Solstice eve

The fairy dust trail before the addition of the flouro yellow glitter. The only colours left in the fairy dust shop were black and flouro yellow. These fairies need to gather their supplies a little earlier next year.

Snow

Nearly six months old but there you are...

Playroom Purge

A few weeks ago while P was in NZ we decided to tackle the impenetrable fortress of knee deep toys that was the playroom. To be honest we didn't really purge that much, I dis spirit a few things away during the process but mostly we focused on creating homes for everything. Here are some "during" pics...

Tappers

Growing Up - sniff

It really is high time A got his own blog. But since he doesn't yet, do you notice something about this picture? That's right - it's the not quite a toddler anymore who is no longer content to watch from the back with Mama during his sister's ballet lesson.

Unschool Monday - Museum

Yesterday we had from 10 til 4 to kill time while P had a class - at the museum! This wasn't a problem at all.

Mess

Learning

Me that is, not them. They learn non-stop. Lately I've been learning about things Waldorfy. About the value, oh the value of a strong daily rhythm. About how to lead without controlling. That's hard! Learning about balance too. About when to let go of my attachment to "low media". M has her own iPod now...

Dinner at Eight

This afternoon we rang a local Japanese restaurant to make dinner reservations. We were told "I'm sorry, the earliest we can fit you in is eight.". Ok, not too bad we can do that.
At 7:45 my phone rang. "I'm very sorry, your table won't be ready until 8:30.". So we arrived at 8:20. By the time we were finally seated it was 9pm. By now we were definitely past the "Oh, that's a big late but the children will cope stage.".
They did both manage to stay awake long enough to eat something. Just.

Thunder

We had out first thunderstorm in quite a few months last weekend. Both children needed protective equipment. I think we'll have to get another pair of those earmuffs.

Winter Solstice

What a special treat we had for Winter Solstice this year. The littles and I had been at a homeschool event further down the mountain and this is what greeted us when we got off our train home.

Unschool Monday - downtime or what's the hurry?

I'm learning (and relearning) the importance of time. Time to stop, time to just be. Time to take two hours to walk to the park (20 minutes at adult pace) in the Winter sunshine if that's what we need.
Today is Unschool Monday over at Owlet and we are having a "Home Day" to recuperate from a busy weekend. What are you doing?

Mini-fashionista

Joining in with Owlet.
M, wearing her red coat inside out as a cape. shows off the sparkly lining.

Asgard's Swamp

The obligatory Sunday bushwalk. Lovely day for it. I rather enjoyed it.

KLA Thursday - HSIE

HS what? Ugh. Acronyms like that make me shudder and bring back memories of a blonde teacher with a musty mothball accent who insisted no indigenous people were needlessly killed by European arrivals to Australia. Hmmm, why did I choose to home school again? No need to rant here.
Anyway...
On the education department's website HSIE section under Change and Continuity I found:
Students will learn about:
• events and stages in their lifetimes
• people in their families, past and present
• people who have met their needs in the past
• places in the their immediate environment
• changes in their lives, both past and present
• changes to people and places in their neighbourhood
• Aboriginal Dreaming stories as a reflection of the creation of Australia
• the structure of students’ families



So uh, how do we cover this at home without a curriculum? Well, it's pretty hard not to. Last weekend was a pretty significant event in M's lifetime, actually in mine too. I'm halfway to 70, eek! Many people in her family have contacted her about it funnily enough.
Getting older brings plenty of questions about "when you were 5 Mama?" the natural progression of ensuing conversations pretty much covers the second, third, fifth and seventh points. Did I say pretty much? This is my daughter we're talking about. "Tell me a story about when you were little/I was little." Repeat ad infiinitum...I doubt there's any material left uncovered.
As for places in their immediate environment, in the past month M has of her own accord made a map of our house and the route to the local shops as well as talking about making one extending to the local school (where her ballet classes used to be), library and Catholic Church hall (where her ballet classes now are). Of course there's always looking at our house on google maps (doesn't everyone do that?) and scrolling from there to other places of interest and following the flashing blue dot on an iphone map while driving. Can't forget all the historical pictures of our town on the walls of the pub and Indian restaurants we often eat at - those cover number six as well. As does her keen interest in the two houses constructed earlier this year a couple of blocks from us. We passed those almost everyday on our walk to the local shops/library/ballet class.
That leaves only number seven - dreamtime stories. Well, we have plenty of books but I also love these
Marmoo and Biamee
Gotta love what one USA unschooling parent called "The Youtube Curriculum"

Purge

Last week I freecycled all of our recipe books except these and P's favorite baking book. It felt great. Now if I only apply the same concept to the rest of our "stuff".

WW

Outside

Me. No-one else. P has technological things to deal with which means my hopes of dragging the two small people out into the natural light and bird calls are dashed. I can lead by example sure, but I'm not the only example. So the iPad wins. At least right now.
Eating...P's sourdough toast with local marmalade
Drinking...coffee of course
Reading...homeschooling message boards and occasionally Waldorf blogs that drown me in inadequacy until I discover the punitive discipline and think our technology filled chaotic lives aren't so bad after all
Listening...to the bird calls in our peaceful backyard.

On sleeping, toddler messes and adventures