Surprisingly, the 12 millipedes are still going strong! Alex doesn’t check them everyday anymore, but they get an occasional spray of water and some food. There are even seedlings growing inside the tank! Should probably check them out again…
Speaking of minibeasts, we took park in a Junior Rangers activity over the school holidays at Brimbank Park. It was fantastic! The kids got to see some nests, feathers and even animal poos! We then headed down to the weir where the kids were given nets and found minibeasts in the river. They collected them, and then got to look at them under the microscope. I think this was a wonderful activity for our little group as we have spent so much time here and they are becoming connected to a place. They got to see their place from a new perspective, a very close up one! Alex got to look at a millipede through the microscope which was especially relevant. I hope we can develop this sense of place, and conservation and friendships. Plus I now want a microscope!
Alex started swimming again as he requested. The lesson was a success, he enjoyed it and got to swim quite freely. He wasn’t really challenged though and he was more confident than the other kids though not much older. For now I’m happy he’s comfortable in water, and that he respects it. We’ll take it one week at a time and hope the instructor can maintain his interest so that he doesn’t look to make his own fun and become disruptive. We continued to swim after the lesson as I had taken Daniel into the water. We encouraged Daniel to blow bubbles, which he did, and Alex kicked his legs for him as I held him on his back. Alex was reluctant to leave the pool, which was a little frustrating as it’s hard to do much with Daniel at his age.
Alex reached the much anticipated milestone of 100 hours of karate. he was awarded a certificate, and a badge. He has been keen to sew on himself, but this was a bit more challenging than the merit stripes for his belt.
We decided to visit the zoo as we had not yet seen the gorilla baby. Alex was really keen, and after waiting very patiently to catch a glimpse he announced how cute it was and excitedly told Vio when we got home. It’s lovely to be able to go to places and take our time. There’s no pressure to look at everything – we get to really concentrate on where the kids are interested. Even changing our planned route if an opportunity presents. We of course went to the reptile house though!
On our way to the gorillas, we happened past the meerkats just as they were being fed mealworms. So we stopped to watch and learned a few things from the keeper too.
The much desired destination was Keeper Kids. We checked out the snake x-rays and Alex packed every snake into a single cage. There was a guided activity with some keepers that Alex sat in on. The keepers discussed a species of possom that lives in Victorian highlands in the snow. they took the kids through a health check which was quite interesting. Alex seemed engaged at least.
I love the zoo – I’m really itching to get to Healesville again. Hopefully soon 🙂