Playtime Hearts

I recently had our 4th child, and we also recently moved.

I've been busy and tired and we are trying to find our new rhythm.....

and I'm trying not to lose my marbles. :)

The kids seem to be acting up a little bit more lately, and I've been praying & asking for help and guidance as a Mother.

The answer that keeps coming back to me is to spend more time with my kids.

Because when all is said and done, I know that is what really matters to me.

So I came up with an idea to help make that happen:

PLAYTIME HEARTS.

Here's what I did:

1. I traced heart shapes onto yellow paper and cut them out. They are roughly 2 1/2 inches big. I cut out about 26 hearts.

2. I wrote on each heart a fun activity that I know the kids like to play. 

A lot of these are things they've asked me to play with them in the past......the ones where I have given the all-too-often response of "not now."

I came up with these myself, but it would be fun to sit down with your kids and think of fun things to do together. 

Here's a list of what we've got:

Cars

Airplanes

Legos

Color

Dance

Trains

Super Heroes

Paper Airplanes

Play Library

Wii

Game (3 of these. We have a lot of games)

Soccer Outside

Catch Outside

Ninja Turtles

Mazes

Make no-bake cookies

Little People

*Your Choice (2 of these)

(I also left a few hearts blank so I could add things later that we think of to play).

3. I taped them onto the little chalkboard we have hanging up in our kitchen (You could tape them up anywhere).

4. And from here it's easy! I let the kids take turns picking a heart and we do whatever is on the heart, together. Sometimes there is a time limit (20-30 minutes depending on what's going on that day) and sometimes we just play and I try to just forget the time and focus on my kids. It's been refreshing to remember what it's like to play as a kid. It's good for all of us. :)

Some days are busy and we don't pick any hearts.

Some days are wide open and each of the kids get a chance to pick a heart.

Sometimes it's when my oldest is at school and it's just me and the little ones.

Sometimes it's all of us together as a family, including Daddy.

This week we used one of the hearts as our activity for Family Home Evening.

And sometimes we play without picking a heart at all. :)

When all the hearts have been picked, I'll tape them back up and start again.

This idea was a direct answer to my prayers.

We've done it for the past week, and it has been so much FUN!

It's helped us all in so many ways. The kids seem to not be acting up quite as much. I've noticed so many wonderful qualities in my children when we sit and play together---because I'm actually paying attention to them! Something I needed to be reminded to do.

But most of all it's helped me make the time for what truly matters to me--matters more than anything and everything.

My family.

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