Grounded

I will HAVE to try this!

Reward Your Kids for Being Good With Their Braces!

My 8-year-old just got braces.  Yes, I know that's a little young to get braces.  The orthodontist said that he would need braces now when he's younger so that his teeth can fit in, and then he will probably need braces AGAIN when he's a teenager.  All I can think is...EXPENSIVE.  Yes, my husband needs a new car, because the one he's driving is about to die, but instead of buying a car this year, we bought braces!

We are trying to impress upon our 8-year-old the importance of taking care of your teeth when you're wearing braces without making him feel guilty about how much they cost.  (We didn't tell him that we brought the braces in place of a car. He doesn't need to feel guilty about that.) I remember wearing braces.  I wasn't a bad kid, but I wasn't careful about what I ate when I was wearing them.  I chewed gum.  I ate any candy I wanted.  I ate a piece of taffy once and pulled a bracket off one of my back teeth.  I also had a sock thrown at my face and had a bracket pulled off when the sock was grabbed and pulled back quickly.  Ouch!

How are we getting him to be good with his braces?  WE'RE GIVING HIM CANDY! Read on...

We sat down with our son and had a nice little talk about what he could and couldn't eat (feeling like a hypocrite!).  And then we told him that we would keep "permissible candy" on hand at home.  Any time that he is given candy that he's not allowed to eat, all he has to do is bring it home and trade it.  I will take the sticky candy and give him the permissible candy.  I am keeping all the candy he turns in.  The day he gets his braces off he gets to celebrate by getting a bag full of sticky candy and gum.  He really likes this idea.  He sees it as banking candy.  In other words, he's getting twice as much candy! We want him to be excited about this.  It's working great!!!!

Screen Free - Day 31

We made it. We did it. We went screen free for a whole month.  Today was our last day. We had friends over in the morning, and then in the evening we played games with some other friends until midnight. It was a great!

I have say though we are kind of glad the screen free month is over. In fact tomorrow we are going to have a movie day and watch movies all day to celebrate the new year, and to celebrate the fact that our kids did such a great job.  My kids were amazing, my husband and I did well at the beginning of the month, but not as well at the end of the month. I have the excuse that I had surgery on my foot.

My husband and I both said we think we'll do this again next December. It's a great way to end the year.

I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to drag my kids away from screens to get them to do anything. I didn't have kids begging to watch TV. It's funny though, my three-year-old asked to watch TV or play on the iPad every day of the month, even today.  I thought that he would eventually stop asking, but he never did!

Screen Free - Day 20

Yesterday I had surgery on my foot. They removed part of a bone, then stretched and reattached a ligament. Fun stuff huh! So now I'm on my back for the next three days and then on crutches for about 3 weeks. So, yesterday when the nerve block wore off I admit I let myself use my iPad for the rest of the day. The kids didn't get screen time, just me. I think it was totally justified.

Screen Free - Day 16

I am having surgery on my foot on Thursday.  It would be nice to be able to electronically entertain myself, BUT I'm still very glad that we are doing this experiment!

I usually take a lot of time to read books, but since the beginning of the month I have read two books.  I have read House of Hades by Rick Riordan, and Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George.  I am now reading Dragonriders by who knows.  It's a book my husband recommended to me.  I always wonder about the books he recommends.  We'll see.

Screen Free - Day 13

Yes, I skipped some days.  To be honest, I have to get up at 5 AM to do e-mail and that is really taking a toll on me.  There were somedays this week, that I decided that checking e-mails and doing the blog just wasn't worth it, and I slept in!

Today my husband and I had our date night.  We had a nice long talk about how the no screen time "thing" is going.  We agreed that this has been harder on the adults.  This has been a good experiment.  I liked how I got my e-mail done earlier in the day so I didn't have to think about it all day, or let it get into the way of things.  Tim liked how he would spend more time with his kids rather than sitting in front of his computer for hours when he got home.  We decided that we were going to continue the parts that we liked in January, and discontinue some parts.  So, in January we're going to say no screen time on school days when the kids are awake or home.  That way, Tim can work from home when the kids are at school, and then we can spend time with the kids during the evenings.  On Saturdays the kids can have a limited screen time once their chores are done.

I can't believe how many things I use my iPad for.  I use it for music, as a yellow pages, camera, video camera, FaceTime, podcasts, not to mention e-mail, Facebook, Pinterest.  We said at the beginning of the month that listening to music was not screen time, because we weren't sitting in front of a screen.  So, then I decided that podcasts, weren't screen time either.  Then on Wednesday we face-timed with my parents.  I didn't even flinch, but when my husband got home and I mentioned it to him, he asked me if that was screen time...I guess it was.  Darn it!

Screen Free - Day 8

Sunday again.  It's been a week since we went screen free.  Is my life any better?  Yes, and no.  It's harder to communicate.  I have heard a few times in this past week - "well, didn't you get my e-mail?"  Um, yes, I will tomorrow morning.  The good things are that I'm talking more with my husband.  I'm looking forward to reading The Book of Three with my older kids in the evening.  I don't have to deal with the constant, "can I watch TV?", "can I play on the iPad?", "can I play the Wii?", even "can I watch Phineas and Ferb?" has subsided.  I don't think Cy asked once yesterday.  It's a miracle.

Yesterday evening we had some extra time with the kids.  Tim got out the face cards and taught them Slapjack.  When a few kids cried because they always lost the game turned to Go Fish.  Then when the little kids went to bed, my husband got out pencil and paper and taught my two oldest how to play a space attack game, using the pencil to shoot the other teams spaceships.  I'd never seen that one before.  One thing I'm learning from this adventure is that my husband is a wealth of information and fun activities.  And I thought that Pinterest was the only place to find fun things to do!  Ha!

Screen Free - Day 7

I wasn't home much of today.  I had a concert that I was singing in, and I was running here and there getting things ready.  My husband seemed to have survived without screen time.  Good for him!!!