No TV Day Two

I think we are getting into the meat of the challenge today, some good progress and some challenges.

I was woken up this morning at 6:30am by my daughter wanting to crawl into bed with me. I was too tired to stop her. After tossing and turning for a few moments she says to me, "I want to watch tv". I say no and she starts to cry like she is being punished for something and she can't understand why. I feel bad but I am tired and try to ignore her. Finally at 7:00 I drag myself out of bed because she isn't going away. It is amazing really how quickly children transition. After breakfast at the counter she gets up and discovers these books I have in little baskets under an end table just waiting to be read. She talks to herself so I hear her come across the basket of books and act surprised and then happy to find books she loves. She then sits down and "reads" them to herself. I get ready and she is totally agreeable all morning. We actally got to work early today rather than sliding in at the last minute.

My sister in law mentioned in a comment about "Masterly Inactivty" so I checked it out. I am still figuring it out but it seems to be basically the idea kids spending time engaging in activities they are really interested in. I am sort of familiar with the concept, although I didn't know the name, from when I homeschooled Jake. It was something I was always trying to foster in him and had some success. I was thinking about the concept when Isabelle found the books today. Those books have been there almost since she was born. I even recently updated them with less baby books and more books for her age and interest. Yet she rarely ever looked at them and never by herself or for any exteded period of time. Do you think it was because the TV was on right next to them? So this week I am going to be watching for examples of Masterly Inactivty and will report them here.

I do have to confess that by the time we got home from a busy day of activities, including standing in line for an hour to vote at 2pm, I really wanted, no NEEDED, a few moments to myself and knew if I turned on the tv I would get it. I wanted to so bad, I was so close to turning it on, but then I knew I would have to confess it here so I resisted. One of my errands today was to pick up some new playdough and coloring books to hopefully give her a couple activities for the next couple days when we don't work and will be home all day with no tv. I can see it will be a challenge for both of us.

Since I only said I would keep the tv off during the day I, of course, turned on the tv when she went to bed and spent all night watching poll results which is why I am writing this at 11pm and will once again be exhausted when Isabelle wakes up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. I might have to think of extended this out for next week.