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Fostering Blogs | Needy Alice

Fulltime Foster Carer - Harriet author of: A Less Ordinary Family

Fostering Blogs | Needy Alice

Fostering Blogs – Needy Alice

Sunday.

I have to admit I’m starting to feel like I’ve got cabin fever – probably due to a lack of vitamin D. Lauren is still poorly and still feeling very sorry for herself. She has barely moved from her room in three days. I managed to coax her downstairs with the promise fo bringing her pillow and duvet down. I also bought The Greatest Showman DVD for her to watch – she had absolutely loved it when watching it at the cinema, so knew that this would be a lovely treat for her.

Annie has spent most of the weekend doing her homework. Although we endeavour to get most of it done each day after school, there are aways things that seem to get left – particularly projects like for art and DT. These are not Annie’s strongest subjects and they seem to cause her the most stress, they are ALWAYS the ones she leaves till last and unfortunately they seem to be the subjects that take the most time to complete. It doesn’t help that Annie didn’t choose either of these subjects for GCSE, so she now doesn’t see the point in putting the effort in. We try to encourage to still attempt to do her best. (I totally see her point and understand how frustrating it is – however we are still trying to get her to do the right thing and not just give up – its not that honouring to her teachers!!)

Meanwhile Alice is being a little needy. She is definitely fed up with Lauren getting all the attention. I try to set up some lovely activities for her to do in our play room. I know she loves play dough – so I get that out, but unfortunately her attention span seems to be particularly short today and she is soon bored of that. She is super angry that she is not allowed to watch The Greatest Showman with Lauren. Although, rating-wise it is appropriate, I just don’t want her in the same room as Lauren. Alice has no inner monologue – it is pretty irritating when you are watching a film at the best of times, but when you are ill… I’m pretty sure this will tip Lauren over the edge.

So I do my best to keep Alice entertained (and away from Lauren). Then I had a brainwave and remembered something I had in the cupboard that Alice had never played with before – something we had for Lauren when she was little – an ‘Aquadoodle’ aqua drawing mat. Perfect – Alice was so pleased with it, she could draw all over the mat with the special water pens. I saved the best till last – after raiding the drawers for batteries, I was able to show her the Pièce De Resistance – a figurine of Cinderella and Prince Charming – who danced around the water doodles on the mat while playing “A dream is a wish your heart makes”. It was brilliant – I think I got at least an hour of play out of Alice before the mat was so wet it didn’t work anymore – and the beauty of it was that as soon as I got it dry (eureka moment when I realised I could use a hair dryer to dry it in a less than a minute!!) she was soon playing with it again! I have to admit it felt like a pretty ling day and I was ready for the girls to be in bed.

I was able to get Alice to bed a little earlier than usual – mainly because I cooked tea early and started her routine early, she doesn’t yet read the time – so I can just about still get away with it!

A Less Ordinary Fostering Family Blog.

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