When we were living in our camper and traveling while Daddy was so ill occasionally we called a Movie Monday. It's when the weekend was so wonderful and we all spent so much time outdoors and then Monday dawned with a storm! If you've ever been camping you know that the most dreaded days are either cold or stormy because you're all within such a small space with no chance of getting outside due to the weather. It always caused all of us to pout and grump a bit because we liked doing lessons outside or at the very least getting our lessons finished and running out to take a walk or play. So, instead of forcing grumpy kids to do lessons led by a (usually) more grumpy Mamma I'd call a Movie Monday.
We'd pick a movie that the campers hadn't watched 100 times and have them sit down to quietly watch it. They were told that after the movie they needed to give either an oral or written report of not only what happened during the movie but also what they learned from it. The lesson they took from it could be a moral lesson, a life lesson, or a silly lesson but they had to tell us in some way what that lesson was.
So, this morning I woke up to cloud filled skies and I knew from watching the weather reports that we're talking thunderstorms and rain for most of the week. It's Monday. I'm hurting due to the rain. Daddy's hurting due to the rain. The children are grumpy that even though it'll reach nearly 80* F today that they won't get outside to play. Movie Monday it is!!
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| Relaxing in shorts and play cloths watching the movie intently! |
This worked out really well because Noni just gave the campers Frozen last Thursday and this will be only the third time they've watched it. The first being at the theater with Noni and myself and the second time they watched it was on Saturday when we watched it as a family with Daddy. This means that Daddy and I can both listen to or read their reports after the movie because we know what's happened in it and that the campers aren't so familiar with the movie that they'll be loud and frustrated the whole way through (meaning they'll actually watch the movie).
I haven't called a Movie Monday in almost a year!! It used to happen probably once a month when we were in the camper, but since moving into the house (just over a year ago, May 10, 2013) I've only called one once at the very beginning of our living here.
Needless to say the campers are happily watching their movie, Daddy is trying to relax to the news and other television shows, and I myself am on the computer relishing the relative silence in the middle of the day!
Movie Monday's only work, we've found, if the movie hasn't been watched a lot (or recently at the very least) and if they're not over done. Meaning this can't be an every Monday occurrence. "Official" lessons for today were cancelled (we're nearly finished anyway) and they'll give us their reports shortly after lunch time. Silent reading, or in some cases not so silent reading, will still happen this afternoon and ECJ has some studying to do for a test. But, Movie Monday saved the day! There are no pouting grumpy children. No pouting grumpy parents. And they're more than willing to do a writing assignment after the movie because it's "different" than the norm!
We've never had an entire movie week and, though I am tempted, we won't have one this week either. Tomorrow we're back to our regular scheduled programming and the campers won't have missed anything. Tuesday's are less grumpy around here rain or no rain and you can bet every dry moment we have this week will be spent out of doors trying to soak up as much vitamin D that we can!
So, if you're in a slump or the kids are grumpy and there's no way to send them outside... Open up a new movie, or dust off an old one and call a movie day. Give the kiddos the run down on what's expected and watch the miracle of willing writing come alive in your home. One day won't hurt and perhaps, just perhaps, they'll realize that sometimes writing can be fun!
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