Making Playdough

                        We made purple sparkly playdough!                                                              

This weekend Olivia got out our box of playdough tools to play with then realised that we had no playdough! She asked me if we could make some and I suggested that as we made it, she could film herself showing how to make it. She has been a bit shy about being on the camera until now and has sometimes asked not to be filmed but on this occasion she jumped at the chance. She did a really good job of 'presenting' too and enjoyed telling everybody what they needed to do to make the playdough! 

We used our go-to playdough recipe which does involve cooking but it really isn't a hassle or complicated or anything. We LOVE this recipe as the playdough comes out really soft and squishy and lasts for ages!

Here's what you will need:

2 cups of plain flour

2 cups of water

1 cup of flour

2 tablespoons of oil

2 heaped teaspoons of cream of tartar

Food colouring (I usually buy this on eBay)

Optional: You can also add different flavourings to give a nice scent. On the right of the picture above you can see the little bottles I used (the two in the picture are bubblegum and strawberry and they smell AMAZING!! These are also from eBay) Sometimes we have even used things we find in the garden like rosemary, lavender or mint. 

This photo is from about a year ago but it shows the children adding some rosemary to the dough.

We also added in some purple glitter to our dough. My children are both old enough not to be putting playdough in their mouths anymore but if you have children who are still doing this then you can buy edible glitter so that you know it is safe!

Method:

All you do is tip everything into a saucepan and stir together until there are no lumps. This part is so much fun for little ones to join in with as they love to fill the cup up with the ingredients and tip them in and stirring is always a hit! 

The next part is definitely a job for an adult, put the pan over a medium to high heat and keep stirring! The mixture does stick easily so don't get distracted! It will get to a point where it gets really hard to stir as it all clumps together but keep at it as it won't be cooked through yet. Keep scooping it and turning it then kind of squashing it down to spread it across the base of the pan to cook. 

You will know when it is ready as you will notice the colour starting to darken and it will have formed a ball as you stir. Just tip it out onto a board and after letting it cool for a few minutes, knead it well. Then let the fun begin! 

I hope you enjoyed this blog, if you would like to watch how we made it (presented by the super-cute Olivia!) then please check out our Youtube channel 'House of Sparkle' or the link to the actual video is here: https://youtu.be/bNB0V1utZig Please give it a thumbs up and Subscribe to our channel to keep up with everything that we are getting up to!

Thanks and see you soon!

Elizabeth x

New Video up!

Hi Guys!



I have made my first video tutorial! We have recently started making Youtube videos but so far we have done Family Vlogs so this is the first time I have tried a Tutorial and been in front of the camera like this. Because we are new to Youtube I had to use one of their generated thumbnails so it's not the greatest but I have since spent some time sorting that out and the next Vlog will have a customised one. However, I am still getting to grips with THAT technology too so bear with me!



I really hope you all enjoy the video, if you do please hit the like button. Also, if you would like to see more please subscribe to keep up with all the goings on at the House of Sparkle!



Elizabeth x

Diet Fail!

Our next Vlog is up! Joshua wanted to Vlog a school day which is tricky as I usually have childminded children who I obviously can't film etc so we had to work around that a bit! Olivia was really tired after school and did not want to go to rainbows. I let her stay home and she did get a high temperature in the night but she was ok in the morning and really wanted to go to school  for Golden Time. However, by 11 am I got a call from the school as her temperature had spiked and she felt really sick. I took a urine sample to the GP and she had an infection! She got a course of antibiotics and was feeling better by the next day.



See you again soon



Elizabeth

Our First Family Vlog - The Millet Family

We made a Youtube Video!!

For a while now Joshua, my 8 year old, has been getting into watching vloggers on Youtube (with supervision of course). He especially enjoys watching family vloggers The Sacco-Jolys and how they record their daily lives and the whole family gets involved. Lately I have noticed him using my old iphone to film himself just chatting away about his life!

Then, the other day, he told me he wanted to become a Youtuber for his job! He was asking me if children could be Youtubers and how old you had to be to have a Youtube channel. I told him that, although he was too young to have his own Youtube account, if he really wanted to make videos I could help him and upload them for him. After a lot of chat about it he decided it should be a family vlog that we could all be part of. I must also add that I have been thinking about making videos for some time as it's such an amazing way of documenting all the special moments in our lives that we can look back on and also, as parenting is such a minefield I thought it may help people to hear tips and tricks we have picked up along the way. I am by no means saying that I know it all but as I have worked with children all my life I've dealt with many things!

He really had fun making the clips but I have to say I found I was a bit self-conscious in front of the camera! At the end of the day I had the task of trying to put all our clips into a video. Now, I am really not technical at all. I have a website for my childminding service as well as this Blog but both are really quite simple to use. They have a standard template and it's easy to figure out what to do but I can't make them fancy or add anything extra. As we had recorded clips on two different iphones I figured it would be easiest to transfer both sets of clips to my HP laptop. On it I have Windows Movie Maker and it was fairly straightforward to put the clips onto it and with a little trial and error I figured out how to roughly edit it and add a little text. Although it was fairly easy it took AGES!!

Once it was done I was really in two minds as to whether to upload it to Youtube. It felt like a huge responsibility putting my children and our lives out there for the world to see! There are a lot of lovely people and communities on Youtube but there are also a lot of trolls and I wasn't sure I would be able to handle that. However, Joshua was so determined to have his video on Youtube that I decided to go ahead and hit that Upload button! Who knew that a 7 minute clip would take 3 hours to upload?!?!? Maybe it's time to upgrade to Super-fast Fibre-Optic Broadband!

We really hope you enjoy our first ever Vlog. Please excuse the poor quality - we are learning! There may or may not be more depending on how it is received and how much time we have.

Elizabeth x 

We've had the Chicken Pox!

It finally happened! I don't know how my children managed to avoid it for so long(they are 6 and 8) but at long last they caught Chicken Pox! Research says that 90% of children will have contracted chickenpox by the age of 4 and as a childminder I was sure my two would be in that 90%. We have always been around lots of other children at playgroups and then when they started school they both had cases of it in their classes each year but somehow they avoided it! However, when my eldest niece came down with it I figured our chances of contracting it were really high as they had spent so much time in close-proximity to her when she was at her most contagious and, low an behold, they got it!

So I thought I would just do a little blog post with some tips to help children (and their parents!) through this itchy time!

Recognising the symptoms

At first this can be a little tricky as it can start with just one or two red spots that look like any other spots but after a while you will notice more and more pop up and they will start to look like fluid-filled blisters. With Joshua he just had one for a day and we really weren't sure if it was going to become chicken pox but the next day he had about 8 and over the next few days literally hundreds popped up! Olivia's started in much the same way but she didn't get as many spots, probably about 80.

The incubation period for chicken pox (which is the time between catching the virus from somebody to the symptoms appearing) is around 10-20 days. People often mistake the incubation period for the contagious period but Chicken Pox is actually only infectious for around 2 days before the the first spots appear up until the last spot has formed a crust.

When to get help

As a general rule you don't need to take your child to the GP when they get chicken pox unless you are unsure whether it actually is chicken pox and want a diagnosis. The only other times you should see the GP with chicken pox are if a very young baby contracts Chicken Pox (under about 4 weeks old), if an adult contracts Chicken Pox or if the infected person develops complications (I will talk a bit more about this later) or has an illness which weakens their immune system.

People with Chicken pox need to be quarantined as, although it is usually a fairly straightforward illness, it can be dangerous to certain groups of people such as those with weak immune systems (eg people with HIV or those on chemotharapy) and pregnant mums who are not immune. There are a couple of pregnant mummies here (NOT me!) that I childmind for so I made sure I told them as soon as I knew that my children were infected and they were able to contact their GPs straight away and get their blood tested for immunity. Fortunately they were both immune...Phew!

Generally children recover well and there are no complications but, as with many simple illnesses, there  can be exceptions to this. Some of the rare complications include infections, Sepsis, and Pneumonia. If you notice any of the following you should seek medical attention: 

• any difficulty breathing
• very high fever (it's not uncommon for it to go to around 38.4 but if it goes into the high 38s I'd start to be concerned)
• nausea and vomiting
• sensitivity to light
• stiff neck
• confusion
• severe headache
• drowsy and hard to wake
• has fits (seizures)
• Dehydration from not being able to drink either due to blisters or lethargy
• blisters which look very inflamed and infected
• If the symptoms have not improved after 6 days

A spotty Olivia snuggled on the sofa

Treatment

When I was little, calamine lotion was always the parents' go-to product to help relieve the itching. These days it is not recommended because it is very drying which can lead to more itching and more chance of scarring and infection. Keeping nails short can help to prevent doing any damage if you are having trouble stopping little ones from scratching.

I found that just using Piriton antihistamine seemed to stop my children from feeling itchy at all. In the first few days I also used a product called Poxclin which comes in a bottle with a pump and comes out foamy. You spread it over the skin as often as needed. My children said it feels cool and a bit like sun-tan lotion. There are also other types of lotion available such as Virasoothe, E45 Itch relief cream and Eurax. Also, try to keep the body cool as being warm and clammy is said to worsen the itching.

Unfortunately, both my children were fairly unwell with it. They both had fevers and were quite lethargic for a couple of days. I treated the fever with Calpol (you can use any paracetamol that is suitable for children) DO NOT give Ibuprofen for the fever with chicken pox. The NHS website recommends not to use it "This is due to a very small risk of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, causing adverse skin reactions during chickenpox." this can lead to blisters forming deeper in the skin and possibly becoming infected.

Don't forget the healing power of cuddles too!

Sadly Olivia had lots of spots on her bottom and when she did a wee it would really sting! To help with this I would pour warm water over the area as she did her wee. Afterwards we would gently clean her with warm water, pat it dry, then apply Sudocream as a barrier to help protect the spots from the urine the next time she went.

The other thing to be careful about is keeping hydrated. This was tricky with my two as they both had blisters in their mouths and throats so they didn't want to eat or drink much as it hurt. I tried to entice them with drinks I knew they liked such as squash and milkshakes and they both would drink water if it was ' ice-cold'! In terms of eating I was really relaxed and just let them have whatever they fancied whenever they wanted as I felt it was more important that they got something in them rather than worrying about if they were eating healthily. A good tip is to get some ice pops (or make some from fruit juice/squash if you're house-bound) as they will numb the sore throats and hydrate at the same time. Also try offering soft foods such as soups as these are less likely to hurt any spots in the mouth.

Another thing people swear by is Oat baths. You just cut the foot out of a pair of tights and fill it with oats then hold it under the tap as you run the bath. The oaty water is supposed to be soothing. We have Aveeno for Olivia's dry skin anyway and this contains Oatmeal so it seemed to work in much the same way.

Once the fever had past they were bouncing around

 with as much energy as ever - just spottier!

I hope this was helpful to you guys and that if you or your child get chicken pox there is something here that will make things easier for you!

Elizabeth x

Cutting creations!

It's the Easter holidays and it's raining, again! I needed something to entertain all the children from 3 years old to 7 (the baby was having his morning nap) I thought it would be interesting to see what my new little girl's cutting skills were like so I printed out some cutting worksheets from Sparklebox. But I thought the activity needed more of a purpose than just cutting for the sake of cutting so I thought we could use the strips we had cut to make creatures from our imagination.

We got out our scissor selection and our big pot of felt tips and got to work cutting along the lines. I gave the 3 year old the slightly easier lines with the least sharp angles and the older children had the trickier ones. We cut along the lines so that we ended up with thin, wavy, zig-zagy or straight strips. Then I asked the children to look at their strips and try to imagine what kind of creature or person they could be. The 3 year old found this tricky and ended up making patterns on her strips:

My 5 year old daughter was keen to think of creatures and she came up with a lady, a worm and a snake:

Joshua (aged 7) also made a snake. Then he decided he wanted a Star Wars theme for the rest. He thought of making Anakin Skywalker but realised it was quite tricky so he thought he would make Anakin's light sabre instead. When he had finished I picked it up and started swinging it around making light sabre noises and he realised he needed more than one. He decided he would make a light sabre in each colour so we could use them to have a battle!

It was also a good opportunity to practise name writing as the children needed an envelope each to put their bits into. My two can both write their names now but it was a good chance for Joshua to practise joining up. The 3 year old I childmind needs lots of opportunities to practise this new skill as she is not yet able to copy her name so I wrote her it in pencil on the envelope and let her pick a coloured pen to trace over the letters.

This activity kept the children busy for about 40 minutes and they all really enjoyed using their imaginations to come up with ideas while still developing their cutting skills, pencil control, colour recognition and language skills.

Making Easter Nests

Since Easter came right at the end of the school term I decided to hold off making the traditional Easter nests until now so that my two could join in the fun in the school holidays! They are always a firm favourite and since they don't really require any cooking (unless you count melting chocolate as cooking?) they are really easy to do with the littlies!

So here's how we did it:

You will need:
200g bar of chocolate (whatever kind you like really but we went for milk chocolate
Rice Krispies (you can use Shredded Wheat if you prefer that genuine nest effect but I find the children aren't really keen plus then you have a whole box left that nobody wants to eat!)
1 medium sized bag of mini eggs
Cupcake cases
Fluffy yellow chicks - these are available in craft stores and some supermarkets
A heatproof bowl
A saucepan of simmering water
A spatula or wooden spoon
Children - optional!
(With 200g of chocolate we got 22 cakes)

1. Have the children brake the chocolate into chunks and place them into a heat proof bowl. (Here's Joshua forgetting they needed to go into the bowl. He seems to be looking longingly at them!)

2. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (HINT: do not let the water touch the bowl or it won't work!) Stir the lumps around occasionally until they've completely melted.

3. Pour in some Rice Krispies. I didn't measure out a particular quantity. I just added some at a time and if they were very heavily coated in chocolate I would add some more until it looked like they were all coated nicely. The children loved stirring them in and this was a good opportunity to talk about taking turns!

4. With teaspoons, let the children fill their cake cases with the mixture then press the centres down with their thumb to make a little well.

5. Then let them place one little chick and 2-3 mini eggs (depending on how many you have!)

6. We then let them set in the fridge and ate some after our lunch. Here's a little box I put together for my childminded children to take some of theirs home as we had so many!

Enjoy!!!