Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The benefits of having older kids...

I love having older kids.  Much and all as I like babies and little ones I have to say that older kids are my favourite.  I prefer working with older kids at school and now that mine are older ( 11,13 and 16 nearly) it's fantastic.

They are joining the family as active participating members, they hold mature ( and not so mature!) conversations with us and each other.  They are pushing for and gaining (little by little) independence.

Our eldest is on the verge of picking her subjects for her last two years of high school, and next year goes on a music tour of Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.  Our middle one starts the high school journey next year.  Our baby has only one more year of primary school before he too starts high school.

They are all crafty kids...

FJ's latest creation - a sock monkey called Chuckles

...and share with us a love of hockey, reading, super heroes and Lego.  Just the other day I listened from the other room as they gave each other quizzes on who was the biggest super hero nerd, the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, and the biggest Harry Potter nerd.  Miss Nearly 16 stretched her wings a couple of weekends ago by organising herself and going to Supernova in the city, (sort of like Comicon for us uninitiated!!) dressed as Black Widow from Marvel: Agents of Shield.

They are developing new relationships with each other as they go through different stages.  Just today FJ woke his sister up to ask her whether she would take him on the train and go to see a movie with him.  She said yes, and with no involvement from Mum (other than a lift to the station and the provision of funds) off they went.  Our middle one is off at a sleepover and movie with a friend.

When they all get home they'll all be in the kitchen baking, helping with dinner with animated conversations about who's been where, which movie was best and catching up with which dragons have been bred today on their favourite game (Dragonvale).

There are still tears and tantrums, arguments and fights.  But the focus is changing and I love it!!

2 comments:

  1. Thank you. You've made me look forward to the next few years rather than dreading the teenage years. You mostly hear the bad stuff so, yay!

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  2. I'm enjoying mine being a bit older too, never thought I'd say it....

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