Media Ban

Samantha was beastly to Marie on Wednesday, Marie's day to pick up Sam after school. I had to do soemthing to impress on Sam that she cannot try to hit Marie because she wants me there instead, so I took away all tv, computer and Wii from Wednesday to Saturday morning. THis makes it harder for me in a way, because I have to think of things for her to do, and I am feeling pretty up against the wall already with my coughing and Joshua's diarrhea, but lessons are lessons and don't wait upon my timing issues. So, Sam was pretty upset about not having tv, and I was not entirely okay with the disconnect between the punishment and what she did, so I told her the ban can stop Friday afternoon if she can think of at least five things that would help her with her strong feelings when I am not there to pick her up. She is a bright girl, I figured she could come up with better ideas than I would. This is what she wrote:

Say "Marie, I wanted Mom to come."
Ask if we can go home
Bring and read a book
Take a deep breath
Say "oh Well"
Forget about it
Go home and lock myself in my room

I think there are some pretty darn good ideas in there! So, tomorrow afternoon we will be having movie time. Possibly with popcorn. And Daddy should get home around 5pm, maybe earlier. Joshua is staying home tomorrow because of his pooping today. Poor little guy.

So, what does Samantha do when she isn't spending time on the computer, tv or Wii? She made a windmill with Tinker toys, cooked dinner for the three of us, started weaving a cloth for a purse on a loom her grandmother gave her, wrote a nice apology to Marie and addressed it, ran to help her brother when he fell and got him a cup of juice to make him feel better, read part of a very long book titled "Eldest" about dragons, played jacks, brushed her teeth and went to bed with no fuss at all. She was really fun to be with very interesting and motivated. I felt like things were in the right place, everybody was happy. Hey, all this and the dishes are clean too. I am woman hear me roar!