Poorly Day Idea: The Post.

Like most of her nursery class, Freya has finally succumbed to The Lurgy.

While I’m a big believer in fresh air as a cure for most things, I also think she needs rest, especially when she’s up in the night even more than usual, but when you are a lively three-year-old, cuddling up on the sofa doesn’t seem to hold much appeal.

As a result, crafting seemed like an ideal quiet(ish) activity – and since her latest fascination is with the post, I thought that might be a place to start.

Our postman has been delivering to us since Freya was a baby (he might have been on that route before but I was at work and never saw him) and has watched her growing up. He always takes the time to chat with her, which she loves, and I’m sure he is part of the reason for her fascination with the post.

We’ve been seeing him a lot more in recent weeks because he’s been delivering Christmas parcels, which I quickly spirit away and hide, and she’s been asking lots of questions about how it all works.

My initial plan was to make a post box and some letters but it snowballed to making three doors too (I had to raid the cupboards to find enough cereal boxes).

We started by covering and painting the boxes and then, while they dried, we made the numbers, letter boxes and post while also looking up what a Royal Mail post box looks like.

My plan had been to walk to our local one and let her take a photo with her camera but she didn’t want to go out at that point so we Googled it instead.

They were simple to make and she really enjoyed playing with them. She hasn’t quite got the hang of matching the numbers and randomly posts them through different doors (a bit like Postman Pat). My plan is to colour-code the letters (for Freya, not Pat) to match the doors to make it a bit easier.

With the painting, cutting, sticking, researching, sorting, matching and playing it covered quite a few different activities – and most of them were fairly peaceful so didn’t set off her hacking cough.

To keep things interesting – and get maximum use from the boxes – I’m going to turn her little cardboard house into a post office. She can use stickers for stamps and I might try and dig out the bathroom scales so she can weigh some parcels (hopefully she won’t try and put them in the post box).

Do you have any poorly day activities you like to do with your children who don’t like sitting still?