No TV Week - Day 5

Holy Cow!  We've made 4 full days of no TV.  Never thought we (I) could do it.  I promised an update, but I only have about 30 minutes before picking up Noah...so here goes my speed-blog.

PreDinner Exploration

Typically when I pick up Noah after 'after school', we go home, battle for a minute or two outside the car (Noah wants to play out front, I need to make dinner) and then go in the house.  The pattern is for me to turn on the TV to keep Noah entertained while I make dinner.  And even with SpongeBob, making dinner is a challenge because Noah is constantly calling out "Mommy!"

This week, the new pattern was for Noah to help me check out the refrigerator and freezer to see what we could make.  I tried to have an idea ahead of time, so I could simply give him directions.

What I knew was that he loves to do things himself.  What I didn't know was how good he was at following directions and being helpful.  With the exception of a few ("I don't want to's"), Noah was enthusiastic about putting frozen chicken nuggets on the tray, adding noodles to the water, and pushing the buttons on the oven.  Sometimes he insisted on cutting the vegetables himself....and, you know, with me by his side, he did a great job of using a sharp knife to cut tomatoes and carrots.

In exploring Noah's culinary abilities, I am also exploring how I limit his power by taking care of things for him.

PreBedtime Exploration

Now, what to do between dinner and bedtime???

As with Day One, we worked together to get the table cleaned off so that we could work on Noah's 'at home' school work.  The week was full of the Reuse/Recycle project:  find objects in the bedroom, kitchen, and draw them.  The task was a little more challenging than I had hoped, but I was grateful that there was no whining when it came to drawing the objects.  Sometimes Noah gets frustrated because he can't draw something 'good enough'. Yes, I do believe he gets that from me....Ms. drop-a-class-in-college-because-I-couldn't-get-an-"A".

I LOVED watching this little being study the objects he was drawing and carefully put crayon to paper to replicate what he saw.  I was only frightened on two occasions when both the toilet paper roll and the water bottle took on the very-likeness of a penis.  The next day I felt obligated to warn the teachers about the phallic drawings in Noah's folder.

So far, so good.  Four school nights down without a fuss.  (And even Mommy didn't fuss about missing Grey's Anatomy last night.)

Weekend Outlook

One Friday night and a weekend to go.

I am praying for sunshine to keep us busy outside.  We've never gone a full weekend without TV!

So far, this has definitely been an exploration in my own Mothering.  Here's to making it the rest of the way!