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.

The first activity was ‘Magical Modelling Clay. The girls had to create some models of their choice and allow them to dry over night, and they each had different colours to enjoy.

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.