![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwelearn4fun.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fhslaunch-logo.jpg%3Fw%3D200%26h%3D150
){kind=logo}
A Sensory Diet: Sensory Tub One
A sensory tub is simply a small storage container filled with things of different colours and/or textures and/or smells (ok, you get the picture). It can be filled with things fitting to a theme (such as Christmas) or just filled with random objects to explore. The addition of scoops, funnels, spoons etc can add extra exploration possibilities. As with play doughs, I will highlight different sensory tubs over time, but I will try not to bore you with thirty eight posts on sensory tubs across the year 
.
This basic, first sensory tub was made with (pink) coloured rice, blue pom poms and green pipe cleaners. After initial exploration, we also added scoops.
The best way to colour rice is to pour your rice into a metal or glass mixing bowl (I like Pyrex) and add liquid food colouring. Then, it’s best to add either rubbing alcohol or (my preference) the anti-bacterial hand gel (waterless soap) to help the rice dry out quickly and throughly. Leave it out on a tray overnight, if you can wait that long, before play.
The next time this tub was played with, I added a “funnel” I made from the top of a juice bottle, that I cut from the bottle and then protected the raw edges with masking tape. I have a growing collection of other objects I can add to the tub at different times.
It’s best to do this activity on a mat as it can get quite messy. Hard floors (like tiles or wood) also make clean up easier than carpeted areas. However, a quick vacuum afterwards does the job. Playing with the rice, and letting it run through your fingers, is curiously soothing.
A Life Less Ordinary Challenge Six: Negotiating the Non-Negotiables
There are some things in life we take as non-negotiables. Christmas dinner with our family, the annual holiday to the beach, a morning coffee before breakfast. They are things in life that we assume to be constants, things that can’t change, things you aren’t willing to compromise on.
Sometimes however, you need to reassess what you have considered to be non-negotiable.
Why is this tradition/behaviour/lifestyle choice a non-negotiable? Why do you do it? Does it still serve the purpose it was designed for? Would something else serve that purpose better?
Sometimes things that have served us well in the past, stop serving us well. Families change, needs change, priorities change.
In our family, we have had some big, though gradual, changes in circumstances that have lead (and are leading to) changes in priorities. Reassessing our priorities has lead to us examining the beliefs behind those priorities and practices. It is hard work and it is sometimes hard to change things – especially if they have been very important to you in the past.
One of our non-negotiables has been home educating. However, with changing needs and circumstances we have decided that Zoe and Reuben will be attending school this year. At this stage, the plan is for them to attend school for one year and then return to home education. The time frame may change but our plan will definitely be to return to home educating at some point down the track. We will discuss, in different blog posts, the circumstances that have changed and lead to this change in our lifestyle. This has not been an easy choice but it is something that we have had to do.
So, in light of this, I encourage you to reassess your priorities and beliefs and consider whether everything you consider to be non-negotiable deserves that title.
Diagnoses: Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania is a disorder that causes people to pull their own hair out. It can be hair from any area of the body. Some people twist their hair until it breaks or pulls out, rather than pulling it out. It is part of a group of disorders called Body Focused Repetitive Behaviours (BFRBs). Other BFRBs include skin picking and nail biting.
Some people with trichotillomania (aka TTM or trich) constantly pull at their hair, while others do it only in response to stressful situations or general anxiety.
Most people first exhibit symptoms of trich before the age of seventeen. The younger the sufferer is, the more easily it is treated as an older patient with trich has most likely had symptoms all their adult life, if not even earlier, and the longer term habits are harder to break.
Treatment is available and the disorder can be defeated. For more information see www.trich.org
A Sensory Diet: Alphabet Letter Tiles
I was fortunate to pick up a big bag (of all the alphabet) of these foam alphabet tiles from the side of the road. I’m not into dumpster diving but I am a bit of a freegan when it comes to things off the side of the road.
Alphabet tiles were recommended in Raising A Sensory Smart Child. As long as they are not bitten, they are safe and can be thrown safely with only a small chance of damaging anything. Here, they were providing a surface with a different texture, that could be stomped on, jumped on, danced on and run on, with less noise and joint impact than usual flooring. These particular tiles also have a different texture for each different colour of foam (which I am sure we’ll explore later). Using them as a floor surface means that the different input it gives the feet and joints provides the brain with different information, allowing the child to develop a broader sensory awareness. Large body movements and joint compression are calming for the sensory system, and using these mats provides that in a safe way. They are inexpensive to purchase, even cheaper if you find them on the side of the road .
A Life Less Ordinary Challenge Five: The Blogroll
Most of us have blogs we like to read regularly. This one might be one of them 
. However, it is easy to get into the habit of regularly reading the same blogs each day/week/whatever, without thinking about whether they are still interesting, encouraging, challenging or helpful. I know in the past I have continued to read blogs long past their “usefulness” date for me.
So today, I culled my “Blogs” folder in my Firefox Toolbar. That’s not to say that I will never look at those blogs again, it just means they are not in my regular “go to” list. It’s silly to waste time reading a blog that doesn’t interest you any more or just frustrates you, or is no longer helpful (perhaps you’ve entered a new season of life, have finished the home improvement phase you were on, have altered your beliefs do, or the blogger has become stagnant).
Go on, cull your blog list. You won’t regret it! And if you want to help the blogger be better at what they do then leave them a message saying why you wont be stopping by daily regularly anymore and maybe some suggestions on how they can improve that.
And if you’re sticking with this blog, leave a message and tell me what you love about this blog. If you’re leaving, please tell me what I can do better.
Book Review: The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead
I received a complimentary copy of The Bone House for the purposes of review, through the Book Sneeze blogger program.
I read quite a bit of the book today – the last eleven chapters I believe – but it was not because the book was un-put-down-able. I simply wanted to finish it, and get it out of the way so I could read something else!
I enjoyed about half of the eleven chapters I read today, the ones concerning Kit. That was really all of the book that I enjoyed. Most of the rest of the book was boring or frustrating or both.
My biggest struggle with the book, however, is how on earth it can possibly be described as Christian fiction. There is nothing remotely Christian about it, and a fair bit to suggest it is anti-Christian. How Stephen Lawhead continues to have books published by a Christian publisher and sold in Christian bookstores is anyone’s guess.
I probably won’t read the upcoming books in The Bright Empires series. I’d rather spend my time reading something else, something that I enjoy.
A Sensory Diet: Gingerbread Playdough
There are many recipes for play dough around the ‘net. Unfortunately I can’t give you the recipe for this one as it was made by a good friend of ours, as a Christmas gift for our children. It’s a gingerbread playdough, with no artificial colours.
When I make playdough I usually use the recipe on the back of the Cream of Tartar box. For gingerbread playdough I add ground ginger and sometimes another warm spice or two (such as nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon etc).
Play dough can be pushed and pulled. It can be cut with shape cutters, pushed through… pushers? to make spaghetti strings or star-shaped sausages. It can be smelt and even tasted. It can be soft and smooth, sticky, gritty or firm. You can experiment with scent, texture, and colours. Gingerbread playdough was our first traditional play dough sensory play for the year, but we will be exploring different types of play dough throughout the year (but I will try not to bore you by having six play dough recipes in a row!).
February’s Goals
In my post last night I mentioned February goals but since some time has passed since I wrote that portion of the post I wanted to update my goals.
Bible: I have read an eight-reading overview of Mark that I found in One-to-One Bible Reading, I finished that today. Tomorrow I will start working through the PTC notes and the corresponding readings. Depending on how hard it is to get my head around, it may take more than a month. However, I intend to plug away at it a little each day.
Books: I’ve already read Guidance and the Voice of God, which was one of the books I had suggested for reading this month. So, in February I’d like to read Naked God, which I have to review for Matthias, and finish reading The Bone House, which I have to review for Book Sneeze.
Health: I am keeping my health goal the same – to try a new class – although I’m hoping to do a bit more than that. I’d also like to keep up with my jogging and try to do a few workouts from the Million Kilo Challenge. However, Sydney weather is unusually wet and cold at the moment and we are going through some major changes in our household, as well as a busy period with appointments and the like, so I don’t know what I’ll be able to achieve from all that. So I will keep my goal at trying a new class while hoping to achieve a whole lot more, and will report back on what exercise I manage to do.
I decided recently that I need to reward myself for the goals I achieve, rather than just setting them. So, here are my intended rewards for myself:
Bible: While I read the Bible because I want to, I will still reward myself. When I finish the PTC book I will reward myself with a book or commentary on the next book of the Bible I intend to study.
Books: For completing my book goal for the month, I will reward myself by buying myself a new book that I want to read.
Health: I have a longer- term reward for my health goal – if I can complete my February goal and my March goal I will reward myself by buying myself a heart rate monitor to further encourage me on my health and weight loss journey.
So, there are my goals for February and their corresponding rewards. I’ll hopefully update the blog with book reviews as I read the relevant books during the month.
January’s Goal Summary and February’s Goals
In January, as I plan to in each month this year, I set myself three goals: A Bible reading goal, a book reading goal and a health goal.
Bible Reading: I set myself the goal of reading Isaiah.
I finished Isaiah in January. However, with reading such a long book, I didn’t feel like I got to *study* a lot from it and learn a lot, I just read. I’m hoping that the selection of shorter books may enable me to spend more time absorbing what God’s word says and studying it, rather than just reading it.
Book Reading: I set myself the goal of reading Raising a Sensory Smart Child.
I smashed my goal! I read Raising a Sensory Smart Child, then tackled one of my other reading priorities, by reading Organise Your Home in No Time (May’s goal). I re-read Red Hot Monogamy, then I read One to One Bible Reading (review to come soon) that was my February goal. Then I finally got to read The Skin Map (review to come soon) which I obtained as part of the Book Sneeze blogger program, far too many months ago (March’s goal). I also started Love and Respect, although I found it really wasn’t applicable or interesting and was just frustrating me so I chose to not finish it. I will seek out a different marriage book (July’s goal).
I read Guidance and the Voice of God and The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. I’m reading a devotions book called Happiness is Home-Making. I also finished reading Lit!, which is what started my book priorities and goals in the first place.
The reason I’ve been able to get so much reading done is two-fold, one good reason and one bad reason. The good reason is I have been inspired by reading Lit! to give greater priority to reading books (over reading blogs, newspapers, magazines, Facebook etc), to learn, gain wisdom and also increase my attention span! The bad reason is that I have had some troubles with insomnia and have had to develop a “no-screen time” for the half hour before I go to bed. I’ve been spending most of that time reading. As well as rest times during the day. So I am currently getting a lot more reading done that I anticipated at the end of 2011.
I will continue to set myself a book of the month to read. I may not be able to keep up the current pace of reading, and I don’t want to disappoint myself. I will also try to keep a list of other books I would like to read, on topics that are a priority for me, so that if I finish the month’s goal early I have a ready group of books to read. Each month I will aim to read at least one book each month from my list (which I will post soon).
Health: I set myself the health goal of three sessions of exercise a week, 30mins+ per session to a total of 500+ mins.
Podrunner Week One: 3.1.12, 32mins, 12.1.12, 31mins, 21.1.12, 30mins
Zumba class: 4.1.12, 60mins, 7.1.12, 60mins, 11.1.12, 60mins
Zumba toning class: 9.1.12, 70mins
Bushwalk: 17.1.12 30mins
Gym: 18.1.12 40mins
Walk: 24.1.12, 34mins
Toning program: 26.1.12, 30mins
Podrunner Week Two: 27.1.12, 30mins
Total mins:
February’s Goals
The original goals I had for February were:
Bible: Mark
Book: One to One Bible Reading
Health: TBD but I think I might try a gym class that I’ve never done before.
The goals I am going to set myself for February are:
Bible: Mark. I am going to try to read through Mark and use (DH) Mark’s PTC Notes to study it and learn more from it, rather than just reading.
Book: I was going to read Love and Respect. I had started it already but it just didn’t grab me. It wasn’t well suited to the stage we are at in our marriage relationship.
Instead I will probably read either Knowing God by JI Packer or Guidance and The Voice of God by P Jensen and T Payne.
I will probably also start The Bone House, the sequel to The Skin Map, which I have on my iPod to read for BookSneeze. Having Kindle on my iPod means I basically always have a book with me, so I can make good use of any time I have in waiting rooms, etc. While it would be nice to finish reading The Bone House in February, I am not setting it as a goal. I’d rather not have that much time in waiting rooms that needs filling .
Health: I will stick with my goal of trying a fitness class I have never tried before. I probably either try BodyCombat or Sh’Bam as they are classes I’ve never tried before that are available at a local gym on a day I have baby-sitting.
Book Review: The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead
This is a long overdue review of a book I obtained as part of the BookSneeze bloggers program.
Mark, my husband, is an avid Stephen Lawhead fan. He has read, and in fact owns, almost every book Lawhead has written. I have read a little of Lawhead’s books, The Dragon King Trilogy to be precise. I quite enjoyed that, and I don’t mind the odd fantasy or science fiction novel, so I was anticipating enjoying The Skin Map (the first in The Bright Empires series).
The book opens with Kit, an overworked, under-recognised pleb in a faceless corporation working his way through the maze of the London public transport system in order to get to the house of his joyless girlfriend. One transport mishap leads to another bringing him to the conclusion that it would be best to walk to her house.
On the way he encounters a strange storm whipping up unexpectedly and mysteriously meets a man who claims to be Kit’s great-grandfather. Upon following the old man, he is transported to another place, and another time, where he begins to learn the mysteries of ley lines and ley travel. Befuddled by this talk of seeming nonsense, he chooses to return to modern London, only finding himself having to explain his hours-long delay to his girlfriend.
After a frustrating attempt to explain the phenomenon to his girlfriend, Wilhemina, he takes her to the ley line where he met his great-grandfather, and it is there that disaster strikes.
The Skin Map then takes you on a journey spanning continents and millennia. The chapters switch between different times, places and characters with seeming randomness.
I didn’t enjoy The Skin Map as much as I had hoped I would. I found too many of the characters unlikeable, and I find it hard to care about or want to know what happens to these characters if I don’t even like them.
I felt there were too many different stories going on all at once, with too little explanation of each. At this very early point in the series, I would say it would be better for there to be a singular book focusing on one set of characters with subsequent books focusing on others, and filling in the “gaps” left in previous books.
I also felt the book wasn’t at all Christian and had quite a anti- Christian slant to it. I would be surprised to see it in a Christian book store and disappointed to read it, expecting a Christian book.
I think it’s for die-hard Lawhead fans only.
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Flizparnell.com%2Fimages%2Fbanners%2Fmark-parnell-com-au.jpg "Webhosting by Mr Math")
