Day 9

My Technology Experiment: Day 9

What I learned: We've been dealing with angry outbursts from our otherwise sweet Camden (our 11 year old), since he was 8 years old.  Most people don't know this, because Camden is generally very well behaved at school, church, with friends, etc., and he really does have a thoughtful & kind personality-- it's just something we've been dealing with at home, and it's gradually gotten worse over time.  After trying everything we could think of to help him get over this behavior for the past few years, this Fall we started taking him to a wonderful pediatric psychologist.  Camden has made some definite improvements so far over the last few months, but nothing as dramatic as the marked improvement between his appointment 2 weeks ago and his appointment yesterday.  Michael and I both commented that we had noticed a change, that Camden hadn't had any big blow ups, and he seemed to have decreased the number of little arguments & squabbles he was having with family members too.  He seemed more mindful about how he was interacting with others the last couple weeks.  Although I'm sure he'll still have some work ahead of him as he's trying to change his behavior patterns, we were really celebrating his success at his appointment yesterday.

I know that Camden's last appointment with his doctor a couple weeks ago went really well, and I also know he has been working on the things the doctor talked with him about since then.   But I do find it interesting that my technology experiment also happened to start two weeks ago.  And I wonder how much of an effect the additional personal interaction & quality time may have had on him (and my other kids) that we aren't even aware of. 

What we did: I taught Kolby how to use photoshop for a project he was working on.  Then I washed my hair, helped Isaac a bit with a project he was working on, and then got dinner ready.  After dinner I had a little cuddle with Lijah and tried to comfort him after he found out Berkley had chewed up his cool new Harry Potter wand he had just bought from some kids who made them for the Maker Fair at school.  Then I offered to give Kolby & Camden a ride to my parents' house on my way to a meeting that evening, because they wanted Papa's help on a woodworking project Kolby is designing at school.