A Summer Of Sunshine Fun
The girls have had a confusing and scary year, with their little world being turned upside down with the deterioration of their little brother's health. Xander deteriorated rapidly in the last few months leading up to Transplant in June, and was in hospital at least once a week, with a few over night stays. Mummy was all of a sudden very busy and absent and Xander was getting less mobile and needed more care. He would come home having had sometimes eight cannulas in a twelve hour trip away at the hospital. He came home one day with several strange tubes coming out of his chest, and just slept all day after that for a week. Mummy and Xander then disappeared one night and didn’t return for seven weeks. Daddy wasn’t working and was busy looking after them along with Nana and Grannie's help. Xander returned home with no hair, he had changed a great deal, and was still needing regular hospital visits.
I noticed one day that Joyful Miss Jo, the Children’s Coach, had posted a lovely scheme online on the Facebook group ‘Homeschooling and Educational Resources
(UK)' and it immediately drew my attention.
‘We are looking for children who would really benefit
from some extra fun and smiles this summer.
Maybe
They have been facing challenges or disappointments
Or
They have been extra kind and helpful to others.
Due to our incredibly big hearted sponsors we have 21
‘Summer Fun 2021’ Boxes ready to gift to 21 children.
These bright yellow sunshiny boxes will be posted to the
children, containing a booklet written by Miss Jo containing ideas for fun
activities and all the resources required to complete them.
And that’s not it, once they’ve done all the activities
they will be posted their very special badge as congratulations.
Our hope is that these special boxes help to add smiles
to these special 20 children and add fun to their Summer.
If you know a child who is 4-10 years old in the UK and
would benefit from this please nominate them below and tell us why’
There were twenty very generous sponsors who helped to make
the magic for these children, and I thank them very much for their
thoughtfulness. I believed my two girls deserved this recognition after their
bravery and nominated them. I am delighted that Miss Jo agreed with me and
granted them two amazing boxes of fun for the summer.
Two post flap sized boxes turned up one day, personally
addressed to the girls, and their excitement was contagious as they jumped up
and down squealing with joy. It took a while before I could calm them and
explain to them what they were and why they had been awarded them. They immediately
wanted to make a start on their projects.
The package was beautifully presented with a lot of thought
given for presentation and it meant such a great deal to the girls. It was also
very impressive how much was fitted into the slim sunshine yellow box! There
was a fun informative booklet included, outlining all the different activities
which had been included in the box. This was designed in a fun, attractive
manner and was very straight forward to follow. What I absolutely loved was the
attention to detail for every single activity. Miss Jo had really given great
thought behind the scenes, making it applicable for all the age groups within the
nomination category. There were different options for each activity to include
fun for everyone. The duration of the activities were also pitched perfectly
for my girls attention span, of 4-5 years old.
Next there was a ‘Fabulous Flip-flop Notebook’, perfectly themed for this summer box of tricks. There were four different idea points given to inspire these budding artists to use their notebooks for fun.
The girls were so impressed that they were given Sunflower seeds
to grow over the summer, and there were some beautiful, thoughtful activities
provided to keep the theme fresh with the children whilst their flowers grew,
including creating a song about sunflowers which my two did. Other ideas
included writing a letter to the sunflower and drawing one.
'Marvellous Microphone’ was a show stopper with the girls and this was a firm favourite for at least a week and the summer boxes of fun were halted as a result whilst they enjoyed their microphones for hours! Again there were some lovely ideas given in Miss Jo’s book of magic summer fun surrounding these blow up microphones, including singing, tell funny stories, perform a rap, or tell some jokes!
The next activity of ‘Brilliant Balloon Head’ was surrounded initially by sadness as one of the balloons burst. Miss Jo was prevailed upon to provide comfort to a distraught Sophia and she was kind enough to send a message back to Sophia to cheer her up. I provided a solution by putting Kira’s monkey face on one side of her balloon and Sophia’s elephant face on the other side, so they could draw them and complete the activity. There were eight animals with different coloured balloons available for the children and I loved the detail and thought which was put into the girls boxes, so that they had different animals included. They chose to complete the activity where they drew their animal character with their home and favourite food and drink.
Sophia especially loved the ‘Delightful Doodle Book’, and she did find the patterns very relaxing to colour in, spending hours on her little book. The stacker crayon provided was much appreciated too and both girls completed the challenge of using every colour in a picture.
‘Excellent Expressive Eyes’ was met with a lot of giggles
and raiding of the bookshelf. They were provided with some great eye stickers
and chose the activity where they added eyes to the characters in their story
books. Reading time that day was a lot more noisy as a result, with shrieks of
laughter punctuating their reading. They still make them laugh when they come
across them randomly in their favourite books.
Kira loved the ‘Fantastic Flying Bird’ activity. They both had the puffin, so I showed them some nature programmes on them as we constructed the birds. Kira slept with hers for half a week and it followed her round the house, even joining her at the dinner table, where it was fed by her.
There were ‘Great Games’ included in each package too,
including a miniature snakes and ladders game and an amazing maze game. Sophia
loved the snakes and ladders and played it a few times with me and a few more
on her own. Kira loved the maze game initially and she spent time concentrating
on it before it kept beating her and she lost her temper with it.
The final activity was ‘Free Choice Fun’ where they could
choose their activity, and the only rule was to have fun. They certainly had
fun drawing their animals.
It was certainly a sunshine box of fun for this summer and
the girls felt very proud they had been chosen. I contacted Miss Jo thanking
her and she demonstrated her big heart and love for children once more, by
sending a second box to each girl which arrived today. Sophia collected the
post, and her delighted screams could be heard throughout the house as she recognised
Miss Jo’s trademark yellow boxes. Once again they were individual to each child
in colour scheme, and included a lovely hidden message note from Miss Jo, a
mini etcha sketch, a cuddly worm (which is going to bed with Kira tonight), a
puzzle snake, crayons, a snazzy notepad, and a mini bubble wand. This has
kept them busy all afternoon, and distracted Sophia from her third loose tooth
which is annoying her by stubbornly hanging on by its last thread.
Thank you to Miss Jo and all the lovely sponsors for working on these boxes for these special 21 children. It is so important that we acknowledge when our children are brave or kind, and my two were certainly so appreciative of their prizes.
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