Well, yesterday my No Greater Joy (http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/) magazine came and as always, I had to say, "Ouch" after reading a couple of the articles. Michael Pearl sure knows how to shoot it straight. Anyway, he had an article in there about Boys acting silly and he talked about how silliness in boys can create foolish young men. I'm so guilty of indulging my son in a little silliness and oft times I am plain silly with him. I just thought of it as fun, but I see where folly as a youngster can create foolishness as a young man. Anyway, today the two oldest started with silliness while memorizing their scripture verses (Psalm 1). Actually, my daughter started it, but oldest son soon joined in. It was so hard for me to say, "Stop being foolish", because they were being really funny, but I did. They quit pretty quickly when they saw Mama wasn't participating. I am a fun mom, don't get me wrong. I will make up for the lack of silliness by engaging them in more tickling session or hugging marathons. :)
Again, the Pearls talked about how destructive the entertainment world can be upon our children's moral lives. My daily struggle is with this. My kids LOVE to watch movies, play the computer, Emory loves his Game Boy, and he will even play games on my phone if I will allow him. I feel like I'm saying No all day long. Kids are so bored these days. MY kids. And it's all thanks to the entertainment industry. Makes me want to smack em' (the entertainment industry, that is...lol). If I have a stack of dishes and my children have already done table activities till they are green in the face, then I will allow them to watch a video. Let's see--weekly, my kids (youngest excluded) probably watch a total of 4-5 hours of TV per week. Sometimes a bit more (when they are at grandparents') and sometimes a bit less. But every bit bothers me. This evening they played probably 2 hours total with blocks and animals. I love it when they do this.
Anyway, what I'm posting is, I don't like letting my kids have any entertainment. With the least bit, I do worry what the damage will be. BUT, I know they enjoy it and I hope that a 'little bit' won't hurt. Anyway...enough ramblings and to my subject...
Yesterday, after reading the Pearls' it got me geared up to do something with the kids. So, I decided on a Nature walk. They had to clean up their room first, so I set the timer (blessed timer) and they did it pretty well. We made us a list of all the things we wanted to see on our nature walk--a checklist--and headed out. At 1:30 in the afternoon. Oh my. Anyway, we have some trails around here, but none are favorable for a stroller, so I had to pull Evan in the wagon. We ended up not seeing but about 4 things on our list (boy, we had a list...moose, elk, 'cantelopes', deers..lol), but it was a good time. Hot, but adventurous.
Try it sometime. PS. The first picture is before we make the trek. The last picture is at our destination (this is actually a camp site for my dh's first cousin and her family--it is so pretty there)
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