Family Values

The following are our core family values

Before a temple is dedicated it is open to the public during the temple open house.  We take our kids to any temple open houses that are within reasonable traveling distance.

{Faith}

Our family is first and foremost centered on Jesus Christ.  He has become an active part of our lives and an intricate part of what and why we do what we do.  We believe in, and worship, God and recognize Him as the Father of our souls.  We create and seek for opportunities to freely discuss eternal truths in our home.  At the center of our faith is also family.  As part of our faith we attend church together every week.  We hold Family Home Evening (FHE) on Monday nights where we study the gospel, sing, pray, and have fun together.  We pray as a family morning and night and we also read from the scriptures every day.  We pray and study the scriptures daily individually, as well as a couple. 

{Family}

We believe that families are the key to eternal happiness.  We believe that family relationships can continue after death.  With that knowledge, we focus on growing positive family relationships and seek our home to be a haven of peace and joy apart from evil or worldly influences.  This we hold as second only to our personal relationships with God. 

"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners" (From "The Family...") 

Gavin helping to make IHOP pancakes.

{Hard Work and Play}

We believe in hard work.  We give our kids opportunities to have responsibility and accountability.  We believe in the sense of community within the family.  Our kids do chores and yard work.  They cook and are involved in the family budget and planning together.

At Zion's National Park.

We believe that time to play is equally important.  ("Play is a child's work..." AMEN!)  Play is important to us both on an individual level for the children, but also as a family.  Some of our favorite way to play include: playing "rough" with Dad, playing outside together, and enjoying the outdoors (we especially like hiking).

This was one of our weekly field trip days at the Bird Refuge.  We have annual passes to our local children's museums, the dino museums, train museum, nature center, and swimming pool.  Learning in interactive ways are important to us.

Here are the boys on a curriculum day.  Because it's usually 1:1 ( or 2:1 or 4:1 on days we want to push through quicker), we are usually finished within school in 2-3 hours.  Then the kids have plenty of time after school and chores for free time.  Creative play and free play are important to us as parents.

{Education}

See the homeschool post for more details, but teaching our children to learn how to learn is a priority to us.  We present both spiritual and academic topics.  In addition to the formal learning in our home classroom, we also go to museums, research, and watch educational movies together.  We seek to fill their active minds with the wholesome, positive, and ennobling. 

{See Philosophies for how we parent}