Writing a Family Mission Statement

Valerie from the Frugal Family Fun Blog mentioned on her facebook page that her family are writing and discussing their family mission statement using the Franklin Covey family mission statement builder. As soon as I saw her post I was compelled to create our own, but how would I convince my husband that it wasn't too much work or over the top? I approched the subject carefully and casually and to my surprise he was straight on board. He deemed it a good idea and said we should get the kids involved in writing our mission as they get older (our youngest is still in the womb). I wrote down the questions from the mission statement builder and took them with us to discuss on a family road trip down the coast.

Franklin Covey gave us 11 questions which resulted in a mission statement about a page in length. We felt that this statement was too long and would be impossible to remember so we edited it down to one paragraph of points that are important to our family.

• As a family we will do our best to be organised, assertive and live with purpose. We will devote time to developing our interests and nurturing relationships with like-minded people, including making time for each other. We will try and make our home a welcoming sanctuary for family and friends of all ages. We want to be a connected family of contributors who are kind and generous. We value reason, tolerance, compassion, responsibility and integrity.

Still, this is a far too long for a child to remember so we want to shorten it down to one core sentence to use as a family slogan. The idea is that this statement will be ingrained in Priya and the baby's memories and influence their daily lives.

This exercise has been so beneficial to our family.  I look forward to raising our kids in a family that is well-defined in terms of goals and values. Let me know if you do or have done something similar. I would love to read about it.

More Landcare fun.

Since April is Get Outdoors Month at Childhood 101, I thought I should post some more about our experience volunteering for Landcare. Landcare is a volunteer organisation that brings Australian communities together to tackle environmental problems.

Our experience joining our local group has been overwhelmingly positive. We have been welcomed by a friendly bunch of people who are more than happy to show us the ropes. The best part is we get to spend quality time together as a family, outside.

Volunteering for Landcare is one of the most positive thing we have done for our family. We want to teach our children to contribute to society and are expecting that exposure to volunteer work will be habit-forming and guide them toward a productive lifestyle.

Learning new skills is always beneficial too. Three months ago, I wouldn't have known what this plant (above) was. Madeira Vine is a serious weed that smothers our native plants. I'll never be able to walk through local bush land again without spotting things that shouldn't be there.

Most Australian communities have a local Landcare, Bushcare or Coastcare group. Not everybody is able to volunteer regularly but you can still expose your kids to groups that nurture the local environment by attending annual tree planting events or free workshops. National Clean Up Australia Day is always worthwhile too.

Weighted, Roly-Poly Eggs

Today we had guests and made use of some of the Easter craft supplies that are available at the moment to make some roly-poly eggs. 

These are some examples that Priya and I made.

We used plastic openable eggs, blue tack, tissue paper, corn flour mixture and some eyes. The first step was to stick a ball of blue tack in the bottom half of the egg and seal it up. Once the egg is weighted with the blue tack it should stand back up when pushed over.

The girls covered the eggs with several layers of tissue paper and corn flour mixture.

Once our eggs had dried, we glued on some eyes.

These are the girl's creations. They have some real personality, don't you think? You could even draw or stick on some more features like a mouth or hair. Ours will stay like this for now though, as we are enjoying pushing them around and watching them stand up again too much. 

Toilet brush painting

The first thing I thought when I saw Priya running down the $2 shop isle with this object was, 'Who on earth would buy that?' Three minutes later I was purchasing a bran-spanking-new toilet brush. At least I think it's a toilet brush.

This was a wonderful tactile object to paint with. I expected to see more little square prints but the artist was doing a wonderful job and I didn't want to influence her by having a turn.

*On second thought, it could be for washing dishes... Whatever it was supposed to be, it's a paintbrush now!

Button Sorting

My (almost) two year-old loves to break into my craft tubs when the opportunity arises. Usually it's the glitter she stashes away in her pocket but today Priya got her hands on a box of buttons and invented this button sorting game with an egg carton.  As a proud mother I felt the need to blog about her ingenuity.

       

Dancing With Bells and Ribbons

Dancing is very popular at our house. If music starts playing somebody will drag us all to our feet and insist that we dance. Unfortunately for us taller folk, little people can't be seen in our living room from the street due to the bottom half of our windows being blocked by the lounge, so it may appear to the neighbors as if Daddy and I are jiggling about to 'Little Miss Can't Be Wrong' all by ourselves.

I thought I'd spice up our dancing sesson today by adding bells and ribbons to the mix. Needless to say this idea was a hit!

Egg Carton Flowers

We had some very welcome visitors yesterday. Priya's favorite playmates Krystle and Katie joined in on some flower making fun.

Finger Painting For Mummy

Thanks to Priya who created a lovely finger painting for my blog header this morning.

She doesn't always like 'mess' so today she was a bit hesitant to put her fingers straight into the paint but we were soon having fun and focussed on the project at hand.

I was impressed by this new method of painting with the paint posts that she came up with all by herself.

This morning we ate breakfast, painted until we were restless and beginning to throw paint around, read books for a good 45 minutes, drank some imaginary tea, played with puzzles until all the puzzle pieces had mysteriously disappeared and we still had hours of time to kill! No wonder so many parents rely so heavily on television. Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday and we have plans.

Pregnant Belly Painting - 20 Weeks

Other people's growing bellies are always interesting but I find my own 'bump' pictures to be slightly boring. Why not brighten them up a little bit? Painting my belly was such a lovely way for Priya and I to celebrate this pregnancy together.  I now have renewed enthusiasm for documenting our growing bump and will do a belly painting at least monthly. I'm already looking forward to our next body artwork, as long as it isn't too cold!