Monday, August 03, 2009

Mixed Feelings

Okay, I usually keep political and religious things away from my blog. I don't know exactly why, it just feels like the right thing to me. If I had to say, it would probably be because I don't know exactly who is reading my blog and how they might take the things that I write. After all, we all know I'm not the most articulate person. If I'm going to share something very personal, I want to make sure I'm there to make it as understood as possible. See, I'm already being confusing.
That being said, I couldn't not post this.
How do you know when you, as parents, are not up to par on the family night front?
When your almost six-year-old picks up the slack for you. That's how.
Apparently Evelynn was tired of the trips to Target or pizza at Costco that we were calling family night. So, she sat down with me to come up with a plan.
She had this picture (Joseph Smith Jr.).
I told her I knew a song about Joseph Smith that we could sing, so I would be in charge of the song. She didn't care much about the song anyway, she had other plans.
She wanted to use the computer to write the lesson. After I told her she couldn't copy the words off the back of the picture, this is what she came up with:
Translation: Joseph Smith was a man, and he is my great, great, great, great, great, great uncle, and Owen's. He didn't know which church to join. He went into the woods and prayed for help, and Jesus said, "None of the churches are right." When he told the people, they laughed at him. Then an angel [came] and gave [him] the scriptures.*
And, because a simple lesson is never enough, this is her puppet show (her idea, her creation):
Clockwise starting upper left.
1. Joseph Smith wondering which church to join.
2. Conversing with Heavenly Father and Jesus in the woods.
3. People from another church laughing at him (although I'm not sure why he is smiling in this one).
4. The angel came at night and told him about the gold plates (or "Book uv Mormen").

So, here's where the mixed feelings come in: Are we bad parents, because we are totally slacking on family night, or are we amazing parents, because our (almost) six-year-old came up with this completely on her own? Or, OR,... does this have nothing to do with our parenting, and just that we have a wonderful, amazing daughter that drives us absolutely nuts we love her so much? I'm going to go with that one.
I just couldn't not post this.
*edited for spelling and punctuation. :)

3 comments:

Heatherlyn said...

hahaha, good questions. I think you are good parents. She knew what FHE is, what it is supposed to be like, and then planned an amazing lesson even before she starts kindergarten. I think your super smart kiddos are a result of your great parenting!

Cal said...

Love her.

Rachel said...

that's pretty awesome. go evie