This week, Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer is once again hosting her Works for Me Wednesday… and since it’s the first Wednesday of the month, it’s themed. This month’s theme is “Greatest Hits.” She says, “For fun (and to take a load off!), let’s have the Greatest Hits Edition.  From your own archives, re-run one of your favorite of your own WFMWs.  If you only have a handful to choose from, that’s okay.  It will still be fun to read everyone’s best.” So, here’s my oldie-but-a-goody: 

I thought about re-posting my natural diaper rash home remedy, but realized this other idea got way more replies… plus it’s more fun! Our family has a unique (and free!) way of celebrating things. We have “family camp outs” — on our living room floor!

Some good family friends of ours have done this for years and we thought it was idea worth stealing. They started doing it when their oldest child was little as an incentive to get him to try to hit the ball in Little League. “If you get a hit, we all sleep on the floor!” So, we do it, too. We’ve done it to make birthdays more special, to celebrate potty training successes, to mark the end of certain kinds of my husband’s police training, etc.

We push the coffee table aside and we each drag out our sleeping bags and spread them out. I make popcorn and everyone gets a (caffeine free) soft drink while we watch a (pre-screened) family movie. Sometimes we even put up the kids’ small pop-up tent to add to the effect. The kids often fall asleep before the end of the movie, but it’s fun to all wake up in the same room.

We love using this special time as a reward because it’s free, it doesn’t cause cavities like candy, and it promotes family time. It really works for us!

For more great tips, go check out Works for Me Wednesday!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 am and is filed under WFMW, family, fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.