When my kids are off track, things are interesting. And hard. I don't want anyone to think that I don't enjoy having my children around because I do. They make life, like I said, interesting. In one day I will have nagged, plead, screamed, cried... and ironically laughed. Did I say in one day? Oh. Well, I meant one hour. Then it repeats over and over during the day.
Trying to keep kids entertained is hard work. It gets trickier the older I get, the older my kids get. I can't even begin to count how many times I hear, "Mom, I'm bored. What can I do?"
I think to myself, "How can you be bored? You're a kid. I don't remember being bored as a kid." But what I really say is, "Well, what would you like to do?"
They follow it up with the old famous, "I don't know."
Can I just tell you how much I hate that phrase? It accompanies EVERYTHING!
"Who made this mess?"
"I don't know."
"Why did you do that?"
"I don't know."
"Who got this out?"
"I don't know."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know."
I HATE IT!
So in order to avoid this, when we are off track, I try to plan a few activities. We'll go to the park, the library, and a movie if they are really good. If I were a really good mom, I'd make them read or something, but I don't like it, so why would I make them do something like that. I guess they could practice math and stuff, but they really don't want to and I really don't feel like starting an argument or tantrum.
You can understand my astonishment when the whole house was quiet. Not a sound. I came downstairs and found that my kids had gotten an empty box and made this:
They thought of it all themselves. They saw the box just sitting there and used their little imaginations to create something. And most importantly, they found something to do! On their own. My heart was screaming, "YAY!!"
Aaron and Grace were the designers. Kate, Becca, and their cousin, Noah, benefited from their artistic abilities. Aaron even wrote a little play that they performed for me.
I love it when they use their own creativity. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it when I don't have to do the thinking!!
*Thanks Aunt Alissa for the game that came in the box. Because of that we had a really fun game to play and an empty box lying around.
