A few days ago, Annalie asked if she could watch TV. It was a beautiful day, and in a burst of inspiration I told her to take her sketchbook outside and draw five things that start with T. When she had done that, then she could come inside and watch a show.

For some reason, this caught her imagination immediately. This confirmed my suspicion that 9 times out of 10 when she wants to watch TV, she just can’t think of anything better to do. She bustled around the house, gathering her box of crayons, her Skittles-wrapper sketchbook (best impulse buy I ever made at Toys ‘R Us), Fluffy the kitten, a rug and a blanket to sit on, and an apple.

The violets were covering the slopes of our backyard still, so I followed her outside to take a few photos. We discussed things she could draw that started with T. She decided she wanted to draw other things first, before she drew the T things, and I said that was fine, she could do the list whenever she was ready.

I went back up to the house, and Annalie stayed outside. She soon abandoned the sketching completely and got lost in some make-believe game involving her kitten. The box of crayons turned into Fluffy’s bed. Once when I looked out there they were both “asleep.”

Another time I checked on her she was running around the yard, grabbing handfuls of wild onions and sniffing deeply before carrying them back to the blanket and adding them to her pile, which she later picked up and scattered all over the yard.

I expected her to come in after a few minutes. Though it was sunny it wasn’t that warm. But she must have been enjoying the fresh air because she stayed outside for a good hour. I hollered down at her from the deck occasionally to ask if she needed anything or how she was doing, and her standard response was, “I’m OK!”

Eventually she came back inside and asked to watch TV again. I asked if she’d finished her list. She had drawn a tree, but nothing else. I told her that she could watch TV when she finished the list. She asked, “Can I just write five things that start with T instead of drawing them?” And that’s what she did. I helped a little, but mostly she sounded them out on her own, as you can see from her spelling of telephone.

I could try this experiment again today and it might fail miserably. Annalie would likely grouse and complain about having to list five things before she actually did it. I don’t know why it worked out so well that day, but it did. So I told Annalie how proud I was of her that she’d played outside for an hour, using her imagination and enjoying the fresh air; I praised her spelling and writing and her attempt at a long, tricky word; and I patted myself on the back and enjoyed one of those lovely moments where I feel like I know what I’m doing at this mom thing.

Update: I talked to Annalie about it, and said that I’d like her to write five words each time she wants to watch a show from now on. She was agreeable till she wanted to watch TV. Since then we’ve had two crying tantrums and three epic battles of will about it. She did write a list of P words earlier (plant, popcorn, pork, pet, polish, and papa), and got as far as writing apple for an A list before she decided she’d rather just draw. That was before she nearly destroyed a dry-erase pen and ran sobbing to her room. *Sigh.*

Update 2: She decided she wanted to watch Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, and wrote ant and Aang in about 15 seconds flat, no tears. Sheesh. Parenthood is not for the weak or easily confused!