Let your Kids Be Bored This Christmas

Seeing so many parents struggling to entertain their children during the (short) Christmas holidays I feel I need to let you all into a secret, you don't have to entertain children for every waking minute.

Photo Copyright: denisfilm / 123RF Stock Photo

Now don't get me wrong, planning things to do with your kids is great, it's fun and can be a lovely treat for you all. A panto at Christmas or a drive round to look at the Christmas lights followed by hot chocolate and marshmallows at a cafe, a snuggly afternoon with a family Christmas movie, even doing some crafty decorations, are all fun and to be recommended, but the times in between do not need to be filled with ideas.

Children have rooms full of toys, books and things to do (in most cases - and certainly in the families I see asking online for ideas!) and so they should be allowed to be bored, they whine a bit, the whinge a bit and they mooch a bit until they find something to do. It is an important skill to learn to amuse yourself, to learn that you can be responsible for creating fun times and creating exciting things to do in your own life, all by yourself.

No parent wants to create a needy, child, who may well grow into a demanding and entitled adult so lets try and pull back on the idea we need to fill each waking moment of a child's life with scheduled activities. It's easy to fall into that trap, I've done it myself, "Bored with colouring? Let's try a jigsaw!" "Finished the jigsaw, let's build a train track" "Trains not fun any more? Let's make a rocket from toilet roll tubes" But it's not necessary and it's not even helpful.

Pinterest should bear a bit of the blame I'm sure, filling parents heads with perfect playrooms and wonderful elaborate craft ideas, telling you to have 'ideas jars' with all sorts of fun and educational projects inside, written on slips of colourful paper to be snatched up when the children are all out of ideas of their own, but take a step back, slow down...

When I was a kid in the long summer holidays (from memory, summer holidays lasted about 20 years) I might have one or two days out to a zoo or the park, or a picnic in the woods. We might even have a week's holiday if I was lucky; but the majority of the holiday was spent outside playing, on my bike, in the garden, round a mate's house. And when the weather wasn't up to that, then playing in my room, reading, or  making up stories and games with dolls, playing shops in the kitchen, playing schools with my blackboard and chalks and rows of serious faced dolls, or colouring and drawing, making little story books, or card games.

None of these activities was scheduled or suggested by anyone (I did not draw ideas out of an ideas jar!) . You sat around, you got bored, and you found ways to fill the time. I can even remember (upon whining "I'm bored") being told that intelligent children are never bored! And really any child intelligent or less so should never be bored, especially in an age of multiple console games, Lego, books, toys, jigsaws, TV, drawing things, painting stuff.....

One of the things I remember very well was 'helping' around the house, joining in with polishing the hall floor, or helping with baking in the kitchen, going to the shops.

And so if your whining child really won't stop, then just throw some other ideas out there "Clean your room then!" "dust the lounge" "Hoover the bedrooms" "Do your homework" "Revise some maths" you'll be amazed how rapidly a child will find almost anything else to do except that.

Do you let your children get bored? How do you deal with whining? Or are you a scheduler?  and what free things are good to do (for all those other schedulers out there)

And if you really must have some ideas, I suggest some free things to do in this post, Falcondale Life Blog has a free holiday planner printable here, and for the crafty among you check out Red Ted Art's blog

But mainly I suggest closing your ears to the whining, make a cup of tea, read a magazine and let them be bored, even just for a couple of hours, they may surprise you.

Ten must have Gift Ideas from the Great Gift Co

DYou know that game you play where you've won the lottery and think about what you'd spend it on? Don't lie to me! We've all played it, or something similar.

Well I've been playing 'money no object' over at the Great Gift Co. You can search the site by age, gender (yes I know but see final paragraph of this post) , type of product, whatever. I found the best things in the gadget or blokes sections but that's just me haha!

So here are my top 10 things to have:

1. Tetris Light - £35 - seriously geeky but what's not to love, it's a retro classic, a toy for days when you are bored and a light for the evening. Made up of individual Tetrominoes, all you do is stack them in whichever way you please and watch them colour phase. Simply plug one of the bricks into the mains and then, as each new brick is placed into position it will light up! Perfect.
   
2.  The iSpy Tank - £100 - as soon as DD saw this she squealed with glee! How much does she want this? a lot that#s how much! Roam the house and spy on your family, roam the garden and take wildlife pictures! Combine a remote control toy (fun) with photography (fun) = Double fun! The iSpy Tank moves forward, backwards, left/right and also has night vision. You can also take snapshots or record videos.
   
3.  Two Man DogHouse tent - £40 - what's not to love? It's a hilarious tent. Perfect for your actual dog or anyone else. Knowing my love of tents you'll see why this was on the list. Perfect for festivals as an ironic statement maybe? The Dog House Tent comes packaged in a neat bag and includes the Dog House Tent, 6 steel pole sections, 10 tent pegs, dog house water bowl and full assembly instructions.
   
    
4.  Pinball Machine - £450 - OK well into the wrealms of fantasy now but I'd love one of these! Imagine the party fun, in fact I bet you'd suddenly find you had loads of mates. Gt them to bring the beer and have tournaments. Sadly I have neither the space not the cash for this most excellent gift idea.
   
5.  DIY Tattooes - £4.50 - back in the land of the affordable I might actually get some of these - hilarious ideas spring to mind already, great for kids parties too. Send everyone home with a personalised tattoo!Simply select the words you want from the pack and construct your own phrases, messages or mottos and transfer them to your skin using just a damp cloth. You get two sets of 66 words in a pack, so 132 in total.
   
6.  ATM Bank - £35 - finally a way to be modern and teach kids that you can only take out what you put in! Help your kids grasp the concept of saving, and of only withdrawing money they have with this fabulous personal ATM. Oh who am I kidding, I just want one.Pay in and withdraw coins and notes with this fantastic ATM Bank machine. The ATM Bank comes complete with a personal cash card and PIN - a great way to teach little ones about saving and PIN numbers etc, and equally popular with teens and older who either like or need encouragement to save - here they can do it in a fun and contemporary wayThe ATM Bank recognises each coin and it is also possible to set a target savings amount and balances can be checked at any time. Notes are also accepted by the ATM Bank - they are automatically drawn in through the slot.When in use, the ATM Bank lights up and makes realistic sounds. Other nifty features includes the ability to enter a user name and also date of birth (if the ATM Bank is used on his birthday then the machine will sing Happy Birthday) and if the ATM Bank is used on Christmas Day then it will play a Christmas song. Please note that the ATM Bank only recognises UK currency. Seriously love this!
   
7. Cruiser Turntable - £100 - another gorgeous retro item. I actually have an original Fidelity suitcase record player, but I'm tempted by this lovely modern version. Gorgeous. Treat your 45s and LPs to a whirl on this beauty. And it's self contained so you can take your tunes to a mates house and play them there too. Dance around your handbags in your best mate's bedroom!
   
8. Fresher Gift Box for Students - £45 - I don't need this (obviously) but it did make me laugh and it is very topical! Set the student in your life on the right track with this fun and useful (?) selection of goodies. Inside the box are : A Laundry Bag - but with a difference. It reads, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, NAKED on the front - eg time to come home for mum to do the washing! : Pizza Saw - so your student can show the pizzas they mean business - easy to clean: Hungover Cookbook (or Hungoevr Coobkook as it's correctly titled) - a book full of recipes that are grouped according to the severity of the bender that went beforehand :  Hangover Cure Rescue Pips - they won't cure the hangover but they'll cause a laugh - plus, sugar's helpful when you have a hangover, right? and   Biscuit Skyscraper - for keeping a stash of biscuits safe from harm and pilfering
   
9. Calories Do Not Count on this Spoon - £16 - great gift as a joke for someone you know doesn't give a damn about calories! I know I don't! But I still think this spoon would make cake taste nicer :-)The Great Gift Co has several spoons in their collecton with cute sayings on them. Worth a look, an unusual but cute gift.The Calories Don't Count On This Dessert Spoon is a unique, vintage piece. Each silver plated spoon is unique and even sweeter for the fact that it bears signs of its previous life
   
10. Last but by no means least the Great Gift Co have some lovely scented goodies, I was sent this box of Cedar and Lime scented soap and cologne (I got it free but it retails at £20) which I have personally tested on my husband. It smells gorgeous. It may even mean his luck's in (wink wink) a great gift for a chap as it smells manly but fresh. Really nice, a smartly packaged. A nice gift for teacher, husband or colleague
    
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     All in all I loved the Great Gift Co website. I can even forgive the gender separation as so many products are in both sections!. Lots of great unusual gifts from cheap to expensive. I will certainly be paying them a visit this Christmas.
    
    Disclosure - I was sent a Gift Set value £20 for this blog post but all the views are my own.
    

I'm a Crafty Sew and Sew

DD being crafty

I'm not the best seamstress in the world. Maybe I would be on the Discworld...but not in this one.

I inherited a sewing machine from my MIL and I was taught needlework at school (and yes it was only the girls, boys did wood work of course!) and I learned the ways of the sewing machine under the stern eye of my needlework mistress. She was scary. "Gels! I do NOT want to see any lipstick on your thread! LADIES do not lick or bite their thread, they cut it neatly!" but she taught us well, I know the uses of the various 'feet' on a sewing machine, I can sew a button hole whether by machine or hand. I can sew a button on too - including into a coat (slightly different technique needed to avoid it being too tight) I can sew a tacking stitch, a blanket stitch and I can do a double seam on denim. I can hem too. All because I learned at school.

BUT even if you don't have all of those skills and even if they, quite frankly, terrify you, you should ensure your home has a sewing kit. Everyone, of every gender should be able to fix stuff! No one should be throwing away a pair of trousers due to a lost button or a jumper because of a frayed hem.

In the time of the internet you can even learn online using youtube tutorials or friendly bloggers and once you are feeling happy with a needle then you can craft! It needn't be perfect either. I learned to make a rather cute strawberry at a festival last year under the careful eye of RedTedArt and it was super easy and fun!

Ditch the wunda-web, the hem-bond or whatever it's called, grab a sharp and get sewing! Be not afraid.

This year I plan to learn to knit (other that finger knitting which I learned at Camp Bestival) and it looks like Wilderness Festival might be the place as they are planning a Naked Knitting Circle!

Do you sew? Do you knit? How 'crafty' are you? and did you learn at school?

Things to do - fun free family frolics!

Autumn is suddenly here. Today it's raining as well as chilly. Proper ' stay at home and watch a black and white movie with a hot toddy' weather.

And that's great, for an adult, for a Sunday, for one day. But those with children (and I count myself among you still, despite dd being nearly 14) know that after a few days ... Hours ... minutes, kids will chill our very marrow with the cry of "I'm bored!" And the equally horrifying "what can I DO?" 

And the usual thrusting of a child into the back garden to play with football, trampoline or skipping rope is thwarted by rain, and trips to the playground curtailed because "no one will be there to play with" and "the slide will be wet" so we the parent are reduced to playing Lego in the lounge, painting in the pantry, cooking in the kitchen or beading in the bedroom.

You, like me, probably love to be with your kids, love to be with HAPPY kids, so I asked twitter for some ideas to add to the anti-whine arsenal and here they are.