I am taking on thewaldockway.com book/gameschooling challenge of 2020, where I read aloud a picture book a day and play at least one board/card game to boot. #abookandagameaday. Cheers to more picture books and gameschooling in 2020! The book and game don’t have to coordinate, but it’s fun if they do.
On Mondays we do language arts for our gameschooling.
Tuesdays: math/science/logic/strategy
Wednesdays: history and geography
Thursdays: we don’t usually do a game on Thursdays because we are gone all day at our homeschool group 90 minutes away. by the time we arrive back home, we feel exhausted and just want to chill in front of a screen with a movie, or football for my boys, and art videos for my daughter. I hope to change that soon and find more chill-laxing board games we can all enjoy without much thought, like the Bob Ross Board game, to play on nights like this.
Fridays: electives, such as P.E., art and music
You don’t have to have a theme. That just helps keep you from getting in a rut of playing the same game over and over. It expands your horizons of what games are capable of.
Note: If you want a detailed explanation of how I came upon gameschooling and more of the nitty-gritty of building a gameschool collection on a budget, go here.
So anyway, today, Monday, we did language arts. Oh how I love language arts!
I have soooo many language arts games. The ones pictured below are probably fewer than 1/3rd of them.
I’m not buying new ones until we’ve played all the ones I have. My oldest son didn’t get that memo, as he gave me Letter Jam for Christmas so I got a new language arts game without seeking it out. Bonus! What a nice surprise! I love the fruity jam theme!
I’m excited to play that in a few weeks, after the kiddos have had their brains sufficiently limbered up with other word games first. We played LJ during our Christmas break family game marathon. It was fun but unlike any word game I’ve ever played. Anyway, for Monday January 6 we played the games in the top photo above. Three rounds of Bananagrams and then Buzz Word. Rory’s Stories not as much. Basically with that one it was my youngest rolling the dice and telling one story during my lunch. I plan on keeping those dice more handy and making stories with them more during meals. I have three sets of the Story Cubes: Original, Actions, and Voyages.
What I love about Bananagrams is that everyone can play all at once. No waiting around! It’s soooo much faster and more exciting than stuffy, long drawn-out Scrabble games that last for hours where I feel so confined by rules and each person takes 15+ minutes a turn. Then it takes forever to change your hand around if you get the random raw deal of all consonants or all vowels. Since discovering Bananagrams, I haven’t played Scrabble at all. I just may never play Scrabble again because of Bananagrams. It’s like finding a zippy Toyota crossover after having driven a clunky station wagon for years. It gets you where you want to go in much less time, with more power, so therefore it’s more fun!
Buzz Word is a game I picked up for $2 while thrifting. It’s tons of fun but more geared for Boomers and Gen Xers. I had to explain some of the terms to my young scholars and love of learners, like “Ol’ Blue Eyes”. Hopefully the makers will make a Buzz Word Jr. If they don’t maybe I will in all my free time, LOL!
We also read one of my favorite Christmas picture books of all time. Yes, I know the holiday is over, but I love reading Christmas stuff in January. It draws out the season for me, keeping my heart warm and happy during dreary January. It is such a sweet story. My little sister Emily has blogged about it over here in her Christmas picture book list from last month, if you want to see pics of the inside. She is an illustrator so has an eye for art and it passes her test! Enjoy!
Today I got to play the piano in Primary as a substitute because the regular pianist was ill. The singing time involved the story that our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, tells in the video above, when he met an African king in 1986. President Nelson told him about the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ being an additional record of Jesus Christ and gave him a copy of it. The king joyfully accepted the book, saying it was more valuable to him than diamonds or rubies.
The song leader had a treasure chest full of jewels. Then she had hidden paper bags around the room. One by one, she had a child look for a paper bag and then pull out a picture that depicts a treasure, either a hero or a teaching from the Book of Mormon, with a page number where the treasured truth is found in the Book of Mormon. Then we sang a song to go with the treasured truth.
Some examples of the picture, the treasure it represents, and the song:
Picture of Abish/Her example of faith/ So we sang, “I’ll Be What I Believe”
Picture of Alma/ His example of keeping the commandments/”Keep the Commandments”
Picture of King Benjamin/His gathering the people to face the temple while he preached to them/ “I Love to See the Temple”
Picture of Stripling Warriors/ Their knowledge from their mothers that God lives and that they can pray/ “A Child’s Prayer”
So, when we came home from attending I shared the story of the king and President Nelson with my family for our “Come, Follow Me” study after church. The General Conference talk from which the story comes from is here in text form, and below, in video form.
I decided to make my own list, as President Nelson invited us to do, of the following:
What the Book of Mormon is:
divine, in other words, from God
Another testament of Jesus Christ and His signs, wonders, and marvels
scripture, the word of God
A record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas, who lived before Jesus Christ, while He lived on earth, and some, after Jesus Christ died
A story about a family and its descendants, showing what happens when the descendants don’t obey the commandments of God
A guide to modern living to fill one’s heart with light, love, life, and purpose
The guidebook to become closer to God, by abiding by its precepts, more so than any other book
What the Book of Mormon is not:
a fraud
a result of Joseph Smith’s imagination
a product of any mortal man’s imagination
irrelevant to anyone living in this modern world
a replacement for the Bible. Rather, it is a companion. They work “hand in hand together, to testify of Christ” as Janice Kapp Perry wrote in her beautiful song.
What the Book of Mormon affirms:
that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World
that Jesus Christ would not only atone for our sins but suffer for our infirmities and weaknesses “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.” Alma 7:11-13
that the purpose of this life is to have joy (2 Nephi 2:25)
that the eating of the fruit by Eve, and the subsequent Fall of Adam and Eve, were not tragic accidents or mistakes. They were courageous steps so that we, as mortals, might move forward according to the plan of salvation. If Eve had not eaten of the fruit, we would not have been able to be born, gain a body, have a family, and receive a fulness of joy (And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. 2 Nephi 2: 22-24)
that Jesus Christ is to be the God of America and will never have a mortal king, but be a land of liberty, as long as the inhabitants honor Jesus Christ as their God (2 Nephi 1:7)
that those who migrate to America did so and do so under the guiding influence of the Lord (2 Nephi 1:6)
that Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father
that “the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.” Alma 29:8. This shows that no nation or group has a monopoly on truth. God gives wisdom to all according to their readiness to receive truth, to all nations, across the globe, throughout all history. God is so generous!
that Jesus Christ will manifest Himself to all who seek him (2 Nephi 26:12-13)
that we can feel comfort if we lose anyone to death. “The spirits of all men,” when they die, go home to that “God who gave them life.” (Alma 40:11-13) These verses show both mercy and justice. Those who have lived according to goodness and the light and truth they have get the just reward of paradise. Those who have chosen “evil works rather than good,” get their fair punishment as well.
that some things are not worth our labor and money: “Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.” 2 Nephi 9:51
the importance of covenant making
that we can ask to be filled with charity, the pure love of Christ
What the Book of Mormon refutes:
that little children need baptism (Moroni 8:8
that Adam and Eve’s transgression was a mistake (see bullet point above under what it affirms)
What amazing treasures of truth! I will be updating this list as I find more! I love the Book of Mormon! My friend Joyce calls it the best beauty treatment! It makes your spirit and your countenance more beautiful as you immerse yourself in it. Here are some treasures that President Nelson quoted President Monson as saying we will have from diving into the Book of Mormon, as published in the January 2020 Friend:
I know these promises are real! I have experienced them coming true in my own life. I testify that the words of the Book of Mormon are true. You might like watching this video below about people who were shown words from the Book of Mormon without knowing the source. I blogged all about that here.
Note: This post is long. It started out as a list of tips for gameschooling on a budget. Then, as is so common when I blog, it morphed. True to my personality, my stories started coming up! I decided I wanted to tell the backstory to my gameschooling. So if you just want the tips for thrifty gameschooling, scroll down to the numbered list at the end. If you want my history of gameschooling, keep reading :-). If you want all this info in a handy dandy PDF go here. But I invite you to scroll below in this blog post to watch all the videos if you want recommendations for all the categories of gameschooling because the videos don’t appear in the PDF.
The holidays always remind me of board game playing time. I grew up in a family that always played games over Christmas break, the “Week Between” Christmas and New Year’s. I have fond, cozy memories of happily playing the classics of Scrabble, Boggle, Clue, PayDay, Life, Pictionary and other games with my parents and sibs. A fire crackled in the fireplace, and snow banked outside the house.
We also had a lot of fun playing board games with cousins, especially all the Parker Brother games (anyone remember Trust Me?). I loved Masterpiece, the art collecting game. I’m going to get it from ebay one of these days.
True story: one time, in high school, I planned a New Year’s Eve party with some friends, involving board games. My sisters and I got Pictionary for Christmas that year. Some of my friends showed up on the wrong night because they got the date wrong. We were playing games any way, because we play games every night during the Christmas break, so we just invited them in to join in with Pictionary and played away! They left not one bit wiser about coming on the wrong night!
Anyway, this game-playing tradition has spread and passed on to the next generation. The grandchildren love games, so much so that the game playing has carried over beyond the Week Between to other family gatherings, like Thanksgiving, monthly Sunday family dinners to celebrate birthdays, and summer reunions.
Some of my children, their cousins, and some of my sibs having fun with Scrabble. I much prefer Bananagrams these days!
One of my sons and some of his cousins are such serious game players that they have amazing game collections and special bags to carry them in. They prefer more of the role-playing and tile-laying games. Carcassonne, anyone? I’m not so much into those. I prefer word, math, and quiz games. Games without Meeples. I saw, however, on Facebook that the Duggars like Catan, so I’m learning to like it. 🙂
My oldest son even went to a board game convention. When he recently came to spend Christmas break with us, he brought the following games to play, in a special luggage bag designed just for games. See the games in the pic above and below:
We did get to play Secret Hitler on Christmas night. That’s a fave around here. I’m learning to like it. I wish it drew more upon knowledge of historical facts. Victory is based purely on strategy and acting. The kids also played it Christmas Day morning. Dear blessed children, for playing quietly and letting their father and me sleep in!
We didn’t get to all of the games he brought, because we played a lot of the new games we got as Christmas gifts, plus football, plus the Christmas Cookies game I created, plus another one I invented, which is under wraps for now, plus Spontuneous Christmas, plus Word on the Street. Of the games he brought, we did play Ra, Azul, and First Sparks. I also insisted we play Backseat Drawing. Some of the family played 5211 and Resistance. That doesn’t even count all the games we played on New Year’s Eve. So yes, we take games seriously at our house :-).
Nothing like playing in shorts and short sleeves on Christmas Day. Yay for Arizona Christmases! It’s amazing that it snowed just two days later!
This is probably why when I heard about gameschooling, the idea resonated with me so much! I first heard about playing games for school, in a primitive form, from these books by Peggy Kaye, back in 1998:
I love these books! I still have them. I bought them when my oldest was 5 and have sooo enjoyed doing one-on-one games with different children through the years for our homeschool journey. They are simple DIY games made with paper, pencil, or sometimes dice and a timer, dried beans, or a paper clip, or other common household items. The author also has Games for Books, which looks fun too. Her website is here,where she has free games to download.
I also loved using Diane Hopkins’ Happy Phonics kit, which is full of games to teach children how to read. I got that with Child #2 and have used it with succeeding children. I also had fun going to the Orem UT PERC every week, which is a lending library of educational games and toys. So fun! Then I moved and couldn’t access it. I finally found a similar place in Davis County Utah but it wasn’t quite as fun.
Then I heard about ToriAnn Perkey, a homeschool mom in Utah, who promotes games in homeschooling. I had also read in Oliver and Rachel DeMille’s Leadership Education: the Phases of Learning book about having learning games in a closet, like Scattergories, but I hadn’t bought any yet. So I started to pick up used games at thrift stores, like Blurt, Brainquest card decks, and Outburst, and I bought a bunch of new educational games with grand visions of playing games all day. You can see my early musings about all of it here, from 2013. I was so excited, as I felt like, “Hey, this will feel like Christmas from my childhood, all the time!” I got Bananagrams, Appletters, Pair of Pears, Dixit, Tell a Tale, Storymatic, Rory’s Story Cubes, Camp, Wildcraft, and a bunch of math games.
We played games hit and miss for a while. They loved Dixit but the others not much. Then I had to put playing games for school on hold because we moved to Arizona. That meant packing and unpacking for months on end. Once I was finally unpacked and organized (!) I tried to instigate the habit of gameplaying every Friday but my kids wouldn’t cooperate much. I guess they didn’t get the game loving genes that my firstborn got.
About that time, sometime around when I moved, I read about gameschooling from Cait, over at My Little Poppies, over four years ago. I’m happy to say, that finally, four years later (!) the forces of the Universe have conspired to make gameschooling come together in my life with my three youngest children! I’ve been doing gameschooling as part of my homeschooling, every day, for the past few months, and it really has infused so much fun into my homeschooling. I think I’m loving it more than my children.
So, if you homeschool, I challenge you to start gameschooling. thewaldockway.com has a challenge for 2020 of reading a book and playing a game every day for school. That’s reading any book a day and playing any game a day. Easy, fun, and you bond and learn at the same time!
Even if you don’t homeschool, I challenge you to invite more board and other tabletop games into your life, whatever your age or stage in life. They truly change ordinary days into extraordinary ones, along with reading aloud. They turn an ordinary day into a hygge day, and allow you to do “hyggeschooling” instead of plain old homeschooling! They keep your brain limber and you have fun at the same time! Even the Prophet, President Nelson, and his wife, Sister Wendy, love Scrabble! In the video below his wife says he has developed a strategy that works 90% of the time for him to win. (Here’s a video and transcription of how he relates family history to Scrabble.)
So, with my backstory done, I present to you, “How to Build Your Board Game Collection on a Budget, for Gameschooling and Other Fun.”
Pick out thrift stores that are on your routes for your regular errands, or not too far out of your way. Go at a regular time, like right before grocery shopping or in between dropping off and picking up a child from a class. Find out if the thrift store has half off days or other type of discount days, or even discount days for educators, then go at that time, and show them your homeschool association ID card, to get the discount. As Cait from mylittlepoppies.com says, because of the Marie Kondo organizing movement, people are purging stuff from their closets, so you are likely to find great deals! I definitely have! I have got Super Master Mind, Apples to Apples, Buzzwords, National Geographic Brain Game, Cranium Wow, Cadoo, and many more this way.
Set a budget for what you will spend each month to build your collection, whether it’s $5 a month, $25, $50, whatever. It’s easy to get addicted to this, thus overspending, unless you set limits!
Also check out used bookstores in your area. Sometimes they have have used puzzles and used board games.
Let your friends/neighbors/relatives know you are collecting games for gameschooling. They will probably be happy to give you some for free!
Join Facebook groups for board gaming in your community and let them know what you are looking for. They also might be happy to sell them gently used or give them away because of the Kondo craze.
Find out what friends of yours are into board gaming. Ask if they have a certain game you are eyeing and if you may borrow it and try it out before you buy. This allows you to make sure the game appeals to your children and has replay value. That’s how I discovered Chickapig, my 10 year old’s current fave and what he got for Christmas.
Check ebay, craigslist, and other groups in your area for gently used stuff for sale. ksl.com classifieds in Utah is definitely a great resource.
If you are a member of my church, do your family history research and temple work to enlist the help of angels. See my post on angelic help while thrifting for more about that. Set your intention for a certain game and pray for help in attracting it to you. That’s how I got Scattergories. Yay! (Even if you aren’t a member, you can enlist angelic help by being an angel yourself and showing mercy to others, thus getting help and mercy back. You can also join my church too of course. 🙂 )
If you can’t afford the game you really want at retail and can’t find it used, even with angelic help, read the game’s descriptions on amazon and boardgamegeek.com. Sometimes, just by reading about the mechanics of the game, you can create a crude DIY version of the game that will tide you over until you have saved enough to buy the game at retail. Some examples of this are: Apples to Apples, Taboo, Scattergories, Balderdash, Pictionary, and Liebrary. This is usually easiest for language arts-based games and math games, and some art.
Happy game hunting and playing! I’d love to hear about your deals that you find in the comments below!
The hubs and I have been enjoying some fun romantic Christmas movies this December for our date nights. I hope you enjoy them. They are clean and sweet.
Christmas in Vermont is about a young up and coming female executive who gets sent to shut down a factory in Vermont, by her boss, played by Chevy Chase, which makes me laugh. Is this his first serious role ever? He plays a pig-headed, crusty CEO. Morgan Fairchild also appears a few times as the mother of the male lead. It’s sweet and clean and reaffirms your faith in humanity and small towns. You can rent the whole thing on YouTube here.
The Rooftop Christmas Tree features a female attorney who leaves a big firm to move back to her hometown before Christmas. She finds out how to help her neighbor who has a run-in with a city ordinance because he puts a Christmas tree on his roof. The ending is a bit unbelievable but I’ll look over that because of the theme of family togetherness.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, starring Henry Winkler, is my favorite of the bunch. We watched it on Amazon Prime Video last night but it’s also on YouTube so I posted it above. It is a hilarious story of a young single mom who has a high-powered career but has been unlucky in love. Her uncle, played by Winkler, comes to visit for Christmas and helps her find love. I laughed out loud several times during this. It is such a charming, clean, romantic, funny movie that it puts a grin on your face in the end. The female lead, Brooke Burns, is gorgeous, and the male lead, Warren Christie, is very handsome, so that makes it fun to watch as well. The movie raises questions to discuss like:
“What makes a perfect Christmas?”
“What makes a ‘nice guy’?”
“Can you really tell if a stranger is a bad character just by being around the person for a few minutes?”
“What can I do to make Christmas less stressful so I don’t say to myself, ‘I can’t wait for Christmas to be over’?”
“Is it possible to fall in love with someone after knowing that someone for just a few days?”
I’ve been watching these videos based on the book Becoming Spiritually Centered by James A. Cox lately while I exercise. An acquaintance, Judy Gilmore, has created videos for each week’s thought patterns as presented in the book. I’ve put all the videos in this post.
This book is used on amazon but you can get it in digital form for a small cost here.
A friend invited me, as prompted by the Spirit, to go through this book with her at the beginning of 2019, doing one thought pattern a week. I had read the book over ten years ago and been to the seminar presented by the author, but revisiting it all really helped me and continue to help me. Something happened in January 2019 that I allowed to put me in a deep funk. Listening to and applying these principles lifted me out. I’m so grateful that my friend followed a prompting of the Holy Ghost and called me back on the phone after we had met in person, to tell me that the Holy Ghost had told her to call me and invite me to go through the course with her.
Incorporating Christ’s gospel, as taught by the patterns in this book/videos, totally allows anyone to have the Christmas spirit, the spirit of Christ, year round. You can truly rejoice, or feel joy again, despite your current circumstances, because of our Savior Jesus Christ. It’s all about whether we choose to focus on the Savior or not, whether we are Christ-centered or not. As President Nelson said:
Not the most Pinterest-worthy looking cookies, but, hey, my 10 year old son made these. I love being in the point of my mothering career where other people in the house make cookies!
Note: This post is inspired by the work of the charming Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of many delightful books, including the four “Cookies” books pictured below. I was saddened to discover that she passed away a few years ago. May she rest in peace. I’ve blogged about one of her other books here.
For a group educational activity involving my children and some other children, I came up with a delightful game based on Amy’s Cookies books. We had enjoyed the original Cookies back in November together. I did some research and percolation of thought since then and came up with an activity based on the book. (We’ve been gameschooling a lot lately with another group of homeschoolers, and it’s so much fun!)
So last week I read aloud the Christmas Cookies book, which is one of her Cookies sequels. You can see above, closer to the top of this post, the author has two more sequels as well. These delightful books are dictionaries, in a way, in that they give word definitions. But the definitions always involve cookies. So fun! So for example, “Tradition means we always make the same cookies the same time every year in our matching aprons.”
Here’s what we did for a fun learning and bonding time together to inspire a love of language arts. You don’t have to do this for a “school” activity. You can do it for family game night, a party, or with adults for a date night. It’s very adaptable!
I read aloud the picture book, Christmas Cookies. For each page, I first just tossed out the word being defined on that page, like “tradition” or “disappointed.” I covered up the words and just showed the picture. I asked the children to come up with a correct definition of the word, based on the clues given in the picture. If you have a super competitive, clever group of children, you might want to give points for each correct definition they give and double points if they manage to match the author’s definition. Then announce the winner at the end. Otherwise just read and enjoy without keeping track of points.
Then we played our creative writing game. I put a stack of index cards in the center of the table and a bunch of pencils.
I Googled a random list of adjectives on my phone. We reviewed what an adjective is and what a noun is.
I tossed out an adjective, like “aggressive.” Then I instructed them to write a definition of aggressive, in terms of either Christmas or cookies. They weren’t allowed to use the same word in the definition. So in other words, they were to write, “Aggressive means…(fill in the blanks).” without repeating the word aggressive, and using something about Christmas or cookies in the definition. (In hindsight, I would ask if anyone doesn’t know the word in the first place and I would ask someone who does know to define it. We had one girl who didn’t always know the definitions so her answers missed the mark.)
Then they passed their cards to me, with the side written on face down, and I shuffled the cards up.
I read them aloud, and they tried to pick whose definition was whose. They got a point for each correct guess.
The person with the most points when our time was over won the game.
We had much laughter and hilarity! It was sooo fun! Here are some samples of what they wrote:
My 15 year old son wrote “Aggressive means fighting crowded stores to go Christmas shopping.” I would say that is also “procrastination” haha. So you could play this game with nouns too.
My 13 year old daughter wrote, “Aggressive means setting a booby trap on the plate of cookies you give to the neighbors.” Yikes! I say that’s mean!
She also wrote, “Alert means making sure the cookies don’t burn.” Clever!
The 10 year old wrote, “Aggressive means making 10 dozen cookies.” I call that ambitious!
A 12 year old girl wrote, “Aggressive means my mom is mad and attacking the dough while she makes the cookies.” LOL!
Two of the students, siblings, had a meeting of the minds by coincidence and wrote, “Adventurous means trying a new cookie recipe.”
My 13 year old daughter wrote a similar definition only she added more. She wrote, “Adventurous means using a recipe you’ve never seen before.” She is such an artist, so I knew that one was hers, because of the use of the word “seen.” It was so fun to see the children’s personalities shine through in their definitions.
My 15 year old wrote, “Adventurous means being Kevin in Home Alone 2.” I knew that one was his as well!
For “attractive,” we had:
“Attractive means those presents under the tree look so, so, so, good!”
and
“Attractive means so-and-so thinks Mrs. Claus is cute!” The writer put her brother’s name in there for “so-and-so”, which made it easy for all to guess who it was. She quickly learned not to do that for future turns, LOL!
At the end we served cookies of course. 🙂
Everyone had a rousing good time. We are totally playing this when my adult children come for our Christmas vacation. They are going to love it!
A variation could be like in the Apples to Apples board game where you have a judge who picks the best definition.
You don’t have to play with adjectives, you can use nouns or adverbs as well. And you don’t have to use the cookies theme. You could really pick any theme or for more fun, join two themes together, like Christmas and cookies.
We are definitely going to play this game again! My mind has been going crazy with ideas variations. Like, on our math day, we are going to define words in terms of cookies or math. For January when we meet again we will use the school Cookies book and define words in terms of school, and then for Valentine’s Day we will do the Cookies book based on love, defining words in terms of Valentine’s Day or love. So, so, so much fun!
I wish I had started this post earlier, like before Thanksgiving, to be a guide for all of you for this year. Alas, December has run away from me! I’ve got more outside responsibilities on my plate this year so blogging has taken a backseat. Christmas is just days away! If any of you out there want some last-minute gift ideas, or haven’t done any shopping yet (yikes!) consider this “Three Gifts Tradition” Christmas gift guide for this year to fill in some holes. Otherwise, use it next year! I hope it helps someone for 2019.
This is how we handle Christmas gift giving to our children. We’ve done this for a decade at least, maybe two. It allows us to avoid overspending, aka debt, and too much stuff. It also keeps my children from not getting greedy at Christmas, knowing that they will be getting three gifts from their parents/Santa.
I follow the Three Gifts Tradition. Wise men gave the Christ Child three gifts, right? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These gifts symbolize the three types of gift I give each child. If three gifts were good enough for the Christ Child, then that’s good enough for anyone. I learned about this tradition from my friend Kelli Poll a long time ago.
Gold is a fancy, fun gift. That’s because gold is fancy and glittery.
Frankincense and myrrh were both involved in spiritual rituals, but this bloghere says that frankincense was used more for spiritual rituals. So the frankincense gift is a spiritual or meaningful gift. Something the child may not value now, but will value more as they get older and more mature.
That same post says that myrrh was used for the body, I think for embalming after death. So the myrrh gift is a practical gift, for the body.
So here are some examples of these three gifts in terms of children.
Gold: we are going for the “wow” factor here. These are gifts that represent the wonderful treasures of the world and the world’s craftsmen/toymakers/inventors, as well as the wonderful adventures that the world beckons us to take. Of course, the obvious choice is toys. I’m listing them in order of the ideal age of recipient, youngest to oldest.
Duplos
Fisher Price Little People sets
Brio wooden railway set
Legos
other building sets, like Uberstix or K’nex
Dolls (flat-chested dolls only, please, as Miss Manners implores, such as baby dolls and American Girl-type dolls)
Doll accessories
Dollhouse and furniture
race cars and race car track
RC car
scooter
bicycle
board game (these are not your Grandma’s board games! A whole world of games is waiting to take you into marvelous hours of fun, learning, laughter and bonding!)
trampoline (for the whole family to share)
camera
sports equipment (Including ice skates, skis, and snowshoes for winter sports!)
art supplies
Klutz art/craft/hobby activity books for children
musical instrument
karaoke machine
drones
mp3 player
Kindle
laptop
wireless mouse
cell phone, if the child is 18 and about to go off to college
dog, cat, or other pet
Yeah, it’s really not hard to find a gift fitting this category. It’s usually what the child really wants and he/she lets you know. After children hit 14, that’s when I gift the electronics. You know you nailed the “wow” button of your child when the child unwraps the present and has a big smile or a an open mouth of an “oooh!” exclamation. Sometimes the child doesn’t know what a cool gift would be, and you have to go with your best guess. I’ve flopped plenty of times in this category, not getting a wow or ooh, but that’s OK. Christmas rolls around again and I get another chance to elicit a “wow!” the next year. It sure is a beautiful, parental nirvana-ish thing when it happens. (Notice I didn’t list a Nintendo, Wii or any video games. I’m the mean mom who doesn’t buy gaming systems for her kids. Some of the older kids who have left the nest have actually thanked me for that.) Of course as they get older it tends to get more expensive to elicit the “wow.” Just in time for them to leave the nest, earn more money on their own, and appreciate the other side of the Santa role.
Frankincense: These represent the nobility and spirituality of living out our Hero’s Journey, or quest, and our spiritual connection to God and community. In other words, these are gifts to contribute to improving the child’s education and character. So they don’t seem as “fun” but they are definitely worthwhile.
scriptures
scripture stickers to mark the scriptures
photo books full of pictures of the child and family members and friends
Dave Ramsey Jr. products, like his Jr. Books and the Jr. cash envelopes
Dave Ramsey books for the older kiddos, when they are older teens and college age
classic books
desk and chair
classic books of heroes following a quest
blank journals, or books with journal-writing prompts
family history books
nonfiction books to guide the child’s quest
nightstand
lamp
book light for reading in bed or car
Myrrh: These are gifts to care for the body, to feel warm, snuggly and comfy in our bodies, as well as to help treat the body as a temple. They tend to be practical gifts but not necessarily. I’m all for glam gifts!
pajamas
nightgown
bathrobes
slippers
colorful, fluffy, soft bath towel
electronic toothbrush
pillow and fun, colorful pillowcase
colorful sheets and/or comforter, with a pattern especially appealing to the child
flannel sheets (especially for people like me who tend to be so cold in the winter)
silky soft blanket
weighted blanket to improve sleep
shoes
sleeping bag
boots
gloves
scarf
winter hat
dress shirt
necktie
dress
coat
cooking gear, appliances, or gadgets, such as the deep fat fryer my 15 year old got last year. He loved it!
What about the stockings? True confession, I sometimes add a fourth gift into their stocking. That’s because I don’t like stuffing stockings with pure sugar (candy) and small, junky trinkets that will end up in a corner of a bedroom or under a bed, casually tossed aside and long-forgotten, like some Toy Story misfit. I add nuts so the edible part is savory and not just sweet. Also an orange for the toe. This fourth gift is usually something non-edible that is educational, like a Jim Weiss story on CD, a DVD of a classic movie, book darts, a set of Brain Quest cards or some other card game or small puzzle. Sometimes I make the candy when I have time because I tend to be a purist and cringe at food dyes and corn syrup-y products. But sometimes I don’t have time so I just buy regular sugary-candy, close my eyes, and hope for the best, LOL.
So that’s it! They also get a present from each set of grandparents, a gift from siblings, and sometimes from cousins too or church leaders or friends. So that’s plenty of gifts! It’s great to remind ourselves that whatever material item we didn’t get, we can work to earn it in the New Year and give the coveted object to ourselves. Thank goodness Christmas Day is not the only day we can receive things! I hope my children carry this tradition on in their families. It has served me well as a guide to gifting for many years. We’ve had some years where we’ve had a lot more money than others. In the lean years I’ve been grateful we didn’t create extravagant Christmases in the rich years, so that we’ve been able to sustain the pace of gift-giving in the dry times. We haven’t disappointed in lean years because there wasn’t a huge, high bar set of lavish gifts in the years of plenty.
Yikes, I missed posting this yesterday. Day #3 for having a Christ-centered Christmas is about honoring Mary. I love the two suggested traditions:
Make heart-shaped sugar cookies and think about what Mary pondered about in her heart.
Make a keepsake box like Mary would have made, with keepsake tokens of the Nativity: wool from the sheep, and tiny samples of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The story that Emily Freeman tells in the above video got me teary-eyed. Watch, enjoy, and I hope you follow the invitation! Come back tomorrow for Day #3.
Whew! My shopping is pretty much done for the big day! Some years I make gifts but not this year! I’ve got a lot of gifts to wrap, a concert to attend tomorrow night that my husband is singing in, and two more days of homeschooling activities, centered around Christmas. I’ve got my older children flying and driving in this weekend, along with my son-in-law and grandbaby, so we are all going to be together for Christmas! Oh joy!
I loved the series of videos that the two people in the above video, Emily Freeman and David Butler, did about having a Christ-centered Easter. Now they are doing a series for how to create a Christ-centered Christmas. So I will post a video each day from them about some new things to think about from the Christmas story. Each day’s video will include a simple tradition (usually done with things you already have in your home) and an invitation to ponder and act. So watch Day #1 above. It involves starting a new tradition of displaying an empty stable in your home from a Nativity set.
Tree of Life Mothering 