Bragging

We are starting our summer with a bang. We went on the Tony Knowles coastal trail with our kids Friday. My husband took pictures and put them on his computer so you'll have to imagine with me how wonderful it was. I think it was somewhere close to 60 degrees and sunny and beautiful out. We rode on a great little trail that seemed pretty busy with other people who also thought it a perfect day to be out. We sure enough rode along the coast. Coast on one side watching the waves and rich people houses on the other side. I haven't really paid much attention to class distinctions here but now I know where the really nice houses are. Oh the really fun part is that we went through about 3 tunnels and said "AAAAAAH" through them scaring those in our path.

Let me remind you that we have an almost 8 year old, 6 year old and 4 year old. All now ride without training wheels. We even went without the bike trailer which has been our back up for tired whiny kids or anyone who gets hurt. We pack them in with their bikes and I get to haul them. So here comes the bragging. We biked four miles in to Earthquake park and 4 miles out. Making a total of 8 miles. No kids cried, no kids walked except up a really steep part. They do have little legs you know. :) I loved it! It has given me hope for our future.

I had hoped that such a wonderful bike riding day wasn't a fluke so today I decided to take the boys without Mike to ride to a park fairly close by. It was about 2 miles there and 2 miles back. Granted I don't think it was as novel for them they did well up until the very last 20 minutes while I had Jack and David wait for Sam at which point they tried to knock each other off their bikes and blame it on the other. Unfortunately for David he was the only one who went down but he was fine without a scratch. Just hurt feelings.

Now on to the not bragging part. I love having my kids home for the summer but I had already sensed it to be one of much bickering, tattling and fighting. So after a recent conversation with my oh so wise mother, she reminded me of something we did one summer, actually it was for my brothers as I was too angelic to have been the least bit of a problem. She said she'd started by writing $4 on the chalkboard every day. Anytime there was fighting or teasing etc. they lost 25 cents and if there was any physical contact such as hitting or kicking it was 50 cents. They were trying to save up for a Sega game system. Apparently the beginning was rough but they eventually learned to live with each other in order to save up the $200 I think it cost by the end of the summer. I had mentioned this story to my husband who thought it was brilliant so now we are using a very similar version of it. Each kid starts with a dollar a day. Anytime there is fighting of any kind each person involved loses 10 cents regardless of whose fault it is. The first two days were pretty rough. I think Sam had nothing left and Jack and David had about 20 cents. It's already getting better. So I may have to save some money to pay up but I'm glad and it will be well worth it to curb the incessant tattling and teasing. I mean really "Can't we all just get along"!

So for those of you who may be in a similar situation this summer what do you do to try and keep things pleasant?