tonight is game night. that means that the 4 of us come together around 7 p.m., and one of us picks a board or card game, and we all play together until 8:30. Last week we played our favorite word board game from like 1973 or something, and which i think is no longer available, Probe. The week before, a card game. before that, i think, was Sorry.

the kids love it. it's rare that we let anything come in the way of it, although once summer came last year (and they were still in school), things did tend to push it aside, but it was fun stuff, and largely benefitting the girls. but in hte winter, it's perfect.

The other nights of the week, we do our "together time" - this is where beloved spends 30 minutes1:1 with a child, and I at the same time spend 30 minutes 1:1 with the other. Then we switch. This does sometimes get either shortened, or cut -- in honor of things like unfinished homework, special projects for school, or some kind of event in an evening. I used to read aloud with the kids during our time, and beloved would play games (he and Thing One invented one game), do projects (he taught Thing Two a card trick - they worked on it for over a month, and she still does it flawlessly). I then stopped reading with them once I finally got to the end of Harry Potter 6, and I play games, help them do extra stuff for school, or whatever else they want to do. Thing Two and I are planning on reading the Chronicles of Narnia soon. Thing One is getting to where she just wants to be with me while she works on newspaper articles for the school newspaper she and her friend just started - a little guidance with research, etc.

it's nice, though, to make this time for the 1:1, and I know it makes the girls really happy to know they have that time with each of us.

posted by Zuska @ 6:10 PM

1 Comments:

At Thursday, January 19, 2006 2:27:00 AM, Anonymous said…

That's awesome. I'm genuinely in awe of you for managing to do so much parenting while maintaining a full load at school.