It was hard to get up today. My Sweets and I stayed up late again. Watching too much T.V.

We plugged in the T.V. to watch the Olympics. After the Olympics we have been watching the Presidential campaigns.

We don't watch T.V. during the day, but once my hubby gets home we turn it on to see the latest. I told the kiddos and my Sweets that once November rolls around we are back on no T.V. Usually the kids watch about five hours or less. Depending on how mama feels or if someone is sick. We don't watch T.V. but dvd's. My Sweets and I will rent a movie one or twice a month and watch that Friday after the kiddos are in bed. That's about all the T.V.  It's been fun but I can't wait for us to get back to our no television rule again.

I don't know if you all remember that we bought a Wii for CHRISTmas last year. I thought for sure it was going to be a big burden of me always saying, "No". Well it's been okay. The last time we played the Wii was in May. It's been almost four months.

I have often commented to my Sweets about how well the kids play together. It's great. Yes, they have their spats every day, but when you look at the whole picture they get along quite well. I wonder if it has anything to do with homeschooling?

They play so well together. From our oldest who is 10yrs. to our youngest who is 4yrs. old.  Sometimes they don't want Lance to play because he breaks their towers or whatever they are making but for the most part he can join in

What do they play??? If we are reading Moccasin Trail they play Indians. If we are reading about Laura or any other book during that time they play log cabins. If we read about ninjas, they are Ninjas. Whatever era we are reading about that's what they play and they play it well.

Last year we read a lot about the Old Testament so they played a lot of Bible stories. It's fun to watch and it can get very loud here. Some days they play with the parts out with Legos, Lincoln Logs, toy figures and such. Other days they are running around the house having wars.

The most recent is making guns and rifles out of Legos and they are trying to be quiet and sneak up on each other. They play in teams. The sneaking up came from reading about Ninjas and they added in the guns. Even Annette plays most of these games with the boys. Poor thing. I should play with her more. She's a trooper.

Another thing I want to comment on about my wonderful kiddos who sometimes drives me nuts is when someone gets shot they don't make a fuss. Before they would get mad or get their feeling hurt. Now they fall to the ground wait a few seconds and get back up to continue playing. Unless the rules are you have to be rescued by your partner, then you can't get up.

My mother-in-law is surprised at how well they play. She visits about twice a year and is always amazed at our kids politeness toward each other and to grown-ups. It's really encouraging. Sometimes I wonder how we must look to others. Kids jumping from furniture and such. LOL. It's nice to know that we don't look like barbarians to others. Hee. hee. Especially when my kids play in the mud. Now that's another story.

My sister-in-law Hannah was real encouraging a few months ago my kids were playing on a trampoline. We were in El Paso visiting some family (funeral) Lance was getting scared so the bigger kids helped him down. My sister Hannah commented on how the older ones helped the younger one. My mother-in-law heard her say that and she said, "Yeah, they help each other. "  So it was really nice to hear.

I'm not writing this to be proud or boastful, but it's nice to hear once in a while. When your home all day 24/7 with the kiddos and your the one having to discipline, correct, teach and train. Well, it can get a little overwhelming and can make one wonder if they are doing an okay job.

It has also shown me what kind words can do, so I in return need to make myself aware of others and give some encouraging words back.

Here is a nice book that is a quick read and very encouraging. It's Habit Revisited from www.queenhomeschool.com

You can easily read this in a couple of days. This is a good thing for a homeschooling mom of 6  I am good at starting books but sometimes don't get around to finishing them. This one I read over the weekend.

I need to write all the names down from the contest so got to go.

In Him,

Linda<><

Email me at Homeschooling6[At]hotmail[Dot]com.