Creative Family Times: Practical Activities for Building Character

by Allen Hadidian, Will Wilson

As dedicated Christian parents, you want to raise well-trained, godly children in an atmosphere of love and acceptance, but you may lack a workable plan to accomplish your goals. Creative Family Times provides you with practical ideas for building character in your preschool children in three main areas: obedience, spiritual growth and family unity. Help them want to spend time alone with God; truly desire to memorize Scripture; behave properly in church services, and even play quietly by themselves! Creative Family Times gives you the practical help you need to raise happy, obedient, willing-to-learn children.

Genres: Parenting, Family

63 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 1989

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could sum up this book's worth in one word, it would be "practical."

While not a perfect, nor exhaustive, resource for how to have different times for things in the family, it easily provides more categories than most parent might have thought of. The format is very simple, with benefits to each chapter, processes for implementing each chapter, and character traits that each idea will build in the life of the child (or parent). So many questions that my wife and I had were answered by this book, and we have already started implementing some of these ideas. Where this book really shines is answering so many of today's problems with anything but a screen. It seems like today, the screen is the ubiquitous answer for so many parents of children when "I don't know what to do and you are wild and energetic, so sit down and watch something." I found ideas that would develop my child's love for God, grow their knowledge of the world, and build their character, all without the help of anything electronic.

For parents who want to seek "older women" or "older men" to guide them, this book is very much sitting down with two couples and learning a great deal from their wisdom. I would recommend it to any parent looking for practical advice on parenting.

[Sara Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really concise, brief book on several habits you can put into place with your children to help train them up. Even though it is a little dated, the principles and wisdom still hold true. It's is written in bullet point form, which makes it easy to read and think through. They not only give you how to do things, but the why and then some. Very helpful!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of really great ideas that, at my point in parenting (5yo, 4yo, 22mo), I have usually run into via blog posts or talking with other moms at this point. But now they're all in one convenient place, with tips for how to make great ideas like "sit time" and "reading time" and "sitting in big church" actually WORK.

I'm glad I own it for reference!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brought positivity, order, and harmony to our home. Highly recommend. We even made a Mommy & Daddy tape for each of our three children.

[Karli W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a great book for new Christian parents. With 4 kids ages 6 and under we have already been doing most of these things, but it was helpful to be reminded to continue these practices with our youngest kids. There were a couple sections I don’t think we will practice/ I don’t think they’d be good for our family (i.e. tape time… my kids need to be in the quiet and not have background noise all the time) and I do not agree with the way their principles of discipline (I believe discipline should happen when there is disobedience, not when there is simply behavior that we don’t like). Overall though, I think this book would probably be helpful to new parents or parents looking for some direction in practical ways to bring their faith into day to day life and raising of kids.

[Gabriela Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this is the practical handbook to apply themes from Habits of the Household. This was gifted to us by some parent mentors, and I’ve found it both confirming and resourceful. Would recommend to anyone as something to keep on hand for your preschooler. I love that it highlights the character qualities that each activity improves upon.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good ideas, a little optimistic though. Not easy to train an energetic little boy to sit still for 30 minutes. But otherwise, the scripture memorization activities and daily routine outlines are applicable. I loved the idea of independent play with a recording of the child's parents playing in the background, reciting scripture and singing children's gospel songs.

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific and helpful! Such great ideas to jump start family routines, goals, and playtime. Highly recommend.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little old book has already given me lot of practical ideas to help me in my life with three preschoolers/toddlers. Great ideas! And so quick to read!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing lil book chock full of wholesome ideas & ways to engage as a family :) I'm excited to put some of these ideas to work in our own home!