I can be a"COW"ntable Family Home Evening

If you couldn't tell from the play on words, we are learning about all things FARM this week :) This fhe was inspired by one of those books you get at Deseret Book that has family home evenings all done for you, you just have to copy them and cut them out! I have a bunch of those books that I browse through to get some idea. This book already the cows so I just cut them out and laminated them. If you DON't have the book you could just print out cows and write different scenarios on the back.

To make this a little more fun I decided to make a cute little barn we could use as a visual. We are actually going to be using this for a bunch of farm activities this week so it will get plenty of use. All you need is a empty oatmeal container, some contruction paper and a little white paint.

You simply cover the oatmeal container with red contruction paper and then use the white paint to make a little door and window. To make the top I traced a large circle and cut it out. Then you just cut a line to the center and fold the paper around to make a cone. I found the original idea HERE.

After my barn and cows were all ready to go we talked about what the word Accountability means. I explained its knowing the difference between right and wrong and taking responsibility for your actions. We asked the kids some different things that they have to be accountable for (praying before bed, brushing their teeth, treating everyone with kindness) and especially focused on NOT blaming others when you make a bad choice. This seems to happen a lot in our home :) Then it was time for our activity.

Each child would take turns coming up and picking out a cow. If the scenario on the cow demonstrated being accountable, they could put the cow in the nice, warm, cozy barn with its family. If it was NOT being accountable the cow had to go outside the barn in the cold weather all by itself.

Finally to finish off I took a bunch of scenarios that have happened lately in our house. I gave the kids cow-shaped paper plates I found at the store that I had cut the eyes out of. When I said a scenario that showed someone being accountable I told them I wanted my a''COW'ntability Cos to stand up and MOOOOO as loud as they could. If it wasn't being accountable to sit quitely on the floor. The kids LOVED this part and had lots of fun standing up, sitting down, and moooing their little hearts out :)

Some of our scenarios were:

When I went outside to play I went down the street to the neighbors house without asking mommy.

Even though I was already in bed, I reminded Daddy that we forgot to read our scriptures.

When I heard the baby crying I gave her a binky without mommy asking me to.

When I got in trouble for hitting I said it wasn't my fault because my sister yelled at me first.

I think it really helped the kids to use real-life things that had happened recently so they could understand what accountability truly means.

I hope this gave someone an idea for a different and fun way to teach your kids what I believe is an incredibly important principle. Thank you SO much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!