How to cope with hot weather

39 degrees outside?

No problem, play in the sun, feeding hundreds and thousands to the ants.

 
Can’t find your Bob the Builder sunhat?

No problem, stick a beanie on your head.
Feeling sleepy?

Just lie down and have a nap on the floor.

Conversation with Kids

A collection of  comments made by Ryan over the past few weeks in our house.

Over afternoon tea with Great Uncle Geoff:

Ryan: “I think the English (Breakfast) Tea is for when you are drinking it, it makes you speak English.“

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When discussing plans for the day. It wasn’t Tuesday as far as I can remember:

Ryan: “I know why they call it Tuesday….I think it is because you get to choose what you do on ‘Choose-day’”

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Ryan excitedly: “Mum! I know why you don’t have nuts! It’s because when the baby comes out, if you had a nut bag, one nut would go like this… “  he gestured far left with one hand, “and one nut would go like this…”  gesturing far right with his other hand, “and it would REALLY, REALLY hurt. That’s why you don’t have nuts”.

I would like to point out that as far as I can remember, we have never referred to that particular part of the anatomy as a “nut bag“.

A lesson on belly buttons

 

After dinner conversation some weeks ago lead to a discussion of babies and placentas, and belly buttons. I’ve noticed that children often assume that the food a pregnant mother eats is directly channeled in some way to the baby’s stomach or mouth. So, they seem to think that if I eat a vegemite sandwich, then the baby gets some vegemite sandwich too. In a way it’s true, but if they followed their logic a little further, then the problem of having no onboard baby toilet becomes evident and something they hadn’t thought of.

Anyway, I started to explain what an umbilical cord was, and how it delivered nutrients in the blood right into the baby’s circulation, not to the stomach. It was a little tricky to understand so we drew some pictures to explain it all. This lead to quite an in-depth chat, and some rather funny pictures.

This one to show the children what the baby will look like immediately after birth, showing the cord being clamped and scissors at the ready. Nice little egg-shaped placenta, and you’ll note a very happy, rather broad shouldered baby.

This one showing baby waiting to be born, with the placenta and cord, and a little baby heart and aorta, and a carotid and brain. And a beak.

And finally, this one to show the baby in the context of the big tummy the kids see on the outside. This was originally a reasonably simple line drawing of the outline of a pregnant woman. Certain giggling children embellished some details and added the labels.

 

Kuitpo Forest

Yesterday a group of home schoolers met up at the Chookarloo Campground within Kuitpo forest, which is a plantation forest in the Mt Lofty ranges about a half hour drive from Adelaide.

“Established in 1898, Kuitpo was the first of a number of forest plantations in the Mt Lofty ranges to ensure a sustainable timber resource for South Australia.

Today, Kuitpo covers and area of some 3,600 hectares, of which 60% is softwood plantation.Kuitpo’s plantations yield some 25,000 cubic metres of timber each year, valued in excess of $1.5 million.

Kuitpo is modelled as a community forest, managed for sustainable commercial forestry, while providing for the conservation of native flora and fauna and community use for recreation.” 

~ Forestry SA pamphlet

There are great places to camp, so we hope to head back that way when we’re ready to travel.

We had a campfire and some of the families cooked lunch in the coals. We discovered that throwing dry eucalypts leaves on the fire was quite spectacular which lead to us chatting about  wind, heat, fire safety and bush fires.

Of course we toasted marshmallows, set a few on fire and got pretty smoky and sticky.

Certain children (all four of mine and 2 others) had fun making a mud slide into the little creek. We’d come prepared with a change of clothes, which was a good thing because they were needed. It was lovely to spend some time chatting and playing and we’re gradually making new friends, which is something that isn’t always easy and does take some time.

I always say that the dirtiest child is usually the one who had the most fun. This time the fun factor was rather high. Everyone needed a shower when we got home and we were all nicely tired and ready to sleep at bedtime.

Some Recent Things

I bought the kids this world map puzzle, (because Ben asked for one) which includes some of the nations flags.

While they built it, we talked about what a continent is, and identified some of the capital cities for example, Canberra and Wellington being the two most relevant to them. Both Ben and Emma enjoyed spotting South Africa on the map because that’s where Dad comes from. Emma was surprised to discover that Egypt is on the same continent. She also thought the UK would be as big as the USA and was surprised by it’s tiny land mass.

Afterwards we pulled out the World Atlas and spend a few minutes browsing maps and Ben said he liked how you could see on the map where the mountains are. I showed them the Key to symbols on the map so they could start to understand what they were looking at.

And I spotted Emma in Sam’s bed piled up high with spare mattress and blankets with one of her library books from the Horrible Geography series.

(Unschool Monday  is hosted over at Owlet. Pop over to find posts about other unschooly days.)

Warning: Malfunction

I had one of those moments this morning where one small event leads to another and then another and then another.

It all started to unravel while I was in the shower when Samuel (2) hit Ryan (nearly 5) on the head with a broom handle. There was a loud protest but no tears so it wasn’t very hard.  I think it was an accident but I can’t be sure. Emma (9) came to the rescue with a bag of frozen peas to ice the sore head. I was receiving regular updates through the bathroom door, and I was dutifully shouting instructions back at them like this “LEAVE EACH OTHER ALONE! For goodness SAKE!”

So when I was informed that “Sam is stealing the peas!” I shouted back “EMMA! PUT THE PEAS BACK IN THE FREEZER!”

Apparently he got them back out because after my shower I found a kilogram of peas now defrosted and tipped all over the lounge floor, quite evenly spread from one room to the next. They were too soggy to vacuum, so I swept them into a pile. This is some of them:

While this was happening I asked Ryan to get the vacuum cleaner, and he had trouble plugging it in. Ben (7) came to his aid but not before accidentally leaning on the book shelf and tipping it resulting in this:

So when I heard a glass smash on the drive way  just a few moments later, I kind of flipped out.

Because there was a barefoot two year old to consider, I stopped cleaning up the peas to get to the glass, all the while letting rip with sighs, and groans, and the ranting began. “You’ve got to be joking, this is Ridiculous! Just stop it! Stop making messes! All of you! How can you make so much mess in such a short time? I’m sick of cleaning up disasters around here. I just can’t believe you guys!”

Glass done and onto the peas: “I can’t believe this…why didn’t you guys stop him and take the peas away!What the heck is going on around here?” I was quite focussed on my little rant and cleaning up as fast as possible in case something else happened…but I gradually became aware than Emma had placed something down on the carpet and was slowly, with head down leaving the room. Backwards. Strange. Then I saw this:

 I was completely undone and the rant dissolved away into unbridled laughter. I love these kids who are so wise and funny and light hearted. They don’t take life too seriously. Who cares really about peas on the carpet!?

The pages came from this book called M.O.M.  - Mom Operating Manual by Doreen Cronin, that Emma has taken out from the library this week.

The kind of conversations that go on around here

Ryan (3): MUM! Help put my pants on!

Me: You can do it.

Ryan: I can’t do it.

Me: Why did you take them off?

Ryan: Ben took them off.

Ben: He told me to take them off!

Me: Ryan, why did you ask Ben to take your pants off?

Ryan: Mum! Help put my pants on!

I put the pants on Again. I swear he is trying to find things for me to do. (He can do it. I caved and did it for him to bring an end to the insanity.)

Apparently I Rule

It says so on the fridge!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.

I am seriously considering hiring a home help. I’d really like a live in fairy who is unobtrusive, doesn’t notice when I shout at the kids and can handle me being grumpy from time to time, but we are not really in a position to have someone live with us, and can’t afford to pay them. SO, I’m considering employing someone for 2-4 hours a week to pop in and help with whatever needs to be done. Duties will include babysitting so I can pop out, or general household duties. I’d also like them to do an occasional activity with the children or come with us on an outing as an extra pair of hands. She will be kind of like a nanny, but hopefully will become an extended family member. As we have no family here at all, our kids could really do with an aunty :) (I’m so excited about this….I have someone in mind. Just have to see if it works out)

2.

I’m currently on an emotional roller coaster. Pregnancy is fun isn’t it? I cry a lot lately. It’s getting boring.

3.

We are going on a summer holiday!! Yipee!  I can’t wait. Some lovely friends of our live in the Coromandel and are going away overseas to visit family over Christmas. They have offered us use of their house in this beautiful beautiful part of New Zealand. What a treat. I’m so excited about getting away from the city and resting up before our baby is born.

4.

E7 is doing her end of year Ballet performance this weekend. She’s in two shows. They are doing scenes from The Little Mermaid, and dancing to my favourite song, Under the Sea. So cute. They will be dressed in little blue flowy things and are making up the sea itself with their movements while Ariel and some other mermaids dance with them.

5.

R2 is starting to toilet train himself. I didn’t really think I’d bother until summer really sets in and was going to wait until baby was here, but he’s gone ahead and ditched nappies during the day. We’ve had surprisingly few accidents and it seems to be going along quite well except for the fact that he keeps taking off his pants and peeing outside on the deck, or on the grass. Just like a little puppy he is in more ways than one. Adorable but a lot of work.

6.

I have made myself an awesome budget. I’m so proud of myself and it’s going to be so helpful because I never know where I’m at with spending and whether there is going to be money there when we need it. I have taken my weekly housekeeping budget and divided it up into common expenses (e.g food, clothes, gifts, home ware, entertainment etc.) and projected an amount for each for the year. I’ve also set it up so that if I under spend this week, the surplus is divided across the year as extra money per week. This is very motivating. Conversely, if I over spend for the week, the rest of the weeks for the whole year will reflect that. It’s a great challenge to stay under budget because just small savings per week add up to quite a bit by the end of the year. It is easy to adapt to anyone’s needs so if anyone want a copy let me know…I should be able to upload it for you to download.

7.

The sun is shining. It’s a beautiful blue skied day and not too hot. Off to see the midwife, taking the kiddies with me. Lord give me grace.

7 Quick Takes hosted by Conversion Diary.

Butterflies and Babies

Spring is in the air today and it’s just the weather to get into the garden. We are going to start a butterfly garden because E6 is wanting to learn all about butterflies this term. A friend gave me some Milkweed seeds (which the caterpillars eat) and some wildflowers (which produce nectar for the butterflies) so today we did some planting. No photos yet because I’m too lazy to upload them…

Oh my gosh I an loving the sun today! So glad winter is coming to an end. I really do love warm sunny days and a blue sky always puts me in a good mood.

Baby in utero is doing fine… growing nicely and kicking around from time to time. I am 17 weeks or so along. What’s that…23 weeks to go! Seems like forever and how much can a body morph in 23 weeks? A heck of a lot actually! I’m so glad the morning sickness phase is over. Right now is a lovley pregnant time for me. I’m neither sick nor the size of a house, so the discomforts are kept to a minimum at the moment. Just little annoyances like my being unable to button my jeans so they are always falling down, but not quite ready for the maternity pants. ehehe

The children are still fascinated by the whole pregnant thing and we’ve had interesting discussions about all sorts of things like where my food goes…”Does it go straight into the baby’s tummy mum?’ It was quite cool being able to explain to the all about the placenta and the umbilical cord and the amazingness of foetal circulation! Love it! Fourth time around and I still find the whole thing fascinating!