I found these at Ebay for a very reasonable price. They’re quite small, so I’d probably avoid offering them to the under three’s. They’re made from a slightly flexible plastic.

Missy 3 is obsessed with making loads of flowers with these, then carries them around the house, proudly showing everyone her colourful creations.

These blocks encourage:

- fine motor skills and strength

- eye/hand coordination

- problem solving skills

- mental planning

- maths

- spatial awareness

- learn about colours

- and my favourite: play  quietly!!

These blocks keep my kids quiet for such a long time that I often whip them out when I’m cleaning the house.

Here’s how we set up this activity so the kids can get the most fun out of it:

- we have a clearly defined area for constructive play, such as a blanket on the floor, or a little table. We encourage the kids to keep the blocks in this space. It’s not as restrictive as it may sound, and if anything, gives them the freedom to find the blocks when they come back, rather than scattered all over the house.

- we have a special container put aside to store the blocks in and encourage the kids to pack them up when finished.

Setting up the activity in this way allows them to really concentrate for quite a while.

What constructive toys have your preschoolers been playing with lately?

Are you addicted to Pinterest yet? I am! So when I saw Tina Gray has a Pinterest blog link-up, I jumped at the chance to share my Pinterest offerings with you.

Recently, Missy 10 became Missy 11! (Her party will be in a few weeks’ time, so I’ll post all about it then) Anyway… Her favourite birthday present was her new Kindle. For those of you not familiar, a Kindle is an ebook reader that fits something like 3,500 books into it. The screen is anti-glare, so it’s just as easy on your eyes as a paper book. We’ve been blown away by how cheap the ebook versions of her favourite books are; most are around $2-$8! Our daughter loves to read a lot, and tends to go through a lot of books in a short space of time.

What I’m really loving though, being such a tight-arse and all, is all the free ebooks you can get for the Kindle. So today, for ‘Ooh.. That’s Pinteresting’, I’m sharing with you my new Pinterest board about free Kindle ebooks that are suited to school-aged children.

A lot of the free ebooks for kids are the classics that a lot of us grew up with as kids ourselves: Treasure Island, The Jungle Book and my personal favourite, Heidi.

We’re pretty much Kindle mad here at the moment. My daughter’s Kindle was $156 at Woolies (Australia). I’ve since heard that there is a new Kindle Fire reader for $199 (in colour) and another one for $79. I’m planning to get a Kindle of some sort before uni starts as I think it’d make my readings a lot simpler to organise.

Do you have a Kindle, or are you thinking of getting one? What are your thoughts on them?

One thing I love about Missy 10 belonging to such a small school (50 kids total!) is that they have time to do such cool things. Sure, at the end of term, they had the usual watching of DVDs, which I don’t mind. But they also had the kids make their own board games.

I’m happy, because I was going to eventually post about this idea myself, now the school has saved me the hassle. Although this is loads of fun for kids, there’s many benefits to be had without them even realising:

Having kids make their own board games let them:

- Make choices and design something, giving them a feeling of autonomy and creativity

- Have  an opportunity to problem-solve and mentally plan something in advance.

- Have a maths experience that is more fun than usual. It also doesn’t feel like maths!

- Be sociable, take turns, share, cooperate and be a good sport.

- Use their own imagination.

- Have ‘something to do’ during school holidays; not only as they play the game, but during the creation of it.

- do something fun that is cheap and resourceful.

The name of this game is an insect themed version of snakes and ladders. Missy 10 has added instructions on how to play at the bottom. You can make counters out of just about anything: buttons, coins, even cut up paper or cardboard. You can use a dice you already own, make one out of a box or create a spinning dial. Anything extra that needs to be made just means your kids will be busy for longer.

Of course, you have to be careful if you have under 3′s in the home, due to the small parts in the game. I’m loving that my youngest child is now three, because all three kids are at the perfect age to get pleasure, educational benefits and social skills out of it. Most importantly, they’re all interested!

Missy 10 plans to make more of these over the holidays. I will post her different versions of the games over at Hear Mum Roar’s facebook page, if you’d like to see them. If you have any board games your kids have made, I’d love to see photos of them too, so please upload them to the ‘school holidays’ album so we can all be inspired!

What are your kids doing these holidays? Are you over it yet, or still enjoying the break?

Missy 10 last week, won the regional spelling bee finals in our area and will be competing at state level in Sydney in a few months. We’re incredibly proud of her, as this year she competed as a senior (last year she was a junior) and a fifth grader, up against other fifth graders and sixth graders. Her poise and calm during the competition blew us away. As so many kids kept getting eliminated, she stayed focused and kept spitting out her answers like  a machine. Spelling words that most adults couldn’t. Well done, Missy 10, we love you so much, and even if you hadn’t won, if even you’d come last, we’d still be so proud of you. But this is a sweet success for her, especially after how tough the last few years have been on her. I’m so glad something went really well for her.

My partner, who as some of you know, has OCD and agoraphobia, has really been responding to treatment well. Last year, as he was just starting diagnosis and treatment, was the worst stage of my life, bar none. I lost the man I knew, having him replaced with a stranger I didn’t know nor like very much. His behaviour was harder to deal with than all  three of my kids put together. I don’t know when it happened, but earlier this year, he came back.

He’s still incredibly sick, and there’s a lot of things he still can’t do. But, after extensive treatment and medication, I know this guy. The old him, with some new quirks. I’ve gone from a carer who didn’t know how to respond to his needs, to having a better idea of what he needs. He’s enrolled for part-time uni study (to start in November) in the hope that he can one day work again, which is one thing he misses the most since becoming sick. I’m so proud of him for that.

As for me, after such a gruelling, miserable, horrible year last year, things have improved since my partner’s treatment has gotten to a more manageable stage. He can help out around the house a little bit more, which really takes the strain and workload off me.

Here’s where it gets hairy: all last year, I kept worrying with the pressure of caring for someone sick enough to be admitted (but he never was, due to lack of beds), that I would go mad. I used to worry that I’d end up depressed, or have a nervous breakdown. Which worried me more, because I honestly didn’t have time. What would happen if I did? How would everyone else cope? Bottom line: they wouldn’t have, at the time.

So now, as he washes dishes, vacuums the odd floor, or takes the kids for a few hours so I can take a nap, what do you suppose happens when I get a taste of rest, of help? That’s right, my body shuts down and I end up with depression. Our bodies and brains can be so kind sometimes. They can block out distress until a more convenient time, at times like this.

When I started to develop the depression this year, I felt like an ungrateful git. Come on Sharon, things are getting better, can’t you be happy? Of course I am. It’s just that my body seems to have other ideas. It’s exhausted, and wants to stop. If there’s one thing I’m grateful for, it’s that I didn’t develop depression last year in the midst of how bad everything was. That was my biggest fear.

Now, after some trial and error with medication, I have a good antidepressant and am just waiting for it to kick in. I have more freelance writing coming my way, which I’m thrilled about. I’m also going to be starting uni in November. I have two diplomas already and an associate diploma, but I always wanted a degree at some stage, and given that I want to really make a go of this freelance work, now seemed like the best time.

I have loads of emails and comments to answer, please be patient as it might take time to work through it all. I have posts with photos still missing from this blog (since the blog crash in March) that I need to replace manually. I’m accepting that my posting schedule might be a little quiet for a while until I can readjust to all the changes going on. I have some guest posts coming up soon, and I hope you guys will all make the authors of those posts welcome and leave them lots of comments!  If you would like to guest post, drop me a line if you have any ideas of what you’d like to write about. You can do this whether you have a blog or not, as long as you can write well and the topic suits the tone of this blog.

I hope this isn’t too much of a misery guts posting from me! As I said, things are getting wonderfully better, they truly are. I just need to be really good to myself so I can really enjoy how good they are.

On the health front, there’s a few updates: as some of you may remember, I quit caffeine for a while this year. I had a good couple of months remaining completely caffeine free. Now, I mostly drink caffeine free diet coke or water, but will occasionally have the odd coke zero, especially if I’m tired. If I don’t have caffeine for a long time, there’s  no withdrawal anymore, so although I haven’t remained caffeine free as I was hoping, I feel that it’s not ruling me anymore. Just thought I’d throw in the update as some have asked how that’s going.

Also, some of you have been holding me accountable with my Weight Watchers progress. I’m so glad you are! Yes, I’ve slipped off the program for a few weeks, and I really am keen to get back on. I’m hoping now that I’ve started this new medication, I might feel more capable of getting back into it. I still love the program so much, and definitely believe it works, this has just been a hiccup due my own issues rather than from any fault of Weight Watchers.

I hope this post hasn’t been too much of a downer to read, but in posting it, I’m hoping people can be patient as I try to get back into the swing of things. I love blogging, I love this blog, and everyone who reads it. I can’t wait to be settled in again.

What’s on my mind this Friday is my latest obsession, Chore Wars.

I’m so disorganised when it comes to cleaning. I tried the Fly Lady method for a while, and for a while, it worked. Then it just did my head in. The site I’m talking about today is way more fun.

If you could combine World of Warcraft with Fly Lady, you’d get Chore Wars. It’s free to play and you can earn XP and ‘gold’ for doing chores. For someone like me, I’m finding this a very motivating way to get cleaning. My kids and partner love it too, which means I get more help around here!

To play, you simple need to set up an account and either start your own party or join someone else’s. I have a party named ‘HMR’, which now has 51 players! We’re having fun and supporting each other as we go. If you’d like to join this party for some motivation, you’re more than welcome to join here.  As time goes on and the need arises, I add new chores to this group. If there’s a chore missing that you’d like to see added, either leave a message here or on my facebook page and I’ll be only to happy to add it as soon as I get the time.

I know some people will probably read this and think, ‘why not just do the cleaning?’ Well yeah, there’s that. And that actually works for some. For me even, sometimes. But usually, I find it dead boring. It’s nice to have something to break up the monotony. I’m even thinking of starting a second party for bloggers. Would anyone be interested in that?