At last its here! Schools out and unbelievably, so is the sun…. and in our house that is nothing but a great thing. This is what memory making is all about isn’t it?
Hot sunny days spent whiling with family and friends; planning adventures, taking bike rides on shade dappled lanes, wallowing in puddles of sun warmed sea water on a beach at low tide pretending to be a mermaid or crashing down the steep slopes of the sand dunes …. no, its not a few pages from an Enid Blyton book – this is what my memory has cherry picked to remember from my childhood summer holidays.
I was exceedingly lucky to be brought up here in Jersey and for my mum to be able to stay at home with my sister and I. It felt like we spent every spare day on the beach as we grew up. With a surfer dude for a dad, we used to head to St Ouens as often as we could and had to make it our playground whether we fancied being there or not!
I hate it when i read that children are increasingly spending more hours inside and often in front of the TV or computer game…. BUT as our outdoor spaces are getting smaller and smaller in the homes that we can afford to buy and the fields that we used to roam get built upon, its easy quite frankly to see how this could start to happen but HEY we are the parents and we have the power to provide our kids with the experiences they need inside and outside. Come rain or shine i try my hardest to ensure that my two get plenty of (safe) sunshine or realise that they won’t melt if a bit of rain gets them soaking wet!
I loved the article in the JEP a few weeks ago, 50 things to do with your kids this summer – what a fabulous advert for the wonderful outdoor mostly and free fun available in this beautiful island. We are certainly going to try to tick a few off the list. If you missed it, it was a Jersey version of great this initiative.
We don’t live far from Greve de Lecq and just love to head down there to have a play. The girls are much tougher than me and love to swim in the sea for as long as i let them! We also just love to collect ‘treasures’ to decorate castles / pretend cakes etc and i am so so delighted (not!) but their dad has also trained them both to be quite expert rock climbers so i do tend to spend a lot of my time retrieving stuck children from rocks too!
What are your favourite summer things to do?
For us, this summer wouldn’t have been half as much fun as it has been so far without these magic ingredients to name but a few:
- This fabulous suncream from Green People
- These new squeezy freezy lolly moulds from Jamie at Home make the kids feel like they are getting a big treat when actually they are getting something yummy and home made (see top pic)
- These gorgeous cossies for the girls – love a bit of sale shopping!
- LOTS of buckets and spades
- These fab sand cake making toys from GLTC have induced hours of great imagination play on the beach
- Oh and not forgetting the ice-creams and yummy food if we have forgotten to look at our watches because we were having so much fun at Colleens
1 thought on “Summer lovin….by Mum on the Rock”
Waley
(February 27, 2016 - 5:09 am)he didn’t believe that the ezecma and behavioral issues are due to food allergies: I disagree, which is why I’m pushing for more testing.We eliminated some things from his diet for a time and then reintroduced them, and noted the reactions. It’s hard to do this, though, because I can’t always be sure just what he’s reacting to. So, because I know that eczema can be aggravated by wheat/gluten and dairy, I try to limit those foods as much as I can (though sometimes he gets something accidentally at church from folks not paying attention). I know he reacts strongly to artificial colors and chemical salts and sweeteners, so we do what we can to avoid processed stuff all together. I’m POSITIVE that he reacts to corn, though: last time I gave him some, he had horrible, violent tantrums, hit his head on the floor, screamed (not high-pitched keening, just tantrum-y screaming). That went on for about two days, then it was like a switch was flipped in his brain and he was back to his happy, mellow, affectionate self.So I’m 100% certain there are multiple food sensitivities, but I’m having trouble pin-pointing them all, and the first allergist wasn’t much of a help, IMO.I’ve talked to our Dr. about getting him tested for autism mostly due to the food reactions, but also his speech was a little delayed and she didn’t think it was necessary. A friend recommended I check into sensory-integration techniques to help him through tantrums, but he only gets really violent when he’s had a suspect food: otherwise, it’s more like he has these I’m not getting my way whiny tantrums that last less than 2 minutes. It used to be that he’d have 15-45 minute long violent screaming fits 5-6 times a day or more, depending on what we ate . . . until I started taking out potential allergens.So, I guess that’s why I was wondering about the Vitamin K shot, and the possibility of injury from any chemicals contained in that shot. As I’d mentioned he is also very sensitive to chemical food additives. MSG makes us all ill headaches, diarrhea and once he was given frozen yogurt sweetened with Splenda (without my knowledge or permission). That was the only new’ food he’d had for a while, and he ended up with a bumpy, flesh-colored rash that started on his trunk and spread outward over his arms/legs, hands/feet, and face over about 4 days. After the rash he peeled like crazy for a few more days. Dr said, basically, that kids get rashes sometimes. Keep him clean, give him some Benadryl, call us if he gets worse. :-/ My daughter got a sick headache from the same frozen yogurt, but no rash.So, like I said, I KNOW that we have multiple food issues. But, since he’s not testing positive for allergies (so far), and doesn’t have severe enough behavior issues that anyone wants to test him for any spectrum disorders, I’m sort of stuck. Because I know he’s extremely sensitive to chemicals I really wonder if he was injured by that Vit K shot, but I’m not really sure where to look for more information. All the docs we’ve been to except our family practice GP have told me that there’s nothing wrong. But you know how your mommy-senses kick in, and you just have this feeling? If he was perfectly healthy with no food allergies, why all these reactions to foods?