Three Kids, a Deck, and a Musical Toy

Have you even wondered what kids do while they wait for meals to cook? Today our investigators were able to dig up the real story. We've learned that children teach each other to dance. They even provide their own music. It's true! I'm not making this up. We sent in our undercover photographers to capture this never-before-seen footage.

Here are some still photos taken in addition to our award-winning footage. They tell a tale of mysterious music and fancy footwork.

And there's our story. Tune in next time when we uncover what happens...When Good Kids Find Bad Cheese.

"Rainy Day" Activities

Even though it wasn't raining today, it was cold and overcast. So the kids stayed inside for the most part. And what do you do on rainy days?

Well...

Ammon learned to draw dinosaurs with the help of a book.

Ben and Daniel discovered the world of books on tape/cd.

Elizabeth enjoyed the pictures in her favorite books.

Grace spent the day sleeping in my arms while I read a book, too. It was a good day.

Grace is Innocent (and Cute, Too)

Family members keep telling me to use less words and more pictures. Well, I can't promise the less words (I am a writer, after all) but here are more pictures.

FYI for those who knew and were wondering what has happened, we finally took Grace to a cardiologist yesterday. (For those who didn't know, Grace was born with a heart murmur.) The cardiologist said she has an innocent heart murmur, which means you can hear her blood circulating through her heart, but there is no sign of defective heart valves. So she passed with a clean bill of health and he said she won't need to see a cardiologist again, at least for a heart murmur anyway. It was what we expected to hear, but I thought I'd pass on the final verdict to the rest of you.

Isn't she cute? And healthy, too!

We've Got Another Reader Here!

BREAKING NEWS: Benjamin (he's 6 and finishing up homeschool kindergarten next week) has decided to join the world of readers! He is currently showing us how much he as picked up on his own by reading the first Magic Treehouse book (which is a second grade reading level book) and enjoying it immensely. For months he has been able to pick out a few words here and there, but his reading really exploded this week. Wish I could say it was because of me. I wonder if it had anything to do with turning off the TV.

We are so proud!

The TV's OFF

I have found that there is a direct correlation between the amount of backtalking, fighting, hitting and all-around grumpiness and the amount of TV time my children get. Lately, especially since the birth of Grace, the TV has been on quite a bit around here. And, as you can guess, the negative behavior has been a little more than I can bear, too. So, after talking Greg into it (and waiting until his "Lost" season was over) we have officially turned off the TV for awhile. Every day is now a NO TV day.

It has been a bit of an adjustment for everyone, including Greg and me. Now that it's been off for a few days, the kids don't complain about not being able to watch TV. But they do whine about being bored. A lot. And Greg and I have realized that we actually have to pay attention to our kids now that the TV isn't doing the babysitting. Go figure.

One of the things we have done to replace the TV is Game Time. For example, tonight after dinner the entire family (minus Grace of course) sat down at the table and played Uno. Even Lizzie, who is only 3, played her own hand (with a little help from Greg and me) and she did quite a remarkable job considering she is still learning her colors. We had to help with the numbers, of course. Ammon won the first round and Daniel won the second, and we all just had fun together. Remarkable.

We've also started making things together. Yesterday the kids and I made our own city mural from butcher paper so they could drive the matchbox cars on the roads. That was really fun. Earlier today I got out the felt and we made our own Pizza game. We have pizza dough, red sauce, olives, pineapple, onions, green peppers, pepperoni, Canadian Bacon and shredded cheese all cut out from felt. The kids spent the day making felt pizzas, and I used the time to make a box to keep the game in. They had fun and so did I.

It does take more work on my part (and Greg's), but so far it has been worth it. It's a Two-Steps-Forward-One-Step-Back process in the kid's behavior, but any progress is still progress, and progress is a good thing.

We've decided to leave the TV off for at least two weeks, but secretly I hope it's longer than that. Once everyone is weaned off the TV I'm hoping they'll stick to the TV-free lifestyle. It will help our homeschooling run more smoothly, it will help the kids' relationships with each other, and it will definitely help the behavioral issues we inevitably deal with when the Big Bad TV gets a little too big and bad.

So Good-bye TV. Hello fun.