Sick days

With my new notice board at the ready I was all prepared to be planned out and efficient. We had a number of exciting things lined up ready to brighten up our routine including a day spent with family relatives and a very cute baby nephew. On a Sunday evening I filled in the planner board and listed the tasks and lessons for the week ahead and on the Monday morning I was looking after a sick child that turned into a sick child and a sick mother, which then passed on to another child and then back to the mother. For 2 weeks now I have been dealing with a particularly nasty strain of a stomach virus and Mr Faithful is now suffering with it.

So what does your household look like when your children or Mum and Dad are sick?

1. Books

When energy is low a blanket and a pile of books to look through and read are a comfort to the suffering.

Favourite books at the moment include The BFG by Roald Dahl, Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne, Five Children and It by E Nesbitt as well as the vast amount of picture books from the library and our bookshelf, too many to mention.

2. Audio Books

When reading books yourself is too much hard work then audio books provide a welcome relief. My android phone supports an app called Overdrive which allows you to borrow ebooks and audiobooks instantly by downloading them on to your media device and streaming them for instant use. We also have our own small selection including The House at Pooh Corner...a family favourite.

3. Construction Toys

I am not talking about building enormous models but Lego or Meccano keeps little boys happy as simple models can be built without too much moving and Mummy can sit with them and help them out.

4. DVDs

I normally have a restriction on screen time and normally reserve it for tea time when food preparation requires my complete attention and little boys are fractious and tired. However on sick days I lift the restriction and bring down some of our DVDs. Charlotte's Web, Jungle Book, Wallace and Gromit, Cars, and Postman Pat have been the choice DVDs this last week.

5. Sleep

Although I do not often get the chance to get some sleep during the day when ill I do encourage my children to do so, and they don't need much encouragement to sleep when truly ill. Whether it is on the sofa or in their beds I will cover them with a blanket and let them sleep for as long as and as often as they need.

6. Imagination

I have recently started making up my own stories and have enjoyed telling my boys tales of Little Timmy Mouse who goes on lots of adventures and we have enjoyed cuddles whilst making up the next adventure for the little mouse.

7. Love and Cuddles

You can't beat cuddles with mummy. When one of my boys are ill I only do what is necessary in the house and spend as much time as I can loving my poorly child. I often get on top of the house chores when the poorly child is sleeping to give me that time with the children. It makes them feel so special and loved knowing that Mummy and brothers are there to cheer them up.

I hope that we are coming to the end of this sickness so we can get back to our usual activities. 

Alphabet Activity

It's time for Mr Cheeky to get to grips with his alphabet. He probably knows about half of it and can do the sounds for s, a, t, p, i and n thanks to Jolly Phonics. The problem is Mr Cheeky is quite a different learner to his older brother Mr Social who picked up the alphabet in a matter of a few sessions. I saw problem...maybe that's the wrong terminology. We all know that children learn differently and that there is no one mould to suit all and that is what I am learning with my boys. Mr Social is gifted with his literacy, he loves books and he learned his alphabet quickly and had a thirst for learning to read. I was curious to see what he would be graded as a reader if he was following some kind of graded system and he was very excited to take some reading tests (which for him meant just more opportunities to read which he loves) and I discovered that his reading ability fell between an age of 7 1/2 to 9 1/2. (The range in age comes from the fact that the reading level tests focused on different things). He turns 6 at the end of the month so I am thrilled that the one thing I was nervous about teaching has gone well and he is quite fluent now.

Mr Social learned his alphabet and sounds mainly through the Jolly Phonics reading scheme. It involved work sheets and I supplemented with other activities like playdough letters, alphabet magnets, letter bingo and other such fun crafts. We also have bananagrams which is great for teaching letters and we play a few modified versions of the game depending on what I am wanting to teach.

Mr Cheeky on the other hand does not want to focus his attention on worksheets or if he does it is for very short bursts. And he often resists my attempts to turn everyday play activities into alphabet learning opportunities. But I did find a happy marriage this morning of two things he loves doing...jigsaws and running. Slightly odd combination as they do not normally go hand in hand but I did get a sustained period of alphabet learning from him. Mr Cheeky has always loved puzzles, he is of a more logical nature and his grasp of logic and numeracy is very good. For his last birthday he received a lovely Dr Seuss alphabet jigsaw and he happily pieced it together this morning. Noticing that he could do with running off a bit of energy I challenged him to run into the kitchen and bring me one letter of the alphabet off the fridge at a time and match it up with the matching letter on the jigsaw. Well a challenge is enough to get this boy moving and off he whizzed and came skidding back with his first letter. I asked him to name the letter before he placed it and if he couldn't name it then he was allowed to place the letter in the LeapFrog letter machine to hear it's name and the sound it makes. This kept him occupied until he had completed about half of the alphabet. I was pleased with his attempt and let him finish as I didn't want to dissuade him from returning to another alphabet task tomorrow. So that was my impromptu alphabet activity of the day.

My very own notice board for planning the home

I have had a busy week on the computer but it wasn't blogging that was occupying my time but designing a notice board. For a while now I have wanted to make a board that was easy to use and for everyone to look at so we all would know what we needed to achieve that week and although I have not quite finished here is what I have got so far.

I am quite pleased with how it has turned out so far. I purchased a cork notice board for a mere £2 a while ago and whilst painting Mr Smiley's bedroom I used some of the yellow paint to paint the wooden edge to the board. Once done I had cut a selection of patterned papers to decorate the background and found a selection of pushpins to add to it. And for 4 months there it stood waiting for me to do something with it. Well I finally bit the bullet this weekend and designed a few items to go on.

This idea for a reward chart I got from pinterest. Each morning they boys (represented by the red and blue button) start on great job, behaviour above what I ask for gets them up to amazing and poor behaviour sees them move down. If they hit consequence then on top of our usual discipline they will lose a privilege but if they end up on amazing at the end of the day they gain a privilege. Mr Social was very concerned to hit warning yesterday that he promptly looked at my chore chart and went and did the vacuuming not only downstairs but upstairs as well.

I have been planning meals weekly for some time now but it made sense to make these plans public. Firstly I may now avoid the question of "What's for tea?" which causes my shoulders to sag sometimes as it is a constant reminder that my jobs are never done (I have been lacking motivation in the kitchen recently and I hope that this will help give me a boost again too). Secondly, I hope to inspire my family to go in the kitchen and help create these meals too as a chaotic 1 yr old is currently hampering my efforts in the kitchen (he does love my cupboards and drawers).

The main body of the board is our school plan. There are eight spaces for each day and I have included only Monday to Friday as the weekend is our family time. Now we all know what the plan is for each day and the hope is to have instructions for each topic for the day to be left next to the notice board so that I may encourage some independent working if they feel inclined to do so. I feel this may become of more use as they get older as only Mr Social is able to read yet. As soon as the list for the day has been achieved then we can either go out or have free playtime. The work I set is definitely able to be completed within a morning.

The to do list...I could have a lot of things listed here but only chose a few things that the boys would be able to help with so in the event they wanted to they could do a task for me. They are expected already to keep their bedroom tidy, clear toys away, clear table after meals and help with the dishwasher so these things didn't end up on the list.

Memory verse corner...we are using the Charlotte Mason approach to scripture verse learning and the current verse we are attempting to commit to memory goes on the board.

And finally I added 2 verses from the bible that I really like and also need reminding a lot.

I hope to add a section for the date and some more verses but for now we have a useable notice board.