Since last year I’ve stopped morning lessons at 11AM to send the boys outside for sunshine and rough housing; because by the time M wakes up from his nap/quiet play/listen to stories on tape recorder or CD if he borrows my new kitchen radio, the sun is setting. Especially if he has to put his snow pants on by himself. But I usually use this time to blog, catch up on e-mails, put books on reserve at the library over the internet, or make lunch.
This morning I realized that I hadn’t been outside since buying groceries on Tuesday. If I want the kids to get good exercise/nature habits, I’d better do stuff with them, not just tell them what to do.
So K and I put on our stuff, and walked around the house today. Well, K tried to take her stuff off as I put it on her, then sort of practiced the motions of putting it back on. 10 month olds don’t dress themselves, do they.
We live in an urban-ish area, still, the puddles and ice were interesting, the left over snow piles merited some coos from the baby, and by the time her eyes teared up from the wind, we’d looked at the garden and heard the baptisia seeds rattling in their pretty black pods.
I’m not risking the guilt enough to make this a resolution: lets call it an ‘I’ll try’ to get outside with the kids more.