My kids love the computer, cell phones, and especially my iPad. As soon as Josh wakes up, after asking for milk, he wants to “play Mommy”. This translates to playing on the iPad and he is not quite two yet. He loves all his apps and You Tube videos of cows. Cows mooing, cows dancing, cows walking in a pasture; It doesn’t matter. The kid is obsessed. I do not let him on the iPad this early. I wait until the afternoon and I give him a certain amount of time to enjoy it. He does have educational apps as well but I don’t want my kids to be TV, computer, and video game junkies.
I try to get them out and about as much as possible. They are very active kids but this time of year is torture. While we do the occasional bundling up to play in the snow, the weather recently has been too cold to venture out. We have the bouncy house in the play room and we play some catch inside but our activities are limited.
This is why I was so excited to join the YMCA earlier this month. When my husband and I were looking for a gym to join for our half marathon training, we found that we could join the Y at a family rate for cheaper than two of us joining another gym. We now have access to the gym, classes, pool, playground, child care, and family programs for one low monthly price. Tonight we took the kids to the pool for family swim time with the Wibit. This is a blow-up obstacle course that is put in the pool. My kids absolutely loved it. They slid down the slide too many times to count. We practically had to drag them out of there to go get some dinner. Jake also starts a program for 3-5 year old kids on Wednesday night where they introduce them to various sports. Floor hockey, basketball, and soccer will be some of the things he will be involved with over the next few weeks. I am very thankful to have access to these types of activities in the dead of winter. Maybe my kids will even stop asking for the iPad. ;-) Jess 1.31.14