What Are We Up To?

The pets are all doing well, Zippy the rat went walk about for a couple of days but was found in the bottom of Stylish's chest of drawers this morning. The noisy myna will be ready for release soon, and is learning to catch it's own food by instinct very successfully.

Stylish is still going with the science textbook, and has been playing a geography game online, learning about the different provinces of Italy, now that she has the globe down pat.

Currently she is watching a show about some young British people who have traveled to India to work in a sweat shop factory. She is is awe of the low wages, stifling conditions, and the cost of groceries in comparison to the low wages. I suspect she will understand more about why we prefer second hand shopping, and perhaps think I'm less of a stickler for fair trade and more of a concerned world citizen.

How goes it?

It's rather busy here! I bought a 2nd hand science text book - although I have no idea why - and Stylish has started doing it off her own bat. She can't STOP doing it actually. Todays efforts were about food additives, pesticides, and a few other foody things. She raided out cupboard and read food labels, wrote down her findings, and was assisted by Spikee.

The bird is going well, it's drivimg me mad coz it's so loud, but hopefull it'll grow tail feathers and be ready to get back to nature soon. It's flying quite efficiently now, but apparently they grow tail feathers before they leave the next.

The rat is doing well too, but she still refuses to look at rat food. You wouldn't know that a few short weeks ago she was at death's door!

OPERATION I SMELL A RAT!

I've been considering getting myself a really big treat for my birthday, a daschund. Whilst scouring the internet looking for breeders, I came across an ad that JUST FELT WRONG. It said "Hi, if you need to re-home your pet rats, please email me. You can drop them off at my house. I have room for 7 rats all up, and offer the best care possible whilst I re-home your loved one" or words to that effect. It also described the rat this mystery person already owns, and gave some details about the happy existence it has. Soooo, feeling a little bit suspicious about this, I checked the contact email address and to my non-surprise I discovered that IT WAS STYLISH'S!

As tempted as I was to charge down the hallway, guns blazing, calling for blood, I decided that that particular method would not involve any lessons learnt, and may in fact just cause further tensions. So I thought carefully about what to do, and then contacted a few friends and asked for their assistance with this matter. One friend volunteered to email her and OPERATION I SMELL A RAT began!

My friends sent her some emails offering her rats! One had a litter of 12 that were of an undisclosed sex, and were only 2 weeks old. One had three male rats. One of the emails said ...

I have 6 rats, one has a resected bowel and needs regular care because it basically leaks diarrhoea constantly, but she's a real sweetie, very cute and cuddly. One of the other ones was born a siamese twin, it's twin was removed by the vet, but it still has one extra leg that couldn't be removed, and the scar is prone to infection so you need to be on to that - I'll bring you the rest of the antibiotic cream to put on it as well.

Thanks so much, I think it's great what you're doing.

and another said ...

Hello,

I saw your ad on xxxxxxxx and would like to offer you 3 pedigree Poodle Woollen Rats (One is fluoro pink, accident with highlighter I'm afraid), 1 Blueberry Rainforest rat, 1 White tailed Chocolate Rat and 1 Skipping Tree Rat. When could you take them off our hands? We are moving out of Cairns to Kuranda and need to get rid of them ASAP. I can throw in the cage and the dry food too.

L.

P.s The Skipping Tree rat bites. Suspect its not pedigree but a mutt given how close to the common garden rat it looks like. And it doesn't skip anymore.

She sent responses like

Hi

Oh I am so sorry but someone just abandoned two rats with litters and now I have 22 rats! I am having a hard time hand rearing 6 that the mother won't feed so I can give you a contact number for someone who can help as I can't?

and

Hello, OMG I would be so happy to help! but they would need their mother at that stage up until 6weeks so can can you deal with giving her up to? I am quite capable of helping I just raised a litter of rats with my mum that were found abandoned at my door step they were rehomed to a lovely woman

Then she sheepishly came into our bedroom (where A and I were muffling our laughter because we knew she'd just checked her email) and told me about a terribly sick rat that needed to come and be cared for by us. And then added something vague about how she'd put an ad on a website and then "forgotten about it" - not before we got two revolting, stinking male rats the size of your average Great Dane! And it was at this point that I said to her "You should be careful what you advertise on the internet, because YOUR MOTHER MIGHT FIND THE AD". She didn't cotton on, and repeated the case for the poor sick rat with 5 legs and a seeping wound ... so I repeated my sage advice, and suddenly she froze. She'd worked it out! She wanted to get angry at me, but she was laughing too hard, thank heavens!

Soooo, I think that a valuable lesson was learnt here tonight! There are lots of freaks on the internet, be glad it was your mother (and some freak with a pink rat!) who discovered this ad and not a real, dangerous, predator.

She has removed the ad now I'm pleased to say.

Rats, Birds, and Tennis

Today we went to Stylish's first tennis lesson with a bunch of home schooled kids, mostly about her age. Apparently it was BORING ... but isn't everything meant to be boring when you're nearly a teenager? I told her that she can do a few more lessons before she decided that she doesn't like it, then if she doesn't she can stop going. I thought if she REALLY hated it she'd kick up a stink but she barely managed a moan, so it can't be THAT bad.

The rat is almost back to full health! She still turns her nose up at rat food, but she eats so little that it's not really a big issue. After her ordeal recently we're just happy to have her, so if she wants boiled eggs and strawberries, I suppose she can just have it. She was well enough to go for a walk around the block on Stylish's shoulder this afternoon, and her coat looks so shiny and her eyes are so bright and sparkly!

The bird is sprouting feathers and starting to flap them enthusiastically. It's also formed quite a bond with Stylish, and this evening when it was tired it called and called until she went and got it, brought it into the room where she was watching tv, and sat it in her lap. The baby bird fell asleep straight away - birds are big on attachment parenting apparently! It's such a loud little thing, it has her up, feeding it nice and early every morning, she even tried to reunite it with it's family (unsuccessfully) because of it's early morning antics *I will not laugh*.

Our move to Tasmania is starting to look like a very real part of the future! In the next couple of months I will leave the kids here with A and fly down to look at a few places, then if we find one we're perfectly happy with we'll buy it. We plan on having the baby while we're here with a fantastic support group, everyone from our wonderful doula, to our midwife and my counselor! Then in October - or there abouts - we'll head on down to Antarctica! Spikee is very excited because one of the houses we looked at had snow on the front lawn, and Stylish wants a ferret (which we will not get, but she insists we will).

Bullying Builds Youth Suicide Rates, NOT RESILIENCE!

The other day someone told my daughter that if she were at school and bullies gave her a hard time, it would build resilience. Is this common opinion the reason we don't actually put forward any real methods of dealing with bullying? Because it's making kids resilient? Does violence in the home make children resilient?

How often do you hear of someone who was so damaged by bullying that they attempt, or even succeed to commit suicide? And plenty of adults are in therapy because of bullying.

Why do we take bullying in the work place seriously enough to let the law deal with it, and yet many incidences of bullying in the playground, where children are forbidden to leave, are all but ignored.

I know from personal experience, from the experiences I had attempting to deal with bullying when my daughter was in prison, to the many many anecdotal stories I hear from individuals as well as media outlets, that schools are completely inept when it comes to dealing with violence. I also know - and would like to stress - that violence is not just physical, it can be emotional, financial, verbal and I'm sure there are other varieties of violence too. A child does not need to be punched to be a victim of violence - threatening behaviour, name calling, stealing (money or other property), online bullying and stalking, and all manner of other beastly acts are VIOLENT.

Perhaps we need to re frame bullying as VIOLENCE because the word bullying has come to diffuse the seriousness of this abuse, and the ramifications for victims are all too often a lifetime of pain - or suicide.

SMH article - School Did Nothing

The Age article - School Is Where Most Bullying Occurs

CNN - 5th Grader Takes Own Life

Suicide.Org - School Bullying Advice

A Bird Story

Stylish's obsession with wildlife is gonna be the death of me! The neighbour found a baby bird and brought it to us because she knew A would know what to do with it. She took one look at it and said "that's a noisy myna, it's about two weeks old, they're nectivores, it'll fledge in about a week, and then be independent a week later" then bustled it inside and started feeding it honey water and cockroaches. To think, if she were at school she could be learning about .... gee I dunno!? And I doubt she could tell me THAT much about whatever it was.

I can't wait for this fortnight to be over ... they're not called noisy mynas for no reason.

A Ratty Update

The little rat who has been in labour for days seems to have taken a strange turn. We have a feeling that she was too young to give birth, she' is an extremely small rat - not that I ascribe to that school of thought, I know pelvises open, but she laboured for over 72 hours and no kittens appeared. Rats have babies in about 2 hours generally speaking. Sooooo she was exhibiting labour behaviour, lost blood, and didn't have babies for three days, leaving us all terribly worried that she would die of an infection. But miraculously, her swollen belly has gone down, and she appears to be on the mend - sans babies! The only explanation for this is that she is reabsorbing the babies, as can sometimes happen in small mammals.

She has been sleeping on Stylish's bed, we left her well alone in a darkened cage while she appeared to be straining in labour, when it looked like it was going to be a marathon effort we did give her honey water and lots of protein rich food every few hours. She seemed to want company but we didn't want to disturb her body in it's efforts to do what mother nature intended for rats to do. When her labour stopped she seemed so desperate for company, climbing up our hands when we put food in her cage for her. So we got her out and gave her lots of cuddles and spoiled her silly with tasty food.

After all the worry, when he eyes got bright, and she seemed to want to move about, and she was eating, drinking, pooing and weeing, we started to feel like there could be some hope, but she was still very weak and we didn't wanna get out hopes up too much. But it's been three days now and she really seems to be recovering! Last night after consuming half a strawberry she got up and walked out of her little nest. She walked about 30cm, and then back to her nest, which was the first time she had been able to do that. then over night Stylish woke up and went to check her and she had vanished, she was found in her favourite play spot, under Stylish's bed! She is still in her nest now, and refusing to eat rat food - why would you when you keep being given such exciting treats as strawberries, yogurt, and green tea?

So the vigil continues, but we are certainly hopeful that she will pull through.

School - Teaching Dependent Thinking

Since the fall of the World Trade Centres we have heard time and time again how Westernised education teaches children to think for themselves, whereas schooling where "our enemies" are from teaches children by rote, without provoking independent thought or an ability / desire to question the powers that be, and read between the lines. The reason they question our system of government is because they are not free thinking ... apparently.

However, I can't comment on any style of education outside that which I have been exposed to.

In Westernised countries children are supposedly being taught to think for themselves, however I really don't see much evidence of that. Take the adults we encounter daily - those who were schooled for between 11 and 13 years in our free thinking system. How many of them are totally horrified at the state of education within the institution, complain about it, can see how unhappy many children are, and yet feel that my choice to homeschool is a purely rebellious and dangerous act that disadvantages my children!?

It's the same with hospital birth. One can spend hours bemoaning the state of our hospitals, how people are dying from anti-biotic resistant super bugs, they are understaffed, staff are over tired and make mistakes (like amputating the WRONG LIMB!), cesareans are all to often performed for no good reason, equipment is old and out dated, and yet my home birth is crazy and dangerous?

Why is it that [almost] an entire society of people, who have reportedly learnt to think for themselves, and question the status quo, fail to see the irony?

Possibly because it's impossible to teach people to think. Thinking is a natural ability that everyone has. However the institution judges individual thoughts and grades them according to a list of criteria that don't necessarily support real thinking. Given that a criteria must be set, in order to judge pupils evenly, it's impossible to include all the realms of possibility in that critique. So some thoughts are judged to be valid, and some fall outside the criteria and are deemed to be a failure.

It's also possible that the peer pressure in schooling means that children actually spend more time learning to question what THEY are thinking, and deciding whether or not to voice that idea, than learning to confidently consider the personal truths behind their ideas.

Another very real possibility is that schools teach children that some things are not up for question, only certain things warrant deconstruction, and they will be laid out in front of students neatly - with pre-packaged plans for class discussion and the rest will stay in the closet. For example if a student questions part of the curriculum. That is NOT up for discussion. The teacher knows best, the curriculum has been designed with the students best interests at heart, and as such ... it is not up for discussion. Another example would be that any decision a teacher makes about punishment is final, no discussion will be entered into - any discussion will result in further punishment.

So there are permissible subjects, and illegal subjects of discussion within the institution. That must definitely sway a child's ability to question the powers that be. A group of kids sitting in the playground mumbling about how irrelevant a particular subject is to them, or how unjust a teacher has been, feel like little rebels. Not Free thinking, valid, smart, aware people! By the time that same group of little rebels hit adulthood they have most likely been brainwashed into believing that their free thoughts were no more than the quibbles of insignificant children - personally I find that very disturbing!

There is so little room for freedom within any given institution that it is impossible for them to cater to each individuals needs. And the people that are given the responsibility of raising functional humans, humans to populate the work force, and re-populate the education system , are mere products of that institution! Drones! And one of the greatest lessons they learnt in school is that they are living in a free thinking country, surrounded by free thinking, FREE, citizens.

Dissent is silenced in our culture - something we are very fast to criticise other countries for! But the truth is that people are put in prison for expressing some views, they are chalked up as loonies, and laughed at by the wider community. For example, those who believe that the World Trade Centre attack was actually a government plan. Regardless of the merits of such an idea, the people who have used their free thinking skills to research and document their arguments are labelled as dangerous dissenters, little more than crack pots. Journalists who have reported - or attempted to report - these views are fired depending on the light in which they air this angle.

But surely, if we live in such a free thinking, free speech generating society, these ideas shouldn't be so threatening! They should receive the polite respect due to each individual when they express their opinion, shouldn't they?

I used to believe that schools were the only way to educate children - but I knew their limitations, I used to think that hospitals were the only safe place to give birth - but I knew how dangerous they were! I wasn't thinking for myself when I sent my child to school, or when I gave birth to her in a hospital. I didn't know there were alternatives! Our free society hadn't informed me that I had any choices in either matter. I used to think that terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into big buildings, killing thousands of innocent people. I still think that, but I now question whether or not there was government involvement behind the plot. The US Government would not be the first government to do something that harmed its' citizens in order to sway political direction.

In order for children to receive a full, free thinking education, in order to make them genuinely free individuals who can raise more free thinking individuals, we must give children BOTH sides of the argument, and allow them to discuss freely their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. For this to happen, schools must operate on a democratic system - something our country is unable to do. We must allow children the right to be children, allowing them complete bodily integrity (eat when hungry, pee when the need arises without seeking permission, seek comfort when necessary etc etc) allowing them to voice their views, follow their own interests, learn at their own pace, be judged against themselves and not other students, and most of all children must grow to understand and meet their own needs at a time that suits them. No institution can offer that, the fact that they claim to is worrying.

At home my children live in a far left wing, secular environment, but we openly discuss the views of the middle left, right, and far right. We not only discuss them, we try to imagine why these people hold their views so closely - the same way we do. We discuss religion and validate the rights of all people to choose and follow a religion. We allow our children to research subjects that interest them without telling them that any subject is not worthy of their interest (although I struggle with the monster truck as a worthy interest) or suggesting other subjects that society may consider more valid and useful.

My children will learn to think for themselves. They will epitomise everything our society is meant to foster .... their views will likely differ from the views of the state, and other schooled children but, for that I am glad! My children will be free thinking individuals! Unfortunately they will reside in a society that views it's greatest attribute to be one that it is not even in possession of - FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH.

Events ....

Today Stylish's rat started acting strangely. We have a friend who is very involved in the local Fancy Rat Society, ans as soon as she heard our rat was being strange she came straight over to have a look. One look determined that she is in labour .... so we are about to be overrun with small fur free rodents - DRAT!

We went out for lunch today and on the way home we stopped in at vinnies. I found a jumper for myself, a green earthy t-shirt for Stylish, and a mauve pair of skinny leg jeans (apparently these are desirable items!?) that fit her PERFECTLY. it's like they were tailor made! I also got two triangular "made in Japan" brand plates, a Katherine Kerr book, and a fantastic book from the Eye-spy that is all about archaeology. Hopefully one of them will take an interest in it at some stage! All up, my shopping spree cost $19

I am now half way through a pregnancy, and feeling quite excited! The baby is starting to get quite active and I feel a lot of wriggling throughout the day. The kids are thrilled and keep asking me when the baby will be born, and being disappointed with my same old, same old answer. Spikee keeps insisting that he will be asleep when the baby is born, and if his prediction is correct then there's nothing we can do, he won't wake up, no matter how exciting the reason! Stylish should be about though, so at least one of them will witness the arrival of their sibling!

General happenings

Spikee has started to take a real interest in reading. We spent a whole bus ride today discussing B is for Bus and D is for Dinosaur and so on and so forth, and I had to read all the signs to him. Tonight I'm thinking of showing him the Reading Eggs website and seeing if he's interested.

It's fascinating watching a child start to develop an interest in reading and writing, and not feeling like they need to go to school to learn. Knowing they will simply absorb it by immersing them self in daily life is such an amazing thing!

Stylish's latest obsession is birds and bird nests. She's become a regular bird watcher and can identify different types of birds and their nests. She's learning about which birds are native and which have been introduced, can tell you how long a baby bird stays in its' nest and when it learn to fly, what they eat (pigeons feed their young MILK!?!?!?!), the different names for the birds, depending on what they eat and so on and so forth. She even floated the idea of becoming an ornithologist ... but I'm confident we'll be back to frogs soon.

The maths obsession continues, and her quest to learn all her times tables (up to 12) is going unbelievably well. nearly seven years in a school failed to teach her what she's self taught herself in a matter of weeks. Her confidence in her mathematical ability has sky rocketed and it's really lovely to see the change from "I'm hopeless at maths" to "I can do this now, I just had to WANT to do it!".

We are thinking of moving to Tasmania towards the end of the year and buying a house there. There are several reasons to move to Antarctica ... I mean Tasmania. Firstly it means we can buy a house and have a very tiny mortgage on it, whereas if we stay here we would need a huge mortgage and be unable to afford holidays and other little joys like dining out. Also, the weekly repayments on a tiny mortgage are quite literally only 10% of the cost of our current rental property! Secondly it means we will be able to afford a solar panel! I want a solar panel because a) they're environmentally sustainable and b) it will cut our power bills dramatically - making living even more affordable! I also want a water tank for the same reasons. Thirdly and, possibly one of my greatest motivators, we will have the room for chickens and maybe even a couple of ducks! Plus a big veggie garden and a green house, and a dog! The lifestyle change will be dramatic, from living in a major city to living in a glorified country town (we're looking at places just outside Hobart), and I expect it will do us all the world of good! A move towards a more sustainable lifestyle is the greatest gift you can give your children in my opinion.

General happenings

Stylish has been asking questions that are long multiplication so yesterday I sat down with her and reminded her how to do them. She had so much fun she asked for more. She seems to struggle with which column to put the carried over numbers in, and then forgets which one to add on when she is faced with that column, but it's nothing practice won't straighten out. Amazingly enough she seems to really know her times tables now, and that's more than half the work in this type of sum.

Spikee was very impressed with his sister doing maths and announced that he wanted to do some too, so I wrote numbers and he scribbled over them. He is starting to be familiar with some numbers, I'm sure Stylish could read all her numbers by now, but I could be wrong.

So many kids hate school!

How many children begin each day begging their parents not to send them to school? And how many parents listen to their kids and keep them home, and how many offer useless placation and send their kids off in tears?

In order to live a full and healthy life we rely on four essential functions, according to Patricia Evans, feeling, sensate, intuitive and thinking. There are many ways we damage these basic functions in children, and forced schooling is the cause of plenty damage.

A child cries about not wanting to go to school because every day this week they have been picked on. The child uses their intuitive function to predict what will occur today, and yet the parent brushes this aside telling the child "it'll be alright, you don't KNOW what today will bring".

A child cries because they can not compete with their peers in an academic or physical subject, and the parent tells them "go on, try your hardest, you can do it". The child uses their feeling function to understand anguish, and the parent ignores their feelings - obviously with good intentions, but it is still ignoring a function the child is using to navigate their way through their day.

Intuition and feeling are very powerful and useful, crucial, senses, however we are socially conditioned to use our "thinking" function above all else, and the thinking function can not give us all the information we need for decision making. The other functions are viewed as weaknesses, failings, little more than an inconvenience in all things, from work to relating to other people.

Many of the parents who send their children to prison despite their tears are switching off their intuitive function in order to do so. Using their "thinking" function to override their intuition, telling themselves that the benefits of education outweigh the negatives of the "feeling" function of their child, and the child's intuitive fear. This is something that the parents of the parent most likely drummed into them in order to raise fully functional human beings. It has somehow become the norm to use only the thinking function to the detriment of all other functions, and the detriment of the human beings being raised to ignore such essential parts of themselves.

What does this teach children?

In order to be a successful human in our "dog eat dog" world, we rely on all the senses, and we rely on a connection to them, within ourselves to be fully functional, independent, whole beings. When we ignore a child's functional senses, we teach them to disconnect from themselves, we teach them that our thinking function is more worthy than their intuitive or feeling function. When in actual fact ALL of these things must operate together for harmony to exist within us, and we must be aware of them for them to guide us. We are teaching our children to disconnect from their inner voices, voices which may one day be relied upon in life and death situations .... and yet by then they are unable to access them, or they do not value the messages their senses are sending them.

I am well aware the homeschooling isn't a viable option to a lot of people, but I do believe that it's an option to more people than ever consider it. If homeschool isn't an option for you because you have court orders preventing you from making decisions by yourself, if you are a sole, working parent, or any other myriad of reasons prevent you from learning at home, you can still listen to your child and validate their feelings. You can work with them to find a solution for their aversion to schooling. You can employ a counselor, demand the school steps up to the plate and meets the needs of your child, you can look at changing schools to a school that has a different approach to the particular problem your child is encountering, or you can simply allow your child to have a "mental health day" now and again to relieve some of the stress.

If more parents did this the world would be a happier, more functional place! Our children would be healthier, less inclined to experiment with sex and drugs, and able to form more complete adult (and youthful) relationships with both themselves, other people, and the world around them. Imagine a world where children learnt to use all their feelings, without ever judging the value of one above another, and they grew up to raise children the same way!

Here are some other ways to value and encourage your child to develop all their senses and functions.

• If your child falls over, don't tell them it didn't hurt and that they'll be ok. Just hold them close and comfort them quietly.
• If your child tells you they don't like a particular food, don't tell them that it's actually tasty - you probably don't like green cordial, and couldn't be convinced of its' virtues.
• If your child doesn't like a particular relative don't tell them the relative is nice, they should get to know them, let your child feel protected by you.
• If your child does not wish to have physical contact with a particular person do not force it upon them, who cares if the adult is upset, it's your job to protect your child, not another adult's feelings.
• If your child finds something too difficult, don't tell them it's easy, they will either grow into the skill or find other skills which they can accomplish easily.

A day at the MCA

Today we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art with a group of home schoolers. The museum has a fantastic collection showing at the moment, by a Danish artist called Olafur Eliasson.

These are a couple of his works that we saw. There is a tunnel of mirrors and lights, when you walk through one way it's colourful, but the other side of the points which jut out is black so that when you walk through it that way you are in a dark tunnel. There is a room painted white that is lit by yellow lights so that everything in the room (people can walk in) is a rather off putting shade of yellow, and a darkened room with a fine mist of water that light shines on, creating a rainbow. If you stand right under the water you see a perfect circle of a rainbow in front of you, it's rather impressive!

There is also 300kg of white lego which the children were allowed to build things with, they spent an hour at least making houses and towers and various other creative things, then storing them at the side of the room where everyone else's creations were displayed.

Midwife appointments have begun!

I forgot to mention that we have selected a midwife and that we had our first appointment. Spikee was so keen to hear a heart beat but the baby wasn't in a cooperative mood, so all her heard was about two beats, and a lovely cord swishing along. He is so excited about the baby, he has millions of things planned, from taking the baby and his dinosaur (the imaginary friend who has come to roost) for walks, to teaching the baby to ride a bike, and having booby with the baby (assuming he doesn't wean over the next few months) having a bath with the baby .... in fact he has planned out the baby's entire life already!

We have been watching homebirths on youtube partly because it caters to his interests and also because we want him well prepared for when I go into labour. Stylish has seen it twice already, she's an old hand at these things, but even despite that she's very excited, and I hear her telling Spikee about it quite often. I was going to have a spare doula here to care for the kids when I'm in labour, but I think that she will be ok to care for him, and we will have a doula here anyway. Stylish has talked to Spikee about all the fun things they can do when I'm in labour, like drawing, playing with their animals, watching dvd's, helping mum have drinks, taking photos, and baking a cake. She has also told him that he has to choose an outfit for the baby to wear and put it inside his shirt to warm it up ready for the baby, like she did for him .... not that he got to wear it.

Full steam ahead!!! Baby number four here we come! (baby number three was stillborn in hospital)

Accidental days of learning

Yesterday we decided to head into the city for the day, we had no plans, we just wanted to go out for the day. We found ourselves in China Town watching Chinese Dragon dancing and eating Indian food - oh, the kids had Japanese food, they had sushi.

From there we caught a bus to Circular Quay and wandered down the length of the quay seeing street performers like a didgeridoo player and a man who rides the tallest unicycle in the world (according to him). Spikee was very impressed with the show, he rode a small unicycle and juggled fire, rode it while skipping, jumped over a child on it, and then rode the 4 meter high one and juggled.

From there we wandered around the Opera House, and into the Botanical Gardens where the kids ran amok for a couple of hours. I had forgotten how lovely the gardens are, with the harbour right there, and the bridge and the Opera House all looming large. The kids were amazed by all the flying foxes up the trees, and because it was late afternoon some of them were starting to wake up so they were chatty amongst their batty selves!

Then we decided that we had had such a lovely day it would be a shame to end it there, so we walked from the Quay to the city and had Italian for dinner before catching a train home. A fun day was had by all, and I'm sure there was some accidental learning involved.

I like my kids!

Sometimes when I'm chatting to complete strangers and the subject of schooling comes up, quite often their response to home learning is "oooh I couldn't COPE with that, I need a break!". I'm not some super mother, it's just that I like my kids and I don't desperately crave time away from them. In fact the reason I had children was to spend time with them - that's a radical notion in some circles!

Even when my daughter was in prison I was practically the only parent in the playground not bemoaning the upcoming holidays, and complaining about what we were going to do to keep them happy for that extensive period ... of two weeks!

I read an article in the news paper the other day about the cost of children on holidays and was quite honestly gob smacked! They were making out like the only way to keep kids happy was to take them to expensive places and buy them expensive food that is guaranteed to contain trans-fats and be completely devoid of any nutritional value. Then the did a list of a day at the movies, which was complete with popcorn, chocolate, ice creams, and soft drinks. And a list of a day at the cricket which was just as silly.

I'm not a big consumer, I couldn't afford to be one for the longest time, and now that we have a little bit more money about we're used to doing things on a shoe string budget so we still do. A day at the museum costs us practically nothing. We usually take our own healthy food, we are members at the museum thanks to my father who gives us membership for xmas, and we don't spend much at the gift shop. So all up that's about $30, including transport, not the $109 average the news paper claimed a day out cost. Even when we go to the movies we take our own drinks, and a snack, and we only buy a small popcorn - how much popcorn do you need?

But cost aside, the main issue people have with with homeschool is spending time with their children, and never having a break. I wonder if part of why they don't like their children is because of the influence school has on them. My own experience of a schooled vs unschooled child is that they are complete polar opposites. My schooled child was often bored, usually rude, resistant to expressing who she genuinely was and often got about in the persona of some crazed little brat who I was sure wasn't my child! The deschooling process was complicated -and I believe it's a long term endeavour when your child has spent so long being indoctrinated, and struggling to be an individual within an institution (and credit to her for maintaining so much self under all that pressure!).

But despite the fact that nearly six years of resisting pink, fashion, shopping (like it's some amazing and self improving activity), continuing to study frogs, stick insects, enjoy sport, and wear clothes she liked rather than what her peers wore, that stuff still rubbed off on her. And when she was being one of her peers instead of being herself she wasn't the greatest child to be around .... but I still looked forward to holidays!

I wondered what would happen to our relationship when peer pressure wasn't steering us off course. I wasn't sure that removing her from the system would actually bring her back into herself, sure I'd heard all about it, but from what I was living it didn't seem entirely possible. However I was keen to try, I wanted to be more involved in her life, I wanted to spend more quality time with her, and I wanted to see if we couldn't just peel back some of that unpleasant exterior and relocate Stylish under it all. Over the course of a bit over a year we have done just that!

I like my children, I like spending time with them, but I can't wait for the school holidays to end now, so we can go back to the museum when it's empty, and the pool when there's only one grandma in the slow lane and us with the whole leisure area to ourselves. So ... for me, it took homeschooling to make me dread the holidays, and wish for them to end. But for very different reasons than I hear from other parents. It's sad that people don't like their children, and I really wonder if it's their children or the institutionalised versions of them that they don't like.

Plans for 2010

After a discussion about the difference between the UK and the USA I decided to make some plans, or at least set some goals for this year. We're going to look at some maps and learn where countries, and continents and big cities are. We're also going to do some history because I believe history and geography are very closely linked ... Queen Victoria didn't rule from the USA.

So today on my way home from the city I stopped in at a great discount book shop and bought some books about prehistoric people, Ancient Egyptians, and the Crusades. Spikee got some dinosaur ones and a crocodile one. They were all $1 each which is a bit of a bargain! Stylish also got a book all about interesting rat facts (interesting to her anyway - spare me from hearing more) which she has already buried her head in for half an hour. I managed to get myself a book to! It's called The Heretic Queen, and it's about Queen Nefertari and how she came to marry Ramses II. It starts out beautifully, I started to read a little bit on the bus home but then realised Spikee was falling asleep so I spent the rest of the trip talking about lively things.

Last week end we bought Stylish a new bike! Her old one was getting too small, knees hitting handle bars is a good indicator that you've outgrown your bike, plus it was kind of rusty. We were going to lay by one for her birthday but then we saw the perfect bike on sale so we grabbed it and it came home that same day. She is overjoyed with it - despite the fact it's pink. I actually think it's a lovely pink! And I suspect it's grown on her too, I doubt this will cause a pink revolution in the house though.

more pics

holiday pics

Fishing at Questacon, REAL fishing, the spa with some boys in it, us playing which who in Goulburn!

about time I updated!

We're home from our holiday, and it's probably time I posted some pics and told you all a bit about our trip! We had a great time down south, the kids loved the camping and so did we, but we liked the 4.5 star hotel on the way home even more (don't tell the kids).

Our two nights in Shoal Haven were pleasant, we spent some time walking up and down the beach opposite the hotel, and swimming, and playing "which who" (otherwise knows as Guess Who) and just generally relaxing. I was suffering from pregnancy exhaust so I particularly enjoyed sleeping in and afternoon napping!

From Shoal Haven we drove straight on to the camping ground at Eden which is on the northern coast of NSW. Eden used to be the biggest whaling community in Australia, and the whole world for that matter. The camping ground was lovely, our only complaint would be that they had too many people there, but that's to be expected at that time of year I guess.. Stylish spent the entire time begging to go fishing so one of the first things we did was ask the locals where the best fishing spot was.

She spent many hours at the pier casting her line out, chopping up bait, and catching and releasing fish that were undersized. We did manage to bag one that was a good size though, and she killed it, gutted it, and filleted it all by herself (with adult direction). Spikee was also very keen on fishing but we tried to keep him away from the pier as much as we could because he is so active we were worried he'd go over the edge! But he did spend some time sitting in his cow chair holding a broken rod and enjoying the general experience. My favourite part of the fishing was seeing little fur seals diving about just off the pier. I got so excited when I saw them that I nearly cried (I'm such a sap)

On NYE the kids had a party next to the tent, they had junk food and then played with plastic dinosaurs til late. The camp ground had a pool and a mini golf course which we all spent lots of time enjoying. Spikee kept calling it cricket so for the first few days we had no idea what he was talking about.

We went to the whaling museum in Eden and spent a rather long time there! I expected we'd be done in half an hour like at most small town museums, but we spent a good two hours there learning all about whaling in Australia. It was both heart breaking and fascinating. Eden is now a thriving whale watching community but once upon a time it was the biggest whaling port in the world. There was an Orca called Old Tom who actually worked with the whaling ships and his pod to herd baleen whales into the port where they were slaughtered. This worked for the orca's well because they cooperated with the whalers and they got to eat their fill - mostly lips and tongues apparently - before leaving them to the whalers. The view from the museum was spectacular! Gorgeous blue ocean, red rocks, and luscious green grass on rolling hills.

We went to Merimbula twice and saw the aquarium there. The kids sat for ages infront of a large tank spotting all the different fish that we could eat if we could catch them. We saw Tasmanian Sea-Horses, huge lobsters, cuttle fish, an amazing octopus, and heaps more. We also went to the vinnies there and scored a few excellent things. Stylish got some great clothes, and I bought some Hairy Maclary books for Spikee that were in perfect condition, and a set of overalls for the baby.

From Eden we decided to drive inland all the way home because the coastal highway is dodgy at best, and also because we always go up the coast and we thought inland might be nice for a change! We drove from Eden to Canberra in about 4 hours, and decided to stop there for a break and visit Questacon (what used to be called the science museum I think). The kids had a blast pushing buttons, going in the earth quake machine, watching lightning being made, creating tsunami's, playing on the computers and so much more. The end of our visit to Questacon was slightly eventful though because when we got back to the car we discovered that A had left eh headlights on and flattened the car battery. Fortunately we always travel with jumper cables, and after pushing the car into a good position a women helped us.

So from Canberra it took us a bit over an hour to get to Goulburn where we found a nice hotel and went to ground for three nights. Ordering room service, swimming at the pool, soaking in the spa that was in our room, and just generally enjoying being back in semi civilisation!

So that's what we got up to on our holiday! We had a blast and hope to do it all over again some times soon! It might be a bit enthusiastic, but in the middle of the year when A has time off coz we have a baby we might nick off up the coast again. No camping though, cabins all the way!