Wonder-full

We had a fantastic roadtrip away. Over 1500km's of travel (used about the same amount of petrol as we normally would use in about 4mths!), 10 days away, 7 different places for sleeping and we all survived and had fun.

We...saw mud pools, a lake or two, volcanoes and mountains, swam at beaches and caught little fish at rock pools from the east coast to the west, went boating and fishing, saw a waterfall, visited grandparents and friends and met new friends (yay for finally getting to meet a bunch of my online unschooly friends!), saw animals mating, visited an army museum and a zoo, paddled a paddle boat, ate lots of junk food and ice blocks, collected walnuts, saw cemeteries, swam in a pool with frogs, picked a banana straight from the tree...

Soooo many questions and discussions I couldn't even write about it all...how do guide dogs know where to go...coffins, cemetaries and decomposition...logging trucks and forests...described how he would construct his hut in the bush...told a 15min story about a unicorn and what adventures they got up to (her name was Poo-doh)...war...volcanoes and craters...

A few pics...(I really need to learn about making those collage things or putting them into an album).

A happy home day

Although we had to pop out this morning to get the kids ears and eyes checked at Playcentre, we spent the rest of the day at home after finding Danielle some birthday presents (without her realising I was buying things for her!).

I had a heap of things that I needed to get through today in preparation for our holiday, so wrote out a list and Nathan started his own list too by copying out mine.

Before I went to bed last night (after returning from my course) I found these on the table. Nathan had copied them out of one of his books and cut them out.

Danielle did some more trike riding practice - a lot less frustration today.

Nathan and I finished Little House on the Prairie and later on we started reading The Wizard of Oz.

Danielle played with measuring and pouring water again this afternoon.

We spent a few hours outside in the garden this afternoon with Nathan as my busy little worker. He just loves getting into it and helping out. Danielle bounced on the tramp after chatting to the chickens for a while.

Nathan seems to be going through an organisation stage (long may it last!). A few days back when he helped unload the dishwasher he decided to rearrange the cutlery drawer and the crockery cupboard. Then tonight he was putting away his clean clothes and I noticed him pulling out all his clothes from his drawers and placing everything into different drawers. Then he spent 1/2 hr rearranging his toys and things into different containers and different locations in his room and I heard many "hmmm, where can I put you?". Not the most practical or user friendly lol, but hey, he's taken ownership for his own things and that's fab!

A full day out

Well it felt like it. We were meeting up with some new unschooling friends today at a playground we haven't been to before. So after an early lunch, we set off. We finally arrived home about 4.30pm after having done a few errands on the way home. Nathan made a request for taco's again (seems to be the meal of the moment lately - just as well we all enjoy them and that they are super quick and easy to make).

Nathan and I read another couple of chapters from Little House so we can return it to the library before we go away on holiday.

We will be going away for 10 days to visit with grandparents and friends - there will be meeting new friends, a zoo visit, visit to a lake, staying at the beach, boating and staying on a farm.

As usual when we drive in the car, I had millions of questions to answer as well as random ones throughout the day...where did the water for the ocean come from...what would happen if there was no water...where would the water go if there was no gravity (gravity came up in another discussion)...why do people in jail get no food or water (huh?)...oh look, there's a rotting orange (under our couch ewwww) me: yeah, it's decomposing, N: oh, just like Milly (the dead chicken...)...that big boy grabbed me by my top, I didn't like it (so we were able to have a conversation about dealing with that)...

Tuesday

After a playcentre morning (where we ate Hot Cross Buns that Nathan and I made last night) we had a relaxing afternoon at home.

Danielle got out the Aquadoodle which hasn't been out for a long, long time and she spent ages just colouring and doodling on it.

Meanwhile, Nathan had decided to draw pictures for his friend's great nan who we were meant to visit tomorrow except we won't be now since he has a cold that we don't want to pass on. So he made them both a picture and sellotaped them up in envelopes that we'll drop off in the morning.

After Danielle had a sleep, the kids bought the trikes into the house. Until now, Danielle hadn't yet mastered peddling, however I was walking down the hallway later on and saw her making her way down there peddling away. So, as most of her other achievements, she observes and tends to do them when no one is watching lol. Unfortunately, she then spent 1/2 hr getting extremely frustrated at herself, the trike, the door, the wall and her brother when she couldn't get it to do as she wanted - a bit of playful parenting defused a few tense moments (if only for my own sanity!). So after offering my help many times, she let me know she wanted to keep on working through it until she'd had enough of that and moved on.

Both kids then wanted to help me prepare dinner, hang up some washing, Nathan unloaded the dishwasher and then they watched a DVD. After dinner, they spent a while on the trampoline till dad got home for a play with them.

A day of fresh air

It was a gorgeous autumn day today. Beautiful blue sky with a slight chill in the air.

This morning the kids spent it outside with dad while he mowed the lawns and trimmed the hedges.

After lunch we decided to all go for a bike ride down to the local river mouth. Last time we went it was mid summer and the water was warm (apparently lol), this time only the kids were keen to go in but no Simon.




Unfortunately, just as we were heading out for our bike ride I went down to check the chickens for eggs and found one of them dead on the ground. I'm not sure what the cause was (although, likely connected to this). So we all buried her and said goodbye. Nathan has been very focused on death in the last few months, so he knew what this meant (even though this was his first encounter with it) except he wanted to keep her where she was so he could come down and pat her every day...

Later on, Nathan wanted me to come and bounce on the tramp with him, except I was busy. He asked how long I would be and my reply was "about 5 minutes". So he counted to 5. I explained that that was about 5 seconds, and he'd need to count to 60 for it to be about a minute and then would need to count to 60 again for it to be 2 minutes. He counted to about 30 (including his own version of numbers) before jumping to 80 and running off to wait it out.

The weekend

Well, yesterday the kids went to hang out with nannie and grampy in the morning as I had a course to go to and Simon was working - they went to the park and did some painting.

In the afternoon while I prepared dinner they just took it easy and did their own thing. Nathan was quite involved in sandpit play and asking for water to make a cake ("could I have 10cms of water please?").

Danielle was happy at the kitchen sink alongside me measuring and pouring water.


Today they went down to the park with dad in the morning and then this afternoon just had fun around and about outside with him as well.

Simon took the kids down to replace last weeks DVD with a new one and they came home with Night at the Museum. It was a light hearted comedy with some interesting history scenes that Nathan recognised from the various Magic Tree House stories and other books we've read (Native Americans, dinosaurs, mammals etc).

The kids found a large box out in the garage which they bought in and began to colour in and play in (Danielle was pretending there was a ghost in the lounge and kept running into the dining room and hiding in the box). Nathan wanted to draw countries and planets on the box. So I found him the globe and a picture of the planets in his Dangerous Book for Boys which he copied parts of. We chatted about how the Earth orbits the sun and how the moon orbits the Earth.

I attempted my first Sudoku - got a bit stumped though when I must have mucked up one of my numbers lol!

I really am a facilitator...

Before the morning even hit 10am the kids had...

~Played hopscotch
~Danielle retrieved the dumptruck from outside after playing in the sandpit and drove it around for about 10mins playing with the man inside saying "bye bye Daddy" (she didn't get out of her jammies till after lunch lol)

~Nathan bought a stack of post-it notes to me and asked me to write out names of household items which he went and stuck onto things around the house, he then moved on to writing his own labels which I spelled out for him - I'm not sure where he got the idea for this??
~Made a few craft creations (inspired by a morning TV show) - interestingly both kids went off to do their own thing, and instead of Danielle following along with Nathan's ideas as she usually does, she had her own way of creating an underwater theme...

Danielle's fish that she asked me to cut out so it could swim in the bowl of water

Nathan recreated the TV version with hanging sea life...it was added to and modified from 8am-midday.


We had some friends over to play this morning which involved some trampoline bouncing, dress ups, sandpit and skipping rope.

After lunch, I wrote out a grocery list and Nathan wanted to create one of his own. We did the shopping before getting home to wait for the chimney sweep to arrive who the kids watched with great interest while munching on marshmallows and watermelon.

The kids went off for a bath to get rid of all the stickiness, Nathan added a bunch of shampoo to the water and spent ages making a beard and mustache for himself.

After Danielle went to bed Nathan and I finally got around to making his calendar for March. We marked on it our upcoming holiday away to visit grandparents and friends (yay, can't wait!) and Easter. He wanted me to print out some Easter pictures, so I printed one lot of Easter eggs for him and he made special requests for others that he wanted to tape on as well. He then attached string to the top to hang it up in his room.

A day of handiwork

Well, after deciding to not go to playcentre today and realising that I was craving a bit of grounding with our homelife and some reconnection, we all went out to the garden and did a bit of weeding, pulled up the old tomatoes plants and tidied up the herb garden while just quietly pottering around. Nathan declared "I love having our own garden".

The kids then found some chalks on the front porch and started to do some drawings.


Danielle went through her drawer with special things in it and decided to adorn herself (excuse the mismatched jammies lol).

Nathan got out his lasso that grampie had lent us and had fun catching my arm (and note the rubber bands in the background that Danielle spent ages playing and sorting).

We went and played with friends this afternoon for a few hours.

While eating their dinner, I read some more Little House to the kids. After reading about Laura and Mary finding some beads, Nathan wanted to get out our beads and do some threading before heading off to get ready for bed.

Reflections...

We decided to not go to playcentre again today. Too many things to do and so little time! I actually feel we don't have enough "just being" time. I pinpointed where that feeling came from. Over summer we had 6wks off from playcentre and loved the easy flowing, spontaneous days. There was no pressure to fit into others schedules or our own. We had our relaxed routine happening and just enjoyed it. The kids got out of the habit of expecting full on action all the time and really started enjoy living in the moment.

However, since the school term started up again and we were back into the routine of playcentre twice a week (which the kids really do enjoy) I had noticed that I was starting to have conflicting feelings about lack of time, always on the go, biding time until x,y,z happened, trying to fit in all our playdates that we enjoy, and then missing having the down time which is when the kids play together for big lengths of time, make discoveries and get creative. And I was starting to feel that our homebase and all that we've been working towards for the past year was all out of kilter.

So, playcentre is now down to one day a week which satisfies that side of things (and the kids are just as happy with one day as two). And, I also realised that the Satisfying Journey wasn't slipping away - just that we're there and living it! I'm not heading somewhere anymore, but I'm right there and found the space I've been seeking (for now lol)! The above little shake up has just balanced things out again.

Another numbers and writing day

My day started with a sheet of paper and pencil being thrust into my face while I was still in bed. Nathan wanted me to write a list of things we would do today. We don't usually work to a list, but he does like a bit of predictability and I suspect because it wasn't a playcentre day that he wanted to know what we were up to.

So he dictated, and I wrote. He wanted to go down to the toy shop this morning as well, so that made it onto the list. He then wrote a few things down himself including feeding the dog. We ticked them off as we went.

While the kids ate breakfast, then watched a little TV, Nathan was inspired to make a paper boat which he designed and I aided in taping together. Danielle wanted in too, so I made her one too and they spent a while floating them in the handbasin.


After the usual morning routine, Nathan and I had sat down to work out how much pocket money he had accumulated since he wanted to buy something. We have only just started with pocket money this year and I don't actually give him coins to save, but I run a log of how much I owe him and when he's spent it. I hadn't written on the log for about 6wks, so he'd accumulated a little since the last spend up.

So after locating several items in the toy shop that he could afford, he made his choice of a small lego box with a train which was then played with for a few hours after lunch.

I hung out the washing and Danielle came to help me. I took the opportunity to help her work on speaking and using verbs as per the speech language therapists advice.

Nathan then asked to go down to one of the local parks for a run around. Both kids had heaps of fun playing in the paddling pool down there, Nathan rode his bike, walking around the miniature train tracks and playing on the equipment. Danielle got the courage to go up to the top of the structure and come down the long windy tunnel - it's been interesting seeing her over the past few months getting further and further towards that goal.

All throughout the day Nathan asked me random "numbers" type questions. I'd hear him chanting away counting to himself (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 20-11, 28, 29). This morning he asked me to write out numbers 1-100. Then this afternoon he asked me to count up from 1-100 and then down from 100-1 (don't think I've ever done that before lol). This morning he wanted to draw out a new calendar month (the last one we did at his request was for December with the count down to Christmas), but we didn't get around to it with everything else that came up.

After Danielle had gone to bed, Nathan set up his "restaurant" and was asking me what I wanted on the menu and he'd cook it up for me.


At bedtime, Nathan pulled out his Dick and Jane reading book and I read that to him - he read out a few words that he recognised.

A low-key day

Well, after our busy weekend, we just plodded around today. We did start off with Playcentre and then this afternoon was just a cruisey one at home.

While Nathan was still eating his dinner I read him some Little House and he was very interested in the cowboys with their lasso's and wanted me to make one for him. So once dad got home, he found a bit of rope in the garage and I gooogled tying a lasso knot. And dad was told off for modelling his lassoing techniques by slinging it around Nathan's head....hmmmmm.

The kids got their energy back after dinner (both helped chop the veges for the soup) and we headed down for bouncing on the tramp and swinging in the hammock together while eating apples we picked off our tree.

After Danielle had gone to bed Nathan got out his soccer ball and he and I kicked it around a bit. He then headed off to do some drawing and writing for a while before wanting to go to bed.

Climbing at grampies

How many grampies have their own climbing frame in the backyard that's this big?

Grampy uses this to do training with caving club members and any visitors who want to have a new experience. This was Nathan (and Simon's) first go on it.

Grampy harnessing him up

Do the comfort test

Halfway up...

Up there at last...and loving every moment

Danielle observing - covered by a nearby towel from the mozzies and sandflies and the chilly air.

And making her own fun in the late-afternoon warmth of the autumn sun

A full-on social day

Sunday was busy from the start till the end.

We started off by visiting friends who had just moved into a new house before heading off to catch up with the lovely Sharon and her family. The kids instantly made themselves at home and then spent ages in the cul-de-sac riding around on bikes and ride ons. We then headed back home to have dinner with nannie and grampy and the kids uncle and aunty and cousin.

A few cuties

Yesterday Nathan reached out and touched my nose which made me go cross-eyed. I did the same back and took a pic for him.

Danielle dragged out her duvet and pillow for a nap on the couch - it didn't actually happen but she had a little rest anyway.