Weekend time

I thought this was appropriately funny considering the state of mind that we are in over here.

Happy Jamaica Day to you all.

Have a great weekend

Hey! hey! hello!

It is a good thing that I am not a resolution making person and didn’t resolved at the beginning of the year to post more Kidfriendly posts because I would have never started to break the resolution.

To be honest the Christmas into New Year and now looking at February has been coloured by one thing and one child only and that is GSAT! We have been eating and sleeping, begging and pleading and studying and revising as much as we could all the while trying not to burnout. Yikes!

Was reading some tips on line and they say you should try to make the studying fun…. :S I am not a fun Mum when it comes to studying though I have to work on that. I have been thinking to add little treats and gifts though for each paper attempted and answered correctly. See here for those tips

To keep her balanced though we have insisted on exercise of some form everyday whether it be walking, jogging, bicycling stretching or yoga. One of my friends recommended this online article and I think it is a great way to introduce yoga to the little ones and getting bigger ones. Click here to see the link.  Yoga has been said to be excellent for helping with focus.

And just because I like to share, here are some of the resources we have tried online

http://www.cram.com/flashcards/gsat-mathematics-paper-1-1705932

http://www.2snapshot.com/jamaica/jamaica-observer-gsat-past-papers.html

http://www.booklad.org/docid/2011+gsat+past+paper/

www.gogsat.com

https://www.edufocal.com/

For those of us parents ‘doing GSat’ this year wishing you luck and plenty patience and if you are like me with other little ones eager to be entertained remember colouring books and puzzles are like a God sent :D

Oh and if you haven’t been yet you must take the kiddies to see the Jamaica Music Theatre Company (JMTC) Nesta’s Rock. It is awesome. The children always perform their hearts out and it is no different with this production. The set the colours, the direction, the music, the story line – All excellent, excellent!

My children want to see it again but if you remember how this post started then you would know why I haven’t taken them twice. LOL

So

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year

and Have a great weekend.

 

 

 

An intervention and some tips

The other day a parent friend of mine came over to me citing that she needed to stage an intervention with her children because they were refusing to eat breakfast, to listen to anyone and/or do their homework and then the inevitable question came… how do you do manage with four children?!
Honestly I just do. They are what I have so I work accordingly.
There are a few things that I did share with her that made me think that it maybe helpful to others. Now I am no parenting expert but I do have some experience under my belt what with well four of my own children and on occasion my niece and my nephews.
Feeding the masses for breakfast:
Breakfast is important but most children could miss it. Well most of mine can and they try very hard to skip it. So as a rule I always ensure they have something hot to drink- Milo, herb tea, Horlicks you name it. If hot wouldn’t do try a glass of milk, pediasure or a glass of orange juice works as well.
Ackee and saltfish and cornmeal porridge are great options but only if you know for sure that your children absolutely love them. Keeping it simple may get better results.

• Cereal dry or with milk .
• Toast is always acceptable in my family. yes plain old toast with just butter with maybe a bit of cheese on the side.
• Vienna sausages or hot dog sausages with ketchup with no bread. Egg scrambled or boiled. On very rare occasions I make sandwiches.
• Oatmeal and Cornmeal porridge just may work for your kiddies.
• Bananas

How did I come by these options you may wonder, well after many years of uneaten breakfasts or maybe tiny little nibbles of what they shriek as being their favourite breakfast I think I have gotten wise to them.
Also, I think the limited time and the anxiety of getting to school interferes with their abilities to eat properly so I dont force them to sit and eat. And GASP i allow them to eat in the car. yes! my car is a mess, but they actually most days finish their breakfasts. Trying to get them to eat and dress in a timely manner use to have my nerves and their nerves frayed before we even left the house so I cut that out. LOL
Please listen:
Now this is something I am still working on. My children only hear me when they want and most days never hear their father. 3 times is the required amount of times to say something before movements happen. The best way I have found to get rapid action is when you lower the voice, lower the tone which is hard for me because I am very high pitched, and say what ever it is with conviction. Also being consistent and doing what you have said you would do also plays a part in how well you get your children to listen. If you are a push over and are wishy washy then they will take advantage.
Homework vs play:
Hmmm homework. This use to gave me grey hair trying to get all the homework done before bedtime. And then one day I stepped back and viewed homework as my children must. After spending the entire day couped up in a classroom trying to be on their best behaviour and failing possibly. The last thing they want to do is focus on homework they want to unwind, back chat, run around jump about and quite frankly not follow rules for a little. So I started allowing my children to play outside at least an half hour after school. And if you remember I turn the television off during the week. Not a crowd pleaser but hey sometimes you have to tough.

I also suggested to my friend instead of fighting with her son to do homework before she got home ( he invariably always stayed until she got home to do homework) just schedule homework to happen as soon as she stepped thru the house. So he gets his play in or relaxes eats dinner etc and then homework starts when she arrives.

Hope this is helpful.

Do you have any tips that help you with the kiddies?

Hello it’s December!

I know we have been sooo scarce these last few weeks.

Still struggling with the ChikV after effects but guess what today is the first day of December which means that woohoo in just 24 days Christmas will be here.

The children are totally buzzing about it, that and the fact that Christmas holidays are almost upon us.

And so am I.

It is my most favourite time of the year. Love it love it love it .

See you again soon as we plan to be more present.

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. Do hope that everyone had a wonderfully thankful, fun and family filled weekend.

Even though we are not Americans I find that I always enjoy the concept because it does a body good to be grateful.

And I am always full of thanks for the four beauties I call my children, for waking up everyday, that both of my parents are alive and that I have a wonderful family. I could go on and on

What are your thankful for?

We are Surviving ChikV

In an household of 6 plus one auntie. We have all except one little girl succumbed to the ChikV (Chikungunya virus)

Yikes

I have to say it was not a pleasant experience at all … I think this sums it up best for me ” at least I didn’t have to clean vomit” yup I heard myself saying that.

Taking care of 4 persons who are hubbling around in pain while you are not feeling great yourself is no fun. And then having to watch those 4 hubble around while you are stuck in bed is still swollen and spotted. Yup not fun.

Happy to say though that we are all slowly and I mean slowly on the mend. Joint pains and achy heads and necks still occur but it is not really keeping us down. Lets just say we should buy shares in the Cetamol family because the amount of Cetamol that has passed through this house.

Here are a few tips for those who haven’t gotten it so far or who are just getting the ChikV that really do help:

Papaya Leaf juice/tea:

The leaves of the papaya plant are boiled or as we did blended or juiced and then drunk. It is suppose to help with the symptoms and overcoming the virus. Honestly it is the most foul concoction you would ever taste HOWEVER we found that if mixed with orange juice or cherry juice even the most finicky eater or drinker would drink it all up.

Bissy Tea:

Made from the grated kola nut it is recommended to cool the itch that comes with the rash. This is actually not bad tasting and I can attest that it works 2 of my people never actually got the full rash and those of us that got the rash was fortunate to not have any scratching. So don’t skip the bissy any at all.

Paracetamol:

Take it. Even if you don’t think it is relieving anything it is. Trust me I learned the hard way. I missed a dose of Panadol and figured what harm well I woke up fingers swollen and legs not functioning properly. Sigh.

Fluids/Water:

Drink lots of fluid, lots of water. You need to be kept hydrated.

Rest:

Taking the time to recoup is very important. This virus is really ridiculous if you don’t take the time to rest and really recoup then you relapse and have to lay in bed even longer. This can be hard for your energetic youngsters but I found the couch, colouring books, television and the tablet all very useful in keeping them quiet and resting. Mind you the painkillers made them drowsy too. :D

Stay healthy all

Keep the mosquitoes at bay.

I am still a big believer in the repellent qualities of Johnson and Johnson original pink baby lotion. Oh and Vape mats.

(We just have too many mosquitoes where we live.)

He was my grand dad

As crazy as it seems the day of the last post was also the day that the children’s grandfather died.

Strange how life is. We were all concerned about the drought and rain and frolicking for the summer.

How did the children handle the death of their grandfather who they had seen every day for the last six years? Very well actually. Very matter of fact about it even.

I believe it is because we the parents didn’t break down and we were straight using clear words.

We are very aware that they may not fully grasp what has happened so we are keeping the lines of communication open.

I also volunteer that I am feeling sad when I am feeling emotional actually is all it takes to start the conversation going.

The youngest in the bunch actually gave the best response when I asked them all if they missed him.

Her response:

Of course I miss him because I loved him. He was my grand dad.

I have found these links to be useful in preparing me if they do suddenly get hit with a wave of grief.

http://grandparents.about.com/od/growingintoyournewrole/a/DealWithDeath.htm

http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/death.html

Summer, drought and hurricane season

It is currently Hurricane season which started in June and would be over at the end of November.

We are also currently experiencing a drought. Yup we haven’t had rain…. and for someone who prefers the sun I have been looking daily at the clouds to produce a heavy shower. Even have the children joining in.

The showers haven’t come yet but as strange as this is going to sound there is a tropical depression that is heading our way and definitely hoping for it to bring lots of rain to fill up the reservoirs and turn the grass back to green.

Saw this link to 7 Easy Water Conservation tips on twitter that I thought needed to be shared again during our time of limited water. Need to work on these two here:

 

• Take shorter showers.  A typical shower uses 5 to 10 gallons of water per minute.  Try using the water to wet your body to lather up and then for washing off instead of running it the whole time.
• Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. You could save 25 gallons a month.

 

So as you can imagine it is HOT HOT!!

Thank God for the pool in Grandma’s complex. Children splashing around in the pool has always just symbolised holiday to me. Love to hear the bursts of laughter and pure glee as they jump into the water.

Even though there may be no rain now if there is a hurricane or tropical storm to head our way we should be prepared. So lifted some tips from our KidFriendly hurricane preparedness post we do each year.

Have your children help put together the items necessary in the event of a storm such as:

“batteries, lanterns, candles, alternative light source, matches, bag packed with clothes and spare blanket and pillows (just in case you need to evacuate), canned food, bottled water, stored water, bleach, garbage bags, can opener and paper plates.”

And also have them help with the preparation of their special ‘survive the hurricane stash’.

This should include but not limited to:

1.  psps or electronic toy going
2. activity books
3. drawing books
4. journals
5. lots and lots of crayons, pencils and glue ( notice no paint because in the event of water shut outs then you would want to waste water on overly messy hands.)

And as much as I don’t want to have a big storm or hurricane to past through the land. If there was one we would definitely be making  some of these glow in the dark jars with glow sticks. It does look like a lot of fun.

How is your summer going so far?

 

Looking through KidFriendly I realized that we have been missing in action. Going to try to fix that.