Busy busy

Monday we had a meeting at Ethan's school where they talked about his need for more intense language study and some of his attention problems. Then Wednesday he had a check up with the Gesundheitsamt, or the "department of good health." (German words are awesome!) He did pretty well in the motor skills areas but had a really hard time with the language parts. Well, he still has another year till he has to go to first grade, but we still have to watch out for some his learning needs and especially helping him with concentration.
So we decided to make some changes to help be more organized and give the kids more creative things to do than just watch tv and play video games. The first thing was more for us than the kids. We just created a new area for them to organize their coats and gloves and everything so we can find stuff in the mornings! That's always the first struggle of the day!

Then I got this shelf from Ikea and the black boxes and filled them with crafts, play dough, legos, and anything creative the kids can do in the afternoon.

It's working already. The kids are down to one hour of tv per day (two if there is nothing else going on or it's the weekend) and they are doing creative things the rest of the day. Ethan is really excited about the play dough and he's been drawing more. I also got him a little over the door basketball hoop which he loves! And the sun is FINALLY coming out and the kids have had more opportunities to go outside.

So anyway, this probably wasn't that exciting, but the kids' development has been on my mind a lot lately and this week was just the week to do something about it!