if you're like most families, you sometimes run out of creative things to do together as a family, so here are a few ideas. I had fun as I made this list, thinking back to the many fun times we had together as a couple and with our three children. We haven't done every single one of these through the years, but almost. Your family may already have a head start on this list!

Many of these activities are appropriate for couples before children, with teens or an empty nest, although most of these are for families with small children. Babysitters, take note of some activities you might be able to use with the children under your care, with their parents' permission, of course. Some are also good ideas for singles - before marriage. Many ideas would be fantastic activities for grandparents to use with their grandchildren during a Grandparents' Day! It might be fun for your family to go down the list and check the ones you have already done, and then to find some new activities to do together. Now when your children say, "Mom, what can I do?" ~ you have this resource!

175 THINGS TO DO TOGETHER AS A FAMILY

Close your eyes and try to remember the most fun your family has ever had. Now tell me, was your family busy doing something together or were you all gathered around the television set? With the ever increasing demands of school, career and church, Christian families need to relearn how to be together and have fun. When your children are grown, they will remember the special times of family togetherness. Great memories have to be created. A little effort and imagination will fill your family's free time and enrich the lives of those you love most. Here are some simple, inexpensive (or free!) activities that can be enjoyed by almost everyone. Turn off the tube and tune in to family fun.

Take a bicycle trip.
Make homemade ice cream or visit an ice cream parlor.
Bake a double batch of cookies and deliver one to a needy family.
Visit an airport and watch the planes take off and land, or go to a lake and watch the boats, while you have a picnic.
Go on a breakfast picnic.
Go to a park and hike or climb trees.
Make popcorn, maybe even caramel corn.
Enjoy the snow together by building a snowman, snow bears, a huge turtle or other animals, making a snow fort or throwing snowballs. How about making snow ice cream?
Go swimming or water skiing.
Plan a scavenger hunt for outside. Or plan one for in the house using every letter of the alphabet.
Bake plain sugar cookies and let each member of the family take part in decorating them.
Make playdough and sculpt objects or people (even from Bible stories).
Read a good book aloud. (C.S. Lewis' "Tales of Narnia" appeals to children and adults alike.
Look through photo albums or view family slides, movies, or videos.
Play miniature golf or croquet.
Make a tape recording of the most recent news and send it to a close friend or relative whom you seldom see.
Make a "birthday flag" for the next upcoming birthday.
Go fishing.
Play a board game that all can enjoy---Monopoly, Sorry, Scrabble.
Work on a jigsaw puzzle.
Go roller skating or ice skating.
Make family silhouettes. Use a slide projector or a bright lamp to project the head profile on a blank wall. Hold paper against the wall and trace the silhouette. Cut out and glue it on a contrasting sheet of paper or poster board.
Have a candy treasure hunt.
Work on a crossword puzzle.
Play "Start a Story." One person starts the story and talks for three minutes (use timer). The next person must continue the story, and so on. After going around the family circle two or three times, the youngest child gets to end the tale.
Provide old magazines, scissors and glue. Pick a theme for your collage (families, God's creations, things to be thankful for, etc.). Everyone cuts out pictures and glues them onto a large piece of paper or poster board.
Go to the flea market or bright and early one Saturday morning visit 10 garage sales and see who can come home with the best bargain for a dollar.
Sing favorite choruses, hymns or nursery rhymes around the piano or guitar. You could even use a tape or CD to follow along.
Make plaster of Paris hand prints. Put name, year and age on the back.
Make a family banner. The banner should be made of felt or the flag fabric found in fabric stores. Decorate with pictures that illustrate interests of family members.
Go to the zoo.
Go bowling.
Make your own homemade pizza. Add mushrooms, peppers, onions, black olives and crushed pineapple to the pizza sauce and cheese.
Invite another family over for a game of charades or "Guesstures."
Listen to recordings of your favorite music.
One sunny Saturday morning, get out the gardening tools and find someone (a shut-in, perhaps) who could use some free yard work. Everyone can pitch in and help.
Make a collage using seeds, rice, cereal, old buttons and sewing scraps.
Catch fireflies together, put them in a jar and watch them light up. Let them go.
Do needlework: cross-stitch, crewel, candle wicking, rug-hooking, smocking.
String popcorn and place on a tree for the birds.
Write the words and music to a chorus together.
Make puppets out of lunch bags, old socks, felt, wooden clothespins. Put on a puppet show.
Have a bonfire outdoors or in your fireplace and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.
Go to your nearest hospital and look at the babies in the maternity nursery. (Visiting hours only).
Visit a shut-in or an elderly friend or relative in a nursing home.
Pick wildflowers and press some of them to save.
Read a Psalm together. Then write a psalm of praise for your own family.
Play "I think you're nice because..." Someone thinks of a quality he likes in the person who's "it." Other family members try to guess by asking, "Does it begin with an "A?" and so forth.
Listen to a tape of a Bible story. You can tape good stories from Christian radio stations. 50..Share prayer requests that affect and concern the whole family, then pray about them.
Make a mobile. Gather special treasures (shells, nature objects, hollow, decorated eggs, valentines). Tie thread or yarn of varying lengths to the end of each and attach to a hanger.
Ask your children about their greatest fear, and talk about them.
Encourage little ones to color a picture to send to grandparents.
Make a list together of all the things in your house that use electricity. You might do this when you lose power sometime.
Build a village using blocks, Lincoln logs or Legos. Get out the matchbox cars!
Enjoy a shopping trip for something little, but fun---a jar of bubbles, stickers, paper dolls, a matchbox car.
Play "20 Questions." One person chooses a Bible character or object to be guessed. The other members of the family take turns guessing what the secret object or person might be. No more than 20 questions can be asked and each one must be able to be answered with a simple yes or no. Whoever guesses first becomes "It" for the next round. Good for car trips too.
Visit a farm. Milk a cow, help to feed the animals. Take pictures.
Play badminton, volleyball, tennis, Frisbee, yard darts or ping pong.
Take the kids on a tour of where Dad works.
Play hide-and-seek (inside or outside).
Play "Bible Verse Scramble." One person chooses a favorite Bible verse and writes each word on a separate piece of paper. Scramble the order of the words and challenge each member of the family to see who can put it together the fastest. It could be one the family has memorized together.
Go camping in the backyard. Cook breakfast on the grill.
Draw a family tree on paper and complete it as a family. Add old photographs if available.
Go jogging or take a walk together.
Give each person a large piece of paper and take turns tracing the outlines of their bodies on it. Color in the outlines to look like you.
Using white shelf paper or the inside of brown grocery bags, design your own wrapping paper with crayons, magic markers or paints--even potato prints.
Go to the library. Check out books, records, tapes and art reproductions. Check out books showing how to make crafts with children.
Gather a variety of leaves and identify them.
Write a letter to a missionary family. Your children could write to a missionary's child his own age.
If you have a computer, create a family newspaper. Each child can write a story, Dad and Mom can write a column, and an older child or parent can edit and type. Send copies to the grandparents.
Make candy or caramel apples.
Fly a kite!
Jump rope.
Take pictures of all the houses in your neighborhood, then arrange the houses on a large poster board and identify the people living in the houses. Write their addresses and phone numbers at each house too.
Visit a friend.
Dig out a flower bed and give each family member his own "plot." Plant seeds, bedding plants, vegetables or bulbs and watch God's creations grow!
Read favorite poems aloud.
Put together a scrapbook describing a favorite vacation or any special event (pictures, writing, souvenirs).
Rake up a big pile of leaves to jump and play in. If it's warm outside, turn on the water sprinkler and run through it.
Write and act out a play centered on a specific holiday, a Bible story or a character quality. Mom, Dad or one child could be the production manager.
Pick apples and make apple sauce together.
Gather seashells. Mount and identify.
Make snowflakes out of lightweight white paper and hang from the ceiling with thread.
Create a traveling friendship basket. Fill an inexpensive basket with baked goodies, crafts, coupons, and so forth. Pass it on to a friend. Leave a note in the basket, directing it to be passed on (within the week) to someone else who could use some cheer.
Go to a ball game or play one---football, kickball, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer.
Finger paint on glazed paper (shelf paper, freezer paper) with chocolate pudding.
Go sledding.
Go skiing.
Take a trip to an amusement park, a museum or a planetarium.
Use fabric crayons to design individual T-shirts.
Set a Bible verse to a familiar tune and learn both the verse and song as a family.
Write and record an interview with a Bible character.
Build a tree house or fort.
Go horseback riding.
Write and illustrate a short story about an imaginary animal.
Build a robot out of empty boxes of all shapes and sizes. oatmeal and salt boxes work well.
Work together on a model kit.
Work on a stamp collection together.
Play with sand toys and trucks in a sandbox.
Using construction paper, write out and illustrate favorite proverbs. Join the pages to make a book.
Collect rocks, mount and identify, using books from the library.
Catch butterflies with a butterfly net.
Collect insects and mount with straight pins on a foam board.
Identify the insects using books from the library.
Go bird watching. Learn to identify various birds. Learn to identify them just by hearing them also. Make a bird book together.
Build a birdhouse and read about how to attract birds to your yard.
Tell your children how you first met and some of the things you did together before you married.
Plan and cook a meal together, where you invite the grandparents or other family or friends.
Play leapfrog.
Play jacks.
Have a water balloon toss.
Learn about safety together.
Have a fire drill. Discuss what to do in case of a fire.
Read jokes to each other.
Have Grandma and Grandpa tell how they met and how life was for them as children. Have them tell about their favorite toys and how they compare with today's toys.
Make "smores" in the fireplace or outdoors.
Get a book out of the library about science experiments. Do them and try to think up an application to life.
Learn to juggle.
Learn to use a yoyo.
Carve an animal out of a bar of Ivory soap.
Do origami, using books from the library.
Make your own card to send to grandparents.
Make a simple pinwheel and make it blow in the wind.
Make thumbprint animals. Make cards, using thumbprints.
Sail toy boats in a stream.
Wear old tennis shoes and go wading in a stream.
Make an inside tent, using sheets or blankets over a card table.
Visit an orchard and see how apple cider is made.
Watch a parade together.
Feed ducks at a duck pond.
Visit an antique shop with grandparents, and listen to their stories of how it was when they were growing up. Have them explain how the various antiques were used.
See what you can buy at a dollar store, where everything is $1.
Visit a fire station.
Go to the city market together some Saturday morning.
Whistle with a blade of grass between your thumbs.
Make banana splits together.
Make homemade vegetable soup together.
Make a Birthday cake for Jesus.
Make hand shadows on the wall look like various animals. Make them talk to each other.
Catch frogs at a pond.
Clean the house together.
Make a playhouse out of several big boxes. Decorate.
Share miles of smiles by making and washing doll clothes with your girls.
Make a water slide, using garbage bags cut to lay out flat. Place on a bank or hill, run a slow stream of water down the hill with a hose, and slide!
Using a big box of odds and ends and some art supplies, see what each person can create.
Go on a photography walk. Take pictures of each person, against a backdrop of flowers or nice scenery.
Take a ride on a bus, train or subway.
Call your local newspaper. Ask for a tour of the layout area and printing press.
Go to the tallest building in your area and see what landmarks you can spot.
Have a taffy pull.
Buy herb plants at the market and grow an herb garden together. Learn how to use the herbs in cooking, potpourri and decorations.
Draw roads in your driveway with chalk, designating your house, a school, church, hospital, railroad tracks, train station, etc. Ride tricycles and Big Wheels all around the town.
Have your children draw beautiful colored pictures on your driveway with colored chalk. It will wash off with the next good rain.
Paint your house with big paint brushes and a bucket of water.
Buy dress-up clothes at yard sales or Goodwill and have fun.
Make yeast bread together - or sticky buns.
Line up the kitchen chairs, one behind the other, and form a "train," and go on a trip somewhere.
Play "Follow the Leader."
Make an airplane instrument panel out of a large box. Glue on lids of all sizes and colors for the control buttons.
Play "Simon Says."
Play hop scotch.
Cover empty salt boxes with colored contact paper and use for building.
Make a walkie talkie, using two empty juice cans with string between them (15-20').
Make a long list of opposites and make a game out of it.
Make a long list of homonyms and make a game out of it.
Make a long list of synonyms and make a game out of it.
Watch bean seeds sprout in a jar with two wet paper towels and a little water.
Grow an indoor garden of carrot, onion, sweet potato sprouts, by cutting off part of the vegetables with sprouts, and putting them in a dish of shallow water.
Make an ant farm together.
Have a blindfolded sniffing game, using various items in custard cups or on small plates. Use such things as an onion, cinnamon, vanilla, soap, rubbing alcohol, bleach, chocolate, an orange, banana, cheese, toothpaste, garlic, etc.
Make drums out of oatmeal boxes, kazoos out of combs and waxed paper and cymbals out of lids. Then put them into action!
Make rock creatures by finding small smooth rocks, then gluing and painting them to look like animals.
Make a train out of shoe boxes. Paint and decorate.
Play grocery store, using cans and boxes from the kitchen.

Last but not least, go to Sunday school and church together each Sunday.

UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHY IDEAS

by Lois Breneman - Copyrighted

I enjoy photography and it has been interesting to try unique photography ideas that I have either seen or thought of. Be sure to zoom in when you want a close-up. If you have a digital camera, you can zoom in even after the picture is taken. Why not try a few of these ideas:

Baby's hand in Daddy's hand
Baby's feet in Daddy's hand
Baby sitting, wearing nothing but a cap, turning back, as you snap the picture
Baby sitting in a fall basket with pumpkins and colorful autumn flowers all around
Child hugging pumpkin or bending down to pick it up
Baby, posed to look like he's just fallen out of a basket
Baby boy wearing only a diaper and Daddy's necktie
Baby sleeping on tummy, with knees under tummy - large bow with streamers on his back
Baby in large clay pot - baby's head sticking out among lots of silk flowers - bow around pot
Newborn baby held up beside Mom's face - wearing birthday suit, held discreetly, of course
Hold baby up so the brilliant blue sky and/or a fluffy cloud are in the only background
Baby holding barbell up in air (Use covered empty tin cans on a dowel rod)
All the family's hands together in a circle
All the family's feet together in a circle (with and without shoes and socks)
All the family's heads together in a circle
Two members of the family taking a bite out of the same apple at the same time - 123 - Go!
Small child holding a flower - close-up of chubby little hands, face and flower
Small child sitting on the base of a large truck or tractor tire
Toddler trying to pull Daddy in his wagon
Tiny sleeping baby on Mom and Dad's large bed - photograph entire bed
Small child standing behind a small chair
Small child sitting on a small chair
Small child sitting - call him from the back and snap picture as he turns around
Child standing with Daddy's shoes on his own little feet
Little girl in Mommy's high heels
Child holding family dog or cat
Child posing with pet hamster sitting on her on shoulder
Child leaning over, hugging a big beach ball
Child holding baseball and bat, wearing a baseball cap
Child standing by a pillar - with hand resting on pillar
Toddler standing in birthday suit or diaper, painting picture on easel - snap from back or side
Future big brother/sister with head on mommy's tummy - talking to and loving unborn baby
One child teaching another the hand motions of, "Here's the church and here is the steeple. Let's go in and look at all the people."
Child with blocks
Child with Teddy bear or doll
Baby (at about 6 months) sitting in a large stock pot, wearing chef's hat with vegetables in front
Child with apples all around him. (Also all kinds of fruit and vegetables around him)
Child with teapot and cup, all dressed up for a tea - wearing a hat with dolls and Teddy bears
Great-grandma and little girl, all dressed up having a tea party with a big Teddy bear
Oldest family member holding tiny baby or youngest member of family
Little girl putting rollers in Mommy's hair from behind, while Mom looks in hand mirror at self
Profile of a child wearing a hat
Daddy and child walking down a path - take picture from behind
Children holding hands, walking away from you - take picture from behind
Daddy and child fishing, then holding up fish caught
Child on bike - picture taken from behind wheel of another bicycle with that tire showing also
Person silhouetted against the moon
Person silhouetted against the sunrise or sunset
Person wearing yellow, standing by a blooming crab apple tree against the brilliant blue sky
Small child, bending over, picking or smelling flower
Small child blowing a dandelion seed pod
Child taking a bath with a frog - frog on side of tub and child reaching for it
Children in bib overalls and baseball caps - arms around each other - snap front and back
Family all standing together on a Japanese bridge
Family all standing on the stairs, behind a railing - with youngest peeking through railing
Lit string of lights on floor - baby on tummy or sitting in the midst of them, looking up at you
Young child, reaching for an ornament on the Christmas tree
Picture of your house - each family member sticking head outside of different windows, wearing bright colors (red and green for a Christmas card)
Toddler walking toward ocean waves - snap from back
Toddler bending over, picking up sea shells
Child, balancing as he walks across a log
Children, acting out the Christmas story
Children in bright colors, facing to the side, one behind another, as if in walking formation, but with the leg of one person forming an X with the leg of another.
Children in bright colors, standing in autumn leaves with hands full of leaves. At the count of 3, they all jump as high as they can and throw the leaves up in the air at the same time.
Separate close-up shots of different parts of child's body - face, hands, feet, toes, ear, nose, eye, entire body - Frame each part separately and hang together - or use a large frame with smaller frames within.
Four or five generations of your family
First day of school each year

A Few Trick Shots:

One person holding another person (or almost anything) in palm of his hand - Position main person closest to you on a lower lever than the person held in the hand. The tiny person or thing which will appear to be in the main person's hand must be back farther and in a higher position. The photographer will give prompting to the main person and to the one farther away, to move left, right, forward or backward, until it appears that the main person is holding the other in the palm of his hand.
Falling off of Pikes Peak - pose on top of a cliff as though you are hanging on for dear life. From the view of the photographer, all he can see is the cliff and you against the sky, even though you are on solid ground on the other side of the cliff. Your face should show fear and terror as though you are falling.
Another falling shot - Have a ladder up against a sundeck or other high location. Have a young child at the top of the ladder, with Daddy right behind. Shoot a picture of your child pretending to be falling from the sundeck with a terrified look on his face. He won't really be falling, of course, but from where you are standing, the ladder nor Daddy will be visible.

I hope you will have lots of fun trying these photography ideas. They just might put a little more spark in your scrapbooking hobby and framed family pictures!

PICTURE BOOK OF PROVERBS

Through the years I have collected interesting pictures and filed them to be used in making children's story books. Although I haven't gotten very far with this, when my children were small, hopefully I will have a chance to use the pictures to make more books for my grandchildren.

Years ago I made two small picture books using many scriptures from Proverbs. They are still family treasures many years later, and now they are laminated to preserve them for many more years. One book includes miscellaneous scriptures of wisdom, including a picture of a lovely house. The scripture to go with that picture was for my benefit as I read the book to my children: "It is better to live in the corner of a rooftop than to dwell with a crabby woman in a lovely house." Proverbs 21:9

The other book is about discipline (What God Says about Discipline and Love). My little girl suggested I add, "And Love," to the first part of the title, because as I was learning in a Bible study how to discipline my children as a young mother, I was taught to first ask the child privately why she thought she needed discipline. Then I told her that I needed to obey God as her mother, and discipline her so she would learn to obey and do right. After the discipline was administered (a spanking, if defiance was shown), I would love her and pray with her. That step about loving made quite an impression on her at a young age, in her suggesting that the words, "And Love" be added to the title. As a new mother, I was glad the love concept registered!

Speaking of Proverbs, there are 31 chapters in that book of the Bible. For extra wisdom and common sense, read the chapter that corresponds with each day's date. On the 17th of each month, read Proverbs 17, and so on. You can begin on any day of the month, so why not begin today?

Blessings be upon your family!

From your "Heart to Heart" friend,

Lois