I’m Back.
I guess I thought that just removing mindless distractions would induce me to more activity. Not exactly. As I began my week I found myself sitting outside reading quite a bit. Reading my Acres USA or Wise Traditions is far better than mindlessly reading Internet drivel. I didn’t feel that I really got much more done this week than I would have normally. But then I was thinking and well….yes, we did get stuff done. I had to remind myself that supervising 12 kids can be a full time job. Many of my children require a higher level of supervision than “normal” kids so the amount of time I put into directing and correcting is substantial. And it is hard for me to know what all the kids are doing when I am focused on my project. Things seem to run better if I put the kids in charge of getting stuff done and I go around checking on them periodically. If I don’t check in every 10 minutes then I guarantee something will happen and the kids will check in with me!
As I think of Anna i realize that she doesn’t do everything either. I know she doesn’t milk her cows anymore. She has older kids that do that. Anna also takes off and goes to Indiana to visit family and leaves the kids home to manage the house. She *has* taken a break from some of the menial chores. Just like me.
The week wore on and I did find that I was enjoying my work more. But not because there was no internet distraction but more because I was in the habit. Routines make things comfortable. We ditched the schedule. Can farm life be scheduled?
Here is my list of things I had hoped to accomplish.
Sew a shirt and skirt for myself.
Sew 3 dresses for Jodi.
Finish Scary Monster quilt for Jonah.
Plant herbs in garden.
Plant onions in potato patch.
Plant potatoes in the potato patch.
Paint scripture above the front door.
Start 90 day Bible reading challenge.
Make a bunny cage and yard for Bob.
Clean my bathroom.
Clean the fridge.
Put together Commonplace Book.
Hang pictures.
Shelves up in stairway.
Shelves in bathroom.
Finish cleaning my room.
Work on bible study with kids.
Read.
One thing I did alot more of this week was spend time with Jodi. Typically she is outside with the kids. Everyone takes turns watching her and playing with her. Since i was outside anyway i kept Jodi with me. I noticed that she whines quite a bit (I’ve been noticing but haven’t been working on it) when she doesn’t get what she wants or things aren’t going her way. I thought it might be nice to have a happy baby so last week I did some happy baby training. Jodi is learning that life does not revolve around her desires. If I need her to sit in the stroller quietly for 5 minutes she should be capable of that. I am SO glad we worked on this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because on Thursday when I took Jillian to her IV appt Jenna wanted to go with me and stop to get some things while we were in town. This meant that Jodi came with us. The four of us went to lunch at the tea room. You can not imagine how nice it was to have my 3 kiddos with me (including a 16mo) that were quiet and obedient and wonderful while other kids in the restaurant were busy running around, being disobedient and generally making a nuisance of themselves. And when Jodi was done with her lunch she didn’t need loads of toys to keep her occupied.
Boy was I thankful that I invested that time training in the beginning of the week. I didn’t know I was going to need it but it sure was wonderful. Part of investing in my kids is spending more time with them. Ya, we homeschool and ya, the kids are home all day but I mean spending time in an intentional way. When we lived in Ozark I would take Jenna out to the tea room but since we have been out here in Mansfield we have not been doing anything fun together. With that in mind I agreed to take her with me when we went into town and we had a blast. I actually got more done because Jenna was there saying “Let’s go one more place.” instead of me getting tired and just wanting to head home. Older kids are such a blast. It seems as they get older it is easy to see them get involved in their own interests and we step back to allow them their “freedom”. We need to step up. I’ve decided that our family is going to start Geocaching. I thought it would be a fun activity to do together. Adults do this so surely my older kids will like it too. Has anyone reading tried it?
Another thing I want to do is start a Bible study of sorts with the kids. The Doorposts products were recommended to me and they look really good. Students of the Word was also recommended but I don’t know if it is my style. I don’t want to over analyze this. I know we could always fall back on just reading the Bible but I want to make it a little more difficult fun than that. Any suggestions?
I still didn’t get to know any more of my neighbors. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of driving my big bus full of children up their driveways. I think I need to plan better and go with the truck. Or would it be fun to have a big yellow bus come visit? I did inquire about 2 homeschool groups in the area and signed Jenna up for guitar lessons. I’m working on it.
I worked on things I normally would not have. I spent more time outside and more time chatting with the kids. And…this is a big one…I went to bed at a decent hour. Do you know how much sleep effects your mood? Feeling unmotivated, angry, depressed? Go to bed earlier. Seriously. Dr. Mercola has whole articles written on the importance of getting into bed before 10pm. Your adrenals will thank you.
All in all this week was not a whole lot different than usual. We have weeks that we work outside all the time and we have weeks that we stay inside and play on the computer. I’ve seen some areas I’d like to improve so I am working on those but I also am pretty pleased with my kids and our life. I just need to remain diligent and not let anything slip. That may have been my bigger issue. I don’t want to settle. If I see something that I’m not pleased with I want to change it. I want to do what’s best for my family not just what I can get away with. When we get comfortable with status quo and don’t want to be working toward the next thing with our family then we get ourselves into trouble.
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We’ve been Geocaching for several years. It’s great fun! Even kids as young as 6 or 7 can enjoy it. Thanks to Geocaching, my 7 y/o understands the basics of navigation…the GPS, longitude and latitude, etc. Geocaching is a great teaching tool. Be sure to look up the history of Geocaching (on the geocaching.com site). My children found that very interesting. It’s a fairly new “sport”. Geocaching is a blast, but if they understand the history behind it and the science of it (satellites, etc.), it’s even more fun.
Your children might enjoy getting a Travel Bug and watching it as it moves around the country.
I’ve considered trying letter boxing with my children for something new. We might look into that this summer.
Melanie,
I looked at Letterboxing and there were hardly any boxes compared to Geocaching.
I’ve been curious about how your week would turn out. I loved hearing your thoughts!
Did I miss the results of the Vision Forum giveaway?
My children are generally well behaved but it’s more luck then specific training. I was wondering if you could point me towards some information on how to better establish rules and training them.
Oh, I would love to hear about the training of Jodi. I have a 21 month old who screams! I have never dealt with this although she is number five. She also will not sit still. That I have been working on by having her sit still next to me several times a day. How long should she be able to sit still and is there anything else I should be doing??? How do I make her be quiet when I need her to and how of how do I stop the screaming? She screams when she is happy, sad, excited, mad. You get the picture…
Good to have you back!
Geocaching is awesome!! We’ve only done it a time or two because we don’t own a GPS and had to borrow one, but I would love to buy one some day so we can go more. Very fun, pre-established treasure hunt. :) We had a completely media free week and I didn’t feel we go any more done than usual either. My main thing with the computer is the time wasting drivel stuff I do on here too much. I’m sure I could find SOMETHING better to do. :)
We go geocaching and love it. We take the babies with us and we hike and all enjoy it very much. We have found some of the coolest places by looking for caches. We never would have known some of these places existed.
And 12 yr old boys think it is just awesome.
It’s also a good way to get rid of some of the little junky toys that creep into the house. Of course, you take trinkets, too, but you can try to control what they pick out.
I did get a lot done the past week without being on the computer so much. I didn’t get all on my list done, but quite a bit. I also spent more time just enjoying the kids and reading books with them, etc.
Bible Study:
just read the Bible to the children each day. It doesn’t have to be complicated or ‘exciting’.
We’ve learned more about the Bible just by reading it aloud each night than we’ve ever learned with any fancy “Bible study” program.
Sitting together as a family for that hour each night is comforting, sweet, calming, and forces us all to have more discipline as we sit still and listen.
(It’s the only time I get mending projects or knitting done because I ‘can’t’ be anywhere else for that time. that’s been a nice bonus for me.)
We all look forward to that lovely hour before bedtime, and the girls are very disappointed if we have to skip a night. They come up days later and ask about or discuss what we’ve read – I’m amazed at what they pick up on.
Don’t make it more complicated than it has to be, just read the Bible, straight from the Bible, no fancy additions are needed. :-)
I agree with Robyn, just reading the Bible has worked out best with us. We’ve learned so much. But, we don’t read for an hour. We started with Genesis 1:1 and we read 2 chapters a night, while the kids have their bed snack. (Usually 1/2 cup of ice cream.) My husband usually reads, but when he’s at work, I read. 2 chapters works out to be just enough for everyone to eat their snack and not so long that we lose their attention. Then we have time left to ask/answer questions and talk about what we read.
Katie,
We have been reading 2 or 3 Bible chapters a night which we enjoy, but we recently added a new book called “Training Hearts, Teaching Minds” by Starr Meade. It is family devotions based upon the Shorter Westminster Catechism. It helps children to know the answer to important questions of the faith. We have been enjoying it so far. I want my children to know both what and why they believe…especially in these days that are upon us.
Katie, I think you would really enjoy this CD regarding Bible Study.
http://www.titus2.com/ecommerce/products/prod_listing.php/2000
Eric and I love doing Bible Study with the kids the way the Maxwells do. All you need is your Bible and the kids. It’s not rocket science, yet very insightful on how to go about it. I was amazed at what the kids come up with in regards to understanding God’s word without a specific devotional or study guide. An added benefit is that this way of approaching family Bible Study/Devos. is that it helps ALL ages grow in their reading skills as well.
Our next door neighbors Geocache and they have a great time. Their oldest two girls are 7 and 5 and they love doing it. They also got a travel bug and track it. Thanks for sharing about your week. I thought about what you wrote after we finished BBQing and roasting smores out in the middle of our cul-de-sac last night. Just thinking about being more intentional with them.
Sounds like a productive weak!
We’ve looked at starting to geocache but haven’t jumped yet… We don’t have a GPS device.. Did you know you can add it as an app on your new phones? It’s a little pricey but maybe to try it out for a month or so…
:)
Hey!
Your going to start geocaching cool! Our family does it, and it’s sooo much fun! We even found some when we where out by you guys!!
Cassie, I’m such a nerd. After Jeff read my post he said “You just want to geocache because the Pruntys (Prunties??) do.” DUH!! They geocache??? You guys are so cool!!!
I’d love to hear more about happy baby training, too! I’ve recently realized that my youngest (2 yrs)is quite spoiled…and my standard training habits are not working as well with him…
:)