Welcome to the Week - Let the Fun Begin!

FUN- Finding enjoyment and playfulness.

 From Google Images

I guess it is time for my BIG reveal over here at Everyday Mommy. Ha! I never even told you I was going to "reveal" anything! It just feels that way to me. You see I've been sort of fumbling around over here, trying to figure out how I can encourage my parenting virtue each week. So this is what I have decided: On the First day of the week (usually Mondays, but to accomodate the holiday I'm starting this week out on Tuesday!)  I will write some type of Welcome to the Week post and share my strategies and challenges related to the weekly virtue.

Then on Tuesdays (this week it will be Thursday because of the holiday) I am going to write a resource post for the week's virtue. I'm going to scour the web and see what kind of fun stuff I can come up with to support all of us fostering the weekly virtue.

I have a three year old so much of what I come up with will be geared toward the pre-school set but since I don't want this to be a little kid only blog I'm going to ask for your help too! Each week I am going to ask you to go ahead and share and link up with YOUR ideas on the topic at hand. This week it is all about FUN so you are invited to link up any of your posts (come back on Thursday this week to add your links) that you think would be useful or FUN on the topic of parenting fun! After a Fourth of July family weekend I suspect a lot of you might have something to share!!

In time, I'll be coming up with a "Best of List" for each parenting virtue so anytime you need a little inspiration or advice about how to handle a certain situation you can pop on by for a quick tip!

So let's get to the FUN!!!

Over the weekend we stumbled into a delightful little crafty green toy store called The Treehouse in the Glen. While we were there we asked Stacy, the proprietress,  what her inspiration for opening the store was and interestingly enough beyond her eco friendly wishes for great toys she had a requirement that the toys be FUN for the parents as well as the kids. She said that a toy that a parent enjoys playing with will be played with more often. And enjoy we did, at her store and at our home.

While in that store we purchased one 200 block set of citi blocs and subsequently spent the rest of the day building and creating nests, train tracks, buildings, "towders" and a whole assortment of geometric shapes. We opened the box on our coffee table and for the rest of he day and into the next we had a staging area for creativity. The bottom line of the whole thing is we all had fun and I think this is the big distinction of the week.

We ALL had fun.

Now Sweets LOVES to play Candyland and would probably play her version of the game for several hours straight but I get positively glazed over by the first round. The citi blocs held her and my interest for hours. We would walk away but just seeing the pile of possibility would draw one or the other of us in and we would be playing together again.

I think many times when we as parents buy toys and/or think of activities, we will think in terms of is it fun for my child rather then can WE enjoy it together. Sure we will participate and even "go along" to kid activities but the places and toys that give us the biggest bang for our FUN buck are the things that are fun for both of us. Our kids want to spend time with us, time when we are fully engaged with them and not just token participation. My little visit to Treehouse in the Glen reminded me of this so during my week of fun I intend on finding activities that Sweets and I can both have fun doing!

How about you? Any FUN FOR ALL activities on your agenda this week?!

Next Post: Wordless Wednesday Fun!

My 13 Virtues of Great Parenting are:

Fun, Discipline, Creativity, Love, Wonder, Listening, Curiosity,

Compassion, Trust, Acceptance, Empowerment, Humility and Flexibility.

This week is Fun week. Next week we tackle Discipline.