Enjoy!
"CM talked the the atmosphere in many terms. One was trust- openess and sharing."
With that in mind, I will add "sharing" to our list of atmosphere enhancers. We have always made a point to listen to our children, to let them vent what's on their mind. We have lots of conversations where we are all just sharing whatever is going on in our lives, not always heavy stuff.
We have four children, ages 18, 13, 6, and almost 4. We take each one out individually either for a walk; a fun date at the park, movie, or dinner; or to run errands almost every week, sometimes every other week. The children take turns. It's mostly my husband who takes them out this regularly. I will usually get alone with each child outside the home maybe once a month or every other month because it's harder for me to get away with all of the home duties that need to be done. It's a great way to get to know that child personally, to know their heart, what's important to them, their dreams, their fears. It's not easy taking out this much time and there are weeks where it doesn't happen but we look for every opportunity that we can to make it happen.
When the children feel loved and understood and feel a close bond within the family, that's the foundation to the atmosphere. Then we add the beautiful music, art, nature, reading great books together, gardening, sewing, woodworking, living life together to complete the picture. Oh, how I would love to have grown up in that type of rich soil. How much more I could have blossomed. Just think about the significance of this gift we are giving to our children.
I also think that our outlook on life and our attitudes effect our atmosphere. Are our thoughts positive or negative? Do we bring others down or build them up with our attitudes, our words, our facial expressions? Are we moody? Do we complain or nag? Do we criticize or encourage? Being positive and encouraging are fantastic atmosphere enhancers.
As an afterthought to this whole atmosphere discussion is our relationship with our husbands. We should work on that one. Because if the children sense tension between mom and dad or have to hear arguments or there is just a lack of love and respect in the husband/wife relationship, I think that really spoils the atmosphere and makes it really difficult for all of these other things that we try to do make much of difference because everyone is too upset to enjoy them. If any of you are in the midst of trying to improve your marriage, I would like to suggest the book "Created To Be His Help Meet" by Debbie Pearl. It has changed a lot of marriages.
And last but not least, a part of that foundation and atmosphere is their knowledge of the living God and working on building a relationship with Christ.
Those last three things, just coming from a stable, loving, positive, and encouraging home and having the Word of God being an integral part of their daily lives will do so much for the atmosphere. Then our children are free to blossom and become all that God meant for them to become. I'm not suggesting that we not strive for academic excellence, but isn't this so much important than our academic pursuits for them?
If any of you have wisdom you would like to bless us with, please do. Can anyone expound on any of the atmosphere enhancers that I have mentioned to make it a little more practical for us? What do you do in your home? It's great when we can learn from one another.
I just thought of another thing we have in our home. I set up a 6-foot
folding table and put a plastic table cloth on it. Next to it I have some
stacked plastic drawyers with paints, Play-Doh, construction paper, glue,
scissors, crayons, etc. Since this is a permanently setup, the children are
free to paint or do any other form of art whenever they want to. So I was
thinking this might be considered an atmosphere enhancer because it is an
atmosphere where they are free to create, basically, a creative atmosphere.
Other ideas for a creative atmosphere are Tinker Toys; PVC pipes cut into
different sizes along with the things that join them together -- they have
those over at the Children's Museum at The Woodlands Mall -- old appliances
where the cord has been cut off and any sharp inward parts removed once it's
opened for them to take apart, explore, and try to put back together; wood,
hammer, and nails. Does anyone have any other suggestions along these
creative atmosphere/environment lines?
1 comment:
I like how your friend links relationship ( eg listening to her dc) with atmosphere. A very nice post! Say thanks from me.
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