The 2012 School Year has Begun

We kicked off our non school year in style with the Not Back to School Picnic at Hastings Thermal Pool. The snowflakes love the thermal pool and beautiful picnic / barbeque facilities with woodfires, so we are scheduling in a full day visit later this term, when we'll tour the caves and do the short hot springs bushwalk as well as eating and swimming.

In consultation with Daddy Snow, I have been busy preparing our THEAC Family Report. As well as being a formality required for registration, compiling our report is a good opportunity to do some evaluation and planning in a structured way. Not only did we identify some areas where we could be offering more learning opportunities, but also the snowflakes themselves had plenty of ideas about what different things they'd like to do, and while we won't be able to accommodate all of their requests, some can easily be managed. One thing they have all asked for is more one-on-one time with us, and when we do fit this in, it is wonderful to see how eagerly they seem to soak up that undiluted parental attention.

Meanwhile, we have been easing into our non school year with lots of unschooly learning and a few structured-ish subjects. For example, we have had a bit of a focus on safety topics: we got, for the first time, a pool big enough for the snowflakes to swim in, so we talked about water safety and agreed on rules for use of the pool (kids must under no circumstances get into the pool without first asking an adult to supervise, while adults must agree to supervise unless there is a really good reason not to); a tiger snake has taken up residence in our garden, so we revised how to avoid getting bitten and practiced first aid for snake bites; we had a family meeting about our fire safety plan and practiced this; and so on. Snowflake #1 asked for another go at the Triple Zero Kids' Challenge game, which takes kids through various scenarios requiring emergency services. (Co-incidentally, we ended up needing to call 000 twice in one week, so they got to see the real life version as well.)

The interesting conversations continue to happen often, as per usual. I have especially noticed that snowflake #3 seems to be thinking about things in a lot more depth than she could previously. One example is the way she is currently wrestling with her dislike of killing animals versus her love of meat. Her latest idea is that we should only eat creatures that have died of old age; of course, this led to some great discussion with the others explaining their reasons why this plan might be problematic. We don't actually mind whether the snowflakes eat meat or not - if any of them eventually decide to go vegan / vegetarian, we are quite happy to facilitate that - but that's not the point: it's just really fascinating to watch how their reasoning processes and opinions are developing.

On the less weighty side of things, I think the award for silliest conversation of the week would have to go to the great "Is it possible to do half a fart?" debate (but somehow, I don't think that would qualify as a study of fractions for THEAC's purposes!).

Camping At Last

 Well, we finally did it: our official First Family Camping Trip!

This has been in the pipeline for several years and definitely on the agenda since our trip to Bruny Island last year (hmmm, sounds as though the agenda is inside the pipeline...), but we had never got around to organising our equipment, even though it was clearly not going to be practical for five of us to sleep in the pre-children tent. Faced with the challenge of actually deciding what we needed and acquiring it, the camping project just languished on the to do list, until we were inspired by the prospect of camping with friends.

 

The equipment buying excursion was a great source of excitement in itself, with the snowflakes all contributing to the planning and purchasing decisions (although we had to veto a few ideas due to budgetary constraints). Then, a couple of days later, we were off to Cockle Creek with our renewed Parks Pass, the car crammed full of as much as we could possibly squeeze in, and three extremely thrilled snowflakes.

It proved to be a lazy few days: the furthest afield we got was to the whale sculpture at the other end of the bay, and much of the time was spent relaxing on the beach, while the evenings were perfect for wildlife spotting. All in all, the snowflakes had heaps of fun and also quite an educational experience, especially for #1 who now knows how to pitch the tents and how to set up, light and cook on the portable gas barbeque.