Today I was thinking about the topic of therapy. I spent most of the day listening to music and looking up witty quotes and thinking my self soothing techniques were based in movies, music and books. I think I left a big part out . . . my kids!
Lily & Miles returned home from school to a grounded household (due to a recent bunny scandal) no TV, no playing with friends or any other form of technology allowed. Over dinner we all fought through boredom and presented the question "what positive things could we do rather than complain about what we can't do". Lily came up with the simple yet brilliant idea to play a game (duh huh?). We searched Grandpa's house for a deck of cards or a board game without luck and Lily suggested a game where we all wrote down a person, place or thing on a piece of paper then stick it to your forehead where you couldn't see (made me think of Pride & Prejudice) and ask questions to find out who/what you were. Miles tended to write down Star Wars characters. Lily chose random objects like Gas Stations, Rainbows and Skittles. Lily's favorite fact finding question became "Did Miles write mine?". Hilarity ensued and we all had a good hour of fun with it.
Bedtime was next and of course 8pm was just too early for a Friday night but we decided on reading a book together and I had recently bought a book on "Brit History" that was borderline a children's book with cute comic illustrations but both very accurate and a fun read. We all sat around the book and I flipped to the Henry VIII section/House of Tudor and explained to them that this would be fun, now getting excited myself! (I had watched the movie "The Other Boleyn Girl" at my cousin's house and had become further interested in British history from there, borderline obsessive really.) I thought Lily would appreciate the amount of timeline memorization available and Miles at least could enjoy the beheadings (which he couldn't seem to wrap the word around his head so he just used the phrase "off with their head")!
At the end of the section I had the children reciting Henry's 6 wives (Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine and Catherine) in order as well as how they came to leave the house of Tudor with a witty rhyme from the book (divorced, beheaded, died . . . divorced, beheaded, survived). They can also tell you that each of the first 3 wives had 1 child survive (a total of 3 children for Henry, a girl, girl, and finally his male heir with Jane.) They can even follow up with each child's reign. Edward VI who became King at age 9 and died at 15. Mary I who became "Bloody Mary" due to trying to bring back Catholicism while avoiding conspiracies to overthrow her throne and beheaded a cousin (Jane Grey). Last but not least Elizabeth I the "Virgin Queen" who also beheaded a cousin (Mary of the Scots) and after a 40 plus year reign ended the house of Tutor without an heir to the throne but managed to keep England within her father's Protestant creation. In fact none of Henry's legitimate children produced any children of their own but each were able to act as King or Queen.All in all we had a fun night where all of my therapies could come together to produce that warm and fuzzy feeling for a good nights sleep. I benifited, my kids benifited and hopefully you might get your own benifit from this little tale too!
