Family
Making Time For Family
By
Feb 21, 2008, 20:36

(NAPSI)-If yours is like many American families, spending more time together is a top priority.

Still, between time at the office, rushing kids to soccer practice and other daily tasks, scheduling a little quality family time can sometimes be easier said than done.

The good news is that there are ways for even the busiest parents and kids to stay connected.

Try these tips:

Cooking Up Fun

Try adding a fun, kid-friendly twist to your next family meal by serving up some themed dishes.

For instance, a Three Little Pigs Sunday Breakfast could include "Big Bad Wolf Waffles" or the classic "Pigs in a Blanket." Just wrap some sausages in a pancake, add maple syrup and you're all set.

You can also work with your kids to plan out a special family meal and spend the week preparing. Read through recipes with children one evening and take them grocery shopping the next. Top it all off by cooking the meal together and then toasting your family before digging in.

Movie Magic

Choose activities that appeal to everyone in the family-including the parents. If you have a movie night, for instance, check out a film like "Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby." Created by The Jim Henson Company, the group that brought us the Muppets, and debuting on DVD from The Weinstein Company and Genius Products, it puts a comedic twist on the classic "Three Little Pigs" tale and can appeal to both adults and children.

The film centers on the story of a cunning team of special ops wolves who insert an unknowing "sleeper agent" into the intrepid pigs' impenetrable house of bricks. That agent (actually a tiny wolf cub) is taken in by the Three Little Pigs and raised as one of their own.

Comedy ensues when the cub -who does not know he's a sleeper agent-meets and bonds with the wolf gang. Faced with a huge decision, he must choose between the madcap lives of his new wolf friends or the loving pig family that raised him.

The World's A Stage

Try holding a family play. First, have your kids rewrite the "Three Little Pigs" with a few twists of their own. Then work with them to put their story in play form. You and your children can act out the new play-and even invite a few friends or neighbors over to watch.

Be sure to hand out customized Three Little Pig Tickets (cut out and colored in to look like straw, brick and stick houses), and even hang up a few posters for the play. You could also get crafty and create your own costumes. They can be as simple as paper-plate masks decorated with crayons and marker, or as elaborate as hand-sewn pig costumes, complete with pipe-cleaner tails and Dixie-cup noses. The key is to make it fun for everyone.

© Copyright by EveningsNews.com