It was Inevitable!

~From Early March~

(The fact that he is wearing clown hair is completely irrelevant. Yet- funny, eh?)

At the beginning of March, our lives all changed. We now have 7 people, all wanting a turn on the computer. Especially since Bridger learned how to use it. I remember the day when we were all so proud that he knew the sign-language for "computer". And now... well, maybe we should have first taught him the sign-language for "sharing", or "reading"!

Now, first thing in the morning when he wakes up on non-school days, (I wake him up at 6:45 for him to catch his 7:15 am school bus 4 days/week), I can hear his feet running down the hall upstairs, down the stairs, and into my room. Whereupon he says, "Is the computer awake?" And the first place he heads whenever he comes home from somewhere, is straight to the computer. He'll play on there for hours if we let him.

We set a timer by him, and give him plenty of notice: "20 minutes and your turn is all done...5 more minutes, 2 more minutes." As long as we're there when the timer goes off to remind him, he'll get off the computer fairly cooperatively. Not always, but at least it's not a total meltdown getting him off, if we've given him lots of notice. (I've had to set the kitchen timer for myself, to remind me to hurry over there, before his timer goes off. Or he'll just stay and keep on playing.) Now, I'm trying to break that habit, and get him thinking about other things to do and play with when he first wakes up/comes home. Not an easy feat to accomplish! Mysteriously, the computer has been "broken" more often than usual lately. Broken, as in I've just unplugged it. Which I hope he never discovers!