Get creative with a family fondue night - use more than just melted cheese! www.orsoshesays.com #fondue #familynight #familyfonduenight
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Family Fondue Night ~ Made “Saucesome” by Ragú

I love family traditions, and somehow most of ours revolve around food. One of our favorite family traditions is Family Fondue Night! This tasty tradition originally started with one of our first Valentines’ Days with young children. We didn’t want to get a sitter and brave the Valentine’s Day restaurant crowds; plus we wanted to…

family night idea
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Family Night Idea – Love is Contagious (she: Veronica)

Even though Valentine’s Day is over, the month of love is still going strong!! I thought it would be fun to share a quick and easy Family Night about love. Of course we love our families, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded! There is great power in loving each other. When love is shown, there tends to be more patience, forgiveness comes more easily and there will always be more joy in our home. Just by loving each other. SO EASY…yet so hard sometimes. I thought it would be fun to explain how contagious it is when we choose to love. It rubs off on everyone. Even your cranky teenagers can’t escape the effects of love. So…on to our Family Night!

52 Family Night Lessons all in one post! www.orsoshesays.com #familynight #FHE #family
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52 Family Night Lessons for Every Week of the Year! (she: Mariah)

Happy New Year everyone! I hope all your resolutions are going well so far! Something that I want to be better at this year is having weekly family nights or family home evenings.

For those of you who don’t know what family home evening is, it’s basically a night where your family spends time with each other and they usually include a little lesson, an activity, and (if you’re lucky) a treat.

Have a grateful heart!! Get a full family night lesson on gratitude in today's post. www.orsoshesays.com #familynight #fhe #ldsblogger #churchofjesuschrist #familyfun
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Family Night on Gratitude (she: Veronica)

Hello friends! It’s Veronica and I’m so happy to be back sharing another fun Family Night Activity. I’m always looking for fun new ideas on how to strengthen my family.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we’ve been talking a lot about gratitude. It’s very hard sometimes when I realize my children are growing up in a world of “entitlement.” I think it’s easier than ever before to be ungrateful and to not recognize all the amazing things in our lives.

Family Game – “Shoveling Snow” (she: Heather)
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Family Game – “Shoveling Snow” (she: Heather)

Happy Monday OSSS readers! Heather here with a fun “snow” game for you and your family. For about the first two years of posting on my blog, FamilyVolley.com, I always posted a family game on Fridays. Hence the name of my book, Family Fun Fridays, named after the games that I posted weekly. Hands down, one of the games that has gotten the most attention is “Shoveling Snow.” You have all the resources you need, right in your house, and it will provide laughter and bonding to help your family come closer together and make memories too!

Overcoming Challenges – Teaching Kids for Family Night

Overcoming Challenges – Teaching Kids for Family Night

Happy October! It’s Veronica and it’s so fun to be back this month with another fun Family Night idea for you. For anyone new to Family Night, we basically gather our family once a week, have a short lesson, play some sort of game and then have a treat at the end. I love it because it gives us a time The best advice I can give them for overcoming challenges in life is to be humble, teachable and always willing to adapt.that’s set aside each week for us to learn together as a family and to have fun together.

This month, I thought I’d put a fun Halloween spin on it.

Lately, we’ve had different children who have been struggling with different things. So, I wanted to do a Family Night that would help them in some way as they face these challenges. Although their challenges seem very small in some ways, to them they are huge.

Moving on to Family Night…

Pumpkin Carving Party Ideas {With 3 FREE Printables} (she: Brooke)
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Pumpkin Carving Party Ideas {With 3 FREE Printables} (she: Brooke)

Happy October to you all! It’s Brooke from Blissful Roots. This is easily my favorite time of year! And while baby boy number four will be here in a matter of weeks, I’m still trying to squeeze in any Halloween crafting, baking, and partying that I can. We have our other three boys’ birthdays this week, so we’re in full party-mode around our house. I’m just hoping this little guy waits until after the big party to make his arrival. My four-year-old was very cordial five years ago, and waited until the day after my twins’ birthday to make his entrance into the world, so I’m crossing my fingers that will happen again (at LEAST the day after all the birthdays, even a few days later would be better!).
Today I have some fun pumpkin carving party ideas, and FREE printables to share with you. My dad’s side of the family has a fun pumpkin carving party every year, and we’ve only been able to make it a few times. I wish we could make it more often because we have the best time! Since we don’t make it to the family carving parties very often, I’ve decided it’s high time to start our own little jack-o-lantern making party. Here are a few of the ideas I’ve come up with for our party:

teaching kids not to gossip
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Teaching Kids Not to Gossip: A Great Family Night Topic (she: Veronica)

Hello everyone! It’s Veronica and I’m so excited to be here this month sharing a fun Family Night idea with you: teaching kids not to gossip. I know Mariel has explained the concept of Family Night before, but for anyone new to this idea, we basically gather our family once a week, we have a short lesson, play some sort of game and then have a treat at the end. It’s such a great way to reconnect as a family, but also a great time to teach your children in a fun and uplifting way.
When school gets back in session, I always feel a bit nervous for my kids. I want them to learn new things, make new friends and be happy as they go through their school year. But, it doesn’t seem so easy anymore. The world seems to be a lot harder to navigate than it was for me as a child. They deal with so much pressure, beginning at very young ages. Friendships seem a bit trickier at times and it feels like more kids struggle with a good solid sense of who they are. And with the awesome tool of social media, these things seem to be magnified. One of the other struggles they face is gossiping. It’s been around forever, and always will be, unfortunately. It can be so damaging and destructive to anyone involved. Recently I’ve seen the effects gossip can have, so I wanted to take the opportunity to teach my kids about it. I think it’s a great reminder for ALL of us, regardless of our age.

family games
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Entertaining Kids Without Electronics: 8 Family Games They Will Love (she: Jamie)

It’s easy to overdose kids with TV, video games, and catapulting Angry Birds around (everything my kids are currently doing right now 🙂 – but I encourage you to try to disconnect from electronics a few times this Summer and teach your kids they can actually survive without them. Entertaining kids without electronics doesn’t have to be a lot of work!

Many families pass down photos, memories, & names – well our family passes down GAMES! I decided to share our absolute favorite ones with you! Each time we play these I can’t help but think of going to Grandma’s and having some good ol’ family fun!

Family Night – Teaching Kids Their Words Matter! (she: Tonii)
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Family Night – Teaching Kids Their Words Matter! (she: Tonii)

Hello everyone, it’s Tonii again and I am so glad to be back with another fun and simple Family Night! This month, I felt inspired to talk to my kids all about the importance of WORDS. The words that we use, and the way that we use them. It’s so important to spend time teaching kids their words matter.

To get started I whipped up a simple printable with the words I say to my kids every day before they head off to school… Check it out!

family night idea
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February Family Night…Sending the LOVE! (she: Tonii)

I am so excited to be back and sharing a great family night activity for one of my MOST favorite holidays…Valentine’s Day! Now I don’t know about you, but in our house Valentine’s Day has become a family affair 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, I love a romantic date with my hubby, but I am also not about to pass up a chance to spend the month of February teaching my kids how they can better show love in our family and to those around us!

Every year for Valentine’s I put out some cute little mailboxes I got from Target in the Dollar Spot. Once a day starting February 1st I put a little something in each of the kids’ mailboxes, anything from a note telling them something I love about them or a pencil and notepad. It has become one of our favorite traditions, and as I got them out this year I thought maybe we could use them to not only focus on receiving love…but SENDING some love out as well!

Fun Printable for Setting New Year's Resolutions www.oneshetwoshe.com
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Setting Goals for the New Year! ~ Family Night Ideas (she: Tonii)

Hey again, it’s Tonii from Blue Skies Ahead. I am so thrilled to be back at Or so She Says…sharing another fun family night idea! I don’t know about you…but I LOVE the start of a new year. A clean slate, a chance to do anything you want and start fresh! I was really excited to do a simple activity with my kids to help them learn about goals and have fun making a visual that we could focus on ALL year long to remember what we want to accomplish in 2014.

First up I made this printable to hang in our home. I love this quote and have found it to be so true in my personal life. There is so much power in simply believing in ourselves!