Inspiring evenings without TV

Oh what a lovely weekend, apart from the sibling squabbles and the remnants of colds all has been well.  The Children have found new and exciting resources as we have all but banned TV, the world of imagination has opened up again and I am so pleased for all of us.

The boy is grounded, well this is all we can do that we feel will make him notice that what he is doing is wrong, he forged his exam results in the official book the school gives us, this is not the first time.  He just wants to be seen to be doing well, but he is also a tad sneaky when not doing homework and blaming it on other things and fobbing us and the school off with crazy reasons for not studying.  So we have removed the things that we feel take his attention away from his homework, TV, computer, phone, Rugby etc and hope that he tries harder.  In fact we are all trying harder to focus on the important stuff rather than the trivial, distracting and pointless.  So a week and no TV was wonderful, no murmuring chattering noise, no arguments about what to watch, no crying when it turns off etc.  We have never watched it much but always sat down after supper for 1 hour together to watch something such as a DVD in English etc as Italian TV is dire.  So what did we do instead….  We read a lot of books, we planned the summer, we sorted photo albums, the kids dressed up as rock stars, TT drew, the boy skulked a bit, they played games, they played Xmen outside charging around the garden hiding and shrieking, they fought with bamboo swords, we walked, we talked, we planted seeds, bulbs, plants, veg, flowers.  We played with puppies, we played with puppies some more, we cuddled our new Mummy dog, I sorted wardrobes and clothes, I mended clothes, we cooked, the Man enjoyed Rugby at Prato, the lawns got mowed, the garden got watered, I made flatbreads, Farmhouse bread, muffins, cakes and buns and most of all we enjoyed life, in the sun, in the spring, in Tuscany.