Can't Stop Reading

Littletree is so engrossed in reading lately, she's chewing through books faster than we can get more from the library!

I can't even get her to stop reading when we're walking around...

I tried telling her to go and spend some time outside in the sunshine...

I told her to go play and climb trees...

Even when she's supposed to be practising her cartwheels for circus class, she manages to do them one-handed and keeps reading!

People keep telling me that kids who are allowed to structure their own time and have unrestricted access to a computer will spend all their time in front of a video game and never do anything academic or go outdoors... I'm sure that will kick in any day now.

Last fling in Bali

So after our last night in Gili Air, which we enjoyed under a full moon

And a fascinating breakfast alongside the cutest tiny little ants ever which were kind enough to clean up the drips of honey Littletree spilled from her pancake

And Littletree had said her billionth goodbye to the Indonesian kids in the family who ran our villas

We got on the boat to Bali…

It was not the best boat ride ever; of course, they were overbooked and we couldn’t get seats – I managed to make enough hullabaloo for the guy to let us sit up on the roof so we could at least sit down, and lo! There were seats up on the roof anyway; no idea why they just wanted to keep the rooftop vacant.

We landed on Bali to find it pouring with rain and many of the streets flooding

(So glad we were in a minibus and not on a moped!)

And happy to arrive to our hotel to relax after the journey. The next morning, it cleared up a bit and we spent the day wandering around, ingressing and sightseeing a little, marvelling at what counts as a petrol station on Bali

– I even found a bar that was made just for me

And having hacked all the portals we could, and gotten more massages than should be humanly possible, we set out for the evening to find the awesome night market we ate at last year, only last year, we’d gone there with some people who knew the way, and I only vaguely knew the rough area we needed to go to. I tried googling, but ended up somewhere very, very not where we thought we were going.

A surprise adventure!

By sheer chance we found ourselves wandering after dark around a random neighbourhood; thanks to googlemaps on my phone I vaguely knew where we were, but no idea how to get to where we wanted to go. At the point that Littletree was fed up with walking and just wanted to eat, we walked into the first place we came to, but Littletree got a bad vibe from it and wouldn’t even walk though the door.

Next door to that place we tried again, and it turned out to be a duck restaurant and we got the most delectable dinner ever! Duck fried rice, duck fried noodles and a spicy green curry duck. Oh, it was divine!

And finally, after even more massages; time to get on the plane back to Australia…

Learning all the time

The kids are learning so much here; Littletree has her own budget to work out, which means doing her own haggling and calculating foreign exchange rates, as well as budgeting for her meals, bicycle rental and expenses.

Each day, Littletree gets a budget of 100,000 Rupiah, which is about $10. Her room at the homestay and breakfast are provided, but other than that, she has to budget all of her other expenses, including meals, drinks, snacks, bicycle rental, scuba lessons, tours, snorkelling trips, excursions, souvenirs, trinkets, coconuts…

The life lesson in budgeting and calculating money has been invaluable; she’s not only learning very well her 10,000 times tables, she learned very early on that if she splurges all her money on buying pearls from the hawkers on the beach, then she wont have enough left over to rent her bike the next day – or buy dinner! She’s also learned that she can eat a good meal of local food at local Warungs for only a dollar, and save up for when she wants something special, like a glass-bottom boat tour on the reef.

The kids are learning so much; not just arithmetic and accounting!

They’re climbing trees, and snorkelling and scuba diving; learning about the reef and marine life. Littletree even attended a lecture about conservation on the reef and joined in with a local clean-up project to collect rubbish from the beach and reef.

Learning to speak Bahasa Indonesia, and practising with the locals, making friends with local children and learning about their culture and customs, as well as all the social interactions… I couldn’t possibly imagine a richer learning experience.

And despite all the exciting world out there, I can still hardly keep Littletree’s nose out of her book!

And the girls are all keeping journals and spending a lot of time writing and illustrating their adventures on the island – somehow rather a lot of the daily budget seems to get spent on stationery.

Selamat Datang!

So we arrived safely to Bali! The Unschooling Adventure Camp has begun! The journey was long, but not too long, and boring, but not so bad.

We brought a special friend with us, a Flat Tyler. Tyler is a teen with cancer who is currently in hospital and in need of cheer. So we’ve brought a cut-out of him (well, we improvised, since I couldn’t get my printer working before we left), you can click HERE for more info about #FlatTyler)

Starting out at Brisbane Airport

We breezed through check-in and having made great time, had a bit to waste around the airport. Littletree just wanted to browse geography books in a bookstore. Apparently it was vital that she teach Tyler all about National Highway One in Australia.

We were lucky enough to get good seats at the front of the plane, and Littletree managed to snag a window seat for Tyler

We had a stopover in Darwin for a couple of hours between flights; boring, but we got to recharge our electronic devices and give each other neck massages

Finally, we landed in Bali, safe and sound. Staying at the same hotel we stayed at last year felt like coming home to somewhere familiar and comfy, and our friends were already here :)

After a good sleep, we woke up to take Tyler for a sunrise swim

And Littletree practised her snorkelling

Then we went off with all the gang for adventures and errands, shopping, eating and exploring. Littletree bought herself fancy new sunglasses!

The kids came back tired out and ready for a swim

In the morning, we leave for Gili Air!

Animated Children

Littletree did an awesome animation and art workshop with home school group this week.

The kids worked together to create a town out of plasticine and mixed media, each child making their own dream house in the town.

They all worked together to envision how their town would be… apparently there needed to be a lot of snakes and endermen and creepers from Minecraft.

Then they photographed their towns behind a “green screen”

followed by the kids acting out being in their town in front of a green screen.

For the finishing touch, they uploaded all the footage into the computer and rendered it so the kids are walking around their houses. Littletree is climbing up a fruit tree in her little plasticine garden, it’s amazing!

Happy Birthday Littletree

Sunday was Littletree’s 10th birthday, and since she was still tired and jetlagged from her trip, we planned to have a quiet day doing whatever she wants, and save the big birthday party for next weekend.

She didn’t know it, but I went in together with my parents to get her a trampoline; quite a fancy one. I woke her up with snuggles in the morning

and brought her out to the balcony to greet the sunrise… and see…

Trampoline!

Then we went for a swim in the creek

And a trip into town to play Ingress while learning about local landmarks.

Littletree hacked many portals

Then we went wandering around the shopping mall, because Littletree needed new shorts (she just keeps getting bigger!) and we stopped for morning tea, and then had sushi for lunch

Followed by Littletree’s favourite; Indian take-away for dinner with a video.

Then we snuggled up together and read stories. Littletree said it was her best birthday ever. :)

Currumbin Virtual Photowalk

Continuing on from our Authentic Aussie Experience with Tif and Andy, we all met up with Michael who was hosting a Google+ Virtual Photowalk™.

The Virtual Photowalk is actually a very cool concept. Essentially, some people on Google+ decided to help show the world to people who can’t see it, by bringing them virtually, in Hangouts (HERE is a neat little CBS news clip about it).

Michael’s setup is pretty darn cool – he has a big, fancy video camera, with a smartphone mounted in, and mobile internet connection, so the feed from the video was streaming in the Hangout, where several people from around the world could watch, and the whole thing was recorded so it can be watched later. Check it out HERE

Being a photowalk, we did, of course, take a lot of photos (You can see the full album of our adventures (HERE)

As did Littletree

(and yes, this is a photo of me taking a photo of her taking a photo of me…)

We arrived in time for the morning feeding of the Rainbow Lorikeets

And then it was right off to the Koalas,

Because both Littletree and Tif were super excited to cuddle koalas – this is Abby

We tried to feed Tif and Littletree to a croc

But failing that, we fed kangaroos

We saw cassowaries (because Angry Birds in Australia are really angry – do not mess with Aussies)

 

We saw the cutest little ginger tree kangaroos

We rode the train

And did I mention we took lots of photos…

We spent a lot of time on our phones checking out Google+,

posting, sharing, chatting, and in general engaging with thousands of people, and joining in the hangouts, so it felt like we had the whole world of all our friends with us

So much awesome!

Especially the awesome friends right here

And we took lots of photos.

Then, all tuckered out from walking around… and taking so many pictures, we retired to the beach for an awesome brunch

Fun times! And of course, entirely educational, especially the part where Littletree challenged Tif to a Big Bang Theory quote-off.