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!

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!

Frozen Planet and other viewing progress

For the past 9 years we have watched cbeebies and not much else! I thought we would watch 'Bob the Builder' forever and to be honest, that wouldn't have been a problem if that's what the boys liked, but it seems after all this time we are starting to broaden our horizons.  We had a bit of a rearrangement in the house to make a small lounge with a little television and DVD player.  I did this mainly for my own interests, wanting a comfy area to sit in the daytime, however it quickly became clear that James and Charlie quite enjoy sitting there with us watching films, which is lovely. So we are working our way through Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Star Wars etc....anything with 'larger than life' characters, exciting visuals and lots of music seems to work.

Then recently, Gaby and I were sat in the new little lounge watching Frozen Planet on the iPad and Charlie really got into it.  It's not hard to see why, it's amazing and has lots of visual stimulation that we already know appeals to him - big fluffy animals, ice, water, lots of movement - so the Sky+ is set and the DVDs are on pre-order for Christmas.  It's so nice when these things move forward naturally (albeit over a longer period of time) without having to force it!

Garden Progress

We seem to have huge cabbages all of a sudden.....

......Granny has taken to leaving a box of snacks inside the garage for when Charlie and I when we pop in after riding lessons.  He has quickly remembered this will be there and is very happy sat munching while I pick caterpillars off the plants!

We have another one of these troughs which is hopefully going to be put up at the end of the week in time to put in some onions and garlic.  Weather permitting.

James has been helping Granny fill up the containers on her bird table.  He's very good at hanging them back up!

Distraction Treasure Basket and Hyperbolic Ball

Charlie has become very obsessed over our cutlery drawer recently.  He likes to take out spoons and other utensils.  He is particularly fixated with the potato peeler (?!!) which we we obviously can't let him play with so in an attempt to distract him, I've made a treasure basket of things to keep on the kitchen worktop which can be his own. We are trying to direct him over to that and encouraging him to take something out of there to play with, rather than our drawer. I got a load of cheap bits and bobs and I know I'll have to keep replacing them as they will go walkabout.  It had 3 different tea strainers in to start with but they are already gone, as are the spoons!

I made the cream coloured ball thing. It's a crocheted hyperbolic ball. The pattern is from a book called 'Kooky Crochet' by Linda Kopp.  I think I'll be making more of them, they are quick and simple and make an effective sensory ball. I'd like to do some more colourful ones, maybe on a cord?

Butterfly Blackberry Cakes

My mum picked us some blackberries from the back of her garden.  I already picked quite a few a couple of weeks ago.  They are really early, the other places we pick them are not so ripe yet, but we keep checking!  Although we've kind of had 'summer holidays' we have done a bit of informal butterfly work following on from the Big Butterfly Count and I picked up a butterfly cake mould yesterday so today we used it and the blackberries.

We just added the blackberries to an ordinary sponge cake recipe and then we did one cake in the mould and made fairy cakes with the rest.  We made the filling with whipped cream, about a tablespoon or so of pureed and sieved blackberries and a tablespoon of sugar.  This is an old whisk from my childhood.  The boys really like using it so I'm glad I rescued it!

I always leave some cakes without icing/cream as James and Charlie are much more likely to eat them plain - we let them choose.  Charlie ate 4 cakes!! They were very nice!

Rainbow Mop Painting

I've been wanting to post this for ages but we lost the lead to the phone the photos were taken with! It was found this morning so here we go......

I stumbled across this activity here whilst we were learning about rainbows and just had to try it out with James and Charlie.

I bought a cheap sponge mop and poured paint into a tray in stripes. We just dipped it in and pushed it along lining paper.

They both gave it a really good go once they realised what we were doing.

Then I encouraged feet to go in the paint and walk along the paper. Even Dad tried this!

It all got a bit messy......

I think we all really enjoyed this one!