Does Your Child Have His Own TV?

In order to save some money, I have switched from satellite TV to Cable (combining with one company will save me $30 a month, hard to turn down!). Now I have to decide if I want them to add cable outlets to my son's room.

Before I had my son, I thought letting a young child have a TV and computer in his room was ridiculous. But just like many of the plans I had for raising children before I actually had any, I have already eaten my words when it comes to the computer.

When he started using my mouse at 2 1/2 to navigate around Starfall.com, I knew I was in trouble. Turns out, giving him his own set up was the best thing I could have done for a gifted child. By three years old he was pointing and clicking, and dragging and dropping like a pro. Now whenever he wants to know more about something, he heads to Google for research. The Internet has been a huge blessing when it comes to dealing with his education and interests!

The technician for the cable company will be here next week to install my new service. So I have to decide whether or not to have his room wired for cable now, or wait and have them do it later. They are offering me six months of free service for the second hook up, to entice me.

I'm just not sure that giving him his own TV is a good idea. The thought of us watching separate shows in two different rooms, is sad. I don't like the idea of isolating our lives at such a young age. Then again, the way his mind works, I know how well he learns on him own, he would enjoy the responsibility and the freedom.

I suppose I could place restrictions on it and still have times set aside for watching things together. I just wish he didn't have to grow up so fast. I know every parent feels that way, always have and always will. Compared to other homes, he still has much less "stuff" than many children we know. We don't have a game system (I know nothing about them) and he's starting to ask about playing games he sees on the TV. The only games he plays now, are free ones on the computer.

So do I test the water now and let them install cable to his room while they are here? Or do I ignore the discounted deal and wait until he is older? I remember when I first put a computer in his room, in the beginning I couldn't get him to leave his room for anything (even food). Then over a few months, he did start hanging out with me again. Maybe the initial novelty of his own TV will wear off after a while too and he won't become a cave dwelling teenager before his time.

An Almost New House

It's the end of a very busy week! Workmen have been here re-siding the house. I think they did a good job. We still have to paint. The photo above is of the new siding in the color it comes already primed. It's HardiePlank siding and it won't rot or attract termites.

Speaking of termites, unfortunately they found some damage under the old wood. So next week we will have a treatment for subterranean termites. After that, we will paint. I have not decided on colors yet. It's hard to see in this photo, but there is cedar trim around the windows and doors.

The house had been a butter yellow with white trim. I'm thinking of something more earthy, yet a little bolder this time. Maybe some beep blues and forest greens. All opinions are welcome! Tomorrow we will be out in the yard picking up nails and construction debris before the dog finds it.

A Visitor

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Summer

Whose got big plans this summer? I wish I could say we did but like most summers when your a pet sitter, I stay home so you don't have to. As many other families will be heading off on summer vacations, my son and I will be walking and feeding their pets.

Even if I could take a few days off, there is no pet sitter for the pet sitter ( ironic, I know).
Then there is the problem of my eighty two year old mother almost always needing me for one thing or another. It has been well over a decade since I have been anywhere for any reason, let alone for fun.

Still, I hope to have some slow times here and there to do some fun summertime activities with my son. He loves to go fishing, so the very next less than sweltering evening, we will go to the little lake nearby and fish. Also since Grandma has a pool, he can play in the water there while I tend to her business.

It's shaping up to be a hotter than normal summer here it seems, which usually leads to a busy hurricane watching season too. Not exactly my idea of summer fun! Before any storms head our way, I'm having the house re-sided. The siding has needed to be dealt with for a while now and time has run out.

So that's what is in store for us. What about you, tell me about your summer plans? Give me something to shoot for next year!

Menu Planning

My future chef.

(this week anyway)

My Son, The Author

A few weeks ago while in bed one night, my son wrote his first story, on his own. When he was finished, he showed me two full pages of sentences. He couldn't wait to read it to me and I couldn't wait to hear it. It was about a mother dinosaur protecting her eggs.

He didn't spell all the words correctly but he did have the correct punctuation. Funny thing is, the long names of the dinosaurs he did spell correctly! It's some of the simple words he had trouble with. I'm always amazed when he can read and write great big words before the smaller ones.

I was so impressed, I told him I would make his story into a book. So I typed it into a word document, leaving a space at the top of each page for an illustration. I made the necessary corrections and also made a cover page. The cover has a title and names him as author and illustrator.

Then I found some coloring pages for him to color that went along with his story. I pasted a picture at the top of each page and then laminated the pages. With a hole punch, I made three holes and clipped the pages together with small key rings. He was thrilled and now we have a wonderful keepsake to cherish!

Cucumber Success!

After last year's gardening disasters, I'm proud to announce we finally have our first cucumbers!

Not sure how many we will end up with, but the whole point was for my son to see the vegetables grow. We have accomplished that.
I don't know why they are curving, it may be due to lack of fertilizer. They also tend to dry out too much between watering.

We don't put as much time into the garden as I would like, so it's survival of the fittest only around here.

We are still trying to grow tomatoes. The caterpillars are giving us a run for our money, so we may not have much to show, but at least he is learning and having fun trying.