Reward Charts

Recently life with two very small children has reduced me and the hubby to become constant bribers. "If you eat up all your dinner you can have a pudding", "If you get dressed quickly you can have a story" etc, etc. I hate doing it but still find myself saying them everyday like a mantra. That is of course until we decided to buy the girls reward charts for Christmas.

They have pride of place on our landing and look fab when they are covered in stars. The girls love them.

A reward chart works by listing various tasks you would like your child to improve on. For example getting dressed, tidying up, making your bed, brushing your teeth. There will be hundreds of tasks and I can imagine in each household the tasks will be different. For every task completed by your child they earn a star. Now the exciting bit for your child. The incentive for gaining all those stars is that eventually when enough stars have been earned (you can decide the total) they get a PRIZE. The prize could be anything and again I bet each household would choose a different gift.

Ours is a SPECIAL TREAT. I suppose it's a little cheat but it means I can reward them with anything. Days out, sweets and toys are just a few things I can come up with.

So with this success http://www.babydazzlers.com/ are selling their reward charts at fantastic prices.

Fabric Wallhanging Reward Chart Sale Price £19.99 was £34.99

Magnetic Reward Chart Sale Price £7.50 was £9

I wonder if it would have the same success on my hubby?

cbeebies Mister Maker

My girls love watching cbeebies.

I couldn't say they have a favourite programme as they seem to love anything that comes on. I know there are huge debates on how much tv your children should watch but I cannot ignore that both my girls language and imagination have developed through a little cbeebies watching.

There is a little downside. My eldest has obviously been inspired by Mister Maker and his arty ways, especially the making art with ordinary household objects episodes. I occasionally find our clean clothes that were once drying on the radiators on the floor and sculpted into something from her imagination or very recently a work of art with nappy bags that practically covered the whole upstairs floor area.

Move over Tracey Emin!

Cottonwool Snowmen

We were facing another day around the house, thanks to the snow.

Looking out of our window and seeing the snowman the girls built with their dad, I thought we could pass sometime creating snowmen inside.

The next thought was "how"?

With limited resources our snowmen were going to be very interesting indeed. Luckily I had just bought a new pack of cottonwool round pads so that was our snowmen bodies sorted.

Gluing and sticking my daughters favourite.

I drew the outline of the snowmen

The girls glued on the cottonwool rounds

Raisins, (which are in abundance in our house), were used for the snowman's buttons, eyes and mouth.

I was all out of carrots. I had cheese and it was orange. Two triangles were cut out for Snowmen noses.

I did have wool in our craft box so our snowmen got hats and scarves.

We were all really pleased on how our snowmen pictures turned out and are being shown off with pride (by me mostly) as I realised you don't need to have the entire stock of Hobbycraft to introduce craft to your kids.

The nightmare that is Toilet Training and Withholding

We have just turned a corner with our eldest on the toilet training front.

A little stressful to say the least. It feels like 6 months rather than the month she has been actually out of nappies through the day.

At 33 months she is probably a little older than most for us to begin toilet training. Instead of us deciding a day to start, we waited for the "I want to be a big girl now and not wear a nappy". I had heard so many parents say that this was the best way to toilet train as it takes less time and fuss. I did indeed get that very sentence. It was moments before us all leaving the house for a playdate at a local soft play centre. She had whipped off the nappy, plonked herself on the potty and demanded her big girl knickers. I was nervous. I didn't want to knock my little girls confidence by taking away her independence by reaching for the nappies but it was inevitable that there will be an accident.

She didn't let me down.

A handy tip is to pack a hand towel along with the spare knickers and clothes to deal with any accidents. I sure needed mine. It was grabbed at lightning speed when I saw my little girl laid perfectly still on the 3rd floor of a soft play gym. Directly below her was the landing mat for the slide of which was now being showered with a wee waterfall courtesy of my little one. I managed to retrieve my daughter and clean up that quick that no-one suspected a thing - thank goodness.
Accidents are part and parcel of toilet training. Ours have been mostly poo accidents, at the very beginning there was a total reluctance to use the toilet when it was clear she needed a poo. Hubby and I realised quickly that our little girl was withholding her poo. Why? we have no idea, but many reasons can include starting toilet training, starting school, a bad experience with constipation and even a reflex learnt since birth. No amount of bribes were working for us. She really did not want to let go of those poos without a fight and it was awful to watch your little girl clinging on to something like her life depended on it or shake uncontrollably to hold onto the poo. The decision to take her to the doctors came after we had to endure an evening listening to her pass a poo like she was giving birth. The Doctor prescribed Senna and Movicol laxatives which she will have to take for a period of 3 months. This amount of time is not just to make the poo softer and easier for her to pass but also to re train her reflexes when she needs to do a poo.

The internet can be a great source of information on anything. I looked up withholding and found two very helpful books. The first is a book for my little girl. Titled "Everybody Poos" by Taro Gomi. A colourful, illustrated book bringing home the point "I poo and you poo too, Every living thing has to eat, and so everybody poos!". My little one LOVES it, she finds the illustrations so funny. The second book I found was a little reading for me and the hubby. Titled "Constipation, Withholding and Your Child" by Anthony Cohn. I have found this book to be very informative and written in informal language that it is so easy to read. The author (a Consultant Paediatrician) has written a very tried and tested tale for children suffering from toilet issues. The main characters are Mr Poo and Little Miss Wee and their determination to play in the toilet. My little one understood this simple story straight away and has helped us immensely.

So with all this drama finally dying down, we are now doing just fine on the toilet front.

Snowed In!

I love the snow but it does make it hard to get about especially with two little people in tow.

As we are experiencing minus temperatures it is no surprise that I have been thinking about the summer and how this country deserves a great one. My frozen extremities must have fuddled my brain as I decided that this is the year I grow my own vegetables and involve the girls. I must point out that I have NEVER had an interest in gardening, we don't have a patch of grass at our house. The mowing of the lawn caused too many arguments so we decided on a Japanese style garden with evergreen bushes, shale and a lovely water feature. Very low maintenance but still lovely to look at.

How are you going to grow veg? I hear you ask.......

In pots and containers. You can actually buy veg growing seeds especially for patio gardens. I picked up a few sachets at a local garden centre.

I don't think it will be an easy task though, after reading the instructions there is a lot more to growing veg than throwing some seeds in soil!! I'll give it go, watch this space.
I thought I would ease myself and the girls into it by buying some cress seeds. I remembered making Cress Heads at school and how easy it was.

What we did next........

Decorate an eggshell (or an empty yoghurt pot) with a funny face
fill the eggshell or pot with cottonwool or layers of kitchen roll
dampen the cottonwool or kitchen roll with a little cold water
sow your cress seeds onto the damp wool/paper

Keep on a well lit windowsill, keep moist and watch them grow. Eventually the cress will have grown so long that your funny faces will have funny green hair to match.

Cress Heads not only show kids how things can be grown but also shows that you can eat what you grow encouraging healthy eating. Snip some of your funny face's hair and sprinkle on a egg mayo sandwich - fantastic

Happy New Year

I am really excited for 2010. I'm not one for making resolutions (I never manage to keep them)but a new year does always feel like a new chapter.

At new year, my thoughts always turn to what new toys I can find to sell on the website. I love looking at new toys probably more so than the girls and I don't think this year I will be disappointed!

So I begin my new chapter tomorrow and I hope I can blog an interesting year.

Happy New Year

The Gruffalo

3 times now!

We all sat down as a family this morning to watch this brilliant animated story. Hubby managed to escape after the first showing but I am still sat here holding the hand of my eldest at the scary bits. I can smell lunch being made so hopefully I can escape a fourth time........until tomorrow.