Unplugged Project : Ribbon

This weeks theme is Ribbon.

The boys made faces by gluing pieces of the only ribbon I had on hand onto paper. They actually spent quite a bit of time on them and had a fun time. Very simple this week.

The face my 5 year old made. The hair is blowing in the wind he says.

This is what my 2 year old made. My idea was faces but he said "No" - so instead I present some sort of abstract art.

Unplugged Project : Newspaper

This weeks theme is newpaper.

We decided to make hats out of the paper. Here are the instructions if you are interested in making some as well.

My 5-year old made 2 - one for him and one for his stuffed dog and my 2-year old only wanted to make one for his dog.

And then I even pulled out the paints and let the kids paint them. They had a really great time. The downside was they could not wear them right away as they had to dry.

Turnoff Week Summary

Daily Record
Monday - Super!
No TV. No Blogs. No spastic email checking. I spent moderate amount of time on computer.

Tuesday - Ok.
No TV. No Blogs. A bit of spastic email checking. Need to rein this in before it gets out of control. Going to set times to check tomorrow.


Wednesday - Super!
No TV. No Blogs. Only checked email at set times.


Thursday - Ok.
Notice the email checking habit seems to creep back in if I don't explicitly set email times.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday - Good.
No TV. No Blogs. Maybe a bit too much email.

Weekly Summary
Some areas went really well. My kids did not ask for a single video all week so we watched even less than I would have allowed. Since I had put my laptop away (and that is where my son typically types) he also ended up not using the computer any this week as well.

I had a bit more trouble as I was trying to follow a bit of a fuzzy rule on computer use so it was easy to fall back into wasting time and checking email too frequently. I definitely did a lot better than is typical since I was so conscious of it. This is something I want to continue working on. But it felt nice to take a break cold-turkey from reading blogs and sped my time doing a variety of other things.

TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge

I am so excited about participating in the TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge. This will be our first time. I think one of the most beneficial things about the whole experience is what I am doing now – sitting down and thinking about the amount of time we watch TV and use our computer and setting goals for how I would like things to be.

Our current status:
My kids are allowed to watch 1 video (30 mins-1 hour) each day. Most days they do not even ask for one.
I don’t watch any television at all.
My 5-year old loves to use the computer. I have yet to do a good job imposing any sort of limit on this, although I keep saying I am.
Most days he does not use it but when he does, he does not ever want to quit.
I have been waffling on how much time to limit him to.
And I am a spastic email and blog update checker who has trouble walking anywhere near a computer without sitting down for “just a minute.”
I know this sucks a lot of time that I could be getting things done or spending time with my kids.

I am happy with the limited amount of time my kids watch TV, I am not going to do a TV-free week.
Instead I am going to concentrate in areas where I think we have issues:
Computer Use for Me and My 5 Year Old Son

Our goals for the week:
· Limit my 5-year to 30 minutes of computer time a day. I have been really indecisive on this, not knowing what the “right” amount of time is and not having a good mechanism for keeping track. I am going to commit to 30 minutes a day for the week, and then re-evaluate at the end of the week – and try not to question my decision during the week. I also will use this week to figure out a good timing method. The problem is that he does not always do it in one sitting.
· Limit my computer usage. Gosh- how am I going to do this? I can’t really go “cold turkey” as I have some things I need to do each day on the computer. I am going to unplug my laptop that I use to read blogs and waste time during the day and put it out of sight for the week. I have a slow, old computer in the home office that I will use to read email and take care of things that need to be done. The difficult issue here is how to appropriately limit my use of this. I think I will go for no more repeated running in and out to check my mail, and I am hanging up a big note on my monitor that says “Are you wasting your time?” to help encourage me to only do what I need to and get off.

So I guess the summary is that we are not actually turning everything off, but using this week to try out some new limits and maybe break some bad habits. We’ll see how it goes!

Weekly Unplugged Project : Scissors

This week's Unplugged Project topic is scissors. We have missed quite a few weeks so I wanted to jump back in even if I was feeling less than inspired today.

I drew shapes on paper and asked my kids (2 and 5) to cut on the lines as best they could. I thought this was a good chance to get an idea of where their scissor skills are and help them as I could. My 5 year old did pretty well, and I had a chance to sit down with my 2 year old and give him some pointers. His cutting actually drastically improved in just a few minutes, with a couple of tips.

So I was pretty happy - we were amused for a while and some of us even learned some new things!

Avoid Temptation!

If you want to avoid the temptation of spending a bunch of money and filling your over-stuffed house with yet more stuff, stay out of the toy store. We had some time to kill today and decided to pop into an independent toy store. There was also a particular toy I was looking for that I thought would be a fun family activity for the summer. (Beamo)

I was actually a little nervous as my kids have seen basically no advertising and have rarely been in a toy store. The only exposure they have to toys besides the ones we own are when we go play at friends houses. This really limits the nagging and begging and keeps from planting the seeds of discontent. I have to say my kids did excellent in the store, although they were a little sad to leave and have to stop playing with the doll house.

I, on the other hand, experienced a lot of temptation. There are so many cool toys out there. I did buy a few things, all activities that will hopefull entertain the kids on our upcoming cross-country plane ride. So I will not be blogging for a while, but hopefully when we return I will be able to jump back into the weekly unplugged projects.

Baking with Kids

The kids and I had another at-home day today! I really needed one and I think they have really benefited from it too. I just felt like we were too busy to do the things we wanted to do and just relax a little.

One thing we did this morning was a little baking. We made two things:
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/breakfast_grain_muffins
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/whole_wheat_cinnamon_graham_squares

The muffins were a new recipe which we liked ok. The molasses flavor was very strong and I am thinking that is not my favorite flavor. I'd like to try them again and maybe use sorghum. I have never used it before so I am not sure what the flavor would be like.

The squares are a staple in our house now, I think this is the fourth batch we've made. They are not a dessert, they are a good snack food. Sorta like a graham cracker.

I realized though tat I did most the work and made the kids watch a lot. I seem to do better encouraging participation when I only have one child with me but when I have both, I get a bit ovewhelmed. I am going to work on giving them more responsibilities.

Nature-Deficit Disorder?

I read an interesting book today. I'm not sure if "read" is the right term as I have to admit that I mostly skimmed it. I checked it out from the library a few weeks ago and it has just been sitting on my bedside table. I figured I'd better read it today when I realized it is almost due.

The book is Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. There were several things I thought were interesting:

• nature inspires creativity
• experiencing nature is not about being a spectator
• natural outdoor play has been criminalized
• current high-tech environment is overstimulating
• nature is restorative
• main reasons children play outside less are fear and lack of time

I thought he was very convincing that it is important for children to spend time in nature and to spend time in unstructured outdoor play. I believe that he is right and there is a lot of value in relaxing and enjoying nature, learning about the world around you and experincing some freedom and imagination.

But what I am still stumped on is how to accomplish this. With my tiny backyard and my lack of knowledge about nature and the flora and fauna of our region. But it has got me thinking and as I make our summer plans it helps me focus in on what I want this summer to be like.

Zoo in the Off-Season

We headed to our local zoo on Tuesday. It may have been one of my best zoo visits yet. The reason I liked it so much was that there were very few people there. In fact, we kept running into the same folks over and over again. I would say we saw about 5 other groups walking around. We kept commmenting that we were surprised it was worth it for the zoo to be open.

Anyway, we had a really awesome time. We were able to move at our own pace and spend as much time watching things like the primates showing off, and we had a great view! I will have to say that I see why there weren't many people there. It was raining on and off all day and I am not even sure if the temperature managed to hit 50 but we were prepared for it and we were totally comfortable.

Give you zoo a chance in the off-season sometime! You may be pleasantly surprised!

Weekly Unplugged Project : Shiny

The topic for this week's Unplugged Project is Shiny!

Sorry, no photos again this week.

We started off by talking quite a bit about what shiny means. I was a little surprised that my 5-year old did not really get it. I guess it is a little abstract and we are constantly bombarding them with things like colors and shapes but not attributes like shiny. So that was great!

But we had a good deal of trouble coming up with an idea for a project. I ended up just giving the kids sheets of aluminum foil to make something out of. My oldest made a shiny window and the younger made something else. I am actually not quite sure what it is, but he had fun.

Another thing we did this week was enjoy some sun-SHINY! We were so glad to see it too! Unfortunately, I believe the rain is on its way back.

Weekly Unplugged Project : Music

For this week's Unplugged project we made shakers out of toilet paper rolls. Unfortunately, my camera is not working and I could not find a picture of this activity online, although I found several descriptions like this one.

Basically you take an empty roll and staple one end shut. Then add some beans or other small item, and staple the other end (flattening it the other way.) My son did not feel like decorating so we left it bare. Then we enjoyed singing and practicing shaking and stopping, and shaking and stopping. It is amazing how it only takes a simple game and kids can have a ball.

As soon as I post this, we are off to try another music idea that I saw on Becky's blog today.

Weekly Unplugged Project : Alphabet Letters

This week's project was Alphabet Letters. I was so excited because a couple weeks ago I bought a bag of alphabet pasta at Trader Joes and figured we could do something with that.

I decided to have the kids sort the letters out so I wrote each of the letters out on paper. Both kids "helped" although my 2-year old was not as interested. I tried to come up with a variety of things to talk about and practice related to the project. I geared some toward each boy since they are at different levels.

We talked about:

identifying letters

sounds letters make

matching pairs of letters

ordinal numbers

counting

guessing/hypothesizing/estimating

It was a lot of fun. And of course, we still have the pasta to reuse so we are brainstorming other activities.

Joy Joy Joy !

My kids are outside playing in the backyard! Hooray! We have had such icky weather lately but today is beautiful and it makes me think Spring is on the way.

This is really the first time I have felt comfortable having my little one out there without being right with him. (He's 2.5) Of course, I am just right inside the door and can hear them and partially see them. We have an awfully small yard and it is fenced in so it should be a pretty safe place.

You can probably tell from reading that paragraph what kind of mom I am - did you guess paranoid? If so you are right. It is such a struggle to let them play and "be boys" and balance that with my overactive sense of danger and catastrophe.

How Exciting! I won an award!

Look at my adorable award!

I'd like to thank MomUnlpugged for passing this award on to me. I have had a lot of fun being her friend and our family has benefited from her creative ideas and motivation.

I was excited to see my name on the short list of participants in the first week of the Unplugged Project. I wish we had participated every week but we did miss two of them.

Thanks again!

Valentine's Mania

Aaaaagh! What happened to the on the ball mom who always had her son make the valentines a whole week in advance? Oh I know, she had another child and she can only juggle so many balls.

How did it turn out to be the night before my 5-year olds preschool valentine's party with NO valentines made. It was dinner time and my poor boy did not want to write his name any more times. I must admit I was a bit grumpier than necessary and forced the poor boy to finish.

And it was really my own fault. I should have started sooner and I should have realized that most things are easier said than done. - Our fingerprints didn't look much like hearts for some reason!

Chores for Kids

We have been a bit on and of with the chores in our house. I am a huge proponent of unpaid unoptional chores for kids of all ages. I have gone through spells though where it was hard to consistently implement them. Mostly because I am a creature of habit and if I get out of the habit of asking the boys to help me with the dishwasher and just do it myself, I just don't think of it until I have already done it.

One of my goals for this year is to be more consistent with the chores and more clearly define our expectations for the kids. So my 5-year old and I sat down together in January and he helped me list their chores. (Funny thing - he kept trying to add more stuff - I think he just liked working with me on it - but I had to cut him off and suggest we add more later)

5-year old Chores
Cleaning his room daily at rest time
Put his dirty clothes in his basket
Putting away his clean laundry
Picking Up Toys around the house when asked
Unload dishes from dishwasher, placing on counter or in cabinet
Carry plate over to sink when finished eating
Setting the table with brother

2-year old Chores
Put his dirty clothes in his basket
Putting away his clean laundry (that he can reach)
Picking Up Toys around the house when asked
Unload silverware from dishwasher
Setting the table with brother

We are doing really well with this and all are being done consistently except the last 2 and that is because I have not really been consistent. The lists look long to me but they are actually quite small jobs. The only significant one is the room cleaning one and that has caused some conflict. Overall, I am happy with where we are now. Of course I will need to add more things as they get older.

Unplugged Project : More Collage

We had such a great time last time we made collages. In fact they are displayed in the kids rooms and they still enjoy looking at them. So when collages came around again on the Unplugged Project we were happy to make more. We were even all the ball this week - we did these on Tuesday. After my 5 year-old repeatedly asked me if it was time to do the "weekly project" yet I figured we would go ahead and break out the catalogs.

Mostly we used two catalogs - Pottery Barn Kids and Ballard Designs - with a little from a 3.5 year old Sunset magazine thrown in there.
My 2 year old just did whatever he wanted, although I ended up doing a fair bit of the cutting under his direction. I gave my 5-year old some ideas and tried to do something a little more directed with him. So he started looking for the letters of the alphabet. But after a while, he said "I think I'll only do through i" and then he moved on to add some things he thought were more fun. I think he thought his brother was having more fun than him - since he wasn't working near as hard.

These collages are also hanging in their rooms and my two-year old loves to look at and touch his creation.

Unplugged Project : Pipe Cleaners

We had a nice time with pipe cleaners this week for the unplugged project. My husband started by making letters with our 5-year old. He wanted to spell "train" - surprise, surprise - so that it what they did.

There were some remaining pipe cleaners and the next time I turned around, my son had made a hat. Once our 2-year old saw the hat, he wanted one too so I helped him make a hat as well. The hats have especially been a hit. They made them yesterday and have been wearing them off and on today too. In the photos, we have Clifford modeling the lovely hats.

The one on the left is the one I helped my 2-year old with and the elaborate one on the right (which used most our pipe cleaners!) is the creation of my 5-year old.

What I'm Reading

I've managed to find a bit of time lately to participate in one of my favorite activities. My reading had really dropped off but I have enjoyed getting back into it.

Here's what I've been reading. I really liked all of them.

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies by Scott H Sicherer

(This is definitely the best book on food allergies I have read. I would highly recommend it to anyone dealing with them!)

My Television History

Participation in the Unplugged Project has got me thinking a lot about television and the lack of television in our lives. It also prompted me to do a little reading, at sites like Instead of TV. This has been a great encouragement to me, as I don't know anyone (besides my sisters) who impose many if any limits on their children's television viewing. Seeing that there are others who agree with me on television helps to boost my confidence that I am doing the right thing by my kids.

When I was a child, my mother limited our television viewing to 1 hour per day. It is funny to me now that that seemed like such a difficult and harsh restriction when now 1 hour seems more than generous. I have vivid members of how confining that was and how much my sisters and I hated the limits.

When I was in high school, I had an assignment to write a research paper and the topic I chose was the negative effects of television viewing on children. (If I sound like a nerd, that's because I am a nerd.) Anyway, it was pretty clear to me from that research I did that television viweing was not a good thing.

In college and for a year or so after college, I did not have a TV. This was mostly because I was too cheap to buy one and too busy to watch one. But there were several short periods during those years where I had a television (while interning in the summer and on business trips) and I found that I watched tons of TV. That box is totally addicting to me. Once I turn it on, I have such a struggle to ever turn it off, even watching things I barely liked. I would not get the things done that I needed (or wanted) to and I would always stay up way too late and have to drag myself out of bed in the morning.

Now, we have a television but we do not have cable and for some odd reason live in a little bubble that gets no broadcast television reception. So that actually makes it pretty easy. We have some videos and dvds that my children watch, although I limit them to 1 per day. (These are mostly 30 minutes long.) I don't miss watching at all. The only issue I have is how isolated I feel when I get together with others and they are talking about all the latest shows. And this issue bothers me for my children. My kids are still young but I worry about them feeling left out and ignorant at school because they don't know about all the characters and shows.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on watching television....