Saturday, October 27, 2007

Field Trip, Raffi, and Go Fish

I jently stand on the erth. The wind blows my hare and the trees. I here the birds and the srwerles.


A child in O's class wrote the above in her nature journal while on a field trip yesterday. How sweet is that? Below she drew a picture of the beautiful canyon we were in. It was a lovely field trip. Exhausting for the kids, but lovely.

After spending the day with a bunch of second-graders in a canyon, I came home once again to a husbandless home and a hypoglycemic child. After I fed the kids and did a few chores, I thought, "What a perfect night for a movie." Ah yes, let's sit and pop popcorn and who even cares what we watch? Let's watch Cars for the 80th time.

But no. It's TV Turn Off Week at our school and our girls are now old enough to remind me if I slip. Actually, we rarely turn on the TV during the week when the kids are awake. Who has time for all the TV that American kids watch? By the time we come home from school, it's 3:30 three days a week, and 4:45 on the two days a week that the girls have dance. We unload the car. The kids play outside. I do a few chores and make dinner. We eat together and the clean the kitchen together. We help the girls clean their rooms and clean up for bed, and then we read bedtime stories. There's just really no time for TV.

But on the weekends, we love to watch a couple of movies. Sigh. Not this weekend. Darn it.

Instead, I mustered up all my strength and courage (I know I'm sad and weak) and the three of us sat down to a few rounds of Go Fish. We also cranked up the stereo and played, who else? Mr Raffi himself.

It's going to be a long weekend.

6 comments:

Mrs. G. said...

I love when the wind blows through my hare too. Precious. Maybe it's time to teach the girls to knit...great time killer.

Memarie Lane said...

Why not just get rid of the TV? It's been four years now for us, and we haven't regretted it. We just watch videos now, and rarely even do that.

painted maypole said...

"you gotta shake, shake, shake your sillies out..." ;)

I've tagged you over at my place

Family Adventure said...

Ah, good old Go Fish! We bought a pack of Go Fish cards in Hawaii, and they use the most intricate, amazingly long Hawaiian names for common fish on the cards. It turns the most mundane card game into a hoot trying to pronounce these names. Of course, the kids don't really bother.

Still, whatever works, right?! :)

Hope you're having a good Sunday.

Heidi

the dragonfly said...

I'm just starting to make an effort to keep the tv off when the Little Mister (4.5 months) is awake. I never minded if he just glanced at it before, but now he's turning to watch it. I know he doesn't understand what he's watching, but there are so many better things to stimulate him!! So, when he's playing by himself on the floor in the living room, I listen to an audiobook instead.

But I will admit that, when he naps, I often pop a movie into the dvd player. :)

Hope you have a great weekend..

Kristi B said...

Okay, we can do this no movies on the weekend thing. Last night, daddyless and all, we didn't even notice the TV was missing. We spent about 2 hours working on workbooks (couldn't believe it!) and then browsed through the Magic Cabin catalog (my fav kids' toy catalog) for ideas for Christmas. We spent at least an hour on the Magic Cabin thing. We enjoyed ourselves immensely!
Mrs. G: unfortunately for me, my kids already know how to knit better than me---they attend a Waldorf school!
Marie: You're childless, right?
Painted Maypole: going over to view my tag now!
Family Adventure: I love that idea! I just saw in a catalog Bingo cards in German and French. I am definitely getting those! what a way to make bingo more interesting.
Dragonfly: thanks for the visit, will visit you soon!