Treasure Your Family Memories: Inspiration in Unexpected Places Written by Christine Sutton
A Saturday morning expedition with kids brought me an unexpected surprise. Certainly I had some expectations of our outing to "Healthy Kids Day" at local YMCA. Mildly entertained children, yes. Gentle reminders to make healthier choices, yes. But newfound inspiration to help others (and ourselves) preserve precious photographs? That I wasn't expecting! It happened during a conversation with a firefighter. I was impressed by this humble man from start. Not by his appearance or by his communication skills, but by his simple willingness to serve. In his role as a firefighter, he has missed out on many family gatherings and holiday celebrations. He is just one of many caring individuals who generously volunteer their time to protect our small towns. Then he said something that really amazed me. He recalled a recent fire, and he described how he went into lower portion of house and began taking all of family photos off of walls. He carefully stacked them all on a bed and wrapped them up in a blanket to protect them from smoke and water. It goes without saying that family was extremely grateful and also surprised by man's compassionate actions. In explaining his actions, firefighter went on to say words that we have all heard countless times, "Those things can't be replaced." He said that he's been through pain of losing a father and losing a son, and aside from people in his life, nothing is more valuable than photographs!
| | Take an Education Vacation!Written by Anita DeFrank
Choose one day out of each month and invite your entire family on an "Education Vacation". Invent games that can be not only fun but also educational at same time. Your children will be having so much fun that they won't even realize that they're learning too! The following are a few exampls of activities that you can use or adapt to fit your family.--->Theater Day Go to you local library and borrow several copies of a favorite or fun play. Assign each member a part and act it out in living room! Younger children make an excellent audience. Alternate idea: Write your own play together. --->Bring The Whole World Home Day Make a list of all countries in world (or just pick a few) and include a short description of each. Take turns reading each country and description out loud. Next take turns choosing a country from a map or globe. The rest of family tries to guess which one by asking questions. --->Time Table Day The night before have your family discuss everything that must be done next day. Be sure to include some fun things to do also. Have children design a time table to schedule days activities. Make it a game to see how "close" you can stick to schedule.
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