Water testing

Once a month P and I do water testing on a couple of local creeks for the Mary River Catchment Co-ordination Commity.

It's a great excuse to go and hang out in these gorgeous places for a couple of hours.

And a great lesson for the kids about the science behind the water testing instruments and about reasons why we need to test the water. To keep it clean, to make sure no chemicals are entering the water way, to make sure the fish can survive.

Even though the water was too cold for me to swim, it's never too cold for the fearless Mr T!

I love this place. This is our closest swimming hole and it's great during Summer as the water is shaded and nice and cool.

The branches of these teatrees amaze me how they grow out over the water on such an angle.

The family chilling on our favourite sitting rock in the middle of the creek.

One of my favourite rainforest trees. Weeping Lilly pilly.

One of the lovely cascades.

Tui the rain forest fairy.

Why do I parent the way I do?

There are people out there who may think that I practice attachment parenting and home school my children because it is a lifestyle choice or because it is the current hippy fad or because I like to be different. Well for these people I'd like to set the record straight.
I parent the way I do because I happen to believe, through years of research (which is alot more thinking time than some put into their parenting) that it is the best way to treat children. I may not be doing a perfect job but I'm trying hard, damn hard!
I have come to my beliefs through thinking about how I was raised, the effects the school system had on me, through observations of society and through reading tons of literature on the subject.
There are knockers out there who don't even try to understand my perspective, they just shake their heads as if dismissing me as a crazy hippy.
Take for example Co-sleeping ie. sleeping with your children until they want their own beds. Here are some of the stupid comments I have received over the years.
"You're just pandering to the whims of a 'baby'"
"It's all very lovey and hippy but I couldn't do it I wouldn't be comfortable enough"
"You are just spoiling them"
"Aren't you afraid you are going to squash them?"
SERIOUSLY people, wake up and smell the cheese...there is no other mammal on Earth that rejects its infants the day they are born and puts them away from the mother to sleep. There is no other mammal on Earth that does not respond to an infants distress signal (ie. crying). For that matter no other mammal feeds their infants crap instead of breast milk.
We have all the scientists in the world trying to work out why there is so much crime, so little love and compassion and so much loneliness out there and the answer is obvious to me. If you are not treating infants and children how they need to be treated then they are going to grow up into fucked-up adults.
To be totally honest I believe leaving a baby to cry itself to sleep is child abuse.
I do usually try to understand how other people raise their children but I just had enough because they don't respond in kind.
Criticism from people who don't have children, people who raise their kids the way they were raised because "it didn't do me no harm" just doesn't cut it.
If you want to criticise me at least come up with an intelligent, logical argument, AND listen to my side as well.
And I home school because I want my children to love life and learning. The school system as it currently operates is a place to learn conformity, bullying, competition, low self-esteem, humiliation.
I don't believe that everyone should home school. I believe that the education system can't be fixed by a few tweeks here and a few tweeks there. It needs to be re-built from the ground up by some real education and child experts. People who understand that it is about individuals not systems, results, outcomes and school performance.
Just imagine if you dare, a world full of compassionate, kind, caring adults. People who feel free enough to do what they want to do. People who are happy because they are doing what they love. Individuals who feel good about themselves because they had their real fill of love as infants and children and they weren't forced prematurely into institutions that killed off their innate joy.
Imagine that and then tell me that the way I choose to raise my kids is just a choice like what to wear or which movie shall I go see?

My homeschooling overview

Home Education and Home schooling are general terms which encompass any style of learning that is based in the home, not in an educational institution. I personally prefer the term Home Education as it is a much broader term and because Home schooling seems to imply we educate our children in the same way a school does but we do it at home.
It is a common misperception amongst the general population that home schooling is a copy of the school system; that our days are run on a school type model, e.g. that we have a set starting time, lessons, break, lessons, lunch, more lessons etc and that home schooling parents ‘act’ as teachers, implementing programs, discipline and generally controlling the learning environment. Some Home Educators do work in this way but many don’t.

Distance Education or Correspondence School is most like school at home. Children are enrolled in a learning institution and learn this set curriculum. Depending on the institution there is more or less contact with teachers. Some Home Educators purchase ready made curricula or design there own and also stick to a more school like style.

But even with these school-like styles of Home Ed. The average day is still a lot more flexible than a normal school day. You can start at a time that suits your family, there is no rush to get up in the morning, find a clean uniform, get dressed, hurry breakfast, clean teeth and rush to the school bus or through peak hour traffic.
You don’t need set break times. This is great as the children can eat, drink and play when they most feel like it. They can eat while they work or not if they are not hungry. Many homeschooled children are more in tune with the natural rhythms of their bodies and the days and seasons instead of being in tune to a preset time-table.
There is so much time saved in one-on-one teaching. No time wasted settling down a class of 30 individuals, no disruptive behaviour from other kids. Children don’t have to work at appropriate levels to stay with the work the class is doing. No need to do colouring in to pass the time because you finished first, no rushing work because of time-limits.
No homework, it is all done during the day. And days are flexible, if Wednesday is busy, do school on Saturday.


Other Ways
Traditional Home Ed was taught as above but as more parents re-evaluate what education and learning actually mean many alternative approaches to Home Education are emerging. Some of these are Natural learning, Child-led Learning and Unschooling.

All of these terms have fairly open definition. As they are ideas that differ from the main stream approach there are many interpretations of what each means. Some parents choose not to define their learning style at all but do what naturally feels right.
Child led Learning is about following the interests of the child. Letting these interests define the learning program. It is a very broad term and can be used by some to describe how they come up with their child’s curriculum. For example if a child is interested in Dragons the parent might create maths, science, English lessons all around this theme.
Others use the term child led learning to indicate a more free schooling approach. Learning occurs around whatever the child is interested in at the time.

Natural Learning Philosophy believes that children (in fact all of us) have an innate desire to learn. We are born with curious minds and will learn no matter what context we are in. Children will naturally lean to learning about the things that interest them and lead them on their life’s path. Some parents integrate natural learning in a curriculum based way while for others in leads to a whole different approach.

Unschooling is more a whole parenting approach than just an educational philosophy. Unschooling uses no curricula. It embraces the ideas of child lead learning and natural learning and extends them to let the child live a free life; free from any kind of manufactured education. It relies on a trust in the child. And treats them as an equal and intelligent person who given the freedom will follow there own destiny and learn everything they need to know in this life.
It questions the validity of Society’s definitions of ‘must-have’ knowledge. It questions the traditional beliefs about raising children; parenting is no longer a power struggle with adult imposing their will over the child but an equal journey of mutual respect.

The Kings Birthday

It was my darling boys birthday yesterday. He was very excited to be turning five.

Playing his new drum that Zan re-strung for him

When he woke up he asked me if he could be King for the day, to which I replied that he could...funny because in this part of the world it was a public holiday for the Queens Birthday. So it was the King and Queens Birthday here!

We gave him a card and inside was the first clue to a teasure hunt so he could find his presents.

Zan carrying him around the block on his treasure hunt...the grass was cold and wet and

Mr T was too excited to go and put shes on!!!

His first pressie was an old van! I have been clearing it out for weeks. It has served as a storage area for a couple of years since was no longer drivable. But most of the stored stuff really wasn't worth keeping. I love throwing stuff away! Add a bit of paint, a bean bag and some pillows inside and you've got a new cubby house.

A beautiful birthday kiss..

Tui loves wraping paper!!!

Later in the morning our homeschool group turned into a birthday celebration.

Mr T and his best frend Little Red up a tree.

the girl on the trampoline...

duck, duck, goose...Zan, organizing some games for all the litle ones...

As usual everyone brought lush food to share, such yummy healthy food...it makes me drool just thinking about it.

But the cake, well, as unhealthy as could be...with mounds of chocolate and cream...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR T

Homeschool xmas party

Yesterday we went to a homeschoolers end of year party. It was at a caravan park, which is kind of a wierd venue but this caravan park is more like a caravan resort. There was a swimming pool, spa, minigolf, tennis court, cinema and this really cool 20m long jumping pillow. Kind of like a jumping castle...heaps of fun.

The kids all really enjoyed themselves and it was good to see so many over homeschoolers. There were over a hundred children!

AND I also met up with an on-line friend. Yay, it was really good to meet you in-real-life Valley Sprite.

Today the weather was very tropical. Stinking hot all morning and then an afternoon thunder storm. So sticky and hot we went to the river to cool off.

My beautiful girls

My Beautiful Boys

Tui had a swim for the first time. It was so beautiful to watch her exploring the water. She'd wave her arms and splash around and then looked really shocked when the water splashed her in the face. It was so cute.







This afternoon I noticed that the cactus is in flower. They don't last longer than a day so I had to get a snap before morning when they will probably be gone.