However, lately I have found that Bear is pretty much counting down the hours until it's movie time, and therefore struggling to occupy himself throughout the day.
After a mini meltdown a couple of nights ago when it was time to turn the TV off, I told Bear that I was going to stop movie time for a while until he stopped waiting for it, and saw it as more of a treat... Today was day 1.
Both boys slept really well last night, which meant an earlier morning than usual, and we had breakfast together and then had a look at our weekend project for the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. I had some print outs for them to look at and colour in, plus a couple of activities.
Bear can confidently identify most common garden birds by picture, and when he sees them out and about. The Cub recognises a couple too. He has also started using the right colours when colouring, so he has red and brown for a robin, blue and yellow for a blue tit and some black for a blackbird.
After this, Bear wanted to play a game, which he'd been attempting with his little brother but it hadn't been going well. We started by hiding teddy bears and going on a bear hunt, for which Bear could pretty much recite himself. Then we played Hide & Seek, which saw Bear practicing counting to twenty. I lost count how many turns we took!
They continued to play together for a while so that I could get a few chores done and we all got dressed. By this time it was almost lunch time so we read a new book, which happened to be about playing Hide & Seek, and then we fit in a couple of board games before they came back to the table to do some colouring while I made lunch.
Pops came round to sort some car stuff for me while we ate lunch and then the boys did incredibly well at playing independently while I was on the phone and sorting a few things out.
After everything was sorted we did our numbers and letter sounds practice and then did some jigsaws together before the boys pulled out the boxes of cars. I wrote this post, up until this point, while they sat playing beautifully together, lining cars up and then knocking them with auto rolling ones.
When they'd had enough of this we did some tidying up because The Cub asked for the Duplo out. We sat for an hour building trains and playgrounds while Bear built a forest with a Park Ranger and then a train with carriages to take people to the forest. Somehow, this ended with The Cub pretending to be a Duplo brick and hiding in the bag...
This was coming up on 'movie time' so, when we'd put all the bricks away, chasing them around the room where they'd scattered from The Cub's wriggling, I cracked out the big guns and set them up with playdough at the table.
Between this and then kinetic sand, they played happily by the side of each other while I got tea ready, and got some editing done! Bonus!
After tea, they went to play and ended up dressed as superheroes and saved the world while I finished tidying up and ran the bath. Again, they played amazingly together and Bear was so good at waiting for his brother and helping him with his cape! I had to talk them into the bath because they were having so much fun.
Bath, story and bed, and here I am with The Cub asleep in my arms and listening to Bear tell his stuffed animals a story about Winnie the Pooh, a current favourite. All day, and no screens... The only thing we didn't do today that I would have liked is to get outside...Bear was convinced thay he would blow away and got quite upset at the idea, so we decided to stay indoors for the day.
I'm planning to detox for a few days and then slowly reintroduce screen time, first for his yoga, then use movies as treats rather than a daily occurance.
Do your kids have regular screen time? Or is it kept for special occasions?
Mama Bear
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