I don’t know about you, but my kids are aggressive psycho lunatics if they consume too many electronics. By electronics, I mean television, tablets, video games, Minecraft, Netflix, youtube, or anything else that stabs their brains with jingly noise and flash images. Even those “learning” games. DIRECT correlation. The more they consume, the bigger jerks they are. And the bigger jerks they are, the crazier I get, and frankly, I’m over it. 

But summer days are difficult. Tv and popsicles are what it’s all about. I get that.

But not this week. This week they’re GROUNDED. Too much attitude. Too little remorse. And momma’s had ENOUGH. “You have BOOKS and OUTSIDE,” I told them. “It’s about to get 1955 up in here.” 

“We’re booored,” they whined after 10 minutes.

“Really? Because I can think of ten things that need cleaning.”

They shuffled away before I could start listing. But that gave me an idea. List! (I love lists). I could occupy them with a little scavenger hunt, of sorts.  So I grabbed some paper and wrote ten random commands. Things that would take a little *time.* I gave them the same lists, but mixed the sequence so they weren’t scrambling for things at the same time.

It was a resounding success so I’m sharing it with you!

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1. Something that begins with the letter “P.”

2. Draw a picture of your toilet. A good picture. Draw it on the back of this paper.

3. Find two objects that rhyme.

4. Find something green and stick it in a sock. Put the sock in your sibling’s room.

5. Find a large dust bunny and name it.

6. Under the picture of the toilet, write six words that describe the drawing of your toilet.

7. Put a hat on.

8. Gather berries from the back porch and make a picture with them on the front porch. (Use at least 20 berries.)

9. Put on lipstick

10. Find a pig. (Not a real one) Be creative!

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Here’s what we learned:

Sophia was not impressed. She didn’t think “cup” rhymed with “syrup.”

Harvey did. He also DREW a curly mustache on himself with lipstick. So we gave him half a point for thinking outside the box.

. . .and also for his pooping man, and use of compound adjectives to describe his toilet. Sophia made a noble effort with her little berry man.

. . . but lost a half point for only using 18 berries.

Other points of interest: We’ve added two dust bunnies to the family: Fluffy and Carl.

They’re now on day 3 of no electronics and so far so good. Their rooms are clean. Instead of fighting, they’re playing legos (together!) and staging dominos to flick over. They’re quieter, less antsy. And I’m pleased.