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Raisie Bay

learning

Eight Things I’ve learnt in the Past Eight Months.

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I started writing this post last week as I reached my eight month milestone of having Transverse Myelitis.

I started out by writing about what I can or cannot do now, but to be honest, it was pretty boring.
I’m pretty sure you don’t want to know a monthly update on my condition, even if you are wondering how I’m getting on. So I thought I’d do it a little different.

I’m going to let you know what I’ve learnt in the last eight months.

Just in case you’ve not read any of my other posts and you don’t know what Transverse Myelitis is (don’t worry, most people don’t) I’ll give a quick description. TM is when the coating on the spinal cord is damaged. The spinal cord sends messages from the brain to the rest of the body so when it is damaged in any way these messages get disrupted, or may not get through at all. TM is very rare and most of those who have have a completely different story to tell. Mine is…The cause of my attack is unknown, it was acute/happened quickly, and I have two damaged areas in my cervical and thorasic areas of my spine.

So what have I learnt?

Unexpected

When in hospital at the start of my attack and I was completely paralysed for a while I learnt that life is very short and you never know what to expect. You have to live life for today, what’s the point of leaving things until later if it can all be changed in just a few hours by something completely unexpected?

Thankful

I took so many things for granted. It’s so easy to go day by day not being thankful or appreciative for the things you have and spend too much time worrying about what you don’t have. I’ve learnt to be much more thankful and appreciative and remember this every day.

Different

Life for disabled people is very different, from small things to big things, it is different and often much more difficult. I suddenly find myself in awe of disabled people that cope so well. Of course you must get used to it in time and I guess eight months is not long in the scheme of things, but I take my hat off to so many disabled people who are making a difference like paralympians. However, we have to remember that not all disabled people can ever become paralympians, for many it’s just not possible but they still get on with their lives.

Worry

My family worry about me much more than I ever thought. I know I have good relationships with my partner and children, but when something like this happens you really do see how much they care, and worry.

Brave

Suddenly you become a brave and courageous person. I really don’t feel this way at all but it’s what people say to me all the time. I don’t find it condescending, it actually makes me feel better. I do try to be positive and get on with things, so maybe I am..or I could be if enough people think it of me.

Slow and Steady

You have to slow down. There is no way of continuing life at the speed I used to live it, it’s hard to get used to but I have to do everything much slower. I have to rest frequently or I’m in danger of burning myself out. I’ve spent many an evening unable to do anything at all because my ‘spoons’ are all used up, then I go to bed and can’t sleep because I’m in too much pain. Slow and steady is my new motto, every day.

Weelchairs

Wheelchairs are only fun if you can pinch one off your aunt, mum, partner etc. for a quick spin, then give it back and walk away. If you’ve ever seen someone in a wheelchair and thought they had it easy because they were not on their feet all the time and had to walk everywhere, then think again. I’m sure they’d rather walk but doing so may be impossible or just too painful or exhausting. Wheelchairs are not an easy option, they are uncomfortable, tiring and often just a pain, or even a nightmare when there is not a drop kerb in sight.

What I do and Don’t Know

So, here I am at eight months and I’ve heard that I may improve, I may stay the same or I may even get worse. No-one knows. I do know, however, that I will appreciate every day of my life and make the best of it I can.

www.raisiebay.com

The Uncheshire Wife

Breaking Barriers – Never too Old

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They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, well I disagree, I don’t think it’s ever too late to learn something new.

“Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to climb Mount Everest in 2013. He first climbed Mount Everest in 2003, at age 70 making him the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. In 2008 the record was broken. However in 2013, at age 80 he once again climbed Mount Everest making him the oldest person to climb Mount Everest.”

Image source: Yuichiro Miura

Of course, not everyone can be like Yuichiro Miura but you can still learn something new at any time. Age should never be a barrier.

This is what the campaign #Breakingbarriers is all about. We are seeing an increase in the number of elderly people thanks to advances in healthcare and improved standards of living. These older people should not be cast aside as being unable to learn new skills.

“Times are changing and it’s time for us to change too, breaking the stigma and encouraging each other to take action and get inspired to learn new skills or tricks of the trade.”

There are many opportunities for older people these days, they can learn new languages, take up photography, even start a blog! There should be no barriers to the things they can do. There are even fitness sessions for the over 50s, or classes for yoga and pilates. The older generation should be encouraged to break those barriers and show what they can do.

As I am now into my Golden Years, yes, I know it’s hard to believe! I find that I am wanting to learn new stuff all the time. When I was younger there just never seemed to be time, I was always busy with work or the kids, or both! Now, my life has slowed down considerably and I feel like I need to get my brain into action. Okay, with my health issues I’m never going to be running a marathon or climbing Everest, but there are other things I can do. I know I’m not retirement age yet, but I am proof that learning new things is not just for young people.
If you’ve ever done an Open University course you will see lots of older people studying for degrees. I completed my degree when I was 32, which to some people is old, but in fact I was often one of the youngest in the classes. I’d kind of got things the wrong way around, going straight into marriage and parenthood, then returning to education. The great thing is you can return to education at any time. If it’s not a degree you are looking for there are plenty of other options. At the Open University you can even get a free taster course. I’ve just signed up to a creative writing course which I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into. Keeping your brain active like this helps you to feel young, even when your body may be saying otherwise!

Take a look at the Breaking Barriers campaign today and see if you are inspired with their many skill share videos, blogs and more. See their mascot, Peter, in action as he breaks barriers at a basketball match.

Finally remember, it’s never to late to learn something new.

Disclosure: collaborative post, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazing Magazine Review and Competition

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I’ve always loved magazines, right from the early days when my Dad used to bring home the Beano comic for me when I was a child to when I had Jackie as a teen, my childhood was a time when I really looked forward to my next magazine.
My kids love magazines too, they spend an age browsing the magazine stand and can’t wait for the next issue of their favourites.
I was really pleased to be able to review the Amazing Magazine with my kids.
The first thing I noticed was the quality of the magazines, nice thick pages that will withstand several reads, which  is handy when you have 3 kids scrambling for a look.
The magazines are fun and educational, they are based on the primary national curriculum and my kids noticed this straight away. Boo, who is 8, had just learned about the Romans and the Little Man is learning all about the human body. The two magazines we were sent were focused around these topics. They are aimed at 7 years and over, but the Little Man who is just 5 years is a very good reader so he enjoyed them too. He most enjoyed the word searches in each magazines.

With the ex editor of Horrible Histories magazine, and writers from Simpsons and Beano comics it’s no wonder the Amazing Magazine is full of clever and humorous ways to engage children. It really is different.

Each of the magazines we received had a fun and relevant to the theme recipe. The Body one had Bogie Bites!! Don’t worry they were only made from popcorn and marshmallow. The Roman recipe had something that looked a little tastier and we are definitely going to try and make, Really Ancient Cheesecakes.

We all agreed that these magazines where loads of fun, and we all learnt loads…did you know that the Roman, Claudius Galen, was the first surgeon to remove cataracts from a patient’s eyes. He also believed that he could cure most patients by bloodletting, but it didn’t cure them it killed them!

We decided to take the magazines when we went for appointments at the surgery. It can get very boring waiting..

If you would like to know more about Amazing Magazine you can visit their Facebook page, or find them on twitter @amazingkidsmag
An annual subscription of the magazine costs £49 for 12 issues and you can also get digital subscriptions from iTunes, GooglePlay and Kindle stores for £23.99. 
There are amazing discounts for teachers and schools!
Amazing Magazine have put together a special offer of 10% discount when using the code WOW10 at checkout.
If you would like to check out Amazing Magazine I can give away a copy to 10 readers. All you have to do is comment on this blog what your favourite magazine is, or was. This competition will also be held on my Facebook Page. 
Closing date for entries is 2nd April.
Winning copies will be mailed out by 10th May.
Uk only please.
Good Luck!

Disclosure: We were sent the magazines for the purpose of this review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Exploring Social Skills with Flummox and Friends

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From the very beginning of our lives we are learning how to interact with other people, how to respond to a smile, how to talk to each other, how to ask for things and many more skills that help us to get on with other people. For some the learning is not as natural as it is for others. This may be because of  special conditions such as autism, attention deficits and other learning disabilities.

Star is such a person, she talks out of turn, talks only about what she wants without consideration to others, has difficulty in seeing things from another person’s perspective, zones out into a world of her own and generally finds it difficult to understand other people. She has received a lot of help with this and is learning these skills that often come naturally to others.

We were asked to review a short show about how we can learn these skills. The Show is called Flummox and Friends and you can see a pilot episode here. The show focuses around three inventors and their friends and neighbours. While they invent things to help them with their interactions it’s often their friends and neighbours that show them how it’s really done. The show also has musical pieces and animations which help to re-enforce the messages.

It took Star while to become engrossed in the show but I think that was mainly because it was something she was unfamiliar with. She particularly loved the music and animations. She laughed out loud at the characters silly dances and tried to copy them. When we talked about the show afterwards she was more interested in talking about the silly dances than anything else. I could see a lot of her behaviour traits in the main characters of the show and I do think that if it was a show she watched regularly then it would help her with her social skills. I’ll definitely be watching the website for when more episodes are available.

Along with the show there are downloadable guides for extended learning for both parents and schools. These focus on the messages Tune In, Connect and Have Fun. Each section has guidelines for talking and learning about these particular social skills.

Tune In is about tuning into yourself, those around you and the world around you. This involves self-awareness, perspective taking and and assessing the social context.

Connect is about communicating, predicting feelings and sharing and appreciating unique qualities.

Have Fun is about using play to re-enforce social skills and aid interaction with others.

This is a Sponsored Post, All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Potty Training

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I pondered for ages on the title of this post and decided on potty training because that’s what most people call it. First up I don’t like potties and secondly I don’t really think of it as training. Good start, yes?

I’ve been dreading the time when the Little Man needing to move on out of his nappies and onto the toilet. I’ve had some bad experiences in the past, Star was the worst as you can seed in this post. Boo wasn’t so bad but it took her a good while to become dry at night. So facing the whole process again was something I really didn’t look forward too.

At 2 years and 8 months old Little Man was more than ready. For weeks he’d been asking to sit on the toilet every time I changed his nappy. I obliged, but he didn’t actually do anything, he just sat there. He goes to pre-school two and a half days a week and as he’s one of the youngest there he was becoming interested in the other children’s toilet activities. My original plan was to wait until the summer, the later the better, or maybe I was just putting it off. However, I felt that maybe I should bite the bullet during the Easter holidays and give it a try.

So, day one went something like, put on toilet, pee in pants, put on toilet, pee in pants and so on until I decided that maybe five pairs of pants wasn’t going to be enough and I put a nappy on him and gave up.
Day two, and three more pairs of pants, showed a little more success. His little face was a picture when mummy clapped and danced in our minutely small smallest room as he finally pee’d in the right place. Of course, he wanted mummy to do it again so we kept going and he kept peeing. Only he kept peeing his pants too….where did it all come from?

Day three showed a lot more success with only two accidents all day, but I was plonking him on the toilet every 20 minutes all day long.

Day four and we risked going out without nappies. Ok, I cheated a little and put on some nappy pants. I shouldn’t have worried. We were out from 10 am until 6 pm and I took him to the toilet four times and his nappy pants stayed dry all day.

After that things just got better and better and within two weeks not only was he having very rare accidents, but he was actually asking to go to the toilet himself. He even knows when he needs to poo, although he’s not always quick enough and it is already making it’s way out by the time we get to the toilet. I think he has done amazingly well.

Today was his first full day at pre-school and he was dry all day. Although he did need a change of clothes after a trip to the toilet because his aim was a little off, ooops! (it’s a man thing)

I am so proud of my Little Man. I’m thinking he will be dry at night very soon too as his nappy is dry every morning and he asks me to remove it so he can go to the toilet. I may just leave his nappy off and use a mattress protector until I’m sure he can stay dry all the time.

Forgive me for making it all sound so easy. If you read my previous post about Star you will see that it’s not always plain sailing, however, I have learned much along the way and would like to share some tips with you.

Don’t get stressed. The more stressed you get the more you will stress out your child and they will take longer to learn their new ‘talent’

Wait until your child is ready and don’t push them to be ready, let them be the lead. I’m not saying it won’t work if you push it but it will be easier for all if you wait.

Signs that your child is ready are; staying dry in nappy longer, showing an interest in the toilet or potty, talking about the toilet or potty, dislikes wearing a wet nappy. The child also needs to be able to sit still for a short while and be able to understand simple instructions.

If having problems try using props or bribes, sticker charts work for older children, or you could give them a small reward when they go on the toilet.

Praise works well, make them feel really special when they do it properly and they will want to do it again.

Don’t shout or be disappointed if they have an accident.

Don’t take age as a reason to start, it’s more important that a child is ready. Some can show signs of readiness at 18 months, some will not until nearly 3 years. It’s rare that a child is not using the toilet by the time they are 4 years.

If it doesn’t work out, don’t stress, give up and try again later.

Don’t expect the child to be dry day and night at the same time.

Use what works for your child, if they prefer a potty that’s fine but some children don’t so try the toilet instead. I’ve never had any success with the potty and I have a special toddler seat fitted to my toilet.

Expect them to take a step back a little sometimes. Accidents can happen even if they seem fully trained.

A child can be very proud of their pants, so get them some nice ones and they will be happier not to wet them. (Little Man has some Thomas the Tank engine pants and when he wants to pee he tells me ‘quick mummy Thomas doesn’t want to get wet’)

Good luck to everyone who has to face teaching their little one to use the toilet, don’t fret too much, go with the flow (excuse the pun) and let your child take the lead.