January Blessings

Chalkboard Drawing

While considering what to put on my 3rd chalkboard (I usually keep one of them the same all month, one of them often will have a scene from a story we're working on, and yet another may have a seasonal theme), I decided to create my own little poem.

I asked my son what he thought the poem meant. At first he was reluctant to guess, but after a minute or so, he finally said "The mittens want me and my sister to go outside and play with them!". 

That moment right there made the drawing worth it for me!!

Even though the weather has been less-than-cooperative to be outside for any length of time, we have had many adventure inside, to be sure!  My son lost first his left from tooth, and then the right within 24 hours of one another. He was *SO* excited about it, and of course the tooth fairy visited with some coins and fairy dust.  My son would like to save his money (although he hasn't decided what he'd like to do with it). We don't believe in an allowance (per se), so tooth fairy visits along with very special occasions will have to do.  

The one downside to the weather being poor is that my son wants to use his ipad more frequently, and I can't completely blame him after hours of playing with his other toys.  I did ply him with a viewing of How to Train your Dragon, but I have finally relented and let him use it for another 30 minute block this afternoon.  The deal was that the should spend at least 10 of those minutes on a "math app" before using the remaining 20 minutes on a free app of his choice. He's pretty good about that provision, and I often find he goes over the 10 minute mark, leaving less time for free choice. He does try to use his art of persuasion to convince me that because he spent longer on math than I originally asked that I should give him more free choice time. I don't like how we find ourselves negotiating over screen time, so the goal is to find more games and family activities to do instead. This is an ongoing work-in-progress.

I am not aiming for perfection in our home. If, after days of freezing temperatures and hours upon hours of inside time, my son finds himself trying to negotiate more screen time than I'd like, I need to remind myself to be gentle with both him and myself. We do our best in our home, and are a pretty happy and cohesive family unit that spends lots of time outdoors, reading books and playing with toys and games (when we aren't working on lessons, of course). I am counting my blessings right now, and reminding myself that our family does not need to look like anyone else's. If this is our largest challenge that we need to face, then I would consider us incredibly blessed!