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#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – Jan. 19th/17 – Rubbish

19 Jan 2017 39 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan, Children, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Let kids be kids, Linda G Hill, Rubbish

Day 19 of #JusJoJan, the writing challenge by Linda G Hill, inspiring us to write every day in January!

The Just Jot It January 19th prompt, brought to you by Wendy of Wendy’s Waffle, is: “Rubbish.” Use it any way you’re inspired to. And make sure you stop by and say hi to Wendy as well! Here’s her blog: https://waffle-with-wendy.blogspot.ca/

Rubbish

I wondered what to write when I saw this prompt initially. Should I muse about the trash? Or about things that I think are like garbage?

Then a conversation with Lil Man the other morning, triggered something.

My son is 11.

He is in Secondary School.

He is still a child.

When he went to the local park, on his way from school one evening, with his friends, they stopped at the climbing frame, which incidentally, is one outside of the play area for young children, for the older kids to play on.

“We went to climb on there, and about three different men in green jackets came up to us and told us to get off, that we couldn’t play on there! The park people are rubbish!”

So, according to these officials, 11 year olds are too old to go on park equipment, that has been designed for the older child… Hmm…

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t the world generally always complaining about the fact that kids are growing up too fast?

So why limit their playtime in a park?

Surely that is a good thing, that they want to play, and be children, not sat at home watching TV or buried in their phones!

My son is small in stature as it is. He is often mistaken for a Primary School aged child, but the badge on his blazer gives away that he is older. He is a very physical person, and for that I am glad.

But to have the opportunity to burn some energy taken away by idiotic officials… now that really is RUBBISH!

Let kids be kids!

#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – Jan. 13th/17 – Hospital

13 Jan 2017 28 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan, Challenges, Children, Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blogger, Blogging, Charlene Bullard, Children, Family, Hospital, Linda G Hill

Day 13 pf Linda’s #JusJoJan challenge!

The Just Jot It January 13th prompt, brought to you by Charlene Bullard of FaithtoRaiseNate.com, is: “Hospital.” Use it any way you’re inspired to. And make sure you stop by and say hi to Charlene as well! Here’s her blog: http://faithtoraisenate.com/ .

The word hospital seems pretty apt to me right now.

I can’t even remember if I mentioned our relationship with the local hospital, or medical care around here recently.

Well, in case I didn’t say anything, it feels like our family, or Lil Man and Hubby Dearest in particular, have been very cosy with the hospital of late.

Before Christmas, on the 1st December, to be exact, Lil Man sustained a head injury. He was hit rather hard by a football in the face, and it, in turn, caused mild concussion.

Mild, they say.

Well, it knocked him for six, and he was off school for over a week because of the headaches and pain.

The local hospital was visited, then the larger Accident and Emergency department was visited when the pains didn’t decrease. This was followed by a visit to a very unhelpful locum GP in our family doctor’s surgery.

It was a worrying time for us, as Lil Man may be little, but he is a robust child and loves to go to school. He is conscientious and would get up every day, change into his uniform, and attempt to go to school but the pain would be too much.

Thankfully he is better now, and the headaches have gone!

But the end of 2016 didn’t see the end of hospital visits.

Last week, on Thursday morning, I heard a blood-curdling scream from Lil Man’s room.

I came in to find him in tears, and the door from his wardrobe on the floor.

Apparently, he had opened his sliding door, which had come off the runners and landed on his foot!

The poor love couldn’t walk on it!

Again, he tried to go to school, but couldn’t walk more than a few steps.

So, that was another day at home, and a visit to the local hospital again, to check for broken bones!

He hates the hospital!

Luckily it was just deep tissue bruising, and seemed to clear up relatively quickly.

Then, on Monday morning, he woke up with back, rib, shoulder and neck ache… Oh dear God, what was going on with this boy?!

Again, he got up, wincing in pain, dosed up on Junior paracetamol, and went off to school, only for me to get a call ten minutes later from my mother in law to say he was back home. Again, he tried to get to school but couldn’t move properly!

I was fearing another trip to the hospital, but today he got up, still in a little pain, and went to school. He seems better tonight. I really don’t know whether he strained a muscle, spelt funny, caught a cold, or if it is viral pain, but what I do know is that Lil Man has had his fair share of issues now, and we would very much like a clear run of time now, with no illnesses, injuries and visits to any more hospitals!

Reiki Nanu!

04 Dec 2016 61 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Concussion, Haldi Milk, Humour, kids, Lil Man, Lil Princess, Reiki, Turmeric

This last week, amongst other things, My dear Lil Man decided that it would be a good idea to get concussed by a stray football!

On Thursday I got a call from his friend’s mum (He goes there after school and I pick him up from there) to say he was in a bad way, crying and headachey because of a hit to the head.

Obviously I left work ASAP and rushed to get him. A couple of years ago he got hit on the nose quite hard by another ball, and was concussed then too.

The boy was a mess. Tears flowing from a severe headache, but he was not compliant about getting checked out.

We agreed that if he woke in the morning with a headache, then Daddy would take him to the hospital to get checked.

Obviously, that was what had to happen. His temperature was up, and he was still suffering from a severe headache.

The Dr said he needed to refrain from any contact sport for a minimum of 3 weeks.

So, no football on Saturdays this side of Christmas, and PE at school would need t be limited. His only concern was that he wanted to be able to play badminton! Luckily the Dr said that should be ok!

We have been lucky enough to have my Precious Pops and Mum here for the weekend, and Pops is a Reiki healer, amongst other things.

So he worked his magic on Lil Man this morning too!

He said he thought it was funny when Nanu tickled him. Pops had to explain that he only touched his forehead once… the rest was the energy from the Reiki!

Not to be left out, Lil Princess also had a session as she has this lingering cough…

She said she could really feel the warmth in her chest as he performed the Reiki!

And talking of Lil Princess and her cough… Nanu/Pops always has remedies for things, but you know kids, they don’t like these natural, strange tasting concoctions. I said he could try and convince her, and I would be happy to make it if she agreed!

Their conversation went a little like this…

Sitting here listening to Pops trying to convince my daughter about drinking warm milk with turmeric and honey… good luck Pops!

Pops:”You know sometimes the things that taste good aren’t good for you and the things that taste bad are good for you.”
Sim:”Sweets are yummy and good for you. I eat them”!
Pops:”We’ll they aren’t really good for you…”
Sim: shrugs shoulders and continues playing games Robloks!

Hmmm… I wonder what the answer will be when I ask her to drink some later???

Christmas Crafts!

04 Dec 2016 16 Comments

by Ritu in Art, Children, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Christmas, Christmas crafts, Craft ideas, kids

During the week, I get one session where I plan for the following week.

It is then that I try and look for fresh ideas online, (Pinterest is a Godsend!).

This week I was trying to find different Christmas craft ideas for the children.

Though the ones I found may not be practical for my nursery children, they turned out beautifully!

Maybe you could have a go with your own children!

2016-11-29_11-44-18

That Big Boy Of Mine

07 Sep 2016 32 Comments

by Ritu in Children, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Big Brother, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, First Week, Lil Man, Proud Mum, Secondary school

I feel bad calling him Lil Man, but in stature he still is, so I guess I can carry on using the moniker!

Anyway, as you all know, he embarked on the next stage of his educational journey on Monday, starting BIG SCHOOL or secondary school.

I was so nervous. Much more nervous than him, or if he was, he did a great job of hiding his nerves!

But we walked in together, and he disappeared off…

He used his new mobile to text me at break, to say everything was ok, and let me know when he had lunch.

His grandad was there at the gate, waiting to pick him and they walked home with a few of the other boys he knows already, and their respective carers.

So my baby got home in one piece, with a big grin on his face!

And over the last 2 days, he has surpassed himself, in my eyes, anyway. He has come home with achievement points each day (one was an Ethos Award and the other a Star of the Class Award!), no forgetting anything, rudeness or bad behaviour, that would result in behaviour points, and 100% attendance, to all his classes.

How do I know?

Well, nowadays there is this whole system that is like Big Brother for schools!

His school sends all parents a special login to a service where we can see a child’s timetable, and each subject teacher registers them every lesson so you can make sure there is no truancy happening.

If you are like me and you worry, but don’t want to be too obvious, this site is perfect. If he forgets to text to say he arrived (which he has forgotten every day so far!) I can check to make sure he was registered initially.

I can see if there are any positive/negative points awarded, so they can’t hide that detention…!

Even their homework is on there so we know when things are set, and due. A good idea so you can give them gentle reminders to make sure they don’t forget. (forgotten homework is a behaviour point or even detention!)

We know when they have PE, so can make sure they always have the relevant kit in school. Sadly they don’t have lockers or even coat hooks, so this all has to be carried around on the day, along with the relevant subject books for that day.

And all his academic progress will be on there as they get assessed, for us to see.

I can pay online for his school dinners, if he wants them, so he doesn’t have to carry around money. They have their thumbs scanned at the beginning, so when they want to buy food, they scan their thumbs, and the relevant amount is deducted. And, I can check to see what feed items he has bought too, so if lunch is consisting of 3 desserts and chips, we can try and rectify that, because we know… no more fobbing mummy off with “I ate [insert all healthy food followed by a fruit dessert because that’s what mummy wants to hear!}”

We also have the ability to email their teachers directly of we have any worries. I did this today, to clarify a couple of points, and assured them I would not become one of those parents who is constantly on their case! And I got the most amazing reply back from one of his form tutors, telling me what a pleasure our son is to have in class, and how much they love to have him there! I’m not that naive that I would think my boy is something extra special to them. They probably would say the same for all the children, especially so early on in the year, but it still makes us feel so proud of him!

So, all in all, he has settled beautifully! And yes he has his phone, which he spent a few days going crazy on, WhatsApping his friends constantly, but the novelty has worn off now I thing

And yes he has his phone, which he spent a few days going crazy on, WhatsApping his friends constantly, but the novelty has worn off now I think, so it is there for the emergencies that I said he needed it for!

Signing off as a very happy mummy! 🙂