Wednesday 24 June 2015

Bookcase in the Bathroom for hiding all the mess of a large family

I got rather over the big mess at the end of the bath due to at the time our household comprising of 6 people including 2 teenage girls.
So I bought a 30cm wide bookcase with 6 shelves, the younger kids didn't have a heap of bathroom supplies so they didn't need a shelf.
Sorry I don't have photos of the original set up as I wasn't blogging then and Miss 19 has moved out of home.
The original set up each teen had a full shelf, the rule was all your stuff must be kept on the shelf or in your room, it is not to migrate to the end of the bath, the basin or beside the basin.

I have now added 3 baskets as I needed to hide my teens supplies and she was overflowing into other shelves, her basket is full to the brim with everything including her sunglasses.  I could only get 3 matching that fit in my shelves via local shops, so I have put 1 on every second shelf.

Sorry only showing the top 3 shelves as the kids seem to always have mess in front of the bottom half whenever I go to take photos for this post and a 7month delay is long enough :)









Hubby and my shelves have items that are family use such as I have first aid supplies behind my skin care and he has nit shampoo in his basket (we live in Qld so this is a essential in every houshold, though we don't use the chemical based one due to my eldest having a severe reaction when she was 5).
On the top of bookcase is other items needed to be out of the reach of children such as peroxide, nail polish remover, hairspray, etc.
Note while my children are no longer young enough to need this I do have visitors with young children and like to keep dangerous things out of their reach.
There is a shelf for dental supplies.
Another shelf has a basket full of sanitary supplies so any female guests or household members can easily access these if they need them.
 
Baskets are great for hiding things and getting more into a storage space, heaps of room left in this basket.
I wish I could find 2 or 3 more of these baskets, or just a set of matching baskets that fit the shelf space as well as these 3 do.





What is your storage solution in the Bathroom?

Saturday 20 June 2015

Keeping a child engaged when they can't attend school

This is my experience with my 10yr, I went through a similar situation when my nearly 20yr was 16 and did things very differently, for her we switched to home schooling through Brisbane School Of Distance Education but my son did not want to leave school and his knee will heal so I felt it was important to keep him in his school and keep him engaged and as up to date with school work as possible.
I signed him up with Startlight Foundation's Livewire program so he can talk to other kids, got work from his teacher, and moved my study supplies out from the office to one end of the dining table so I can study while he is doing schoolwork, and a few craft supplies at the other end though I did very little crafting while keeping him engaged.
This may not work for everyone but I thought it may help someone when their child is stuck home due to injury or illness.
Here are pics of the set up of our dining table while this has been going on.  He has been off school for 7 weeks now.

How everything is stacked so the table can still be used by Mr 10, Mr 8 and one other when eating.
It is a mess but it is what we have needed for these 7 weeks, usually all of this has a home somewhere else.
The rainbow loom supplies are for hand therapy.
In the future I will use Magazine holders along the back of the table for everything.
How I lay out what Mr 10 is doing, ready for him (his hand splint is covering his name).
I only have 3 chairs at the table despite it being a 6 seater, one each end and one along the side he sits, the empty space where he sits is to accommodate his wheelchair he is temporarily using.
The stack of Mr 10's school work including sketching supplies for art time, 2 math books, grammar and a folder full of print outs his teacher emails me for him to do.
He has also done some card making during art time.
















His schedule, I took what information I had about how things run at school and created this. 
I have also put each item into the calendar app on the Ipad so a alarm goes off to alert him and others who may be in the room when I am not when it is time to move onto the next activity. 
During free time he is allowed to do anything he would do at school during free time that he is currently able to do.  This is about him feeling he is still having a fairly normal day, as normal as it can be given the circumstances.



He is very excited to go back to school.
I would love to hear from teachers for any ideas on ways I can keep him engaged.
Also other parents who have had a child unable to attend school for a long time but could utilise distance education.