Today was a long day as usual. It started with early morning soccer games and the boys are finally in bed at 9:00. I know many 8 and 5 year olds normally get to bed much later than this and are up earlier than mine, but when I read that children in this developmental stage need 10-11 hours of sleep per night I wonder how many problems some children have would be eliminated by simply getting adequate sleep. We evaluate our childrens sleep habits and they are in the 10-11 hour per night range most of the time. They have not been the last couple of weeks and we are noticing more mood swings, behavior, and difficulty focusing. So we are telling people no right now to many extra things and skipping some activities.
Another thing I do not think is good for children or families is constant busyness. That has been our last couple of weeks. Our homeschool is going full swing now, soccer, Cub Scouts, meetings for Vic and I, as well as the fact that Vic is having a spring type of mowing schedule in September. So today after soccer games this morning we could have done a few things, but I decided we needed to be home with no agenda for a few hours. It was quite nice. At first Caleb and Simeon were not sure what to do with themselves, but then they started playing together. Simeon started using playthings in his room to build a house type structure. Caleb used his dress up clothes quite creatively and dressed up as Abraham Lincoln. He even made a beard out of paper and taped it onto his face. I only wish I had thought to use my phone to take a picture of this. As we were all relaxing just having some time to unwind I thought about how important time to BE is. It certainly renewed my soul and my children came out of their moodiness and started to laugh again. So I need to prioritize time to BE a little more. I know that we all will sleep better tonight.
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