As part of the Junior Rangers program we headed to Serendip Sanctuary for the “beaks and feet” program about bird watching. I had not known about this place before, and it’s about 45mins away. We found the park fascinating and definitely want to return and do some of the waks ourselves. Binoculars are on the ‘to buy’ list! Alex’s interest in birds was my motivator, but I discovered that he is really keen on birds of prey in particular. he talks about creature features and reasons for why animals have specific skills (adaptations). He’s gotten a lot of the from ‘Wild Kratts’.
Firstly we were taken by the ranger into a classroom and shown a few birds that had been found in good condition (but dead) and now on display. Alex was quite fascinated by taxidermy and has mentioned it a few times since. The ranger pointed out features that allow us to recognise birds – shape, feet, beaks, colour etc. Alex loved the Wedge Tailed Eagle the most. She then gave all of the kids binoculars. As we walked around, we found a Whistling Kite as well as Cape Barren Geese, Superb Fairy Wren, Emu, Honeyeaters and duck species to name but a few. Since this activity I’m trying to find something else to extend the birds of prey love. We’ll need to get out and watch. We’ve also visited the museum discovery centre where they have lots of specimens, borrowed some library books and I’m trying to make contact with a local centre that trains birds for an encounter. When we go to Healesville in a few weeks, their display will also be well received. They have a wedge tailed eagle.
We’ve enjoyed some lazy days of just playing. having fun in the back yard, riding bikes through puddles in our court. our car journeys often have us playing ‘I spy’. We were starting to run out of words (the highways are fairly boring places)/ My word started with ‘s’, and I hinted it was in the sky. Alex answered with ‘sun’ and went on to tell me how the sun is actually in space. Made me laugh. Alex has been drawing a little too. He’s put the iPad down in favour of other activities recently. Perhaps the fascination with Netflix has deflated, or he’s realising that there is time. Getting ready for karate has been so much less stressful these past 2 weeks.
Daniel has liked playing trains recently and seems to have followed his brothers lead in needing all of the carriages! He also likes books now and has a few favourites – he especially likes to read with Vio.
We’ve been to a puppet show called ‘Argus’ at Artplay. It was longer than I’d expected, but Alex was engaged until close to the end when he got a little restless. More than can be said for most of the other children! Even Daniel watched for about 10-15 minutes. The show was set in the dark and the creators used just their hands a few small props to tell the story. We really enjoy Artplay. Afterwards we played at the park. Alex still loves to play chase. Sometimes it’s hard with Daniel but I look forward (cautiously) to us all playing together. Before heading home on the train, we dropped past ACMI who were hosting a drop in session called ‘Flip It’. The idea was to create a flip book to animate a character. Alex chose a dragon and coloured it pink. The book didn’t work particularly well, but Alex was fortunate that we’d arrived at a quiet time and so he got to use the computer software to create a movie. He has since at home used ‘Stop Motion’ to produce a movie of his own with cars. I wanted to talk to him about moving the cars a little bit, and how it all works but I know I’m doing that for me and also the second I say anything more than Alex needs or try and ‘teach’, Alex resists and stops the activity. Sometimes indefinitely. I must trust that he’s getting what he needs right now out of the activity he’s choosing. Hopefully he’ll share it with me.
