Another near-perfect day. Seriously, this is almost too good to be true. Dallin didn't ask for TV at all. The kids played together so well! They had a few moments of squabbling, but it was so much less than normal. I thought that when we did away with media, I'd be having to entertain them all day long, they'd be whining about being bored, etc. Nope. They have been making their own fun. When James got home, they were peacefully playing "hairdresser" together and had been for about half an hour. My kids have NEVER played a game like "hairdresser" before.
Dallin is my guy who thinks he needs to be entertained 24-7. But in the 3 days since we turned off the TV, you want to know how many times I've heard, "Moooommmm! Pleeeeaaase play with me!" Not once. NOT ONCE! In fact, I laid on the couch this afternoon and read a book for a good 45 minutes while Dallin and Sariah played together in the room and left me alone.
I keep waiting to wake up from this dream. I know this can't last forever. But I do think it's a blessing directly related to the fast I had this past Sunday that this first week of No-TV would go smoothly. Everyone I talked to said the first week would be hell. And it's been heavenly.
I do have to show off the cool art activity we did this afternoon. Of course, as soon as I had it set out, I had all the neighborhood kids over wanting to participate.
You fill a pan with just a bit of water. (Maybe 1/4 inch or so.) Then you mix food coloring with vegetable oil in small cups. About 1/2 tbl oil to 1 tsp or less food coloring. Mix it really well. Then, the kids use eye droppers to put blobs of colored oil on top of the water in the pan. And toothpicks or plastic knives to swirl the blobs around to make patterns. After that, gently lay a piece of cardstock on top of the water. Leave it until the paper has soaked up plenty of the oil. Take off the paper and, voila, you have a really cool design. The kids loved this!
Dallin is my guy who thinks he needs to be entertained 24-7. But in the 3 days since we turned off the TV, you want to know how many times I've heard, "Moooommmm! Pleeeeaaase play with me!" Not once. NOT ONCE! In fact, I laid on the couch this afternoon and read a book for a good 45 minutes while Dallin and Sariah played together in the room and left me alone.
I keep waiting to wake up from this dream. I know this can't last forever. But I do think it's a blessing directly related to the fast I had this past Sunday that this first week of No-TV would go smoothly. Everyone I talked to said the first week would be hell. And it's been heavenly.
I do have to show off the cool art activity we did this afternoon. Of course, as soon as I had it set out, I had all the neighborhood kids over wanting to participate.
You fill a pan with just a bit of water. (Maybe 1/4 inch or so.) Then you mix food coloring with vegetable oil in small cups. About 1/2 tbl oil to 1 tsp or less food coloring. Mix it really well. Then, the kids use eye droppers to put blobs of colored oil on top of the water in the pan. And toothpicks or plastic knives to swirl the blobs around to make patterns. After that, gently lay a piece of cardstock on top of the water. Leave it until the paper has soaked up plenty of the oil. Take off the paper and, voila, you have a really cool design. The kids loved this!
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The rest of our week has gone pretty well. I haven't posted because there's not really anything exciting to say about it. Yesterday was a bit more "normal", but generally they only had one really fussy/whiny/contentious time, and ironically we had gone to see a movie at the theater that morning, so they not only got "video" but also sugary, junky snacks. So I'm chalking it up to that! Today we were at an amusement park all day long so it wasn't a regular day at all. Tomorrow they will be allowed to watch TV, so we'll start over on Monday and see how it goes.
I think it's partly the lack of TV, partly that they've been eating good, healthy snacks, and partly that I haven't been on the computer at all when they've been awake, so they've had a lot more of my time and attention.