When I was growing up, on special occasions like a birthday, First Communion or getting a good grade on a test, the person of honor was given his or her dinner served on a shiny red plate that had the words “You Are Special Today” on it in white script lettering. We always loved getting the honor of having the “Special Plate.” When my brothers and I got married, my mom got each of us a “Special Plate” to continue with our families.

So, I was very excited when I had the opportunity to review a different version of that plate – the Family Honor Plate. The concept combines doing a family craft, building a tradition that uplifts, and teaching children virtues. The kit comes with everything you need to decorate your own Family Honor Plate, by hand painting and then baking your plate to set the paint. It was very easy but also a lot of fun to design our plate.  In my next post, I will share a video of how we decorated our plate.

Next, we will put the plate into action by talking about character traits (fruits of the Spirit) and celebrating good choices when we see them. Unfortunately, we are sort of in camping mode at my house as we are undergoing a kitchen renovation. We are in the drywall phase and have no flooring, cabinets or appliances at the moment. So we mostly are eating on paper plates right now. But as we get our new kitchen set up and return to a normal eating schedule. I plan to incorporate the Family Honor Plate into our nightly mealtime. I am already thinking of the perfect spot to display the plate so we can use it as an anchor and guide for our daily behavior, starting with me and my husband!

I am a firm believer that when you focus on and recognize the good, you get more of it. How fun would it be if instead of looking for ways to tattle or for pointing out where others fall short, we look out for good choices and attitudes in the members of our family each day? When the person of the day is given the plate, they are told of the specific choices they made and the virtues and character those choices showed. It is also important to make the connection between the choice they made and how the child’s action made everyone involved feel, so they understand and connect with the power and beauty in positively impacting others.

I would love to see the kids competing in kindness, gentleness, and self-control to get the honor plate – even if they have to “fake until they

make it.” If we all showed up every day from a place of love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, what a family culture we would have and how might that impact our community? Our world certainly needs to focus on building up these character traits and how powerful the impact we can have on the world when we operate from a place of love.

I also got a fun flip book of table time discussion cards called, “Let’s Talk.” This is a great tool to get us out of our phones and talking to one another again in real conversation. This tool can help us teach our children how to listen, share, and communicate which is so important for social skills, academic skills, and future career skills. And more importantly, it opens the door for family storytelling that will make lasting connections for your children.

Both the Family Honor Plate and the Let’s Talk book would make great Christmas gifts for your favorite families and Familyhonorplate.com is offering a 20% discount on multiple orders at the Online Store!

I’ll be posting a follow up with our completed Family Honor Plate and a video of the unpacking of the kit and the artistic creation.

#Honorplate #Flyby #gifts #family