Ok, so we don’t really need holidays from school. But I do get excited by all that’s on offer over the holiday period. Here’s what we got up to this time around:
Junior rangers – we attended 3 separate JR events!
The kids love to be outside in nature and love animals. Oh and it’s free. We went to Royal Park for a ‘skink, snakes and sunlight’ session. It was quite informative, lots of games for the kids, a walk to spot some reptiles – we didn’t find much as it was a cool and intermittently overcast day. We did find a White’s skink, which is critically endangered, we caught bugs from bushes and made badges at the end. Alex played footy with some boys he’d met for a while at the end. We had a look around the wetlands ourselves as we’d not been before.
We attended a minibeasts session at brimbank. Unfortunately the river was flooded so we couldn’t go down with nets ourselves. Instead the ranger had brought up some river water and the kids identified different minibeasts.
We attended a second Brimbank JR called Bioblitz. there was a little trouble at the start, but our resident ranger (whom we’ve come to know) took us for a walk and showed us some flora and fauna. We’ve walked Brimbank many times, but this time we got to see the effects of the flooded river. The kids were quite impressed!
Friends & Family – we often catch up with schooled friends or with HS friends whose schedules clash with ours. This holiday was no different. At the moment there’s lots of scooting and physical play happening. We generally meet at parks. With one friend in particular Alex shares his minecraft worlds. Daniel got into some mischief with painting and a friend – there are animal prints all over the play room carpet! We caught up with the kids’ cousins where we played a board game and bounced on the trampoline. Alex was reading the money and counting the coins correctly. I also had the four of them for a whole day which was interesting!
Outings
We’ve been heading to the open gym sessions in Footscray for over a year of school holidays now. The kids had fun practising and squeezing in as much stuff as they could. Alex did a skills session after on tumbling, I think he was a little disappointed at the level he was regarded to be but he seemed to enjoy it.
We had an afternoon at the zoo. We played hide and seek in the kids adventure area, saw lions and heard the ranger talk about the recent death and the family history, saw giraffes and zebras on Daniel’s request, Alex of course wanted to see the retic (which cause temporary distress as the snakes had been moved to a different enclosure!) We also saw the baboons which we rarely get around to.
Alex really wanted to go to Watermarc so we went. We had loads of fun together! We really needed the day as ‘just us’. Daniel loved the little waterslide and Alex loved the big bucket. We had a small incident where daniel and I were locked in the change room! Alex was very upset.
We went to the Arts Centre to see Broer & Zus. It was a really nice play. the kids sat up front without us, Daniel surprised me in doing so. The kids got up and danced hawaiian style too, was very cute! the show was very entertaining for all of us.
After such a great time at camp we decided to attend the Currawong Kids holiday program. It was a great day. I’m definitely going to go back to Darebin creek. We collected a rainbow (coloured bits of nature), played games, Alex went off on a spotting walk, we painted with rocks, through rocks in the creek, and floated boats that we made. It was lots of fun.
Dinosaur dig at the plaza was great fun for the kids. It was hosted by museum Vic. The kids were given a plaster block and some tools and had to find the dinosaur bones. Alex really loved it, I had to do Daniel’s.
Home – at home we’ve been playing outside, Daniel has been cooking (both pretend and real!), making and using play dough, playing on iPads, watching TV, and board games. 
Sometimes Alex adds some rules. We’ve also had our pets to look after, though to be honest that is mostly left to me! The kids don’t mind the feeding and egg collecting but are nowhere to be seen when cages and coops need cleaning! We started a bubble challenge that I read about in a science experiments book – you have to blow bubbles inside of bubbles on the table. Alex was really into it and spent ages doing it, he managed to get 3. Apparently the record is 4. We also finished the 65 storey treehouse and are waiting for the library to give us the next in the series. Whilst Vio and I put up a fence to stop the chickens from getting into our garden, the kids wanted to make something out of scrap wood with their own tools and so made some aeroplanes (Daniel’s idea). Daniel needed lots of help and Alex did lots of the hammering himself. We’ve also made paper rockets!
Gaming – Alex has been playing minecraft, and watching youtube videos about minecraft, as well as animal simulators. On one of Alex’s favourite minecraft channels they talked and showed a game called ‘monster legends’ and so we obtained and played that lots. Since the kids have been watching a lot of youtube, I decided to separate their accounts. It meant I needed another email address so i set one up for Alex and we wrote an email to Craig. It worked out well as Craig replied with pictures and they’ve continued to write. It’s a nice way for them to keep in touch 🙂 I also used Vio’s tablet to play with Alex and share his worlds. We had a good giggle 🙂
Alex – he’s been asking lots of questions lately, especially whilst we’re driving which can be frustrating as I can’t write them down if I don’t know how to respond, or I can’t give him my full attention as I’m focussing on our safety. His sports have mostly continued over the holidays. Although football has finished Vio is trying to organise some sessions for his age group. Alex also attended a little athletics trial day and all but begged to join up! He was very vocal and supportive in the relays. He’s been craving competition, this is a nice compromise since the focus is on PBs rather than placing. We’ve talked about not doing too much and he’s decided to drop swimming for the time being. We watched the movie ‘school of rock’, Alex loved it and danced – I love the way he shakes those hips!
We visited a park that we have not been to for a while. Alex was the biggest kid on the flying fox, and so he spent his time helping the younger, smaller kids retrieve it and get on. He kept them in order too. it was really nice to witness.
Daniel – there is just an explosion of speech with the little man. He’s been very hard to understand, even by us which we’ve had some concerns over but opted to give him time. I’m glad we did 🙂 He’s so animated and quite a character, very different to Alex and almost as loud! I think it’s going to be hard for him for a while as he watches Alex do things (sports/classes etc) that he can’t do and I’m really having to stop myself saying it’s because he’s too little. Understandably he gets upset!