We're Doing It!

Unlike other things I start and am unable to finish, this whole no TV thing is actually working.  Kind of.  I'm not above turning on a movie for the boys once in a while, but we have to go all the way to the basement to do it, so that makes it more work.  And Scott and I have been watching the Olympics after the boys go to bed, so there's that.

But the cool thing is that the boys are actually having a good time without TV.  I've created a cozy reading spot in the playroom and Ben loves reading in it.  In fact, the other day I asked him if he wanted to come play Grocery Store with me, and he said "well, maybe in a bit, after I'm done reading."  I was totally fine with that.

The fighting between the boys has lessened, and I attribute it to both the TV being gone and my intervention.  My M.O. used to be to just sit back and let them figure out their issues.  As long as nobody was getting hurt, I thought, I need not interfere.  They needed to figure this stuff out on their own.

But they weren't figuring it out.

Now, when I hear things start to escalate, I go in and tell Ben that it is not acceptable to yell at people and that he needs to use a calm voice to tell his brother what it is that he needs or wants from him.  I've also found that making them sit together, holding hands, for five minutes helps.

Things are coming around in this house, I can feel it.

Now, off to break up the first fight of the morning...

This is Tough!

I didn't think life without TV would be so rough, but we are really struggling around here!  It is very difficult to not cave and turn the TV on when I just need a few minutes' peace.  It is also very difficult to not watch the Olympics (seriously, whose great idea was it to start this experiment in the middle of the Olympics?), or Big Brother, or even just some random thing on the History Channel for the sole purpose of vegging.  Yesterday was an exceptionally rough day for the boys, and I have something to admit:

I caved yesterday.

I could not handle the arguing, the whining, the tantrums, and the general disrespect in the house, so I cheerfully declared that it was time for a movie!

I had Ben choose a movie (Twenty Trucks.  He hasn't watched that since he was three.), and down we went to watch it in the basement, where our old dinosaur TV is hooked up to its rabbit ears.  It's also hooked up to the X-box, which plays DVDs. 

God had another plan, though.  The DVD was scratched up and wouldn't play.  But did I take that as a sign and decide that we (they) weren't going to watch a movie?  Noooooooooooo.  I told Ben to go find another movie. 

He came back with Prodigal Pig, a cute little cartoon about a pig who wants to take his inheritance early from Farmer Brown and leave the farm to go be a big-shot musician in the city.  It has a great moral message, and even better, it automatically repeats itself!

Friends, we watched that movie until LUNCHTIME!  And by we, I still mean they.  I did things like put dinner in the crockpot and check Facebook and play with the baby when she got up from her nap.  It was glorious!

I have another secret....

Scott and I watched the Olympics in bed last night.

Eeeeekkk!!  I felt like a child breaking the rules.  It was exhilarating! 

I might just cave again today.  Maybe.  If I can't think of enough creative things for the boys to do.

We'll see.

The TV Free Experiment

I can't believe we've done this.  It was totally all my idea, and I insisted so much that Scott had no choice but to go along with this, but I still can't believe we've done this.

We took the tv away.

I don't mean that we said we can not watch tv during the day.  I mean that we literally took the tv away.  It is resting peacefully in the basement storage room with a blanket wrapped around it.  It's like it's taking a little tv nap.  I'm a little envious, actually.  I wish I could be tucked in the storage room by myself with a blanket wrapped around me.  Seems quite peaceful.

At any rate, there is no longer a tv in our living room.  It was just getting to be too much.

Too much time spent in front of a screen instead of spending time together as a family.

Too much whining and tantrum throwing when I had to tell the boys that it was time to turn off the TV.

Too much of me using the TV as a babysitter so I could do things like pin things on my Pinterest boards or check my Facebook.

Too little use of imaginations.  Too little physical exertion. Too little getting anything done because we were so obsessed with what was on the screen.

The boys have been arguing and fighting and whining and just generally all-around no fun to be around, and I believe it's because we have just plunked them down in front of the TV instead of teaching them how to act around people.

We are on day two of this experiment, and so far it has gone somewhat smoothly.  On Sunday, we sat Ben down and told him that the TV was going to go away for a while because we were spending so much time watching it that it was hurting our family.  He wasn't happy, but he didn't throw a tantrum, so I consider that a successful talk.

Yesterday morning, as is their routine, both boys came downstairs and sat down with their thumbs in their mouths, demanding "boy shows".  I showed them we no longer had a TV.  They whined a little, but got over it quickly.   However, they were both incredibly moody all day long.

I guess we're going through TV detox this week.  The withdrawal symptoms will be rough, but I think we can do it.

Tell me we can do it. 

(p.s.  Spell check just told me that it's not tv- it's TV.  I think it looks funny all capitals, but I'll go with it.)

B is for Boys!

Last week we worked on the letter B.  The week before we did A, but forgot to take pictures.  Caleb really likes B, as did his brother when he was little.  Something about that letter, I guess!  We started with a big letter B printed out on paper from Confessions of a Homeschooler, on which the boys glued beans.  I forgot to take pictures of that, too, but they turned out pretty ok.  Ben, of course, had his beans lined up perfectly on his entire B outline.  Caleb tossed a few on and decided that was good enough.  I'm learning that his attention span is not as long as his brother's, so we need to do quick projects that are a few minutes or less.  (You learn as you go, right?)

The next day, we did a B hunt.  I put several small objects on the table, and had the boys find the ones that started with B to put in their baskets:

The next day, we made B baskets.  We did some bubble wrap printing first (painted in B for Brown, of course!), 

Then used some foam letter B's I had on hand from when I taught kindergarten to stamp B's on to the basket:

The stamps didn't come out very clearly, but Ben had a good time with it anyway.

Caleb was sleeping while Ben did his, and by the time he got a turn the camera was put away.  It's a good thing, because Caleb can get a bit messy with paint.  Caleb put a few more B's in his basket than Ben, and every time he stamped the letter onto the paper he'd say "B!!"

Two things I learned:
1. Caleb's attention span is short, so I need to find/make activities that jive with that.
2. I need to take more pictures of this stuff!

We're Learning!

I don't want to brag (well, maybe just a little), but did you know that Ben knew all of his letters, both upper-case and lower-case, and the sounds they made, by the time he was two years old?!  That's crazy to me!  Of course, I did have plenty of time to work with him on his alphabet (oh yeah, he could sing the whole alphabet song by that time, too), so I'm sure that helped.  He also knew most of his colors (except things like purple and pink and gray), numbers 1-10, and a few shapes.

Now, did you know that Caleb is already over two years old and can recognize a couple upper-case letters, and knows that "B" says /b/?  I AM SLACKING!!!  I have not done a single thing to work with Caleb on his alphabet, colors, numbers, or shapes!  He does know the color blue, but that's because his blanket is called "Big Blue".  So, everything is blue.  He can count to five, but doesn't recognize written numbers.  And forget shapes.  Shapes haven't even entered the picture yet.

So, I've decided that we are spending the summer doing a bit of learning.  Caleb will be learning his ABC's and all that stuff, and Ben will just get a light refresher for the things he does know.  I've been incorporating letters, colors, numbers, and shapes into our every day lives.  I'm sure I sound a little strange when Caleb points out a ball in the store and I say "Yes, that is a ball!  That ball is green!  That ball is round, like a circle!  What does ball start with?  /b/, /b/, /b/, Ball!  Ball starts with B!". 

But you know what?  I don't care.  That's how they learn.  We do this all day long.  And I think it's starting to sink in a little.  Yesterday, he pointed out an E in the newspaper.  That's progress.

In addition to incorporating all those things into our every day lives, we are also doing a letter of the week.  I know there are many ways to introduce letters (having been a kindergarten teacher, I fully understand the myriad of ways in which a person can introduce letters), but for the sake of remembering which on we're on I've chosen to start at A and end at Z.  I'll periodically blog about what we're doing through the course of our "summer school", but don't expect too much consistency from me.  This is me, after all!

With that being said,  I am off to start a Monday of learning for my boys, who just rolled their sleepy little heads out of bed.  We're on C this week!

The Incident

I love my boys.  I truly do.  I could never imagine life without their sweet little voices singing out loud at the top of their lungs or their funny giggles or even their little tiffs that they have with each other.  What I really love about them, though, is that they provide me with some really good stories that I can entertain you all with.

When Ben and Caleb start getting too rowdy in the house, I act on my grandpa's advice and send them outside.  You can run and jump and scream as much as you want... OUT of the house!  Usually they stay on the back deck, which is good, because then I don't have to go out there with them.  If they choose to go down to the yard, I have a hard time letting them go by themselves because I can't see what's going on and God forbid they get abducted or something.

So the other day they were getting a little rowdy (ok, a LOT rowdy), and I sent them out, and out they scooted as Scott stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes and I sat at the kitchen table feeding my daycare baby.  Scott and I took full advantage of a pretty much quiet house and started chatting about our days and our plans for the week.  It was nice.  Heavenly.  And a much needed moment for us, as it feels like with two very chatty little boys we can hardly ever get a word in with each other.

Suddenly, Scott looked out the window, and said "Is that...?  Is..?  HE IS!  BEN JUST POOPED ON THE DECK!  OHHHHHHHHH!  AND BEAU IS EATING IT!!!!!!!!"

Time stood still for a minute.

Then I got up and went to the door to find that yes, indeed, Beau (the dog) was licking his lips as Ben stood there with his pants around his ankles.  Caleb was squatting down next to Ben, pointing to the area where he had just pooped on the deck (?!), saying "Ben poop.  Beau eat it," over and over again.

We quickly ushered Ben into the house, where he admitted that he did, indeed, poop on the deck.  Apparently he just couldn't hold it in anymore and decided to drop his pants right there and do his business.  On a side note, Ben has a long history of being constipated (sorry, buddy), and had tried to go several times that day but nothing happened.  I'm sure that when he felt that urge again, he dismissed it, thinking nothing would happen again.

Scott took Ben into the bathroom to clean him up, and I sat back down to finish feeding the baby, completely oblivious to what Caleb was doing next to me.  When I heard a splash, I looked over, and realized that he had taken an old cup with dried milk in it from lunchtime off the table and was using it to scoop water out of the dog's dish and drink it.

I think the two of them had a meeting when we sent them outside and said "Let's see how much we can gross Mom out today.  That'll teach her for sending us outside!"

Day Four- We Cheated

Yesterday I kind of cheated and fed the kids (and myself) some processed food.  But really, what else am I supposed to do with all those chicken tenders and tater tots in my freezer?  I can't just throw them away, and nobody wants a half-eaten bag of frozen food!  So, yes, we did eat those things for lunch, and I did feel a bit guilty.  And while I'm confessing things, I might as well let you know we also had Coldstone ice cream last night.  And it was GOOD. 

We did behave for breakfast (fruit smoothies, whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter) and dinner (leftover jambalaya), however.  Remember how Ben didn't like jambalaya the day before?  Well, I told him that the first person done got to have a chocolate and he put a whole bowl of that stuff away faster than anyone else (except Scott, who pretty much finishes dinner before I finish chewing my first bite every night!).  So it turns out he didn't not like it; we just had a battle of the wills and he won.  I learned my lesson there!

So I guess that this week my thought process is that even though I realize processed food is no good and maybe even poisonous, and even though I will try to avoid it as much as possible, sometimes some good old frozen deep fried chicken parts and overly-processed ice cream are just necessary!