Suggested by my therapist, (yes I see a therapist, trust me people, I need it) I have recently started a new thing with the girls that has earned the name “My 10 Minutes”. I dedicate 10 minutes of undivided, one-on-one time to each girlie every day of the week. I had the girls create a list of things they would like to do during their 10 minutes. At first the lists were pretty typical; reading a story or coloring but as we enter our fourth week of “My 10 Minutes” the girls have gotten more creative. For example: writing a story together, writing/drawing on the freshly cleaned chalk board and building a doll house together. This individual one-on-one time has significantly improved some behavioral issues we have been having both at home and school. See, therapy works, people. “My 10 Minutes” quickly became all of our favorite time of the day.
Aside from the surprisingly creative activities the girls have come up with I am more surprised by the conversations that come up during these activities. For example, last night as Kaeli and I were starting our 10 minutes while Chloe was in the shower, Kaeli asked me what a democrat was. Ha! Wow, um ok…well…as I started to explain I realized I had no idea how to put the government into 9-year-old terms, so I turned to Google. By the way, if Google were a man, I would marry him. Hell, I might even marry Google if it were a girl. We are legal to do so now in Washington, you know. Anyway, of course Google pulls up “How to Explain Democrats and Republicans to schoolagers”. Have I mentioned that I love Google? So I read to her what the article said and elaborated on some things that might have been confusing. What I found to be the most difficult about my explanation was trying not to put my bias opinion into the matter. I really feel like it is important to educate your children on matters such as these but I try to leave it as open as possible so they can form their own opinions. So when Kaeli said “So, the Republicans are the bad guys?” I can’t honestly say whether it was me or the article that swayed her opinion that way. I did try to explain to her that they aren’t the bad guys…. Just sayin….
Look at the awesome doll house we made!
Ok, when I said “we made”, I mean, Kaeli made most of it and she wanted to put the finishing touches on it during our 10 minutes. I love the night stand with the digital alarm clock. Also, the girl in bed is not just a head, she drew out the whole person. I checked.
Take notice that the clock on the wall matches the digital alarm clock. She is so creative! I made the curtains. Feel free to “oooo and ahhhhh!” I also helped make the cupboards that have yet to be installed. Under the window is a cat sleeping in a cat bed. The picture she drew of the cat was excellent. She tried to color it in and now it is not as recognizable but eh! I love her imagination!
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