Today I made a new rule at our house.  No television on school nights, at all.  I’ll say up front that I am not a fan of television at all.  It really does not hold my interest and I find the noise in the background distracting.  I always find it funny when people say that they turn the tv on for background noise because they hate the complete quiet of the house when no one is home.  Because I revel in the silence.

I had been allowing the kids to turn the tv on when they were done with their homework, but I noticed that this was causing a couple of problems.  Namely kids who were rushing through their work so that they could be the first one to get the remote, or kids who “forgot” that they had homework until it was almost bedtime, or kids who were actually doing their homework but were distracted by the tv in the background.  So now the simple rule is no tv during the week.  It certainly makes my job easier as there is no negotiating.

Does anyone else restrict tv viewing during the week?  Do you give out tv hours as rewards for chores or grades?  I was thinking of doing something like that for my younger children, but not exactly sure how I would implement it.  And what do you do when the weekend comes?  Is it a tv viewing free-for-all?

Have you heard about the great trade in event? 

Toys R Us and Babies R Us are having an event from now through September 20th where you can bring any of your used baby gear into the store to recieve 20% off of a new item.  Cribs, strollers, car seats high chairs,etc are all eligible.   The hope is that many of the unsafe baby items will be traded in and put out of use.  Car seats all have expiration dates on them on, but how many are still being used because they were passed down through friends and family.

I have been wanting to buy my daughter a new booster seat and being able to get an additonal 20% off by turning in her old seat is the incentive I need to actually go out and do it.

Back to school season is here and along with it back to germs. it is inevitable, your kids are going to be exposed to illnesses and  they are going to bring them home to you.  But what sort of steps can you take to minimize the spread of germs.

1) Wash your hands.  Wash wash wash.  Remind your children that they should be washing their hands before they eat anything.  If they can not wash their hands they should use hand sanitizer.  I have sent my kids to school with a small bottle attached to their lunch boxes. 

2) Take your multi-vitamin.  Most of us are not getting all of the vitamins we need from our diets.  This is especially true for our children.

3) Get a good nights sleep.  Your kids should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep per night. 

4) Take time to eat a good breakfast every morning.  It  really is the most important meal of the day.  Studies have shown that children who eat breakfast perform better in school than those who do not.

5) Have time to just relax.  With school, activities, and homework and is sometimes hard to find the time for the kids to find the time to just run around with their friends with no agenda.

I was  the sort of kid who loved to read.  I would take armfuls of books out of the library every week and would begin reading them in the car ride on the way home, despite the fact that I would get carsick.  Sometimes I would read through the books so quickly that I would reread them before the next weekend came.  I read through all of the Judy Blume books and the like, but I also remember reading Diary of Anne Frank for the first time.  I was in fourth grade.  I read the entire book not knowing it was a real diary and when I got to the end of the book I was devastated.  I had never heard of the Holocaust, or concentration camps, or even Hitler.  It was a watershed moment in my life.

I was just reading an article  in the NY Timesabout a new trend happening in schools where children are allowed to pick their own reading assignments.  Imagine it… no more being assigned Moby Dick, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies.  Children chose to read the books that they want to read.  Hmmmm.

I am not sure how I feel about it.  On the one hand I remember suffering through books I thought were so incredibly boring that I wanted to cry.  On the other hand shouldn’t there be some sort of agreed upon core of literary knowledge that we share?  And isn’t there a value in doing something that is difficult?  Reading books that stretch your mind, make you think new things, push you out of your comfort zone?

I suppose the only way to answer the questions is to determine what the ultimate goal of teaching literature is.  Is it to instill a life long love of reading, like some assert.  Or is it to teach specific works of literature, which has been the long held goal.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the article is the comments that people left, for both sides of the argument. 

I can see all sides and think that perhaps the answer to the question lies somewhere in the middle.  I was never assigned the book Diary of Anne Frank ever in all my many, many years of schooling.  It was a book that I read by pure happenstance, when I was quite young, one I discovered because I had a voracious reading appetite.  So I do understand why educators feel it is important to instill a love of the written word into kids.  And let’s  not forget that those  who love  to read, often love to write. 

How  would you feel about your child being in a class where they were allowed to pick any books they wanted to read?  And what if your child picked comic stylebooks or Captain Underpants, would you intervene?

My oldest son will be able to get his driving permit on his  next birthday.  Something that simultaneously thrills and frightens me.  He is a good kid.  He is responsible.  He has never given me any reasons to doubt his judgement.  But still he is a kid and kids do dumb things.

Teenagers by their very nature think that they are invincible.  And that is at the core of what frightens me.

This week I came across this video.  I think many of  you have probably already seen it.  It is an extremely graphic representation of a car accident that occurs when a teenage girl is texting not paying attention to the road.  It reminds me of those scared straight videos from the late 1980’s which were to scare teenagers from drinking and driving.

Warning: it is graphic and loud, so you might want to make sure little ones are otherwise occuppied before  you watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGE8LzRaySk

What do you think of the PSA?  Would you show it to your teenager?  or do you think that it is too graphic?

I will let my teenagers see the video, but I think that more important than trying to scare them is to model good behavior and to not text on your own phone while driving.  Yes, I think it is graphic, but honestly not anymore graphic than many of the movies that the see.

One of my favorite bloggers plans a  back to school feast for her children on the eve of back to school.  They break out the fancy food, fancy china, and use the dining room, treating it as an occasion worth celebrating.  I love this idea.  I had hoped to do something similar, but illness, last minute running around for missing school supplies, missing immunizations, and the kids already committed to activities put a damper on it.    I think our back to school ever was me running around the house like a crazed  person, trying to organize all that needed to be done for the next day, while trying to maintain a chipper attitude.  Trying being the operative word here.

Other people I know take photos of their kids every year standing by the front door, for some perspective on their growth I am guessing, and have them wear the same clothes on the last day of school.  I fear that my boys are so hard on clothing that they will have to end the last day of school in nothing but tattered rags. 

Of course I took photos of my kids on their first day of school.  My oldest son who is a freshman in highschool told me that all of his friends at school were laughing and saying that their mothers were taking their photos also.  That made him feel like he wasn’t the only poor tortured child out there.

We are only on Day Three of school here, but the after school snack seems to be the tradition here.  So far I have baked treats for them when they come home from school (It gives me the additional benefit  of having something to do with my four year old who is home with me all day).  Now, I am pretty sure that I will not continue to bake every single day, but their excitement has made me mindful of what sort of snacks they would like to see waiting for them when they get off of the school bus.  Relatively healthy snacks, I should add, because I know more than anything they would  love to see a vat of candy.  Parenting Magazine has some recipes for Super, Yummy Afterschool snacks.  I think my kids would really like the Strawberry “Cheesecakes”, which are essentially graham crackers with a cream cheese and jam spread.   But part of the allure of the after school snack, at least at my house, is that I set the table and they sit with me and  I get to hear all about their day. 

Do you have any Back to School traditions?  Any things you do that are unique to your family?

I was just reading about a project called the Gratitude Challenge.  For 21 days a group of bloggers are going to write about being grateful, appreciating the small things in life, being happy. 

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.
-Brother David Steindl-Rast

It is a tougher challenge that it seems, I think, to constantly live this way. How many of us go through our day grumbling about things.  Dwelling on things that people have said that may have hurt our feelings.  Getting angry at that person who cut us  off in traffic.  Or maybe annoyed at the friend who always cancels plans at the last minute.  Those are the sort of things that can cause you to feel down or angry.

How much better it would be to find the small things that happen each day that are worthy of gratitude.  Even the worst days offer something, if only the sun in the sky. 

Usually we tend to think about gratitude during Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season.  And we make things with our children like “Trees of Thanks” and write things that we are grateful for on construction paper leaves.  Then the holidays end and most of us go back to being our cynical selves.  Instead, what if we looked at the world everyday with grateful eyes.  Would that change our perception of our life?  Would it, in fact, make us happier? 

I am mulling some ideas on how to incorporate this sort of thinking daily into my life and that of my children.  To encourage them to consciously be grateful.

So what are you grateful for?  And let’s skip the obvious ones, easy ones like your family.  Let’s look for the small things that often go unappreciated.

I’ll start off:

I am grateful for the flowers that grow outside my kitchen window and bloom even in oppressive heat with little water.

I am grateful for stain removing spray.

I am grateful for new hardcover books with dust jackets.

I am grateful for climbing into my bed with freshly washed, crisp sheets.

All of you wise, wise parents out there.  Please enlighten me.  What do you pack for lunch for your children?  What sort of container(s) do you use?  Do your children bring home the containers or do they throw them away by “accident?”

I remember as a child my mother would pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and wrap them in waxed paper.  Remember that stuff?  Am I dating myself here or what!  And by the time lunch rolled around the jelly would have absorbed into the bread and the bread itself was stale.   Whatever drink I had brought, usually milk flavored with strawberry Quik, in my Holly Hobbie thermos would be room temperature.   I just shuddered involuntarily at the memory of it.

I know food storage has come a long way since the Dark Ages.   So please share with me all your lunch making secrets.  Give me links.  My children will be infintely grateful.

My 12 year old son recently decided to take up playing a musical instrument.  The trombone to be specific. 

I was excited for him to begin lessons, to maybe find something to be passionate about the way that several of his siblings have found things about which to be passionate.  Then we got the instrument and he began practicing, and let me say that this brings a whole new meaning to the word patient.  It sounds like an elephant dying a slow and painful death. 

This really is not the “problem”  and to be honest I use the word problem for lack of a better word.  The “problem” is that he chooses to practice when he is  bored.  Usually this means that one of his brothers has decided to sit down and watch a tv show that he doesn’t like.  I can tell you that this doesn’t go over too well. 

The past few days I have been encouraging him to practice first thing in the morning, outside on the back porch.  Share the love with the neighbors, I say.  Perhaps scare off some wild animals, I don’t say but think.  I think having a set time each day has helped.  We all know that at that particular time of day he will be practicing.  No making important phone calls, no watching tv or listening to music.  It is only half an hour. 

The music instructor told me that most of his students do not practice.  I have to wonder how much of the non practicing is the result of  not finding the the right time in the family. 

Those of you who have children that play musical instruments how do you encourage them to practice?  Do you set up a time of day?  Do you have it on a schedule like you do chores? 

And please tell me that soon the sounds he is making will sound like actual musical notes.  Please?