Random post....

Just so I never forget just how gorgeous my little girl is.... gave her dinner, she is sitting at the table eating away "Thank Mum, no one has a Mum like mine!" and then after dinner, snuggled up together on the lounge "Mum, you are my most favouritest person in the whole world" *kiss and squeeze* I love her so much... such a spunky little muffin. No one like her in the whole world :) She is just amazing...

The last few days she has been amusing herself so well, I barely have to do a thing. On a forum I frequent, someone asked how I have encouraged her to play so well by herself. My post got quite a lot of thanks/nice comments so I thought I would cross post it here for anyone who is interested.....

"Everyone has their shit days J.... seriously. Some days I think if I hear one more word come out of L's mouth I will run away from home lol. She seriously does.not.shut.up. All day. And I have day's where I would gladly palm her off on anyone! Those days I usually take her to the park so she can find someone else to talk to and leave me alone for a bit. But for the most part I do really enjoy it (post was in response to the question "Do You Enjoy Parenting?") I have a lot of support around here though, lots of other SAHM's in the area plus my parents around the corner now. It makes a HUGE difference. Plus I have always liked my own company. Even when I was at school, by the time term was over I just wanted to be alone lol. I would just have had enough of people. My school friends used to ask where the hell I disappeared too. But I would just take off to the beach alone for swims or long walks or with my camera. Or hole up in my bedroom with my art stuff and the music on. Or hang out in the hammock for hours with a good book.

L does most of the activities off her own bat, she really doesn't need much encouragement. I leave her to her own devices for the most part. I don't actually have to do that much iykwim? I have a cupboard set up with trays of activities for her and she just goes at it. And a huge box full of egg cartons/boxes etc. I am very lucky that she loves all the arty-crafty stuff. She also has a very fertile imagination. It keeps her amused for HOURS every day. Right now she is off taking photo's with her kiddy camera. She has been taking pics for the last 2.5 hours! I am just really lucky she has such a great attention span. The food has helped with that though, diet has made such a huge impact on our day to day. She is so much more content in her own skin these days. It really is amazing.... totally different kid.

One day she spent hours with egg cartons and crayons, just colouring them in lol. My friend L was visiting at the time "Egg cartons? Who'd have thunk it?" And then she went off and got her glue stick and started gluing bits and pieces all over them as well. And then gave some small toys a ride in it when she was done. She seriously blows me away... I was NEVER like that as a kid, I always wanted Mum to amuse me. Probably because she always did though. I have always pushed Laura to amuse herself.

It is the age too though, when she was younger it took a lot more to keep her amused, as things wore off a lot more quickly.The other morning she spent AAAAAGES making "cakes" for her possum toys out of all the crud she collected on her bike ride with TH. Pine cones, pine needles, paperbark etc. She raided the kitchen cupboards and put it all in a mixing bowl and pretended to mix it all with her beaters and wooden spoon. Then baked a "cake" (aka as an upturned container on a tray) in the "oven" (aka, under the table)She loves to go and water the plants in the garden too. She has her own little watering can, and can now turn the taps on and off. She loves to do that. She also loves a couple of tubs to wash and rinse her dolls clothes in, then hangs them on the cheapo washing line from the warehouse. Filling up the sink and giving her a few containers to wash and play with always keeps her amused for ages too. Mum does that with her a lot, me not so much. She makes waterfalls etc. She will play for an hour like that, just pouring and changing the containers around.

Tis all cheap stuff mostly... we have had to get a lot more inventive with the lack of $ around here atm. I try to remember what Mum did with us, we had bugger all money growing up, but we always had fun times.

And today all I have done is snuggle in bed with her, pour her cereal & pop the batteries into her camera. We are both still in our jammies. House is a sty and I am on here instead as usual I think she is finally done with the camera. I can hear her chatting away in her bedroom and she is putting music on. It is so much easier to be patient and do the occasional activity with her during the week when she isn't at me non-stop to do stuff 24-7 ."

"The tray activity I set up with a wooden tray/lentils or other grains and a small dustpan and brush (montessori child) so she could learn sweeping (montessori activity) but she got frustrated with it at the time. Instead she started drawing in it. Which was awesome. I was so proud of her! Sitting there practicing her letters in an old school magnadoodle lol.

I also did up the coloured/dyed rice for her. She layered it into jars etc. Did a lot of that. Then when it was all mushed up I chucked it all into a big bowl (tin with handles, also from montessori child) and she has been playing with that a lot. Pouring with it, hiding and finding things in it, making cakes/pies etc with it (pours it into various containers, gets her kiddy beaters on it lol.)

Getting L to amuse herself was hard consistent work. And changing over to a more montessori approach. She has free access to the cupboards/fridge to get her own snacks as she needs. Has a tray of cloths/dustpans etc to clean up after herself (doesn't always work, need's to be encouraged a bit) and has trays of different activities in the cupboard. I try to keep it all relatively neat and not have other stuff around, just those activities. That way she doesnt get overwhelmed with too many options. Linen cupboard has a shelf with the activity trays and then we have a craft cupboard with colouring books/jars of pencils/jars of texta's/container for beading/containers with buttons/paddlepop sticks/etc for gluing, glue sticks (of course...) and a shelf with paper and cardboard.

Under her easel we have a cardboard box (which I covered in white paper and got L to paint lol... another hour or so amused) which I pop the egg cartons/boxes/loo rolls etc into.

This week she made a pirate ship out of a box, a cardboard roll (came out of a box in incense... random) the yellow flyer out of an egg carton and a roll of masking tape. Then she made loo roll people to go in the ship, and dragged out the blue blanket to be the ocean and a brown towel to be the sea shore. All without any direction from me. Happy days!

The linen cupboard activities rotate when I can be bothered lol. Mr Potato Head, different shaped blocks that have cards and a torch so you can match the shadows, matching numbers game/puzzle, matching letters with sounds puzzle (I have put these into groups so there are not too many at a time to do, makes it less overwhelming for her. I started by putting out only 5 or so on the tray. Now I put the whole bag onto the tray, but the are in groups of 5 in the bag- she likes to do them all now) Letter tracing pages (print them off the net- she likes learning letters/numbers atm) I have a tray with random things she can do crayon rubbings with (lace, coins, leaves, different textures stuff- she now goes and finds different things around the house once she starts) puzzles, lentil trays etc.

I have 3 activities set up at a time, so not too much choice. At first I had to sit with her and teach her how to do the activities, she would get frustrated. But after a lot of positive reinforcement she is starting to learn that you need to practice at anything to get good at it. She still gets angry sometimes lol. But I try to remind her and redirect her back to the task she is trying to do. But mostly she can do these things herself now, with just the occasional question. I also try to enforce that an activity should be packed up before another is brought out. That requires a lot of direction lol... she knows I will take stuff away from the cupboard if she doesn't though. Having the activities readily available is a priveledge, not a right. Might seem harsh, but I firmly believe kids need to learn some responsibility. Especially once they start getting a bit older.

I try to get her to do most things for herself these days, from taking her dinner plate to the sink, putting away her own clean clothes, tidying her room, making sure she washes her own face/brushes teeth/finds her own brush and hairties/dresses herself etc. Hoping to instill some self sufficiency in her. Mum always did everything for us, and as much as that was very pleasant at the time, I really dont think it has been a good thing long term lol. Some days she is not as keen as others, but she has been especially good this week. I always make sure I thank her for the effort she puts in, and also comment how good it feels when we do things for ourselves. It makes a huge difference in her attitude. Did 2 whole loads just of her clothes (slack on the washing the last fortnight.... poor kid was down to size 3 clothes pmsl) and folded them all into groups for her. Got her to get her basket (montessori child again... woven basket with handles) and got her to pop her undies and socks into it to put away. Then, undirected, she came back to the laundry several times to get the other piles of clean/folded clothes on the bench and put them all away too while I cooked dinner. It was great lol. I think she was just happy I had cleaned them and that her favourites where in the pile pmsl....

Some days it is a fight though. But I always do fight it, not just let it slip. Which can be hard work when you really dont want it...."

HTH with idea's for keeping the little people amused :) It can be darned hard work!