Thursday, July 1, 2010

Summer Unplugged Part 1

My kids are active, or have AHDD.  But, Alex watches too much T.V.  Kristiana could care less about T.V. she is too busy getting into everything to bother with T.V.  At our home we have our T.V. is locked away in an armoire—out of sight out of mind.  However, this summer Alex has a lot more access and he became accustomed to watching a lot more T.V. during the 5 weeks of Washington spring rains.  I am quickly running out of ways to keep the kids occupied.  They do not seem to care too much about spending all afternoon in the back yard like I did when I was a kid.  I think it’s just not hot enough for them here.  The activities I have been thinking up for the kids do not keep them occupied for very long.  I have been trying to take them for a walk in the stroller and a stop at the park every morning.  That usually takes an hour and a half or two.  One day a week we go the library for a couple of hours.  Other days we make a new snack.  Alex has become good at putting together puzzles.  We all like putting together the train tracks, but Alex doesn’t share the trains.  It quickly digresses.

The kids were driving me nutty this morning.  Our morning outing was not as long as normal.  We walked to Starbucks, ate and returned home.  We had to fill the rest of the morning hours.  The kids colored for a little while, but it really didn’t last long.  I thought the kids were going to play in the back yard, but they just ran in and out the back door more times then I care to count and made a mess of the markers on the back porch.  Alex started getting into the refrigerator and cupboards looking for junk food and Kristiana was trying to color everything with the markers.  Alex had already helped himself to popcorn, so I was not interested in making a new snack, further lunch was approaching.  I thought, I have to get these kids doing a new activity, but all the usual suspects had been done.  I googled homemade play dough and that’s what we did.  Except I added a little too much water and it turned out a little goopey.  It was good enough to squish though and Alex and Kristiana are not skilled enough to make sculptures yet, so it worked.  Apparently the play dough worked up a good appetite for grill cheese sandwiches and fruit.  After naptime we played a little bit with side walk chalk, Alex ran through the sprinkler (it was 65 degrees today, but he wanted to), then the kids drove me crazy for the remaining hour until the rest of the family came home.  But look how cute they were while squishing play dough.

Recap of Summer Unplugged Part 1:

1. Home made play dough
2. Side walk chalk
3. Running through the sprinkler

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2 comments:

anne said...

This is beyond cute :) I'll have to get you my Momma's recipe for play-dough--it always turned out great :) I remember LOVING play-dough as a kid, and it's so easy to make!

Kayleen said...

Sounds tricky! I wonder if they were constantly occupied while in daycare. Maybe it will take a little while for them to learn to keep themselves busy without tearing everything up..? I might suggest going online to some parenting blogs for some summer ideas too. I ran across a great art blog that I don't happen to have the address for - but I know there are lots of good ones out there! It seems like this is a tricky age because they are still little so they want to run around and not alot keeps their attention for too long, but they aren't little enough like Louisa where much of our time is spent eating/napping/ and maybe one or two outings in a day. I'm sure you'll navigate this fine mama! The play-dough was a good idea. I also think Alexander will soon be a little more mature and he'll have more interests that keep him occupied for longer amounts of time, even if it's just playing imagination. They sure are cute kids and when they are all grown up they'll look back and realize what a fantastic mom they had who was committed to making sure they are happy!