Television Battles

Before I had kids I swore that they would never be allowed to watch much TV. I've always been uncomfortable with television being used as a baby sitter and I always imagined them playing creatively with their toys, helping me around the house or letting me read to them. Then I had a real child. A real child who is loud, bored easily and whose idea of creativity is stamping my kitchen table permanently with pictures of blue mice.
I've tried various things over the past few years to keep the TV watching in my house to a minimum, some more successful than others. For a while I had the rule no TV before 5pm because I realised if it went on early in the day it quiet often wouldn't get turned off till bedtime and that equalled a lot of TV watching each day. Then I realised that TV watching before bedtime was causing problems so I tried to restrict it to late afternoon and it had to go off at dinnertime or when the sun went down, whatever came first. Whatever I tried though the TV would always creep back into our lives, monopilising Iris's time, causing meltdowns and leaving her tired from lack of activity
My my most recent attempt at wrestling control back from the TV was to move it from the loungeroom to the study where I could close door on it and hopefully it would be a case of out of site out of mind. It worked really well for a few months. Iris slowly watched less and less TV and she even went a few weeks without watching any at all. Then we got sick, the weather turned crappy and the TV crept back into our lives.
I think because Iris went so long without it I'm really noticing the negative effects it's having on her this time and I'm not happy about it! This past week we've had some major battles over the TV with meltdowns over when she's allowed to turn it on, meltdowns over turning it off and she's even been waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me that she's very sad with me because I turned "Dora" off so we could eat dinner with her grandparents who were visiting.
All this is making me seriously consider banning TV outright. I know that makes me a sellout in regards to radical unschooling but I think at 2yrs old as nice as it sounds for Iris to be able to moderate her own TV appetite there are forces working against her that are making that difficult. I think TV shows these days are made to suck kids in and keep them watching for as long as possible. I'm guessing the longer they watch the more brands they begin to recognise and the more they are able to be marketed to. Ideally I would like to strike a balance and just let her watch small amounts but with Iris she seems to want all or nothing.

So what would you do in my situation? What's the TV situation like in your house? Do you let them have unhindered access, no TV at all or somewhere in between?

Kids toys and gifts tutorials and inspirations...

I've been thinking recently about how upset I'd be if anything were to happen to my computer and I lost all the links I've been saving so I thought I'd post them here as a back up and then everyone can enjoy the linky goodness:) I've got so many links to share I'm going to break them up into a few different posts so look out for more in the future...

ABC's
Magnets
Rag quilt

Assorted cheap projects for kids

Backpack, toddler

Balls
Baby grab
Fabric beachball
Juggling
Patchwork

Beanbag chair
Beanbag chair #2

Beanbag toys
Beanbag toys #2

Birthday flower garland

Button snake

Costumes
Fairy headband
Ladybug
Mermaid tail
Superhero cape
Superhero cuffs

Crayon pouch, fold up
Crayon roll, Skip to my Lou pattern

Crinkly owl baby toy
Crinkly taggie square

Cubbyhouse, card table
Army style
Cute style
Felt playhouse

Dolls
Ragdoll
Steiner
Waldorf

Desk dots

Doll's house, tiny
Doll's house, fabric

Felt board patterns
Felt board and and carry bag

Felt food
Assorted
Chop apart carrots and potatoes
Donut
Eggs and oranges
Fortune cookies

Felt jungle
Felt desert

Felt shapes

Finger puppets, easter

Hairclips, felt covered

I spy bags

Knitted tiny bunny and teddy

Magnets, ABC

Patchwork cube

Pencil toppers, house and car

Pillows
Bunny
Travelling
Robot goodie/tooth pillow

Party garland

Placemat, wipe clean

Quiet book

Quillow

Rustle bag

Skittles and ball set

Sock monkey

Stuffed art

Swaddle sheet

Taggie Blanket

Touchy worm

Towel, hooded

Toy car holder and racetrack

Porcupine Meatballs

This is one of Iris's favourite meals. She usually asks for seconds when I serve it and you know how rare that is with a picky toddler!!

420g can concentrated tomato soup
500g beef mince
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup long grain rice, rinsed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
mashed potato to serve

Place soup and 1 3/4 cups cold water in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, combine mince, onion, rice, garlic and parsley in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Using one tablespoon of mixture at a time, roll mixture into balls.

Add meatballs to boiling soup. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until rice is tender and meatballs cooked through. Serve with mashed potato.

A new friend for Lou

This is Lou's new friend Bunny (original I know lol). He's from one of the funky friends factory patterns I got at the stitches and craft show. It was a pretty easy pattern to sew up. The instructions were clear and easy to follow and I didn't make any silly mistakes requiring unpicking for a change. I think now I'm familiar with the pattern I could sew another one in a few hours. Lou caught sight of him as just as I was finishing sewing the stuffing hole closed and sat at my feet saying "that that that" and pointing until she could finally give him a cuddle. I haven't been able to get a photo of her holding him though because she kept flapping him around her head and squealing excitedly. I also bought patterns to make a monkey and an elephant and I'm hoping they're as quick and easy to sew as the bunny...

Stitches and Craft Show 2010

I've been excitedly waiting to visit the Stitches and Craft Show for a few months now. Last year they introduced a space called the incubator which included stalls from some of my favourite craft bloggers and designers and it was the highlight of the show for me. When I heard the incubator was coming back again this year I couldn't wait to get there! Well I certainly wasn't disappointed! There were so many great stalls to look at and everyone I spoke to was friendly and helpful. I got to meet some of the faces behind the blogs I read and see some of their creations in person. There were lots of activities to participate in as well. I really liked the craft bars where you could pull up a chair and try your hand at a new craft for free. I had Lou with me and her patience only held out long enough for me to do some knitting but I managed to learn an easier way of casting on and holding my needles while I was there.

As usual the show was a difficult exercise in self restraint lol. There were so many lovely patterns, pieces of fabric and craft bits and bobs to choose from it was hard not to blow out the budget but this is what I came home with...

I got some lovely fabric, a skirt kit and an oliver + s pattern from Earthgirl Fabrics, a children's jacket pattern from Kelani, some fleece softie patterns from Funky Friends Factory, some felt flowers from Papoose and a lovely big piece of rainbow felt from Winterwood to make the girl's birthday crowns with.

The show is on till Sunday and the details are here for anybody thinking about going...

More plagerism

I'm working on a post that could take a while so to fill in the time meanwhile I have decided to copy my all my friend's blogs and get you to ask me a question...

You can be random, or funny (or try to be) or serious or a little bit naughty... and I will endeavour to answer them all...

so what do you want to know...

One a Month Challenge February

I thought I had better hurry and make up my mind what I was making this month because I'm running out of time.

For February I'm going to cook something out of the CWA Victoria Cookery Book.

I haven't decided what I'm going to cook yet. There are lots of casserole recipes that look tasty though.

The craft book I've chosen is Amy Butler's Little Stitches For Little Ones.

I know what I'm going to sew but I don't want to say because it's a gift for a friend. I've read reviews from a few people online saying that the pattern's from this book can be hard to follow so wish me luck!