Reading: Simplicity Parenting
Knitting: Easter dresses, Citron shawl, and Lucy's Birthday doll
Forgive the blurry photo this morning.
Evidently neither the camera nor I were quite awake yet.
I've got quite a few knitting projects going (needles in the fire?) and they all are things I'd like to have finished sooner rather than later. Deadline knitting = not really my thing.
I'm still going 'round and 'round on the stockinette portion of the girls' Easter dresses. As soon as I get the skirts done, I'll go back to the bodices and finish up the sleeves. I think I'm going to have just enough yarn. (Famous last words?)
I cast on for the Citron shawl a few weeks ago, thinking it would be nice to take with me on vacation, but then I set it down and didn't pick it up again until this week.
I've been alternating working on the shawl with the dresses. Having something to pick up that doesn't involve stockinette in the round for miles and miles is a nice change of pace.
I'm using yarn from Wolle's Yarn Creations for the shawl and I love watching the colors do their gradual changing magic. I've mentioned before that this yarn isn't plied, more like strands of thread held together, and that takes some getting used to. It probably isn't a good match for a beginning knitter. But, it is worth it to me for the beautiful color changes.
And, I'm giving Lucy's birthday doll her blonde hair and will probably take her clothes with me, as a project to knit while on vacation. I cannot believe that little cupcake of mine is going to be THREE soon!
Did you guys hear Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, on Feed.Play.Love this week? I wasn't expecting him to be as funny as he was.
My favorite quote, on parents stepping in too soon to turn on the TV or another screen to stop their child's boredom:
"The step between boredom and creativity is sibling torture."
Ha! Oh, so true at our house!
He was making a joke, of course, but he also said that we often step in too soon to "cure" the boredom with television and that we need to let our kids find their own solutions to boredom, yes, even supervising that "sibling torture" step until it passes, and then our kids will move on to something else to do.
The speakers also talked about how a lot of parents over anticipate their kids' reactions to a restricted TV "diet" or going TV free, when usually the child's reaction isn't as bad as the parents were predicting.
We need to let our kids be bored - "give our children the gift of boredom" as Kim John Payne says. Basically, we parents panic and flip on the TV just as their creativity was perhaps about to blossom.
Another favorite quote from the session was from Dr. Thomas Cooper who said, "Television teaches us to be consumers not creators." Indeed! I loved Dr. Cooper's suggestion to "take your kids to see the game instead of watching it on tv" - go SEE and DO things together!
We aren't a TV-free household, and I don't want to give that impression, but we do limit the television we watch and, aside from a few sports shows and my love of Bones and Project Runway on Hulu, the TV isn't a main source of entertainment for the adults in our house and so it isn't for the kids.*
I suppose I'd much rather be reading or knitting!
* I'm Not Perfect ALERT: Now, computer screen time and cell phone screen time are both things I could probably stand to give myself a more restrictive diet of. Ahem.
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