It's been the subject of many a conversation over the last week or so; tech, screen time, devices… To impose limits or not to impose limits? To allow more freedom and flexibility or not? Now, I'm not actually here to tell you the answer to that I'm afraid. Striking a balance and what works for you and your family is the key here and only you know what's best.
 
What I can offer you, however is some ideas for using tech in ways that might not spring to mind immediately. When we think of devices and screen time we tend to default to thinking we are somehow doing something wrong. The activities we tend to associate with them is watching cartoons and playing games.
 
It's so much more than that, my small folk love tech and so do I. There's a whole world of things out there for you can learn and do and discover!
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​My small folk love play dough, it's one of those activities that will literally entertain my 3 and 4 year old for a good hour or so. I've always made my own, something I started, mainly due to cost when my, now teens were small and I've been doing it ever since. I can knock up a batch of this in less than 10 minutes for pennies which, when money is tight makes a big difference.
 
I also find it doesn't dry out as quickly as the commercial stuff and the recipe is very forgiving of you not having quite the right ingredients! That's quite handy at the moment when nipping to the shop for supplies isn't practical or even possible.
 
I use a cooked method for making play dough, there are lots of other methods on the internet and I'm not saying this one is the best, but it is the best one I've tried. It's pretty foolproof and lasts well for a month or so in a sandwich bag so you will get lots of play sessions from a single batch.

10 lego bricks per person - If you don't have lego/duplo them wooden blocks or stickle bricks or dominoes or jenga or anything that you can stack up basically.
 
A dice - if you don't have one, perhaps check your board games you may find one there, or a spinner from a game or even a random number generator on your phone will work.
 
A tea towel - or a muslin square or a sheet of paper or some kitchen towel or a
​t-shirt. Anything that you can use to cover things up
 
Tape - or string or a ruler or a piece of paper or the edge of your rug, anything you can mark a straight line with.
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​​​​​​Things are really scary at the moment and lots of us have money worries right now. If you're off work because you're self isolating, if you have Corona virus, if your workplace is shut or your self employed you might be really concerned about your finances. I'm hoping that this will also come in handy (as it has in the past for me) when I've had a really bad month or the car has had to be replaced or I've had an unexpected bill as a way to make it through in the short term.