I am trying to change my days to reflect my priorities as I realise them through my Living Now Game.  This morning I got up real early and pulled weeds while praying about my children.  I was realising that the cause of a lot of our problems is that I only pull out the leaves (yell, punish then try to teach) but I really need to get to the bottom and pull out the whole root by teaching more about our Heavenly Father and how to have a relationship with Him.  As this happens I will also develop a relationship with my children and then be better able to teach to their heart.

Best wishes,
Jen in Oz

Well, it isn't going too bad at all.  In fact my dh yesterday agreed that we probably won't ever put a TV back in our lounge room.  The kids have still been able to watch a bit of TV now and then but it hasn't been as much as before.  We have cut their viewing down from 8 hours a day to about 4 hours over about 3 days.  Not bad at all!  And now we control what they watch more too.  Old Knight Rider episodes have been fun to watch.  Some good kids movies!  Have to watch out for the more modern ones, the themes can still have too many adult overtones for my liking.

That has been 2.5 weeks now and counting.  I don't think we will ever be a totally TV-free home but it is so nice to have it a lot less.

Best wishes,
Jen in Oz

Well, suprisingly the boys aren't killing each other and they aren't complaining a whole lot either.  It is lot easier to say no to watching television when there is no television to watch.   

So far we have had them watching a movie one  morning to keep my lark out my hair while I slept in to catch on sleep from my owl being up very late.  Must admit we put in a dvd last night as I was rather frazzled and needed the baby occupied while I made dinner but I know that we won't be going back to the TV on all day long situation we had before.  This has proven to me that they can do things without television. 

Best wishes,
Jen in Oz

We have packed away all of the televisions except for one in the house.  (I just can’t miss JAG or NCIS so we will record those for me!)  The only one still in operation is in dh’s room so it won’t be so easy to access as he doesn’t usually rise until about 11am.  I have done it rather drastically without any crafts or project ideas to back me up in tough times.  I figure 3 healthy boys can figure out what to do without television without my input.  (Hoping and praying this is true!)

There will be no television for a month and we will see how much better the boys behave, how much better they think and how much fitter they will be too.

Love to hear how others have faced the TV-free zone.

Best wishes,

Jen in Oz

There is a great toy library just started up in my area run by a shire council.  It looks pretty good especially for board games, big gymnastic style toys and little things like musical instruments and puzzles.

Our toys are not played with much.  When I reorganise I am seriously considering containering them in much smaller boxes.  After a while I will be able to see which things are staying at the bottom of the stack unused.  Then I will do some culling.

I wonder how others cope when there is such a big age range in a family.  It just doesn't seem possible to have enough things that suit each age without having a huge amount of 'stuff'.

Mine are only 1, 4 and almost 8 but that really makes a difference on what things I keep and what I feel comfortable buying.

Ah well, the never ending dilemma of toys!

Do you think they would notice if I chucked the lot?

Jen in Oz