Wednesday 14 December 2011

Pomanders

We had lots of oranges doing nothing in the fruit bowl so I thought I'd try making some pomanderish things with the children.  I didn't get any good pictures of them actually doing it, they all blurred, but here is James' one....


.....he did really well, it appealed to his ability to do tasks related to putting things 'in' or 'on' and he finished this one happily.  However, when I asked him if he would like to do another, he put all the oranges in the bowl, walked me over to the shelves and placed the bowl onto them! I took that as a no! Brilliant bit of communication though! 

Charlie, Gaby and myself also had a go.  I encouraged Charlie to do some sensory playing with them once they were all done, they smelt lovely!


Friday 2 December 2011

Windows and Curtains

Earlier in the year, we had some window and radiator coverings put into the boys' bedrooms.  The purpose of these was to stop them standing on the radiators which are under the windows in both their rooms.  The bonus was, after much discussion about how we could do this, that we came up with an idea that meant we could put curtains up again.  We've tried every type of window covering over the years but all have been pulled down.  Charlie's new curtain has been made and done for a while, but we are a bit 'in limbo' with James' room as we are currently in discussions about having room padding installed for him.   This week I decided to just adapt an old velcro curtain I had made for that window until we know what's going on with the rest of the room.  Velcro curtains are quite good and I would recommend them to limit damage to poles and walls, but they never worked for us whilst the boys were awake as they just pulled them straight down!  This was one I made as a total blackout curtain to use when we had James' projector and other sensory lights going and has velcro all the way around.  If you want to make one as just an ordinary curtain, a couple of strips of velcro along the top is enough.


To convert it, I literally snipped a couple of holes in the lining and put it on a pressure mounted pole.  It's very hard to get photos of because of the light, but hopefully these give an impression of what we've done.  The boxing is the full length of the window and radiator leaving no ledges to stand on.  



We are really pleased with this but I would point out if you are reading this and thinking of doing it, shortly after the work was finished we received the latest Tough Furniture brochure and they are making window coverings now so it might be worth looking at those before designing your own!