For a long time now I have known that parenting goes most smoothly and joyfully when you are engaged and present with your children. I know that when I become distracted and preoccupied things can spiral downwards before I have really noticed. The rescue mission that often ensues is all the harder, leaving us all feeling tense and crabby.
When I sit on the sofa reading a great blog on my laptop and my children start to niggle at each other, its all too easy to just throw out little nagging commands. “Don’t say that to her”, “leave him alone”, “cut it out will you” etc.
When I first sat down they would have been happily engaged in some activity, either separately or together. I would have taken the chance to spend some time on the computer and become engrossed.
The subtle signs that things were no longer going well would pass me by, at first, until the expression of them became more and more irritating. Then, rather than tear myself away, I would attempt to control it from the sofa by barking out little commands. This rarely works as by that point things have gone too far and both kids are past the point where they can turn things a+round themselves. So then things spiral down further into an argument or behaviour that really grabs my attention and I, usually really grumpy by now, finally give up and wade in angrily.
Usually the end result is some kind of enforced ceasefire with all of us feeling wronged and grumpy. Of course it is not long then until little battles start breaking out again. We become stuck in the mode of who is right and who is wrong, each holding their own positions and grudges.
Yet there is another way.
Paper Clips
Today someone generously gave us several boxes of coloured paperclips. How irresistible!
Boo and Yeubi got straight to work. First of all Boo seperated out all the pink and white ones from one box and kept them seperate. Yeubi set to work trying to pick all our locks with them - thanks to Enid Blyton's "five find-outers" series.
Then Boo got out a magnet and dipped it in a tub of paper clips and played with this for ages.
I didn't manage to get photos of Yeubi's various contraptions but he was absorbed for over an hour.
Boo and I moved on to make a hanging sculpture which I had seen in Steven Caney's Toy Book. We hung a pice of string from a shelf and tied a bent paper clip to it. Then we proceeded to add more and more paperclips downwards and side ways. Boo developed the idea by trying to connect the hanging paperclips to more than one other and finally re-introduced the magnet. We hung the finished piece at the window. It is only small but represents a lot of work, trial and error, and concentration as well as a great deal of fun.
Boo and Yeubi got straight to work. First of all Boo seperated out all the pink and white ones from one box and kept them seperate. Yeubi set to work trying to pick all our locks with them - thanks to Enid Blyton's "five find-outers" series.
Then Boo got out a magnet and dipped it in a tub of paper clips and played with this for ages.
I didn't manage to get photos of Yeubi's various contraptions but he was absorbed for over an hour.
Boo and I moved on to make a hanging sculpture which I had seen in Steven Caney's Toy Book. We hung a pice of string from a shelf and tied a bent paper clip to it. Then we proceeded to add more and more paperclips downwards and side ways. Boo developed the idea by trying to connect the hanging paperclips to more than one other and finally re-introduced the magnet. We hung the finished piece at the window. It is only small but represents a lot of work, trial and error, and concentration as well as a great deal of fun.
Shoe Love
Boo has a pair of pale pink shoes which were passed down to her by a friend. They are a bit worn but she loves them. Recently she has revamped them with love, care, fabric pens and biro to make them truly her own.
Northern Lights In Our Living Room
One afternoon last October, I suddenly noticed a strange light on our wall!
On further investigation, it turned out to be sunlight reflecting on some red holographic card. A friend had bought lots of holographic card cheaply as it had small faults in it. We gathered up a few different colours and started playing.
We enjoyed this so much that a few days later we played some more and improvised further with our holographic card.
This proved to be so popular that we kept returning to it for several weeks to come. Yeubi, in particular, found it entrancing and sat for ages bending the card in different ways to produce different effects. Both children enjoyed chasing and battling each others lights on the ceiling.
You can find more fun play ideas at the Play Academy
Yeubi's bedtime ponderings
Tonight I lay in Boo's bed as she drifted off to sleep listening to a relaxing kids CD. Across the room Yeubi was in his bed listening to the same CD and pondering out loud to me. These Cds take a bit longer with Yeubi but, then again, they succeed where most would not! Here is how it all went.
Yeubi: Will you make sure to remind me that I want to work on a cannon project tomorrow?
Me: I'll try my best to remember.
Yeubi: what does P L spell
Me: pl (phonetically)
Yeubi: I'm going to get or make a device that detects the actual weather and its settings display what the weather is. So the weather controls what the display shows. do you understand that the weather would control what the display showed cos it senses the weather and so its changed by the weather.
Me: Yep I understand that it sounds quit........
Yeubi: Well then I'm going to take it apart and reverse all its components and actions and the direction of power through it and put it back together.
Then what we set the display to will control what the actual weather is cos its all reversed and we will have the world's first Weather Wonderbox! I think people will be amazed don't you?
Me: It does sound amazing and it would be really cool to be abl............
Yeubi: Mum what would you get if you reversed a walkie talkie?
Me: A talkie walkie I guess.
Yeubi: hmm what would that do? maybe not much different I guess.(a short pause as we ride on a fluffy cloud in CD land) .What is the opposite of something that can't do anything?
Me: something that can do everything?
Yeubi: Yes and what is that?
Me: I'm not too sure. Maybe a miracle?
Yeubi: No - a god.(another pause as we slide down the worlds longest beanstalk slide) Mum what does L P spell?
Me: lp(phonetically) or you can say it LP which stands for Long Playing which was one of the types of music records before Cds.
Yeubi: Oh.(now we are quietly watching the world from a flying carpet) You will remind me I want to work on a cannon project in the morning won't you.
Me: I promise I will try really hard to remember.
(Silence. Yeubi finally drifts to sleep in a little relaxation boat bobbing on the water.)
Yeubi: Will you make sure to remind me that I want to work on a cannon project tomorrow?
Me: I'll try my best to remember.
Yeubi: what does P L spell
Me: pl (phonetically)
Yeubi: I'm going to get or make a device that detects the actual weather and its settings display what the weather is. So the weather controls what the display shows. do you understand that the weather would control what the display showed cos it senses the weather and so its changed by the weather.
Me: Yep I understand that it sounds quit........
Yeubi: Well then I'm going to take it apart and reverse all its components and actions and the direction of power through it and put it back together.
Then what we set the display to will control what the actual weather is cos its all reversed and we will have the world's first Weather Wonderbox! I think people will be amazed don't you?
Me: It does sound amazing and it would be really cool to be abl............
Yeubi: Mum what would you get if you reversed a walkie talkie?
Me: A talkie walkie I guess.
Yeubi: hmm what would that do? maybe not much different I guess.(a short pause as we ride on a fluffy cloud in CD land) .What is the opposite of something that can't do anything?
Me: something that can do everything?
Yeubi: Yes and what is that?
Me: I'm not too sure. Maybe a miracle?
Yeubi: No - a god.(another pause as we slide down the worlds longest beanstalk slide) Mum what does L P spell?
Me: lp(phonetically) or you can say it LP which stands for Long Playing which was one of the types of music records before Cds.
Yeubi: Oh.(now we are quietly watching the world from a flying carpet) You will remind me I want to work on a cannon project in the morning won't you.
Me: I promise I will try really hard to remember.
(Silence. Yeubi finally drifts to sleep in a little relaxation boat bobbing on the water.)
Creating your own path - Boo's way
Apparently our lawn was a river, infested with crocodiles, and Boo needed to get safely to the other side to rescue her inflatable poke(mon)-ball.
She picked up some small offcuts of wood from a gate Ben had been assembling and immediately set off on her intrepid journey.
She picked up some small offcuts of wood from a gate Ben had been assembling and immediately set off on her intrepid journey.
Little by little
Inch by inch
With many twists and turns
She made it from the bottom of the concrete path all the way over here
and finally rescued that poke-ball!
Home Makers
Boo and Yeubi seem to just love finding homes for creatures at the moment.
The latest round has been a snail, a woodlouse and a slug.
The snail is even given a pet (bead) dog which in turn is given its own kennel.
The woodlouse gets a lego abode, a ride on Yeubi's arm and a pink sprinkle to eat.
And finally the slug gets a choice of hollowed out cucumber (thanks Granny!) or becoming a snail courtesy of a black pasta shell, complete with some kind of LED gadget.
I wonder what we will be re-homing next.
The latest round has been a snail, a woodlouse and a slug.
The snail is even given a pet (bead) dog which in turn is given its own kennel.
The woodlouse gets a lego abode, a ride on Yeubi's arm and a pink sprinkle to eat.
And finally the slug gets a choice of hollowed out cucumber (thanks Granny!) or becoming a snail courtesy of a black pasta shell, complete with some kind of LED gadget.
I wonder what we will be re-homing next.
