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Our Busy Couple of Weeks

This past week my bother’s kids, Charlie and Zoe, were at my parents. My kids were very excited to see them. I play lots of role play games with Charlie and I took Zoe the Flint Institute of Arts. The kids all played well together and really liked my Star Wars Miniatures. For four nights all four of my mother’s grandkids whet to her church for Vacation Bible School. Rodney and David really liked it. They all loved the singing, the arts and games they played. The Teachers and adults who were helping out really handled Rodney very well. The best thing from all of this was spending time with my dad.

Also coming up, this week end we will be going camping with some family friends for four days and three nights. We will be camping outside of Sandusky Ohio, near Cedar Point. We plan to go to the water park, the beach, and watch fireworks wile we are there.

Then the day after we get back, we will be going to Greenfield Village with my brother Tom and his kids. I think Rob and his wife Amy will be going as well. It will be fun to have the whole family together for the day. It looks like we will be having a very busy couple of weeks

Amy’s Favorite Parenting Websites

Here is something form my wife:

http://www.awareparenting.com/

Aware parenting consists of:

1. Attachment style parenting: Lots of physical contact, prompt responsiveness to crying, sensitive attunement. For birth parents: natural childbirth and extended breast feeding.
2. Non-punitive discipline: No spanking or artificial consequences. Using natural consequences. Anger management for parents and peaceful conflict/resolutions
3. Prevention and healing from stress and trauma: recognition of the healing effects of play, laughter, and crying in the context of a loving parent/child relationship. Respectful acceptance of the child’s emotions

http://www.loveandlogic.com/

What is love and logic?

1. Shared control: Gain control by giving away the control you don’t need.
2. Shared thinking and decision making: Provide opportunities for the child to do the greatest amount of thinking and decision making.
3. Equal shares of empathy and consequences: an absence of anger causes a child to think and learn from his/her mistakes.
4. Maintain the child’s self concept: increased self concept leads to improved behavior and improved achievement

http://www.stophitting.com/

Policies against corporal punishment adopted by the United Methodist Church

“Whereas, corporal punishment models aggressive behavior as a solution to conflict, whereas, some research has associated corporal punishment with increased aggression in children and adults, increased substance abuse, increased risk of crime and violence, low self esteem, and chronic depression,

Whereas, it is difficult to imagine Jesus of Nazareth condoning any action intended to hurt children physically or psychologically,

Whereas, time outs and deprivation of privileges are as effective as corporal punishment in stopping undesirable behavior,

Whereas, the effectiveness of corporal punishment decreases with subsequent use and therefore leads caretakers to hit children more severely,

Whereas, children must eventually develop their own conscious and self discipline, which are fostered by a home environment of love, respect and trust,

Therefore, be it resolved that the United Methodist Church encourages its members to adopt discipline methods that do not include corporal punishment of their children. And be it further resolved that the United Methodist Church encourages congregations to offer opportunities for dialogue and education on effective discipline of children.

Photos from our Garden

Here are some great photos from my garden. This year I’m spending lots of time with the boys outside. So I get to spend lots of time in my garden, weeding, watering and grooming the lawn. Both Rodney and David help me from time to time (mostly over watering the tomato plants). I’m looking to get a composer for next year. We will use it for turning our yard and food waste in to fertile dirt to add to our garden. Now that I have a shed, I have new places for planting next year. Here is a photo of my new shed.

Our Anniversary

This past Monday was Amy and mine seventh wedding anniversary. However we are going out tonight to celebrate it with a movie. So here is a poem I wrote when Amy and I were just dating and then was modified for our wedding and was put on the back of our wedding program. (The above photo was taken resonantly in my garden after a rain storm.)

You Are Love

When I first saw you,
I saw love.
The first time you looked at me,
I felt love.
The first time you spoke to me,
I became love.

You are the one I run to,
The one I belong to.
You are the one I want for life,
No other could be my wife.

You are the one that I love,
The only one I dream of.
Our love has no better,
We beat the odds together.

We might take the long way,
But we will get there someday.
I’m so glad I found you
I look forward to being with you
always

Schools Out!!!

Today was Rodney’s last day of kindergarten, and he will be going in to the 1st grand next year. With all the ups and downs this year for him it was nice to see lots of improvement on his part. His grades are up, he knows all of his letter and can count over 100, and is reading on a 1st grade level. Emotionally he has gotten better as well; he is handling himself much better. He even has a best friend, Sterling. This is an amazing thing for him, he has always had a hard time with other kids his age. However this past couple of weeks was hard on him, Rodney has never handled change well.

So summer vacation has begun, and so has the loss of what is left of my hair. I’ll have both of them here with me all the time now. I have lots of plans to work with them this during this time. We will go on bike rides in the morning, and then work on their summer work books, and then we will go to the pool for swim lessons with me. I have 82 days until both of them are in school…
82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days, 82 days!....

The Detroit Festival of the Arts

Today we went to the Detroit Festival of the Arts, with the boys. We met up with one of my good friends Meredith. It seems I have been getting together with lots of old friends from my past. The festival had lots of fun things for the boys to do. There were live bands and performers every ware. The first thing each of the boys did was to make a little house to place them on a large map of down town Detroit (this was ware Meredith was) Next David spotted a stage with ballet dancers performing. He very much wanted to go see and was very excited about it. Then we did some drumming, face painting and some virus arts a crafts. The bys could barely contain them self’s. Amy and I did get to see some of the artist and their work (in between trying to keep the boys with us). Also we had a nice long talk with Meredith (with a few interruptions from the boys) before we came home. It was a very fun day, even tough I got a little bit of sun today on the back of my neck.

Our Big Kids

Yesterday and today both Rodney and David have been showing us sights that they are growing up and fast. Yesterday a new Chinese Restaurant opened up very close by us. Both boys made “attempts at eating” with chop sticks. The above images are proof or that.

But the big news is they both started to ride their bikes with out their training wheels. After spending so much time fixing there training wheels I finally decided to let David try it with out them for a little bit. To my amazement he took right off with out help and only fell a few times. He was riding like he did with the wheels on. Rodney upon seeing this decided he was going to do this to. After some work we were able to get him to go by him-self. We did have to help him get started every time but he was able to do it. His bike is a little big for him but he should grow in to it. They really are growing fast! Amy says they are no longer her little babies.

David's last day of preschool

Today was David’s last day with his preschool program. We ended it with a picnic at Kensington Park; witch is a very large park near were we live. After we ate we when for a walk down to the water to see the beach and get our feet wet (it was to cold to go swimming). Then we went to the animal farm that is part of the park. We have been there many times before, so David acted as tour Gide for the rest of his class.

Now David’s class is very unique, it is a home and center basted program. David’s teacher would come to our house once a week, (witch meant I had to really get the house clean) and we whet to the Early Childhood center once a week. There were only three kids in the class along with there parents (yes the parents participated in the program, and yes I sung songs, played games and danced around with David). The program lasted for 12 weeks and David really go a lot out of it. Amy and I truly feel he is ready for kindergarten next year.

the first four photos are from today at the park, and the other three are from different times in the class. The last three also were taken by David's teacher, Mrs McCarthy, She gave them to us to day.