It seems like more often my daughters and I are whiling away our days home sick than we are out and about on our daily routine. Depending on the course of the illness and it's severity, we parents are stranded at home, quarantined from the outside world to fend for ourselves inside the confines of our germ infested homes with no resources but a few fashion mags, a fly swatter and some overdue DVDs. What is a mother to do?
And so, I write this entry to you at the end of another long, coughing, feverish, dreary day of sick spent at home. Croup called last night at 10:34 and she just wouldn't take a hike, plastering her filthy mucus all over my tiny toddler's bronchi. To beat all, I finally left croup outside in the damp night air and laid my youngest to rest in her bed when the older one, already laden with snot and a clattering cough herself, groaned and moaned until I discovered she was in dire need of a wardrobe change having sweat clean through everything on her and her mattress.
One might venture to guess that this midnight excitement would lead to a very long and event less day spent at home, sick again.
My Petri Family has recently earned our expert badge at parent guided entertainment and I thought I'd share a few of our discoveries with you. Odds are good you may find yourself holed up in your house with a few sicklies yourself sometime soon (not that I'm willing it so, or anything...CURSE YOU HEALTHY PEOPLE!!!!)
www.activitytv.com An amazing resource for all sorts of super cool age appropriate activities including science experiments (how to make slime, or a volcano explode), magic tricks, crafts, dancing exercises, jewelry making, I can't name them all. Each activity on the website has a coordinating video tutorial you and your kiddos can watch together online. I recommend checking out the trippy (and yes, entertaining) yoga videos for you and your kids to participate in.
Buy this book if your children are under the age of 10. Trust me, YOU NEED IT: UNPLUGGED PLAY. No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun. By Bobbi Conner. It is a tremendous resource for all things play related. And it categorizes them not only by age group (Toddler Play Ages 1-2, Preschool Play Ages 3-5, etc.) but it also separates the age groups into Outdoor Play, Parent and Child Play, Birthday Party Play, and many others including my fav, SOLO PLAY. We managed to do 4 activities from this book this morning and the set up and cleanup was 2 seconds. Nearly every activity will leave you thinking, why didn't I think of that! But the 300+pages of jam packed activities requiring little else than what you have in your pantry and your toy chest will not leave your family disappointed. Check out the website, www.unpluggedplay.com and from here you can buy it on amazon.com for under $12. Or you can check your local library. A great gift, too!
And last, and I'm not so proud of this one, is our recent membership with Netflix.com. We just agreed to the monthly membership for $15.99 but I couldn't put a price on the invaluable PLAY ON MY COMPUTER button on that website!!! Even the volume is louder so those of us with bargain laptops can actually HEAR the movies! This morning, I delivered breakfast in bed to both of my sickly girls and then set up the computer and, you will not believe this, left them to their Scooby Doo Movie vices and dry cereal until 9:15!!!!! Yeah, you can only imagine how I enjoyed my QUIET, ALONE, COFFEE DRINKING, PAPER READING TIME ALL TO MYSELF!!!
It almost made the other 7 hours at home inside our 1000 square foot house with two kids bearable.
And so, I write this entry to you at the end of another long, coughing, feverish, dreary day of sick spent at home. Croup called last night at 10:34 and she just wouldn't take a hike, plastering her filthy mucus all over my tiny toddler's bronchi. To beat all, I finally left croup outside in the damp night air and laid my youngest to rest in her bed when the older one, already laden with snot and a clattering cough herself, groaned and moaned until I discovered she was in dire need of a wardrobe change having sweat clean through everything on her and her mattress.
One might venture to guess that this midnight excitement would lead to a very long and event less day spent at home, sick again.
My Petri Family has recently earned our expert badge at parent guided entertainment and I thought I'd share a few of our discoveries with you. Odds are good you may find yourself holed up in your house with a few sicklies yourself sometime soon (not that I'm willing it so, or anything...CURSE YOU HEALTHY PEOPLE!!!!)
www.activitytv.com An amazing resource for all sorts of super cool age appropriate activities including science experiments (how to make slime, or a volcano explode), magic tricks, crafts, dancing exercises, jewelry making, I can't name them all. Each activity on the website has a coordinating video tutorial you and your kiddos can watch together online. I recommend checking out the trippy (and yes, entertaining) yoga videos for you and your kids to participate in.
Buy this book if your children are under the age of 10. Trust me, YOU NEED IT: UNPLUGGED PLAY. No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun. By Bobbi Conner. It is a tremendous resource for all things play related. And it categorizes them not only by age group (Toddler Play Ages 1-2, Preschool Play Ages 3-5, etc.) but it also separates the age groups into Outdoor Play, Parent and Child Play, Birthday Party Play, and many others including my fav, SOLO PLAY. We managed to do 4 activities from this book this morning and the set up and cleanup was 2 seconds. Nearly every activity will leave you thinking, why didn't I think of that! But the 300+pages of jam packed activities requiring little else than what you have in your pantry and your toy chest will not leave your family disappointed. Check out the website, www.unpluggedplay.com and from here you can buy it on amazon.com for under $12. Or you can check your local library. A great gift, too!
And last, and I'm not so proud of this one, is our recent membership with Netflix.com. We just agreed to the monthly membership for $15.99 but I couldn't put a price on the invaluable PLAY ON MY COMPUTER button on that website!!! Even the volume is louder so those of us with bargain laptops can actually HEAR the movies! This morning, I delivered breakfast in bed to both of my sickly girls and then set up the computer and, you will not believe this, left them to their Scooby Doo Movie vices and dry cereal until 9:15!!!!! Yeah, you can only imagine how I enjoyed my QUIET, ALONE, COFFEE DRINKING, PAPER READING TIME ALL TO MYSELF!!!
It almost made the other 7 hours at home inside our 1000 square foot house with two kids bearable.
Comments