The word of the day is Play, play, play, play!!!

What a wonderful morning it was today! A huge thank you to Gail Quickle for sharing her passion with us and reminding us how important it is for our kids to just PLAY! It's so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life that we forget what our kids want most, is for us to just play with them. Be with them while they do "their work" and not worry about the mess or final product. I loved the poem she ended with and wrote it down to share with you all again:

I tried to teach my child with books. He game me only puzzled looks. I tried to teach my child with words. They passed him by, often unheard. Despairingly I turned aside. How shall I teach this child I cried. Into my hand he put the key. Come, he said, play with me. 

My prayer for all of us this week is to play. Play when we don't feel like it. Play when it's inconvenient. And most of all, play when our kids ask us to. I want that wonder in my children's eyes to never leave.

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AND.......

Starting this week I thought it would be neat to share all the pinboards on the blog so everyone can get to know a little about the people at other tables. Thank you ladies!

Jaclyn Cummings- Fashion Table

Lena Kubota- Decor Table

Amanda Ward- Parties Table

Maureen Enoch- Travel Table

Have a blessed week and hope to see you at Christina's Halloween Party next Wednesday!!!

If you'd like to contact Gail with any questions

 or inquire about Mission Hills CC Jr. Kindergarten program click on the link below: 

http://www.missionhillschristianschool.org/component/option,com_qcontacts/catid,38/id,1/view,contact/

Raising Generous Kids

Happy Monday Ladies! I am still thinking about last week's meeting and what Barb had to say about raising generous kids. Her 3 tips were simple & practical. 

Here's a quick recap of the tips:

1. Study my child to see where he/she is naturally generous

2. Be intentional

3. Be a good example

I also liked her "Game Plan" on  how to implement teaching them to be generous. 

** Invite kids into the process (let them have a say)

** Give kids the freedom to be as involved as they want to be. Don't pressure them.

** Encourage & applaud them every time they are generous. 
     It shows them that what they are doing is important. 

I hope all of you were able to pull a couple good ideas from your tables on things you can do to be generous. Here are a few I wrote down from Barb and my table.

1. Bake cookies for retirement homes
2. Pay for person's meal behind me in drive-thru, or the person behind me at Starbuck's
3. Make up some "Blessing bags" for the homeless. If you see someone on the corner, pull over & hand    them a bag. 
4. Volunteer at a food pantry
5. Adopt a family for the holidays (Bread of Life Ministry)
6. Get items for shoeboxes over Xmas (Operation Christmas Child)
7. Sponsor a child through World Vision

The list could go on & on, but the main idea is to find something or somethings that you can involve your kids in. 

Our goal as a group is to put 2 baskets together for Bread of Life Ministry this Thanksgiving. There will be more information on this from Dayna, but as you do your grocery shopping these next couple weeks, if you could maybe pick up some extra canned food items or things you think would be a good fit for the baskets that would be awesome!

Barb Christing's contact information is: 

barbchristing@yahoo.com

And her website is: SlingshotKids.com