The Wonder of Learning

One of the best things about having children is watching them discover the world around them in which they live.  I love watching them develop their own interests and believe me they are all so different. I am a firm believer of not leading a child to interests and channeling them into something that you are interested in, no matter what age but especially when they are young.  Yeah sure its easy to introduce and to get excited about things that you like personally.  For me its much easier to get enthusiastic about reading and crafts etc than it is about soccer, gaming and dogs. But I do my best to be interested in these topics especially if they are giving me a blow by blow account of a particular on screen battle or the detailed account of the latest soccer game.  I enjoy knowing that my kids are enjoying things and pursuing the things they love.  Haven't quite got my head around the dog thing though!  Of course a lot of children who are regularly exposed to interests of their parents do tend to develop the same interests along the way.

So at present I am really enjoying watching wee Jesse (20mths) discover his world and develop such an intense passion and interest for tractors, diggers, (any heavy machinery actually), drumming and animals.

The look of immense excitement on his face when he spies a tractor three paddocks over or he hears a cow mooing in the distance is truly priceless!  So you can imagine his reaction when the calves in the paddock next door naughtily broke out of their pen and broke through the fence and into our section.  All his Christmases had come at once!

 Sneaky sneaky calves!

When I can't find Jesse, over the fence is the first place I look and today was no exception. 

 Can you see him?

How about now?

Jesse making conversation with a captive audience!

No fear just totally curiosity!

No 147 was extra abiding and came up close for a pat!

We have to make nearly daily trips to see the calves! 

And of course Jesse loves to play in the sawdust too!

This week also saw excitement for my eldest son Casey (13) he finally was able to purchase (with the help from a blessing from a friend) his long time dream to upgrade from an ordinary bow and arrow like below.

To this serious looking 'now-we-are-talking' compound bow and all its paraphernalia!

He has been saving and patiently waiting for one of these and I love that he has finally has exactly what he wanted! Like any parent, I just want to see my kids happy and happy he is!!!

I am dying to have a go..but haven't yet!  I am now sure I would be able to pull it back!

Most of you would know that we are a homeschooling family and one of the driving forces behind our home school is interest based learning.  Over the week I have watch my youngest son nearly fall of his chair with excitement over finding video clips of 'real life' machines, shove a book on Cranes in my face 57 times a day and drum in rhythm with knitting needles and pots to music.  I have witness my eldest son research, read and write about bows, the history of bows, the parts of a bow and read bow hunting articles with an enthusiasm I just love. This is learning people - self directed learning. And it blesses the socks off me!

I think we are going to have to purchase a drum kit in the near future! 

 He does this every single day!

Somewhere along the way though for a lot of children this passion, this intense drive to learn everything there is to know about something gets lost along the way.  Why is this I wonder?  Are they too busy?  Is there too many options out there to learn about, to know at a deeper level?  Do we parents not nurture or encourage the interest because it doesn't interest us?  Do we not value this kind of learning as true learning?

Thoughts??

What are your children passionate about??

Spring in Pictures (mostly)

Spring is always a busy time for us, for you, and probably for every living thing actually.

And busy we have been.  Trying to find time to write has proved very difficult for me and I made it worse for myself when I severely reduced the amount of screen time for the kids.  I feel a little hypocritical sitting looking at a screen when the kids are around.  So that left me evenings but by the time all the kids are in bed and I have settled Jesse (if he could ever be settled) it was nearly 9pm.  Too tired to write and spend the all important time with my husband.  I don't know how people find time to watch copious amounts of TV!

 

But today is FRIDAY and in our house we make Friday part of our weekend, as Sunday can be a pretty busy day. Jamie is home, we don't do any formal school work. Its a day to catch up on any neglected housework, garden projects and just to be together without any pressure of having to do anything or be anywhere.

 

I love spring. I love the promise it holds of  the summer to come, the holidays to come, the space to enjoy the outdoors and being able to breath deeply in the midst of family and friends.  Bliss!

 

I just love photos of kids on fences especially when you have backdrops like this!!

 

Lots has been happening around here.  From new arrivals to preparing and planting the gardens, from building to cleaning.

 

 

Finally we have been able to keep the egg laying contained in one area. 

 

 For a good while our eggs were hidden in secret places. Gives new meaning to the term 'going on an egg hunt'. 

 

One of Jamie's building projects.  A pallet potting bench.

I think it is pretty fantastic if you ask me.

 

We have had power outages. 

 These are always an experience when you have got children around.  The just love to find EVERY SINGLE candle in the entire house and light them all and usually by that time the power has come back on.

 

This handsome wee man has started walking! 4 weeks shy of his first birthday he has been toddling around for a few weeks now.  To me he seems too little to be walking.  None of the others have ever walked that early.  Where has my baby gone?

 

 

 I always love watching babies and small people play. I love seeing the fascination of discovery on their faces.

                               

 

Planting of produce is always an exciting thing.  It is many many weeks before the novelty of checking on seedlings  and their progress will wear off.

 

This year we have 13 Tomato plants in.  Is that too many?  I'll tell you come autumn I may have had enough of chutney making by then>

 

Looking forward to this years passion fruit crop. I am hoping it will be better than last years where I think we only got 14.  What should I plant along the bottom here?  Its a south facing wall.  I am thinking a crop of lettuces. Any other suggestions?

 

Super duper excited about seeing the amount of raspberries that are beginning to bud.  Hopefully we will get to them before the birds do (and I am hoping I'll get to them before the kids do)

 I am in love with my six climbing beans.  They all have names (don't pretend you don't name your plants too)

We have George, William, Harry, Charles, Edward and Andrew.

 Royal names for royal looking beans, all standing there like upper class gentlemen.

 

Seven cute and fluffy ducklings.  Mama ducks is fiercely protective of them.  we have since taken her away from them in hope that we can make them a bit less scared of us.  But look out if she catches you going any where near them.  Even if she is no where to be seen and you go near them she will come flying (running) at you flapping and hissing and quacking.  It is just a little scary.  I am pretty sure she thinks she is a chicken though as she sometimes takes to perching on top of the A-frame house (who knew ducks could perch) as she stands guard.

 

Even though summer is just around the corner our wood supply for next year is already slowly accumulating. Piles of wood is always reassuring to me and a makes me want a hot chocolate!

 

The promise of this years grapes.  We can't remember if they are green or purple ones though.  But our vines is heavy with them.  I love how the green leaves just glow making the grapes into something celestial. *sigh

 

Another one of my 'loves'. Unfortunately this climbing rose is climbing up the side of the garage where no one can really appreciates its beauty or its heavenly perfume.  I don't know what its called but I am pretty sure it must have a grand name like 'Jonathan Thomas the 3rd' or 'Sir Graham' or maybe even 'Lady Marguerite Rothchild' if it is a female.

 

Our front porch, just perfect on those summer evenings for sitting and supping on something delicious.

 Stella, the poor orphan cat from last year, gave birth to four cute wee kittens. I know all kittens are cute but these ones are extremely cute. So cute I don't know how we are going to get rid of them.

 

Outdoor play is just great after months of winter weather. Shorts and T-shirts are the uniform these days.

 

Our wee Sophie (4) just loves to dress up. The downfall being she must change her clothes about ten times a day which leads to a very messy room.

 

The ducks let us know when its time for morning tea by coming up on to the deck and looking in the window.

 

This NAUGHTY chicken is extremely bad.  She thinks far too highly of herself and believes that she should be allowed to reside inside!  On numerous occasions I have entered a room only to find her hanging out in the sun or exploring her seemingly new abode. 

 I have threaten the crockpot.

 

The sunsets here are just exquisite, nearly as good as the sunrises.  The leaves just glow as the sun drops low in the sky. 

Sights like that make everyday a good day. 

 

I will endeavour to get more writing down, not only here but on my book.  My battles lie internally about what to share and how much.  SO much of my writing never makes it this far as I am always a little dubious of sharing my life, thoughts and views.  I love to write. I want to write. And I am hugely envious of people that can write and hold nothing back, not caring about what people will think, how people might interpret what is being written or who might be offended.  Maybe I should just consider those that might be entertained, inspired, encouraged, informed, enlightened and just plain old interested.

Yes, I think I'll write for them.

 

Blessings to you all

xxx 



Sleep

Sleep is such a precious commodity! Everyone is tired.  Stay-at-home Mamas/Working Mamas, Students, Dads, Grandmas, Poppas, Aunties, Uncles etc. Everyone is tired! Everyone could do with more sleep. I tell you there is no such thing as "sleeping like a baby!"  That over used totally ridiculous phrase conjours up pictures of sweet chubby bubbas lying ever so peaceful sound asleep in a beautifully decorated room in a cot with ironed-smoothed blankets  with matching curtains. Ha that never happens, well not in my house anyway.  I have said this before, Jesse doesn't like to sleep in a bed during the day.  He would much much rather sleep on the couch in amongst the palaver and chaos that is our daily living.  Sleeps more soundly and infinitely longer this way!

 

I had to take these photos because he looked so grumpy about going to sleep!

I cannot remember the last time I had a full nights sleep. Honestly! I even got up to my 12 year old the other night. Why?  Because once he starts with one cough it leads to two and then three and then we are all awake. So rather than waiting until he calls out to me I got up and brought him his inhaler and fixed the problem.  I wouldn't say that I am anymore tired than the next person. At present Jesse is waking from 2 to 7 times a night.  Sometimes I scoot him in and feed him and sometimes I just put my hand on him or touch my lips to his head and he goes back to sleep. Oh how I love that I get to snuggle, its like having my own mould-able hot water bottle.

 Some of my children are older and for the most part don't wake up at night needing my or Jamies help. The younger ones still wake up...for drinks, bad dreams, no blankets, the night light on, cuddles, the occasional wet bed and sometimes they are even hungry.  Sometimes we play musical beds, that's not uncommon in our house.  It is also not uncommon for me to check on the boys or girls before I go to bed and find the kids have rearranged their sleeping  quarters.  At present the Jayden (10) and Thomas (7) have pushed their two beds together into one giant bed and are sleeping like that!

There was a time a couple of years ago where the three boys decided to be in "Little House in the Prairie" days and all sleep in one single bed together.  They did that for a number of nights. During that time Kaitlyn and Sophie came into our bed one night and we joked (as you only you can on nights like that) that we only needed two beds for our entire family.  It is also not uncommon for me to find the kids sleeping on the floor, sometimes with their mattress and sometimes without.  Seriously who would voluntarily sleep on the floor!

Sophie and Kaitlyn decided to sleep in our room one night!

 It is a regular occurrence for me to find the kids have made huts after they have gone to bed and they have gone to sleep in there.

Jamie will often sleep on the fold out couch or on a mattress on the floor if one of the kids are sick.  For an entire week after Jesse was born he vacated our bed for a mattress on our bedroom floor so Jesse and I could spread out and recover.   We frequently all sleep in the lounge and have family movie night. ALL the mattress come off the beds (including ours) and they are set up in preparation for movie watching.  Funny thing is, is that on those nights EVERYONE has the best sleep-ever!  There is something to be said for communal living I reckon.

 It is true that some people need more sleep than others. I function on little sleep and for the most part I function well. Jamie on the other hand doesn't and will often take himself off for a nap if the day allows it. This use to (and if I am honest it still does to a degree) frustrates me, but I am S-L-O-W-L-Y accepting that he needs Nana-naps.  I don't enjoy going to bed early and would rather stay up late and enjoy some time with no kiddies wanting/needing me. I HATE getting up early, but I am working hard at getting up before 7am. Yes I know for some of you the day has started by then. Jamie can jump out of bed very sprightly indeed, be showered and dressed before I have even got one eye open! I am awake often at night, thinking, reflecting, planning and dictating essays, teachings and blogs (in my head).  In saying all this, sleep is important for everyone, its just that we all require different amounts. Sleep is essential for health, growth and everyday functioning.  All of us probably don't get as much as we should for one reason or another. (ha I just yawned - I must be tired) We ALL are busy with living our lives and could all do with a bit of slowing down, a bit less technology, a bit more activity/exercise/ a bit more of the outdoors, a bit more of 'being present in the now'.  Even God rested, so therefore so must you/I. Where are you sleeping tonight?

Goodnight lovely people!

 

 

So what are you doing this Sabbath!