Punishment is a complicated thing in a house with 7 distinct personalities (well more like 6 but I will explain that later). Start with Echo, rather SKIP Echo, she is still our little baby and not an issue insofar as punishing purposefully naughty behaviour. That leads us to Miss Trinity. She is certainly a girl with a temper and had been known to scream, cry, pout, and when it comes to Ken (and only Ken!!) lash out! But when in meltdown mode will take HERSELF off to her room to cry, calm down and come out to apologize! So if you can withstand the initial storm and stay strong (we have friends who just can’t in regards to her! Seriously, a 2 year old can total break grown men in this house at times!) you are pretty much home free with her.
Emanuel as the next oldest and middle child can be a bit more of a challenge. He is stuck in a rut right now of everything he DOESN’T want to do being “too hard” or will “take FOREVER.” Disciplining him is still a relatively simple matter (though I have to admit that he DOES go out of his way to start things when he is tired or has missed a nap), put him in his room on a time out and he does have a fit, but he comes out apologizing and NOT repeating the mistake that got him into trouble in the first place. Still it is hard to believe he is FIVE…
Now the twins, well here is where the difficulties begin! Gavin is a VERY sensitive boy, errors in his schoolwork, being told something is not done right put him to tears. He is always shooting for a level of perfection, which is something we are constantly trying to combat. Not that I DON’T want him to do his BEST, but I do want him to realize that perfection is not the level we shoot for. Putting Gavin into time out means he is completely mortified, he spends that time generally quiet and has long ago realized that a silent boy in time out gets to come right on out when it is over. I do worry about how sensitive he is, not that he should NOT be, but that the world is going to be a difficult place for a boy so concerned about everything and everyone! (he takes after his Mommy with her tears and wishes to please everyone)
Ok so back to the SIX personalities in the house – consider Zander or as I like to call him when he is in a nasty mood – the Ken clone. The look on his face, the attitude, the stubborn need to BE RIGHT and GET HIS POINT OUT… it is so Ken. I think that is why Ken has the most trouble dealing with Zander. The two of them go at it full on the same way which means they simply bump heads. Zander at the age of 7 still seems to have missed the point of time out – he will go in wailing or simply talk and talk adding minutes to his time. Gavin has even tried explaining time out to him to try and help him out but our stubborn Zander refuses. Though I must say this stubborn and strong attitude is great in other places. He is wonderful with his siblings (when in a good mood) and can be very direct when you need him to be. BUT disciplining him is never simple and never easy. Yesterday he got sent to his room for the afternoon after refusing to listen and follow instructions and then picking fights with everyone he could. First he spent about 30 min trying to scream the house down and then after Ken went down and talked to him spent time in his room calming down and reading books. That evening he came out much more responsive and willing to TALK about his behaviour and how he should deal with things.
In the wake of the Zander grounding I sent the other 3 mobile kids to the blue table to use glitter glue, Valentine foam hearts and Valentine foam stickers to make whatever they wanted. We did pretty well on the mess control until they got into the loose glitter. Even then we were able to clean up relatively quickly and I am pretty sure Trinity is glitter free today!
Glitter and stickers
Gavin and I worked together on a pretty major dot-to-dot… this one went from 1-105! And then we coloured it together. You can print your own copy here.
Fancy dot-to-dot
Yesterday morning we packed everyone up and headed to the Michaels free activity – making paperbag puppets (supposedly Valentines Day themed but we let the kids make whatever they wanted). It was an odd time to have scheduled a craft activity in the winter. In the middle of the week and in the morning. Even the girl in charge of the session was confused. But it was nice, the store wasn’t crowded so we were able to sit right down and get crafting and then afterwards give Trinity (who is always first done) some freedom to wander around with Daddy.
Trinity's puppet
As usual Gavin took the longest and it shows! Can you guess what his is?
Gavin's masterpiece
Zander and Emanuel had fun making theirs as well. Emanuel went all out with markers to make his “snowman” and Zander’s had a portrait of yours truly on his!
Emanuel
Zander
Last night I spent the evening quite industriously. I FINALLY managed to put aside time AND have Ken help cut the pieces of tulle (he is amazing at cutting the strips neatly and quickly) and finished the tutu for our god-daughter Anna. I am VERY happy with how it turned out. Hopefully I can get a picture of her in it or at least take one myself.
Tutu!
We finished our last Chinese New Year craft today! The rocking rabbit. I figure we will leave out display out until the week after Valentines Day as we have combined the two holidays on our holiday wall. It feels good to complete all these projects ON TIME. Though we have decided to postpone our zoo trip to see the frogs until the following weekend. We have way too much to do with our frog lapbook and I don’t want to rush it! Today’s story was The Frog Prince. I printed out a version of the story from the UK site. Though I am still out of colour toner so the picture was in black and white. We will include it in our lapbook so we can come back and read it again later!
Rocking rabbits (Zander left)
We got the call from the glasses place today, tomorrow Ken and Zander will run in and get the glasses adjusted and hopefully brought home! It is going to be an adjustment, I am not sure how flexible they will be and I know he is going to be frustrated at first.
It is frustrating at times, this point in our lives. Not the kids or the schooling really, just the getting back on our feet (still) since Ken was sick. Nothing is instantaneous and of course starting to work for yourself is rarely quick and easy. Like I mentioned earlier he is SWAMPED these past few days BUT we won’t see any of the extra money until the month before we have to move. Now don’t get me wrong, money then will be needed and helpful but right now it would be useful too. Ken keeps reminding me that we are doing well, and each month is getting pretty consistently better. At least there are the positives to reflect on at the end of the day – we ARE doing better (WAY BETTER) than this time last year, the boys are learning new things every day and bringing their siblings along with them, I am still married to the love of my life, I have 5 children… FIVE! and best of all – I have the family I always dreamed of, even with all the frustrations and silly arguments. So you know what? Life actually is pretty darn good!
Toy in hand
