Aaaagh!
I don’t know about anyone else but three weeks in to the Summer Holidays and my usually laid back children have been arguing over the least little thing. I’m not exaggerating – the other day they actually argued over who was having which tea bag!
It’s so unlike them, just look at the photo I took at the start of the holidays when Master Frugal was getting his ear pierced….
I tried to explain gently that it was upsetting me to hear them arguing when it was so out of character and that didn’t work.
So I took them out for the day and kept them occupied and having fun but that only worked until we got home.
I shouted at them and that worked for a few minutes but then they argued over whose fault it was that I was angry.
I even tried the electronics prison which did work for a while but then they argued over who could do what job to earn their things back.
Before I completely lost it with them, I decided to take drastic action to get them communicating again. I took them to a local boating lake and paid for them to have an hour in the paddle boats. I bet you’re thinking that I’m going mad and that this wasn’t a punishment, what child doesn’t want to go on the rowing boats?
Stay with me, I’m getting to the punishment part….
#teamwork #didntgowell
I made them go in a two man canoe rather than have one each. 😉
I left them to it and went and sat on the grass near the boating lake planning a nice relaxing hour with my phone but for the first twenty minutes, even from where I was sitting, all I could hear was the two of them shouting at each other and telling each other they were doing it wrong.
I had to stop myself from going over and intervening but eventually their shouts started to quieten down and they actually made it around the lake without any major incidents. And then something happened – they started communicating and actually having fun.
The shouts turned to laughter and they had a good half hour of enjoying each others company again.
I’ve capitalised on that togetherness by forcing encouraging them to colour in together….
I’ve made them communicate in code….
And we now even have a together wall of things they can do together – 1 a day….
I don’t think you can see what’s written on the post-it notes but there’s things like bake cakes together, make a video together, cook each other tea, take a funny photo of each other and even build something on Minecraft together.
Right now they’re watching a film together so I’m going to sit back and enjoy it while it lasts!
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