Sunday Stations

The LDS church has some awesome resources. Aside from their online site, the church magazines always have something wonderful to read. I have often used the Ensign as a way to keep the fast. Since I take a break from traditional fasting when I am pregnant and nursing, it kind of is hard for me to restart the process every few years after a good 2 year break. So, whenever I am feeling like I can't last the few hours, I bust out the Ensign and promise myself that I can eat after I read the whole thing. By the end, it figure that I can make a few more hours and often find stories I probably would have never read else wise.

The other week we came across a story in the Friend about something called Sunday Stations. It was a divine answer to every mom's question "what do you do with the rest of the Sabbath after church is over?" We try to make some attempt to keep it holy, but staying in our church close and limiting our activities to things that make it feel like it is a different day then the weekdays. I have often taken the easy out and shoved on some church flick. Although it fits the mold, I don't necessarily love using the movie out instead of being involved.

The whole idea behind Sunday Stations is reminiscent of elementary school. My first grade experience was amazing. I missed out on the whole kindergarten experience, but first grade more then made up for it. The day was broken down into various work centers to help keep interest high and boredom to a minimum. The Sunday stations use that same principle. We had to adjust some of the stations to fit our family age groups, but have loved using it.

Our stations consist of several activities. The kids love going to the internet to color online at the church website. Tiago inevitably colors everything red, including the faces and even the Temple. After we color the few online coloring pages, we explore the other options. We have a phone station where the kids can call various family members and talk for a certain amount of time. Another station is the piano where we sing wiggle songs and re-emphasize the music the kids learned in primary that day. We then pick a story from the Friend to read and then use blocks or play dough or coloring utensils to reenact the story. Last week we built Noah's ark out of jumbo legos after singing the Follow the Prophet verse about Noah and reading a story about him. Mia used her animal toys to help fill the ark that Tiago and I built.

All in all, it was a good use of time and made the day fun, but reverent? Ok, I am basing that off of the song:

Reverence is more then just quietly sitting:
It's thinking of Father above.

A feeling I get when i think of His blessings.
I'm reverent for reverence is love.

When I'm reverent, it shows in my words and my deeds.
The pathway to follow is clear.

And when I am reverent I know in my heart.
Heavenly Father and Jesus are near.

(Reverence Is Love, Children's Songbook, pg 31)