Smelling of chutney!

I know this is a bit different to the stuff I normally write about — I’m not intending to diversify into beauty blogging — but during the summer holiday we’ve taken up the challenge of trying to go plastic free/chemical free.

It feels like you take one step forward with it and then two steps back: you reduce the plastic but then end up using things like palm oil; or you go all natural products and then you are increasing your carbon footprint by having to drive to different shops; or you find an old-fashioned soap recipe that uses coal tar only to then find it’s a carcinogenic compound… Ahhh!

I feel like I can’t solve all of the world’s problems in one go, so I’ve decided to take one step at a time and work on things I can definitely get on board with using in our normal everyday life.

And as Mother Teresa said:

‘We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop’.

This is my inspiration that even though we sometime feel like what we are doing isn’t as much as others, it is actually making a difference. So I will keep making my small differences here and there!

A friend inspired me that you can go natural with products like shampoo, conditioner, face cleanser and deodorant. This was all news to me as I didn’t realise that these alternative products were out there.

But the products my friend showed me had high price tags that I just didn’t feel comfortable paying so I started to research alternatives instead and have loved what I found out!

Deodorant

There are loads of ready made natural, plastic-free and chemical-free products out there. But I wanted a homemade, cheap version. I must admit that I was sceptical it would work, but I made half the amount and tried it out.

This is the recipe I used:

• 1/2 cup of bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 cup of cornflour
• 1cup of coconut oil (I bought this from the pharmacy and it’s fragrance free)
• 10 drops of lavender essential oil

Mix the dry ingredients together and then mix in the coconut oil until it looks like a smooth paste. Then add in the essential oil of choice.

I slightly changed the recipe from https://simplegreensmoothies.com/recipes/green-beauty/homemade-deodorant

With the essential oil, you want something that smells nice, but also has an antibacterial element. The coconut oil is also antibacterial, so you get a double dose.

Amazing Fact:

‘Sweat itself is virtually odorless to humans. It is the rapid multiplication of bacteria in the presence of sweat and their breaking down of sweat into acids that eventually causes the unpleasant smell.‘

Once you’ve mixed all the ingredients together into a paste, decant it into a suitable jar or container. Now I’ve highlighted the word suitable, because I didn’t exactly do that myself! The only jar I had to hand was one that had been used for some caramelised onion chutney. I thought that once I’d washed and sterilised it the smell would disappear or at least lessen. I even soaked the lid in hot water and lavender oil.

I tell you now the smell didn’t go away at all. But I charged right on ahead and thought well, the deodorant won’t smell like onions. But the first day I used it, a blistering hot August day, I smelt like chutney all day! I don’t think I will eat that chutney again! I then put it in a non-smelly jar and as a deodorant it’s amazing.

It’s so effective: it doesn’t stop you sweating but the feeling that you smell isn’t there. Let’s just say that you normally know right away if my husband has done a day’s work with normal deodorant, but with this we’ve noticed a marked improvement.

The Challenges…

It melts in hot temperatures – when we were having a bit of a heat wave, we kept it in the fridge because it would just melt. I mean, it was 35 degrees outside.

Going away – we went away during the heat wave so I put some in a small travel pot but it just melted. I’m sure it wouldn’t do the same in our normal British weather, but I haven’t tried yet. Up until the hot day it was fine in a little pot.

The benefits…

1. It doesn’t irritate your skin – other deodorants seem to really irritate my skin. But I haven’t known any irritation since I did the switch.

2. No smell – I still feel nice at the end of the day!

3. No plastic – I bought a 50p glass jar from Wilko that I will keep using over and over.

4. Both my husband and I use it – reducing space in the bathroom for storing two people’s worth of deodorant. We both have quite active jobs and it stands up to the rigours of our work life. Also we won’t need to keep buying new shirts, because they’ve become unwearable.

5. All natural and I know what’s gone into it.

Other changes I’ve made…

I wanted to try shampoo soap. I use shampoo and conditioner and my husband has his shampoo, so that’s a lot of bottles. We bought one shampoo bar at £2.95 but I hated it. I know you have to go through a transition period, but I couldn’t face it: my hair felt like straw and looked horrible when dry. So my husband has ended up with that one. Loads of people suggested the shampoo soap from Lush. I was reticent because of the price (£8), especially if I had to buy shampoo and conditioner. But I took a trip down there and the lady who helped us was great, and explained it all and then I ended buying a bar and a soap tin (I would recommend this). What was great is she put a small ribbon in the tin to help you get it out after use.

The lush soap bar is amazing (I promise they don’t know I’m writing this). There was a transition period, but not as long and not has agonising. I can also now go two days without washing my hair, which I couldn’t do with normal shampoo.

We also now use soap instead of shower gel.

Top tip…

Don’t use a soap dish with a flat surface the soap sticks! I bought a soap bag and cut it in half and so the soap sits on that now and it easily removable.

Face Cleanser and Conditioner

I made up a bottle of face cleanser too:

• 1 part apple cider vinegar
• 4 parts water
• 5 drops of lavender essential oil

My mum made me some crocheted face scrubbies, so I spray some of the cleanser on a face scrubby and then wipe my face with it, and I really like it, my skin feels quite refreshed and soft.

You can also use the same mix once a week on your hair to add a bit of conditioning to it.

So that’s the bathroom pretty much covered. My next task is to look at cleaning products, so that might be a blog post to come…

Six books for the six weeks holiday

I can’t seem to be able to plan a session at work without relating it to a book. Planning activities that link to a books helps bring the book to life, increases the learning opportunities and gives you and your child a chance to explore the book together in a deeper way.

Now the 6 weeks holidays are here, it means you either have a bit more time to set up some activities or you need something different to entertain the kids whilst you get some work done.

So here are six children’s books that you probably have or can buy from Books and Pieces and a few activities loosely based on the theme.

Week One – The Gruffalo

Who doesn’t love the Gruffalo. I’ve read it a million times and still love it.

The great thing about Julia Donaldson books is you just have to look on YouTube and you’ll find the animated versions and Julia Donaldson has written songs for most of her books, the Gruffalo song is amazing and comes with Makaton Signs too.

So what about activities…

Owl Ice cream – Make an ice cream shop – you can either use real ice cream or fake ice cream (Depending on how much sugar you want consumed!)

I used a kit from ikea, but you can use the ice-cream scoop from your kitchen and real ice-cream cones. Cotton wool balls, make great ice cream and Pom poms make good sprinkles. You can even use scrunched up tissue paper for icecream. Add in a till and you’ll cool down in this hot weather we’ve been having.

Gruffalo Crumble – This one could potentially be messy, but go with it and have some fun! Make a gruffalo crumble. Put out some pots of porridge oats and flour along with some scoops and bowls. Kids love scooping and mixing.

Woodland Walk – Go to your local woods and go on a search for the Gruffalo. Take the book with you and search for some of the creatures and animals in the book, it’s not just the mouse, owl and fox etc, but the pictures are full of other creatures, go on a Gruffalo scavenger hunt!

Act out the story – Have some fun drawing the main characters in the book together. Then stick them on some lolly sticks and you have Gruffalo puppets, use the puppets to act out the story. If your drawing skills are not up to it, have a look online and print off the characters.

Week two – You can’t take an elephant on a bus

Brilliant book – entertains children who love transport and animals.

Transport Scavenger hunt – draw a picture of each of the types of transport in the book (Maybe not the roller coaster) and take a walk. How many of the different types of transport did you cross off your list?

Car drawing – yes you can draw with cars. There are a few ways to do this.

1. Stick a felt tip to the back of a car and put out a large piece of paper. I used a roll of wallpaper and then drew on a road map. The kiddies can then drive the cars on the paper whilst making drawings.

https://clareslittletots.co.uk/2014/02/drawing-with-cars/

2. Get a tray and put on a thin layer of flour or shaving foam (not both together) get some plastic cars and see what shapes you can make in the flour or foam.

Transport Hand Prints

Do some hand painting and once they are dry try and make them into the different vehicles from the book.

Week Three – Welcome to Alien School

This is a great book for kids starting school in September. Yes, this isn’t an exact representation of school, but it gives the basic structure in a fun way.

Chalk painting – get some thick chalks and have fun drawing on the pavement outside. Once the kids are bored with this give them a thick paint brush and some water and paint over the chalk. At work we drew a giant map in the play ground in chalk, and they used the play cars to drive around the map. Only really doable if you have a garden and a play car.

Planet pictures – If you have some plain white paper plates at the back of the cupboard then make the different planets in the solar system. When we did it, it worked great with paint dabbers, but you can just paint them. You could then hang them up to make the solar system.

Space Tray – Use whatever you have in the house to make a space small world. Anything shiny and bumpy!

There is Quinoa in this tray if you are brave enough.

Week Four – Going on a bear hunt

What a fab book! I’ve recently re-discovered it and there is so much you can do!

Story Spoons – Now I made these without any help from little ones because I needed them for work, but you could get the kiddies making their own so that you could use them to retell the story.

These are painted with Acrylic paint, but you could use felt tips. Once dry you can paint over the top with child safe varnish to protect the spoons.

Sound Tray – Lay out some instruments and different materials that can be used to make the sounds in the story, you can then make the sounds whilst reading the story or just let the kiddies have fun making sounds.

Teddy Bears Picnic – set out teddies on a rug in the front room and have a tea party, use some plastic cups and bowls. You could even have an inside picnic for lunch!

Make a cave – If you have some sheets or blankets, make a cave under the table.

Week Five – Squash and a squeeze

This is a brilliant book, I for some reason always give the old man a Newcastle accent when reading it! It’s a good book to think about being thankful and content with what we have.

Thank you jar – Being thankful and having a thankful attitude is so good for your mental and physical health and gives you a different outlook on life. Why not decorate a thankful jar together, then on little bits of paper every day add something you are thankful for. If children can’t write, can they draw a picture or tell you what to write. Then when it’s full, look back at it and be reminded of the things you are thankful for.

Pipette fun – You can find pipettes online quite cheaply. They are great for fine motor skills. Then get some water in a bowl and squeeze water into different containers. The little connectors in Duplo are also fun to squeeze water into. I added blue food colouring into the water too.

Sponge painting – Finished with your cleaning sponges or have some spare makeup sponges, dip in paint and see the different effects they make. You could even buy some cleaning sponges that a quite thin and then cut them into the different animal paw prints from the book.

Week Six – The hungry caterpillar

What a classic book, so great for learning numbers, days of the week, food and the life cycle of a caterpillar. There are so many amazing activities you can do with this book.

Again you can find animated versions of this incredible book on YouTube and Netflix. But nothing can beat holding a book in your hands. My little one is over 5 but still asks for this one on a regular basis.

Feed the monster – Now this one takes a bit of prep, but once you’ve done it, it’s a toy you can use over and over again.

Get a wet wipe box – if you can’t find one of these, take the lid thingy off of a packet of wet wipes and stick it to the top of a tissue box. Using a glue gun would insure it being longer lasting, but I’m aware not everyone has one of these. Then make it look like a monster. You can be as creative as you like or go very simple. Then print off and laminate pictures of food. Again if you don’t have a printer or laminator, cut out food from a magazine and stick it on some card, like a cereal box. Then have fun feeding the monster, you can chat about the different foods, being healthy, what time of day you eat them that type of thing.

Biscuit decorating – kids love, love, love decorating biscuits. And all you need is a packet of rich tea biscuits (they have the perfect surface) and a packet of icing tubes. Poundland have started selling them too. Then let the kids go crazy.

Pom Pom Maze – stick objects to the floor or on the table then blow the pom poms round the maze. It’s great fun and also helps to strengthen the muscles around their mouth aiding communication. Use objects from your recycling such as toilet roll tubes and cardboard.

I’m not sure what it has to do with the hungry caterpillar, but it is good fun.

So, I know this won’t fill your whole holiday, but hopefully there will be something amongst this that will mean you have fun together whilst being engaged with books.

For more ideas see…

https://stayinghomemum.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/book-month-part-2/

https://stayinghomemum.wordpress.com/2018/03/10/book-month-part-3-robot-week/

https://stayinghomemum.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/book-month-part-4/

https://stayinghomemum.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/book-month-part-5/

Bush craft party

Kids Parties are a bit of a minefield these days. They are sooo expensive, the thought of hosting 20 plus kids if you are not super nanny is daunting to say the least!

I am lucky enough to have a July birthday to plan, so the open air is our stage!

One of our favourite things to do as a family is to go on woodland walks, so it was a natural thing to take the party to the woods.

There are some careful considerations to think about when planning a party.

Entertainment

At first I thought, we’ll just have a picnic and the kids will entertain themselves. But that is the first mistake of parties – don’t ever make that assumption as you will be disappointed and stressed!

So what will keep the littlies and the adults entertained for 2 hours?

Think of a theme – we went for bush craft.

I bought three tarpaulins and three bags of camping pegs from Poundland. I also bough a ball of garden string from Wilkos and took along some scissors. The kids had a great time making shelters and tents in the woodland. A friend also bought their proper shelter and the children helped to put that up. My dear husband helped with this bit.

After lunch, I handed out compasses and carabiner clips with a scavenger hunt sheet and sent them off with their adult to find all the different things. The Carabiner clips were instead of a party bag and I was very open with the children about them not having a party bag and I wasn’t asked a single time at the end, which made me happy!

Originally I thought I would hand out pencils too, but I forgot and then asked to bring back the items to me. Be careful what you put on your sheet, as you don’t really want them to bring back a mouse to your base camp! I found this online, and I used it because it is really pretty.

Once they got back from the hunt I put out some kebab sticks, a pot of grapes, a pot of peach chunk (I used tinned peaches) and a pot of marshmallows and the children had great fun making fruit kebabs. What I really wanted was to roast marshmallows, but you are not allowed to light fires in our woodlands! And then the children entertained themselves by playing in the tents and around in the woods.

Food

The easiest way to do the food, would be to ask everyone to bring their own picnic, but we really wanted provide lunch for all of our friends.

So we went to good old Morrison’s and used their pre order service. We spent about £50 on sandwiches, cookies, port pies, sausage rolls and it was more than enough for a total of 50 people. We also ordered a platter of kids sandwiches and they disappeared very quickly.

I used plastic table cloths to place all the food on.

For the drinks we bought bottles of water from Aldi and then I gave a sharpie for people to write their names on the label, so that they didn’t loose their bottle.

We also had birthday cake and cupcakes, which we handed out for dessert too. So people were very well fed.

And even in the woods, we were able to carry on the cake tradition, our LO really enjoyed lighting the candle and even cutting it up for everyone.

Location

We chose a local wood, and then we found a place in the woods that was in walking distance of the toilets and a cafe (for cups of tea).

SEND

We had a number of children who came with ASD or just a pure love of structure and routine, so I made a very simple picture time table and sent it out to the parents a day before. It just helped the children feel secure about what they were coming to, and amazingly we had no issues at all with any of the children, they felt really comfortable.

Invitations

I even went low effort with these too. I love painting, so I painted one postcard and then WhatsApp’d the image out to everyone. Individually not on a group (I hate WhatsApp groups).

In the grand scheme of things this wasn’t to difficult to plan.

What I really loved about it, was that we could invite as many people as we wanted. Last year we did soft play and could only have 15 children and this was difficult as there was a whole bunch of children we couldn’t invite.

If people cancelled at the last minute in a sense it didn’t matter as I haven’t paid out in advance for each person and then have that money wasted.

We could invite children of all ages. We had ages from 1 – 11 (children) and then we invited a load of our friends and because it was such a large area, we could invite children who find big groups difficult and they had opportunities to go off if they needed.

So all in all it was a great time!

Common Exception words – Yr 1

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about homework, learning spellings and reading at home. I don’t know about you, but it’s a struggle in our house. It’s not that he can’t do it. I would find that easier to deal with. It’s a struggle because he gets his fill at school and like we secretly believe, home should be home and not school. (Don’t worry this is not projected at in front of the boy).

Also learning spellings can be boring for us as well as our kids! I won’t deny that I am learning from his homework too, as things have changed since my day!! Who knew about a hard ‘C’ and a soft ‘C’.

So when we were sent home a list of common exception words for Year 1, at first my heart sunk – here comes another fight, I thought to myself. Then I relished the idea of getting creative!

If you are thinking ‘hang on what’s a common exception word’ here you go…

Exception words are words in which the English spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way. They are not words for which phonics ‘doesn’t work’, but they may be exceptions to spelling rules, or words which use a particular combination of letters to represent sound patterns in a rare or unique way.

From http://www.theschoolrun.com

They are a funny set of words.

So I had the idea of making a reading game.

The joy of this is, you can make it link to your child’s personal interest. Cars arn’t a particular interest, but I liked the idea of a car race and getting to the finish line first.

So what do you need?

• 1 piece of large card
  
• Sharpies or felt pens
  
• A dice
  
• Either make some counters like our card cars or you could add actual toy cars (My little ones idea)

How do you do it?

I’ll explain based on the car theme, but you get the idea if you want to change the theme.

1. Draw your track

2. Make sure you have a clear start and finish

3. Break up the track into a certain number of blocks. I’ve got 30 for the words and 2 for start and finish. You may also notice my mistake of putting some in twice!

4. Add in some road blocks.

The rules

1. Everyone puts their counter on the start.
2. Roll the dice – you can think of a way of who is going first.
3. When you’ve placed your counter on the right block, try and read the word. If you get it right, you get to take your next go next time. If you don’t get it right you have to miss a go.
   I did worry that playing with two adults that can read might be a bit mean, but we found that it was good because we sounded out the words where we could and made a thing of it, which helped him learn the words at the same time.

I added in some tricky blocks. They were…

Next to school – zig zag lines, you can’t park there, so if you land on school you read it and then move on one space.

No Entry Signs – Miss a go, if you land on them, but still read them.

Slip roads – Land on the first word and read it, then take the slip road to the word it finishes on and read that.

Love – I added a love heart on the word love (yes a bit of a give away) and said to move forward to spaces.

Traffic Light – Miss a go.

You can add in as many of these road blocks as you like!

This was great for us, it was a much better way of helping with words and it didn’t end in a fight. I think children should learn when they don’t quite realise they are!

Other ideas you could have, Jungle theme, pirate theme, Fairy land theme, Minecraft or Roblox theme. I might even try making a maths one!

Have fun learning at home!

The space man

J is doing brilliantly with his writing, but he gets a bit carried away and then forgets to add spaces between each word. So today his teacher was so proud that he had written lots, but she couldn’t read it as it was one continuous flow. Or should I say onecontinuousflow.

J has massive writing and his fingers are only little, so when he uses his finger as a space it still looks like ramblings.

This evening I’ve made him a space man and an alien.

They are just made out of a cardboard box, and when J is writing he can use one of these to help him make a space. I guess you could make these to match your little ones interests. I should have probably made a minecraft one.

Hopefully these will help him remember his spaces.

Fun with reading and addition

I haven’t written a blog for ages, life has been very, very busy and J is in school full time, by the time we’ve been somewhere after school, made dinner and done the reading for the day I don’t have much time to make resources for him, but my job on the other hand is giving me the opportunity to make lots of fun resources, but I haven’t then blogged about them.

So New Year, new blog! I can’t promise this will be a sign of things to come, but I will try.

I work with children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), but the ideas that I use can be used for all children. Basically I love children learning through play and learning in a fun and interactive way.

Now these are ideas that I have gleaned from Pinterest, and will try to put links in, but I forget to save them. I mainly look at the idea and then interpret it in my own way!

I am a very visual learner, so I generally make resources for children that are very visual. Which brings me to my MATHS Machine…

There are loads of different addition machines on Pinterest like this one. I have gone for a toned down version because some of the children I work with need as little distraction as possible. So basically you get two tubes. You can make them out of paper cups, plastic piping, light bulb boxes (as I have) or toilet roll tubes. Stick them to a decorated box or a wall or flat, hard surface and underneath put a tray or something to catch whatever you are adding up. I am using Pom Poms but you can change what you are adding up if you work on a theme.

Then put the sum in the middle. I am only doing number bonds of 10 and numbers under 10. Down the first tube drop the first number and down the second tube drop the second number. Then in the tray you will hopefully have the right number. This is a very visual representation of addition, which can be very handy for kids who can’t quite get the concept of addition. It can also help with fine motor skills. I am thinking of adding a pair of tweezers as we go along to really hone the motor skills.

If you wanted to use this for other subjects too (and you haven’t labelled it the math machine), you could put pictures down the tubes and then the children have to use the pictures to make up stories.

Another resource I made this week are some word envelopes…

I read a great blog about helping support children with sight words or they are more commonly known as tricky words. Some of the children I support are not learning to read with an emphasis on phonics but on whole words. So thought this might be a fun way to encourage learning. I haven’t done seven envelopes (I didn’t have enough room) so I’ve gone for three.

The idea behind it, is every time, they get a word right it moves into the next envelope, thus encouraging the child that they are making progress. The lady in the blog post linked, always makes sure that there is 10 words in the 1st envelope. I will probably only go with five and I may even go from three back to one. Once again this is brilliant for fine motor skills, trying to get the cards out of the envelopes and when children feel encouraged in their learning they want to keep going.

All thats needed to make this was the back of a pizza box, two pieces of card and some envelopes. I’m not sure how long these envelopes will last, but if it is something that works, I will make some more durable word envelopes.

You can put words in there that your children keep finding hard or you can even put spellings in there for them to learn. You take them out read the word and they spell it. If they get it right it moves to the next pocket.

Have fun with your reading and counting.

Reusing crayons

We’ve been away for a while and when we come back home it always makes us want to do a massive sort out – we cleared out loads of stuff. It was great fun!

Whilst clearing out we found a lot of crayons. Instead of throwing them away we remade them!

You’ve probably seen lots of blogs about this and I’ve always wanted to give it a go. J loved making them so I thought I would share.

Please be aware this whole activity needs supervision and you need to let your children only do the bits you feel they are able to and ready for.

What you need…

▫️ Wax crayons about 20 will do

▫️ A silicone mould (you should be able to heat it)

▫️ A chopping board and knife

▫️ Baking tray

How you make them…

First job is to take off all the paper labels so you are only left with the wax crayon.

Then you need to either cut them or break them into little chunks.

My little one used a knife to cut up the crayons and I was with him the whole time, but you may not feel your little one is ready to do the cutting yet.

If they can’t do the cutting, see if they can break them up or they can fill the shapes in the mould.

Once you have all the chunks, fill each section in the mould. My husband was very particular about what colours went together, but you can make them as multicoloured as you like. In a way it’s best to slightly over fill them because they reduce right down in the cooking.

We then placed on the baking tray and put in the oven on 200 degrees. They were in there about 20 mins until everything looked like it had melted.

Then just leave to set and cool down. It took about 1 hour. They were so easy to remove from the mould.

They look so great and will make fab presents. You can buy small cellophane bags that would finish them off great for either Christmas presents or a party bag present.

Just remaking them got J interested in colouring!

Have fun – what shapes will you make?

So much more to Lego

I didn’t really play with Lego as a kid, so it didn’t enter my radar until I got married and not only did my hubby move in but so did his collection of Lego. Now can I just mention it’s just confined to a few shelves and a few boxes so I’m very aware it could be a lot worse.

But as soon as our little one appeared so did a lot of Duplo under the guise of our 1 year old definitely needs Duplo!!!! And I got suckered in because it was only Daddy who played with it for about 2 years!!

Up until recently I only really saw Lego/Duplo as something else to be tidied up, expensive and something else to be stored – what a grump. I think it’s mainly because loads of parents buy Lego for their kids and they sit there playing with it nicely and mine just wouldn’t play with it.

But I have developed a whole new love for Lego mainly for my job and at home, but I’ve had to think outside the box and to think of new ways to play with lego.

I probably should mention at this point that there are other construction brick kits available. For example Wilkos sells a their construction kits at a fraction of the price but I’m afraid to say it doesn’t have the same feel to it and also it doesn’t have the same stickability. But in terms of price it does the job. They also use to do a duplo equivalent which was good. But they stopped it. Wilko if you’re reading please can you bring it back!! But if you can go to the price of Lego/duplo it is a good investment and will last for literally generations.

So to the real reason for this post – why I’ve had a change of heart.

I’ve seen the added benefits to children using Lego. Now I know there are loads of posts out there about the benefits of Lego from very esteemed professionals, but I feel like I want to add in my own. But the only letters after my name are MUM.

I run a SEND group for under 5’s and the changes I saw when we added some Duplo were definitely worth a blog post. But even at home we’ve seen changes.

1. Focus
   At home
   My little one has definitely struggled with focus, in fact he loves the world so much he is so distracted by EVERYTHING. A slightest noise outside will grab his attention. Now up until recently he wouldn’t really sit and build, but I used Duplo to create games. For example get a dice and a handful of bricks (about 20 of the same size brick). Each person rolls the dice and whatever number it lands on you get to add those bricks to a tower, and the tower which is the first to 10 is the winner. This was one of the first games we were able to play with J and he kept asking for it over and over. Not only did we work on focus, but numbers, taking turns, appropriate dice throwing skills and sometimes how to handle loosing!

   

   Another way to help with focus is to just build together. We’ve been buying kits that are slightly to old for him and sitting with him and talking through where each bit goes. Sometimes he can work it out himself and sometimes he needs a bit more help. But this has really developed his patience, his focus and helps with communication skills. I guess it’s on the same lines as Lego therapy but not half as structured.

   
   
   At work: I noticed children who struggled with focus would love it when the Duplo came out and would spend time and focus playing with it in a way that they haven’t with any other activity. I was also able to pick up a box of quatro (even larger than Duplo) at a car boot sale, which were again a favourite for kiddies who struggle in fine motor skills. The focus here was so evident.

2. Writing
   At home
   J has got into minecraft and with that minecraft Lego (this time not instigated by his Dad!) He is now old enough for normal Lego, but the fine motor skills he’s picking up with having to put all the tiny pieces in place is outstanding. At the same time his writing is improving, now I know it won’t be only Lego, but the muscle control needed to build, is that similar to writing. He doesn’t love writing (probably because he can’t do it as well), but even if we sit down and do some Lego I know this is helping in other areas. Yes I know writing is important, but its about finding ways of supporting them that are fun (I’m in the process of writing another blog about this, so I won’t go into too much detail).

   

   At work
   This is the same at work, now the age group I’m working with arn’t necessarily working on their pencil grip as a priority, but all the building will be helping. Over the weeks you see that their ability to push the bricks together becomes more accurate and faster!

3. Being able to read instructions
   At home
   J is still quite young so I suppose I assume that he won’t be able to understand the instructions. But after building one or two models, he’s definitely picking it up. This morning whilst playing with his new kit, I told him to put it where I thought it should go and he corrected me by showing me on the instructions. Just think how much Ikea furniture he’ll be able to put together in the future, by learning to read these instructions!! So although this isn’t reading per say, this is helping him with accuracy, with spacial awareness and again focus. You have to do a bit of counting when placing Lego bricks ‘3 across and 2 down’ that type of thing and we were building the other day with a wooden construction kit and he was counting the circles either side to see if he’d put it in the middle, such a helpful skill to learn and all transferable skills too.

   

4. Rewards
   At home
   When J was little (why am I saying when he is little – it’s still the case) because of his complete love for the whole world and distractibility – listening to us has always been tricky.  He either listens goes off to do it but gets distracted on the way or just chooses not to hear so doesn’t do what you say. I get so bored of talking about the negative, so we turned it on its head and said every time you do good listening, you get a brick and we have to see how big the tower is at the end of the day.

   
   This was just a tower we made one day, but you get the picture!!
   Somehow this just focused his mind and the towers we were getting although not this big, were impressive and it meant that it was positive reinforcement rather than always negative. We often use this approach to this day, even yesterday we had to use it, but we drew the blocks instead!

   6. Feelings
   At work
   At my SEND group we have a few children with Autism, so unstanding feelings is tricky, so at work I use Duplo faces to show feelings, the children can point to which one they might be feeling or when we have sessions about feelings, the Duplo faces help us. It’s a lot less pressure using a picture of a lego person, rather than a real person. So these come in handy!

   

So as you can see Lego plays an important role in our house and my workplace. The benefits of Lego go far beyond ‘just building’ and can impacts for children (and adults) beyond the pleasure of seeing a creation coming alive. And I am sure there are more than those I have mentioned here.

Now all you have to find out is are you an Emmet or a master builder?

 

Intriguing ways to get kids reading

I love reading now. I don’t remember choosing to pick up a book as a kid and to be honest I don’t remember learning to read. But I must have.

My little one is in reception and he’s doing really well with his reading, but encouraging him to read is another matter. He knows how to but doesn’t want to, which is a shame because the things he could read if he was willing to give it a try.

So instead of having a battle every time we are going to read together, we’ve started devising new fun ways to read. Now be warned this does make reading time a longer process but he enjoys it.

Road track reading

I made a track out of our k’nex roller coaster kit with the car on and each word he read the car would move along the track. He could finish reading when the car got to the finish line and sometimes he got a little treat. When this lost its interest we moved onto….

Skatepark reading

This time J would set up his ideal skatepark, and at the end of each page he would get to show me a trick on the skate park.

Planet jumping

We’ve been looking at different planets recently, so we set out the planet cards (in order) and then at the end of every page he could make a Lego man jump onto the next planet card. The challenge was to get the Lego man to the sun.

Writing the story on paper

One day I just wrote the story (well some of the story) onto yellow paper (his favourite colour). He enjoyed this, I think it worked because there were no distractions just pure and simple reading.

Tricky word challenge

One day I wrote out all the words that he might find tricky (from the current book we were reading) on a large bit of paper, I also numbered each of the words 1 – 6 and played a game before reading. We each had a some Duplo bricks and we had a dice. You have to roll the dice, and whatever number the dice lands on you have to try and read the word with the same number. If you get it right you add that many bricks to your Duplo tower and it’s the first person to 10. This was great fun.

Minecraft jumping

I set up six letter tiles and at different stages I also placed a fidget spinner. After each line he read the minecraft man moved along to the next tile. At the tile with the fidget spinner he was able to show me a trick. It was J who suggested that the minecraft man should say the letter that he lands on.

There is a slight transporty theme to all our reading challenges, which is fun. I like including things that he’s interested in at the time so that he is more engaged. We do each game for about a week and then move on so that boredom doesn’t set in. I know it probably seems like a lot of work, but it is worth it because we both enjoy practicing our reading.

I’ll have to get my thinking caps on for more intriguing reading fun.

Being thankful.

We’ve heard them over and over again. Those words that feel like they are ripping your brain to shreds because they’ve been spoken over and over and over again… ‘Mum can I have….’ Well my little one takes asking to things to a whole new level.

It’s not just can I have… it goes on for days. ‘When I get this…’ ‘when you buy me that…’ ‘Mum please can you get me’. It’s constant and it’s annoying. The way he goes on you’d think he never gets anything or has no toys to play with. I’m probably not putting it into words very well, how painful it is. But last week it got to me.

I know he doesn’t have the life experience to know how blessed he is. I also know that all he knows is what he has and he’s also a completionist like me, so if you buy him a toy like Minecraft Lego, of course he wants all the other kits.

But I want him to become someone who is grateful for what he has, and to be a person who is thankful.

“Clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting effects in a person’s life,” said Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis. “It can lower blood pressure, improve immune function and facilitate more efficient sleep.” Quote from today.com

Having a thankful attitude changes something in you, it switches your perspective and helps you see the world differently. When my little one isn’t thankful he’s upset, moody and not content.

‘But what about when there is something horrible going on…’ I hear you cry. Yes life isn’t all roses and fairy cakes (or whatever the saying is) but I do think it’s a good practice to even in the hardest of times find something to be thankful for, even if it’s something tiny.

I’m sure my husband won’t mind me saying but about a year ago he was finding things tricky, he was feeling lost and like life wasn’t on his side. He couldn’t see the good things in front of him. So I encouraged him to write a thank you diary. So everyday now he finds 5 things to be thankful for, and it’s really helped him to see the good things to help him look at his day through a different lens and be positive. A friend of ours who is a music therapist says that ‘a thank you diary is the best form of therapy’.

So with this in mind and with my brain feeling torn apart by the constant pecking of ‘can I have’, I went into action.

I asked J to choose a note book – I have lots at home. We designed the front cover of ‘J’s Thank you diary’ then turned it over and on the back wrote ‘J’s wish list’.

So in the front of the book we write one thing we are thankful for from that day. He’s at an age that he can actually write this. But we’ve been asking him to find something he’s thankful for every day since he was 2 and he’s just said it out loud, but we could have written those down.

Then in the back, we sat down together and found pictures online and stuck them in the book of the things he would like, once we’d concentrated it down there were actually only about 5 things, it just felt like more because of the dripping tap effect. Our rule with the back of the book is, once it’s in there he doesn’t need to ask for it again, because if we want to buy him a present or it’s his birthday and we or others need ideas we know where to look. He is allowed to add to the list should he wish to, but he doesn’t need to go on about it. And do you know what, it’s worked. I think him writing down his ideas just meant there was a place to file them instead of him feeling like he had to all the time talk about them in case they got forgotten.

I also think the practice of gratitude at the same time as asking for things (because let’s face it we all want things) just puts the need for things in its right place not a dominant place.

We do talk about how blessed he is and we do talk about others who don’t have as much as us and we also talk about how we can help those who don’t have as much and put it into action.

I’m hoping this is a practice he will continue in his life.

Some other ideas to record things your thankful for…

• A thank you jar – decorate a jar together and have strips of paper ready and every night write down something you are thankful for. Then every now and then have a look through those wonderful thank yous.

• A thank you garden – cut up petals and write on your thankyous’ and then every so often add them together to make a flower. How big can your garden get?

• Over dinner time think of something to be thankful for and then share that, it could spark a lot of dinner chat.

Have fun creating your thankful ideas and thank you for reading!