Wednesday, July 1, 2009

July 1st - a new beginning

Today started a new beginning for Harrison.  No more quiet time in his room and no more tv during the day.  Oh the challenges...

No more quiet time in his room is fine.  He rarely sleeps anymore and he was just wasting time in there anyway (he got to get out of bed as soon as Bennett was asleep).  So now he sits on the couch for 1/2 an hour, reading and then goes to the table to do an activity by himself for another 1/2 an hour or so.  After that is Mommy and me time.  Today we started a 4th of July craft.  We made salt dough and used cookie cutters to cut out stars.  Then we baked the dough.  More on this later! 


We had left over dough so Harrison decided we should use the letter cookie cutters to cut out his name and Bennett's name.  He spelled his name and Bennett's name correctly.  His only trouble came when it was time to cut out the second 'r.'  He couldn't find another 'r' shaped cutter!  It took me a couple of times before he really understood that we just used the same cookie cutter twice.  He got a much better grasp when we did Bennett's name!

The no tv thing during the day is going to be a struggle for the both of us, but I am up to the challenge.  It is not that he was really watching too much tv, it was that he could have been doing other things.  Especially since it is summer and the weather has been gorgeous.  So the new rules are that the tv gets turned off at 8:00 am and doesn't get turned on again until after dinner.  This goes for me too!!!!  What will I do without Sharon/Nick/ Phyllis?  

Today was smooth sailing and the tv didn't even get turned on after dinner because Dad invited Harrison and Bennett outside to play baseball.  They were outside until 8:30!  Then it was time for a shower - Harrison does this all by himself (Bennett still gets his bath!) - and a story.  Harrison and I started a new chapter book, Mystery Cat and the Chocolate Trap by Susan Saunders while Bennett took his bath.  I haven't been to the library in a while so I ran out of Magic Treehouse books.  This is an oldie but a goodie.  I hope it's not too advanced for him, but he seemed to understand the first chapter so we will see.

And then it was time for bed.  Both boys were ready as it was after 9:00 but I want to try and get them onto a bit of a summer schedule where they stay up a little later and sleep in a little longer.  Time will tell...

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