8th June : Mosaics part 2
We had a chilled out time finishing off our mosaics from week 1, everyone created at least one item that they could put in their home whether it was a mirror or picture frame. Some really nice items have been created and everyone should be really proud of what they made!
1st June : Oxfordshire Play Bus visits young mums!
We had an exciting visit from the oxfordshire playbus today - they brought their silvery sensory bus along for us all to play together in.
You can find out more info about the playbus here: http://www.oxonplaybus.org.uk/
Although it was a really hot day, the bus had air conditioning and we were soon all aboard for 2 hours of playtime together.
One half of the bus was dark with lots of glow in the dark things and bubble lamps with different lights. We all had fun changing the lights and experiencing new things!
There was also a microphone on board and we had our own version of mini pop idol as a few of them graced us with their singing !?!
You can find out more info about the playbus here: http://www.oxonplaybus.org.uk/
Although it was a really hot day, the bus had air conditioning and we were soon all aboard for 2 hours of playtime together.
One half of the bus was dark with lots of glow in the dark things and bubble lamps with different lights. We all had fun changing the lights and experiencing new things!
There was also a microphone on board and we had our own version of mini pop idol as a few of them graced us with their singing !?!
25th May: Mosaics Week 1
One of the things that we really were looking forward to was the chance to have a go at making some things for the home like a mosaic mirror or picture frame.
Nice looking items often cost loads of money and thats an expense that we just cant afford when you have a baby (and a house) to look after.
We got started on our mirrors and picture frames, and by the end of our hour we had got quite a long way (some further than others as they restarted a few time)
We look forward to finishing our mosiacs in a couple of weeks time.
Nice looking items often cost loads of money and thats an expense that we just cant afford when you have a baby (and a house) to look after.
We got started on our mirrors and picture frames, and by the end of our hour we had got quite a long way (some further than others as they restarted a few time)
We look forward to finishing our mosiacs in a couple of weeks time.
18th May : Aerobics
Well,
This was our active week! When we put the programme together everyone said they wanted to do some activity like aerobics or something to help with health and fitness.
(No there is not any photos of this one)
We did an hour with an excellent aerobics instructor who really got us working hard! Lots of sweaty faces 1 hour later meant that we all felt we had a good workout!
This was our active week! When we put the programme together everyone said they wanted to do some activity like aerobics or something to help with health and fitness.
(No there is not any photos of this one)
We did an hour with an excellent aerobics instructor who really got us working hard! Lots of sweaty faces 1 hour later meant that we all felt we had a good workout!
Young Mums & Children to do the Banardos Big Toddle!
Carterton Young Mums will be raising money for Banardos through their big toddle fund raising event.
On a date yet to be confirmed young mums and children will be toddling the 1/2 a mile (on a route to be designed around Carterton). They will be sponsored to raise money for Banardos UK.
for more information about the toddle look here: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/bigtoddle
You can also now sponser us to do our toddle online by clicking here: https://www.bmycharity.com/cartertonyoungmums all monies go direct to Banardos.
4th & 11th May 2007: Glass Painting
On the 4th and 11th May we did glass painting with a tutor from ABC2 - Jaqueline. ABC2 works with young mums to help them get back into education and training after having their babies. These taster sessiosn were run to find out what ABC2 could do with our young mums or what they wanted to do.
It was really good to have some time to ourselves and to be able to concentrate and relax on something without children around for an hour. We all got well into the painting and didnt realise how much time had ran away with us!
The second week we then painted our outlines we had made here are the results.
Our first session was where we learned how to do glass painting on perspex, found a picture we could paint and did the outline on to the perspex. All of our young mums were very creative and managed to do at least 1 piece of pespex. Some even did 2!
It was really good to have some time to ourselves and to be able to concentrate and relax on something without children around for an hour. We all got well into the painting and didnt realise how much time had ran away with us!
The second week we then painted our outlines we had made here are the results.
Young Mums who did glass painting: Sam, Jayde, Kelly, Laura, Jess, Sophie.
27th April 2007 : Exploring depression and relaxation
This week was the first week with our new crèche facility provided by Springboard Families Project.
We opened half an hour early so we could have a cuppa and catch up on the weekly gossip.
We delivered the children to Springboard and much to our surprise all the children left us without too much trouble, and we went back to the Allandale and got into our discussion about mental health, depression and relaxation.
7 young mums, youth worker Shelley and health visitor Helen got involved in this weeks group discussions.
Question: What is mental health?
Task: The group were asked to write down positives and negative words around the word “mental health” in small groups.
-VES:
Depression
Isolation
Drunk & drugs
Self – harm
Scary
Weird
Depression
Post natal depression
Anti depressants
Nutter
Nut-nut
Crazy
Sleeping problems
No one understands
Lonliness
Hallucinations
Voices
Drunk
Drugs
Wanting to kill yourself
Anorexia
Keeping things to yourself
Keeping it all bottled up
Suicide
Eating disorder
Loss of concentration
+VES:
People to help
Feeling good about yourself
Coping
Getting help
Taking
Having faith and hope
Believing in yourself
Confidence
Self esteem
The group found it much easier to come up with negative words connected to mental health than positive ones, which is often how life can be and how the general public perceive mental health. Its also the reason that many people struggle to ask for help because they fear what reaction they may get from people.
Depression and postnatal depression is the biggest mental health issue for our young mums group, and we came up with a list of words, which describe what having depression can be like.
Anxious, not eating, self harm, over eating, stressed out, lonely, no one understands, not being able to talk, -ve thoughts all the time, worried, drinking excessively, flat / crap mood, scared, like the world is on top of you, not coping, fed up, confused, sleeping trouble, dwell on how you feel.
The group were then asked to stand up, members were asked to stay standing if they could say that they had honestly never been depressed at some point in their lives. Everyone sat down.
One of the worst parts about depression is feeling alone, and that nobody understands what you are going through. This exercise shows that each one of us in the group knew how it felt to be depressed, an issue that some of the group members are currently struggling with.
More information about depression can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/disorders_depression.shtml
Given that everyone had experienced depression at some point the group then had to come up with their “top 3 tips” for someone feeling depressed and their “it would be better if you didn’t do this” whilst you were depressed.
Top 3 Tips
Talk to someone
Do some exercise / get out and about / learn how to relax
Get some help (talk to your GP / counsellor / other agencies)
Would be better if you didn’t:
Drink a lot (it’s a depressive)
Take Drugs (they can mess up your head even more than it already is)
Self Harm
Cope on your own
Try to kill yourself
A useful booklet available (each member of the group got one) http://www.youngminds.org.uk/depression/y1.php
Its really important for a positive mental health that we all learn how to relax, each of us do that in very different ways and we all have to work out what works for us.
To end our group we did a relaxation exercise that people can do in their own homes for 10 mins.
The Big Chill
You will need:
Relaxing music
Scented candles or an oil burner (optional)
Somewhere to relax and get comfy
1. Dim any harsh lights, light your candle or oil burner turn on your relaxing music and get comfy.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Listen to the music, relax into it and breathe slowly from your abdomen not chest.
4. Focus on your breathing, slowly and deeply so that you become aware of the breathing process and you can almost feel the breath in you.
5. Starting with your hands clench parts of your body and hold for 4 – 10 seconds, do this all around your body ending with your feet.
6. By now you should be relaxed into yourself, think of a word or phrase and say it silently as you exhale.
7. Continue this for 3 to 5 mins, push all distracting thoughts out of your mind.
8. Think of yourself on a beach, with warm waves crashing over you, enjoy the sunshine.
9. Do this for as long as you want to or feel comfortable with.
10. Open your eyes gently and stand up slowly. (Your eyes will feel wierd)
It was time for us to pick up children from Springboard, it seems that the children got on well in the crèche despite our worries and “it looks like a good plan came together” for this term!
Young mums returned to the Allandale to continue the chatting where we left off, and have another drink together before going our own separate ways.
This time will always be a good time for people to catch up with Shelley and Helen and have a private chat if they want to.
We opened half an hour early so we could have a cuppa and catch up on the weekly gossip.
We delivered the children to Springboard and much to our surprise all the children left us without too much trouble, and we went back to the Allandale and got into our discussion about mental health, depression and relaxation.
7 young mums, youth worker Shelley and health visitor Helen got involved in this weeks group discussions.
Question: What is mental health?
Task: The group were asked to write down positives and negative words around the word “mental health” in small groups.
-VES:
Depression
Isolation
Drunk & drugs
Self – harm
Scary
Weird
Depression
Post natal depression
Anti depressants
Nutter
Nut-nut
Crazy
Sleeping problems
No one understands
Lonliness
Hallucinations
Voices
Drunk
Drugs
Wanting to kill yourself
Anorexia
Keeping things to yourself
Keeping it all bottled up
Suicide
Eating disorder
Loss of concentration
+VES:
People to help
Feeling good about yourself
Coping
Getting help
Taking
Having faith and hope
Believing in yourself
Confidence
Self esteem
The group found it much easier to come up with negative words connected to mental health than positive ones, which is often how life can be and how the general public perceive mental health. Its also the reason that many people struggle to ask for help because they fear what reaction they may get from people.
Depression and postnatal depression is the biggest mental health issue for our young mums group, and we came up with a list of words, which describe what having depression can be like.
Anxious, not eating, self harm, over eating, stressed out, lonely, no one understands, not being able to talk, -ve thoughts all the time, worried, drinking excessively, flat / crap mood, scared, like the world is on top of you, not coping, fed up, confused, sleeping trouble, dwell on how you feel.
The group were then asked to stand up, members were asked to stay standing if they could say that they had honestly never been depressed at some point in their lives. Everyone sat down.
One of the worst parts about depression is feeling alone, and that nobody understands what you are going through. This exercise shows that each one of us in the group knew how it felt to be depressed, an issue that some of the group members are currently struggling with.
More information about depression can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/disorders_depression.shtml
Given that everyone had experienced depression at some point the group then had to come up with their “top 3 tips” for someone feeling depressed and their “it would be better if you didn’t do this” whilst you were depressed.
Top 3 Tips
Talk to someone
Do some exercise / get out and about / learn how to relax
Get some help (talk to your GP / counsellor / other agencies)
Would be better if you didn’t:
Drink a lot (it’s a depressive)
Take Drugs (they can mess up your head even more than it already is)
Self Harm
Cope on your own
Try to kill yourself
A useful booklet available (each member of the group got one) http://www.youngminds.org.uk/depression/y1.php
Its really important for a positive mental health that we all learn how to relax, each of us do that in very different ways and we all have to work out what works for us.
To end our group we did a relaxation exercise that people can do in their own homes for 10 mins.
The Big Chill
You will need:
Relaxing music
Scented candles or an oil burner (optional)
Somewhere to relax and get comfy
1. Dim any harsh lights, light your candle or oil burner turn on your relaxing music and get comfy.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Listen to the music, relax into it and breathe slowly from your abdomen not chest.
4. Focus on your breathing, slowly and deeply so that you become aware of the breathing process and you can almost feel the breath in you.
5. Starting with your hands clench parts of your body and hold for 4 – 10 seconds, do this all around your body ending with your feet.
6. By now you should be relaxed into yourself, think of a word or phrase and say it silently as you exhale.
7. Continue this for 3 to 5 mins, push all distracting thoughts out of your mind.
8. Think of yourself on a beach, with warm waves crashing over you, enjoy the sunshine.
9. Do this for as long as you want to or feel comfortable with.
10. Open your eyes gently and stand up slowly. (Your eyes will feel wierd)
It was time for us to pick up children from Springboard, it seems that the children got on well in the crèche despite our worries and “it looks like a good plan came together” for this term!
Young mums returned to the Allandale to continue the chatting where we left off, and have another drink together before going our own separate ways.
This time will always be a good time for people to catch up with Shelley and Helen and have a private chat if they want to.
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