A chilled start to the week – we headed out early knowing that the weather would turn in the middle of the day. We headed to a new spot to collect feathers, which was pretty unsuccessful but we talked about why – bird migration, cold weather s no moulting. We ID’d the birds we did see and noticed that the lake had burst its banks. We played in the playground – there was a funny roundabout with bikes. We all got on and spun round, laughing our heads off! We walked a little and got to the basketball court. I ran back to the car and grabbed the basketball, which Alex shared with Daniel! Alex was amusing me with his ball bouncing (he’s quite serious), then I started messing around and acting like a soldier. The kids copied, and laughed. Then it started to pour, so we laughed as we ran to the car! The kids asked to go to the library so we got some books and they played on the computers. At home we set up the hideout, made leashes for snakes, and made a train track. When Vio got home, the kids played hide and seek with him.
We headed to the city with friends, to play pod at the state library. The theme was the Treehouse books, inside was a little disappointing. The kids played a little, dressing up as astronauts. Outside Alex played giant chess. We had our traditional city lunch of ‘Lord of the Fries’ as well as slushies before getting a tram to Fitzroy Gardens. The kids like the miniature village, played a bit in the very limited playground too. Alex wanted to see the fountains so we walked over and found a lovely spot with a family of wood ducks. with 11 ducklings! The kids watched them for ages and ages, as the male duck chased away other ducks that he felt threatened by.
We joined a free river cruise along the Maribyrnong – we just made it, being the last 3 people aboard! Unfortunately there was limited space (and inconsiderate people) and so I sat on the floor, getting very sore legs! The kids enjoyed it – we saw the section of the river that we had walked along only a few days before. Alex was also asking about the Chinese Temple (I looked up some info when we got home but he was not interested in it). The cruise took us into a manmade lake attached to the river where dirt has been dug up to improve the flood table so they could build lots of apartments in a new estate.
We had another homeschool park day at Brimbank, with lots of people in attendance. Alex was scooting, the little ones were in the sand and basket swing. The big kids played at the tree house (Bunjil’s nest).
A trip to Animal land with a homeschool group – so many people, I’d met so few of them! It seems they were mostly from the CHEF group. Alex enjoyed it, though we didn’t get to do as much as usual (as a school group). Alex was curious about maggie the cow and had his questions answered kindly by our host. Alex had an emotional day – his upsets were surprising and quite strong!
The kids are enjoying using their iPads, often in the car but mostly at home. Alex is watching a lot of minecraft videos on youtube as well as asking for white tigers – I showed him how to use the microphone search function instead of relying on suggested videos and he has really put it to use! Daniel too! He has also watched Zorro with Vio and we started watching the ‘Walking with dinosaurs’ series. Daniel helps me when I go outside to do things – we weeded the front yard and washed the car. Both kids helped with the plentiful weeds out the back. Our play time has included playdough, trampoline, drawing, battleships, ball play, cooking, lego technics, transformers. Daniel and I built a race track out of planks. Daniel worked out really quickly that is was better to be on the inside of the oval and asked to swap places! I had a big laugh as Daniel watched Daniel Tiger. It’s one of those ‘interactive shows’. Daniel Tiger asks the audience a question, assuming the answer. He asked “do you want to go to school with me?” and our Daniel shouts “NO!” Alex brought home a dinosaur book from Micki’s place and we read it in bed, he fell asleep.
We have conversations in the car on our way to and from places. This week Alex asked about how ‘we’ know what other places (planets, moons etc) look like. So we talked about satellites and their journey to planets and moons.
At swimming this week, Alex’s instructor told him he was slow – I’m not sure how he feels about that! He’s not been put off attending so thats good. We played crocodiles, Alex is doing lots of handstands and turns in the water. Daniel is wanting to swim too. The usual karate, and gymnastics classes too. It was the last MiniRoos day of the season. Alex had a great day, and got a trophy too.