January 11-17 // Small-World Snow Scene, Butter Sculpting, Guarding Against Overstimulation, and More!
We will practice resourcefulness, gauge our daily activity levels, create a gift closet, and look at some lovely picture books!
Hello! I truly hope you’re having a sweet week. Getting back into routines, work, and other people’s expectations can be really tough, but I hope you’ve been finding purpose in all of it. We’ve got some fun activities and deep discussions for this week, so let’s jump in!
January's Theme: Becoming Purposeful and Productive
Activity: A Snow Scene for Small World Play + Butter Sculpting
Parenting Pep Talk: Guarding Our Kids Against Overstimulation (+printable)
Mini-Challenge: Plan Your Week by Activity Level
Thoughtfulness: Create a Gift Closet
Book Club: The Lazy Genius Way, Chapters 7-9
Older Kid Book Club: The Hobbit, Chapters 8-12
Picture Books: Sector 7, Mr. Wuffles, Shortcut, A Time to Keep
Activity: Creating a Small-World Snow Scene
Building a little play scene with materials you already have is an excellent way for kids to practice imagination, resourcefulness, and independent play. If you haven’t done much research on “small world play,” check it out. There are so many benefits you might not have thought of.
It’s often used in therapy, too; kids might open up about internal struggles when pretending to be a character, and they don’t have to make eye contact with you.
If your child doesn’t have siblings, invite some friends over!
If you have snowy props and woodland animal figurines, that’s excellent. If not, you and your kids can enjoy the invitation to create everything yourselves! Here are some things we came up with for our snow scene:
Determine the boundaries of your scene. It’d be great if you could keep coming back to this area to play. We used a card table, but you might also use a kiddie pool, suitcase, etc.
Utilize white sheets for the snow, and you can make a river out of a blue scarf, pillowcase, or even rolled-up sweaters. Mountain backdrops are easy with cardboard and white paint.
You can easily make trees by rolling green paper into cones, securing them with tape, then cutting off the bottom so they can stand on their own. (Shout-out to the 9-year-old who taught us this method.)
You can make adorable woodland animals that stand on their own with cardboard. You don’t have to be good at art; we are not. Most animals can be made by combining a body/head shape with two U-shaped legs that slide into slits on the body.
Smaller animals, such as hedgehogs, can stand on their own by fashioning a little triange-shaped stand in the back.
Freeze water in a small storage container and you’ve got an ice skating rink! (We used one from Dollar Tree.) To create a slope, put something under one side of the tray before you freeze it. You can make skating figurines by putting LEGO legs in an ice cube tray or a dixie cup filled about 1/2” with water, then freezing it.
An igloo is easily made with cotton balls, glue, and a milk jug that’s been cut at the handle.
Make your own “snow dough” with one of these easy methods: by mixing flour and/or baking soda with baby oil and/or canola oil. (We tried several different methods and found a mix of those 4 ingredients to be the best overall.) Your kids will love making snowmen families with this. Just remember that oil might leave a mark on your clothes and any materials you’re putting under them. Don’t put this on your best white sheets or clothes.
We would love to see what you come up with! Reply to this email with photos of your winter scene or message them to @family.scripts on Instagram!
Older kids who aren’t interested in a snowy scene might want to try butter sculpting. It sounds ridiculous, but you’ll be impressed by the artwork people have made with butter! Here’s our attempt…a BUTTERfly. It’s a surprisingly cathartic and peaceful process. Send us pics of yours!
Both activities are an excellent opportunity to discuss idealism and perfectionism with your kids. Our cardboard “bear” looked more like a manatee, but is it good enough for our kids to enjoy? Yes! If we are scared to do anything unless it’s perfect, will we do anything at all?
Parenting Pep Talk: Guarding Against Overstimulation
In his fantastic book Simplicity Parenting, Kim John Payne observed that many children living comfortable lives in America showed many of the same PTSD symptoms of kids in war-torn villages. The cause? Overstimulation.
Too much activity, too many toys, and too much awareness of all the bad things going on in the world proved destructive. Parents’ efforts to give their kids the best childhood were actually quite harmful. The solution? Intentional simplicity.
One huge way to do this is by simplifying your schedule and being aware of when your kids are feeling overstimulated. For example, if you have a whole bunch of high-energy, A-level activity days in a row, you can expect your kid to be exhausted and agitated.
When you develop an awareness of how they feel and build rest and routine into their days, you might be surprised by how much happier and more enjoyable they are to be around. (Obviously, this applies to us as grownups, too.)
So let’s look at last week’s calendar. Think about each day of the week and rate it as A (high level of stimulation, such as being out all day), B (medium level of stimulation, like being busy half the day), and C (a calm day with plenty of quiet.) What kind of balance did you have? If you had three A days in a row, I’ll bet your kid wasn’t too fun to be around on Day 4.
There’s also a fourth kind of day that we highly recommend each week: a day of rest. Regardless of your beliefs, taking a weekly sabbath might be a huge key to your family’s health. We’ll talk more about that in a future week, though 😊
But hopefully through all of this, you can dream about what healthy rhythms and routines could look like for your family. Maybe you don’t have to drive your kids to dance and ukelele and soccer every week. Maybe each person in your family will grow most in the rich, fertile soil of simply being in your loving home.
(“Home” could, of course, include plenty of adventures and time with friends. If you’re living in an RV, you might get stir crazy after two C days in a row. Embrace the B days as an average in this season of your life 😅)
Here’s a printable we made for you to help you think through the activity/stimulation level of your days. You can customize this to fit your own family’s needs. (There are also blank and black-and-white versions.)
This Week’s Mini-Challenge: Plan Your Week by Activity Level
This week, look at your calendar and ask yourself if this schedule might be overstimulating for your family. Sometimes you just can’t do anything about it, sometimes you need to make big sacrifices, and sometimes it’s a simple fix.
On your calendar from last week and this coming week, label each day as A, B, C, or Rest. (A being highest activity level, Rest being lowest.) Did you have multiple A days in a row? Did you have all C days and need to consider more enrichment?
If you’re being proactive about it, this is one way you can plan your week:
Plug in all necessary appointments. Label each day that you know of so far as A, B, C, or Rest.
Look at your weather forecast. A day with the worst weather might be best for a laundry-and-readaloud day indoors. A day with great weather might be best for meeting a friend at the park or planning a hike with someone.
Plan your most high-maintenance meals on C days and your easiest meals on A days.
Our family uses hangs up this gigantic calendar in our kitchen so everyone can see what’s going on.
This Week’s Act of Thoughtfulness: Create a Gift Closet
Do you have a spot in your home where you store things to give to others? It doesn’t have to be a spare closet; it could just be a corner of one of your cabinets, or a box under your bed (which is what we used when we had a “gift closet” in our RV.)
In this space, collect things you want to give to others such as candles, chocolates, favorite books, and handmade artwork, etc., along with whatever packaging you need. There will be unexpected happy and hard things that your friends will go through this year—birth, engagement, loss—and it’s nice to be able to have some thoughtful items ready to drop off a little care package at their doorstep.
Grownup Book Club: The Lazy Genius Way, Chapters 7-9
We’re reading through The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi. This week, read the chapters entitled “Set House Rules,” “Put Everything In Its Place,” and “Let People In.”
"Your house rules help you move through your day in a way that ensures that the dominoes stay upright.” (pg 89) What little things in your home life cause a lot of agitation—like the domino that knocks down the whole set? What are some easy, small rules you can create as a family to prevent avalanches of frustration?
“We can’t live well without connection and community.” (pg 114) Would you say that you and your family are in community? If not, why? Is there some fear tied to letting others in? Do you doubt that you actually need connection? What are some lies you might be believing about this?
Older Kids Book Club: The Hobbit, Chapters 8-12
"Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach."
Why doesn't Gandalf help more?
Can you think of a hard time when you wished you had more help or more abilities, but you never got it, or God never answered your prayers…but then you ended up feeling like a different person once you were on the other end?
Picture Books
Link are to Youtube videos, but you really need to do these books justice and get them from the library. As reading aloud becomes more of a habit, you’ll learn some last names that are always a “YES, GET THAT” if you see one of their books at the library or thrift store. “Wiesner” is one of those last names; his wordless books are legendary.
Sector 7 by David Wiesner is perfect to read on a foggy winter day. This Caldecott-winning book doesn’t have any words, and it’s oh so wondrously imaginative. Warning: you might become a David Wiesner addict, so here’s another ⬇️
Mr. Wuffles by David Wiesner is a creative wordless book about aliens and ants who form an alliance against a housecat. You’ll love it just as much as your kids do.
Shortcut by Donald Crews has been a family favorite for a couple generations because of the building suspense. Plus, it teaches kids to listen to their parents and caregivers 😉
A Time to Keep by Tasha Tudor is a gorgeously illustrated book describing the whimsical traditions her family had for each month of the year. We will incorporate some of the ideas—such as Sparrow Post and a Doll’s Fair!—in Family Scripts, but some things, such as floating a birthday cake down the river, sound like they came from another world.
From Our Hearts
Parents and caregivers of children,
May you and your children grow in resourcefulness, creativity, and wonder this week.
May your days be structured around thriving personally and serving others.
May it be obvious what in your schedule is unnecessary and can come to an end.
May your family learn distinct differences between work and rest, and the need for both.
May you find chances to surprise others this month with thoughtful gifts.
May you find purpose in the hard times when you don’t have as much help as you would have liked.
We are praying these things for you and your family.
From our hearts,
Hope and the Family Scripts team
See you next week!