Outside time

When our schoolwork for the day had been completed—and really both Zoë and Benjamin did great work today (Zoë has started her curriculum for grade two, because why not, and Benjamin actually did his work independently)—I sent the kids outside to play. 

The day was somewhat overcast, so they whined about having to go outside. 

"What if it rains?" they whined. 

"Then we'll see. But it isn't raining. It's only cloudy and you're going outside."

As if they don't enjoy playing in the rain. 

Sometimes they'll go outside and play for hours all on their own choosing. Sometimes I have to force them to go outside and later force them back inside. Sometimes I send them outside and they sneak back inside and down into the basement to play quietly hoping I won't notice. Sometimes—like today—I have to force them outside and they just hate it and it almost makes me wish I hadn't forced them outside.

But also they can't stay inside all day, so...out they went.

They fought and screamed for quite some time and then came inside to very grumpily get some water.

"I'm hot!"

"I have a headache!"

"My throat hurts!"

I gave them a timeout on the carpet while I thought about what to say to them, which was basically that I could hear them fighting and screaming and treating each other horribly from inside the house, which meant that (a) they weren't treating each other very well, which makes me feel sad because they should cherish each other, and (b) all the neighbours could hear their carrying ons as well and that was downright embarrassing! They were behaving abominably! 

And all their hotheadedness was probably what was causing their physical ailments in the first place.

"So you're going to go back outside and try again," I said. "Come up with a way to play together nicely this time."

They hung their heads and slunk out the back door, single file, and I settled down to finish the article I was reading ('cuz momma's got work to do, children). They played quietly for several minutes before coming back inside to ask if I would take a picture of their autumn wreath:

They'd gone around collecting leaves and acorns and twigs and even a snail shell or two and arranged them in a wreath shape because apparently that's a thing that we do somewhat regularly:

And they got along the whole time, so we'll call it a win!