Sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference.

Just over a week ago, I was whining and complaining about my two youngest children and their behavior. I've found a simple solution that has saved us all a lot of heartache.

I LET THEM PLAY OUTSIDE!

Okay, yeah, it might sound like a daft thing to a lot of people. But for us, it was a big deal. For one thing, we were afraid to let those two play outside without one of us out there supervising every single second. Caitlin was allowed to play outside from the age of 2, but we were living with my grandmother at the time, and we knew all the neighbors - and they knew us. If Caitlin went somewhere she wasn't supposed to, or did something she wasn't supposed to, we knew about it. Either one of the neighbors called us to let us know something was going on, or they just brought her back, and told us.

Here, we hardly know anybody. And we just weren't sure how safe it would be out there. Not to mention the fact that we didn't know if those two would listen to us, and stay in OUR street without wandering off.

For the last... lemme think... 6 days (?)... we've let them play outside. Alone, even. And we've let them stay outside until darned near 9:00. For a long time, we were insisting they go to bed at 7, but they'd never GO TO SLEEP. It was always 9 or 10 o'clock before they actually WENT to bed.

But so far it's worked great. Only once did either of them go somewhere they weren't supposed to, and they were just in the alley BEHIND our street. I happened to be in the back garden and heard the bike - it's got quite a distinctive sound to it, especially when Chloe's riding it - and I yelled at her to get out front. That's it. That's the ONLY problem we've had.

I get them in at the end of the night, they get ready for bed... and they ACTUALLY GO TO SLEEP!!!

Don't get me wrong... I don't just leave them out there for hours without even checking on them. I'm out there quite a lot, actually. But if I have something to do, I can go in the house and do it without having anxiety attacks about what they're doing. And I've noticed that the older kids down the street actually keep quite a good eye on them, even though they don't have to. If Chloe or Lexi start going somewhere they're not supposed to, they say something to them. And I think the prospect of one of these kids coming to get me because they're misbehaving is worse than anything these kids could actually say to them.

And they're becoming better friends with 2 of the kids down the street. Lexi's known Neve since she started nursery - they were there together. But as Neve is just slightly older, she's actually a year ahead of Lexi at school. (Lexi started nursery in January of '04, and Neve started Reception [think US 1st Grade] in September '04, but Lexi had to stay at Nursery another year. They base it all on birthday - if your birthday is before September 1st, you start Reception when you're 4. Because Lexi's birthday is at the beginning of October, she had to wait a full year before she could start Reception.) Neve's little sister Holly just turned 3 last weekend, and she and Chloe have become fast friends. Of course, that's not too difficult. Chloe's like me - she'd make friends with a wall if it would talk back to her.

Holly seems to have taken a shine to ME as well. The other day, when the kids were at the beach, Holly came over to visit ME. I found it a little strange, but sweet at the same time. From what I understand, her mother isn't the most affectionate with her (and that's putting it mildly), so I think the fact that I actually PAY ATTENTION to the kid probably has a lot to do with it.

I'm just amazed at what a difference this one little thing has done for these kids' behavior. When they're in the house, they don't misbehave as much as they did even just one week ago. And now that they know that I WILL allow them to play outside, it's easier to get them to do what they need to do in ORDER to go play outside. If I say the living room has to be tidied up before they can go play outside, they clean it so darned fast they're practically a blur!

And it's made a big difference in Syrina as well. SHE wants to go outside. She watches the other kids and actually smiles at them, making great eye contact. You can tell she'd absolutely love to be "in on the action" if she only knew how. But even just BEING out there means a lot to her. It means she's not left out anymore.

Now I'm dreading the cold weather, though. I can just imagine what they're going to act like when it's too cold to go out and play!!!