BIG ROCKS FIRST

I don't normally want to toot my own horn, but I will on this one because my friend gave me the idea - and I want to share it with my other friends (you!).

The week before school started I went outside and gathered up six big rocks (fist size), a few cups of pebble size rocks and some sand. I emptied out a clear plastic animal crackers tub and prepared myself a family home evening lesson. I marked on the big rocks: say our prayers, read scriptures, do homework, have Family Night, Choose the Right, and go to church. Then I gathered the kids up on the counter. I showed them the six big rocks which represented the most important things we should be doing each day/week; then the medium size rocks which represented the 'good stuff' we could be doing like swimming, playing with friends, cleaning our rooms, etc.; and then the sand which represented the 'extra/time filler stuff' that we can do like playing Wii, watching TV, etc.

I filled the bottom 4 inches of the tub up with the sand, told the kids to pretend like the tub was a day in our lives and that we had chosen to start our day out with all the fun/not so important stuff. Then I tried to fit all six big rocks into the tub and they just could not fit. Only three or four of them made it. So I dumped the sand out into a bowl and had them suggest a better way. They got where I was going with this and suggested that I start with the six big rocks first! So we did that and then we poured the medium size rocks in. Lastly, when the tub looked almost entirely full I said, now that we have all the good and imporant stuff done first, we can fill in the extra space/time with the fun/no-brainer stuff. We poured the sand in slowly and wiggled it down around the rocks into the tub. It just so happened that all the sand fit perfectly up to the lip of the tub and I was able to screw the lid on! So we managaed to fit everything into our day when it was done in the correct order! My kids LOVED it!



After this little demonstration I asked them to tell me what to write on the tub to summarize what they learned. Luke said "Do the big rocks first!" Ashley said, "We should Choose the Right" and Tyler reminded them of our motto "Work then Play!" I now keep the tub in the kitchen where we see it often as a reminder and we talk about what is most important on a daily basis. For instance, the kids are really grasping the fact that they ought to get up, eat, and get ready for school first before sitting in front of the TV and then running out of time to make it to school on time. It has really worked for us.

So that's all. A family night idea I guess. Hope maybe you can use it.