*Chapter 23- Wholesome family Recreation: Building Strong Families.

Proclamation Principle:Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

Lesson Objectives:  Sometimes it's important to just PLAY!!!  Having fun in a good, wholesome environment is essential to a happy home.  I always tell my kids, “Work hard, then play hard.” Life is about finding balance.

Opening Song:  Family Night

Quote/Scripture of the week:  

Isaiah 51:3- "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."

Attention Activity:
Service Scavenger Hunt:
I made this for a YW youth activity recently but feel like it could be such a fun way to present the idea of having fun while serve others.  This activity covers many of the areas in the principle:  Respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.   What a fun way to spread a little cheer throughout the community while strengthening the family at the same time.  With my YW, we competed as teams but in the family setting, you could set a timer and see how many items you could check off in the allotted amount of time.

(Example of our service scavenger hunt last year at Christmas time where we wrote encouraging notes on the running trails at a local park.  It was a huge hit with all those passing by.)

Alternate Activity ideas: (Only you know what works best, and would be most enjoyable for your family but here's a few ideas we've done and love):

• Photo Scavenger Hunts can be equally fun.  Personally we love to head to the mall for this but there are lots of ideas for different varieties of photo hunts here: 
• Family bake-off.  This is a weekly tradition for our family.  We don't eat a lot of sweets so everyone looks forward to this activity.  We pick a "featured ingredient" for the week that has to be present in each team's dessert.  Sometimes our treats turn out awesome. Other times, not so much.  Our biggest flop was "pineapple" night.  Not one dessert turned out.  Oh well, there's always the next week. :) The point is to spend the time together as a family.   While we wait in anticipation for our goodies to finish baking, we play games. The only not so great part of the night is the clean up!

• Get out of the house and go play.  If you enjoy the lake, head out on the lake.  Karaoke fans? Give it a try.  If you like gaming, try it as a family. If you enjoy sports, go play a little ball.
• And by all means, if you can find some of these to rent (pictured below)...DO IT!!! Guaranteed to brings hours of fun, lots of memories, and some pretty funny videos to the family!  :)

• Just do SOMETHING!  ANYTHING!  CREATE MEMORIES (and take pictures to preserve those memories.  Your family will greatly benefit from the effort!

 

Refreshments:  Whatever you make for your bake off because that's probably plenty of sugar for one night! :)

***Additional: Parents, THIS is a fabulous clip to observe as parents on the importance of FULLY giving our time and attention to our family.