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.

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.

The Little Prince

Littletree has been reading The Little Prince. Aquacat got it out from the library and started reading it to her, but since Aquacat isn’t always here to read it, and Littletree can’t wait to hear the rest of the story, she’s been reading it herself.

It’s one of my all-time favourite books – if you don’t know the book, stop reading this blog post now, and find a copy and read it! I’ll wait here till you get back…

Meanwhile, Littletree is improving in her reading (funny how now and then she’ll struggle on a small word like “once” but then read a big one like “magnificently” without blinking)!

And I’m loving the story, and the wisdom of Le Petit Prince

This is not a hat - Ceci N'est Pas Une Chapeau (bonus points to people who get that reference).

Altered Reality

Lady Demelza, being the artistic goddess that she is, makes Altered Books. Her current main project is an awesome 1960s Margaret Fulton cookbook that she’s transforming into a thing of beauty.

Some pages get removed, some get improved, new things are added in.

It’s really quite inspiring art, and being created by Lady Demelza, quite impressive

So impressive, in fact, that Littletree started working on a few pages with her

Littletree got so involved in it, the ever-gorgeous Lady Demelza decided to indulge in her passion for Op-Shopping and take Litteltree in search of her own vintage cookbook to alter. Didn’t take them long to find a Gretta Anna cookbook, circa 1987.

The two of them have been avidly working at their respective books, Littletree is quite enthused with her newest project!

I’ll post updates for sure!

Zeke, Ky and the Mountain Stream

I came home from my ‘Midwifery Monday’ (I have all my clients’ prenatal home visits scheduled on Mondays) to find a big envelope in the mail… it was a gift for Littletree: a copy of Zeke, Ky and the Mountain Stream by Gwynneth Beasley.

Gwynneth herself sent us the book, which is really exciting. Littletree was (as always) very excited to get something in the mail, and she loves this book – so far we read it every day, sometimes twice.

Zeke, Ky and the Mountain Stream is about a homeschooling family who learn the power of the mind to shape reality – if you believe in yourself; you can do anything. And it’s set at the same campgrounds we went to with the Liberated Learning Unschooling Camp last year.

Awesome!

Duckling

Littletree said she wants to go back to Brazil, and she wants to learn to speak Portuguese, so we went to the library to get a book to learn Portuguese. I found us some great lessons, with books and CDs, so we’ve been polishing up our language skills; it’s been more than six years since I had any practice in speaking Portuguese, and I keep getting mixed up with Spanish!

So at the library, it was story time, which we don’t go to much any more as it’s mostly aimed at pre-school aged kids, but this week, the librarian had brought in a cage full of ducklings for the kids to pet.

Littletree loved it, and of course now she really wants to get chicks :) So I’ll be amping up our mission to repair the aviary we have in our yard so we can have chickens.

I can’t wait to be having our own eggs! :)

Light Reading for Littletree

Littletree is really starting to read now; she gets simple readers out from the library and practices on them, and a friend of ours was throwing away a primary school resource kit, which is like a whole bunch of progressive worksheets designed for substitute teachers in school.

I was a bit sceptical, but Littletree pounced on it and gets the folder out to work on regularly. I’m amazed at how much her reading and writing is advancing, without any external teaching at all. I answer her questions if she has any, but mostly she just plugs away at whatever she’s interested in. She spends a lot of time writing lists, mostly related to the planning of her birthday (which isn’t for another 2 months).

Her favourite books at the moment are some of my medical dictionaries and biology textbooks.

She sits for hours pouring over them, reading bits, asking questions…

Today Littletree called me over to point out that in one book (Taber’s medical dictionary), all the words on every page started with the same letter, and all the letters were in the order of the alphabet.

That led to a discussion about alphabetizing – she caught on to the concept straight away and was so excited about it. She immediately went and checked a few other dictionaries for alphabetical order, and shouted “This is SO cool!”

It’s all very strange, because I was assured many times by well-educated people that my child wouldn’t be able to learn anything if she wasn’t in school. I guess the boredom of being cooped up at home and not learning anything and not having any friends will kick in any day now… :p

Technical Littletree

Littletree has been getting into more intellectual pursuits lately. She has a little notebook she calls her “homework” book, and spends lots of time writing things in it, copying sentences from books, writing out sums and stuff.

I bought her a wall chart of the multiplication tables and she loves it to bits. It’s so cute, not only does she spend hours reading it and telling everyone the times tables, she snuggles with the chart like it’s a security blanket and carries it around with her all the time.

Purple started to teach her more about computers, and the two of them sat drawing turtle graphics pictures with LOGO (Logic Oriented Graphic Oriented) language. I remember spending hours programming LOGO when I was about 8 or 9.

We’re reading our first chapter book without any pictures! I’m really enjoying it, and I love the idea that now we’ve opened up our story-time possibilities dramatically. Previously, we could only choose books that had at least a picture every few pages.

The book is fantastic, a story about a hunter faery, called Knife (the US title is Faery Rebels which isn’t as good a title or cover – try to get the UK edition if you can).

Catchup

Química came up for another visit this week; she’ll be staying till we go to New Zealand for the World Rainbow Gathering.

Littletree has been really bonding with her… well, really bonding with her iPhone anyway!

Purple has been getting back into practicing his Flute, much to the admiration of all the local wildlife (lucky his code was compiling).

I get a new bookshelf for my midwifery books – about time, coz they were totally taking over the kitchen shelf.

The books and folders I use more regularly I have lined up on my desk, which is at a comfortable level of clutter

I’ve been getting lots of free time to study lately – Littletree has been exploring new levels of independence, and a new family moved in next door to us with a five year old girl. Littletree walks over to her house to play almost every afternoon.

Nature Experiments

Littletree borrowed a book from the library this week called “101 Nature Experiments”. It’s pretty much what it says it is – step-by-step instructions on doing fun experiments that are somewhat educational.

She’s taken to reading upside-down lately

We’ve been having fun going through the book and doing the experiments, and incidentally, Littletree is learning a lot from it.

Littletree has also been reading a lot to her dolls, which is very cute.

And we’re learning about architecture and form with a boxful of carpentry off-cuts we got from a neighbour – Littletree has been working on building castles for the faeries, which is loads of fun, and it’s great to see how she works out the logistics of fitting all the different shapes together and balancing them. Unlike regular kids blocks, they’re cut unevenly and have odd shapes.

Meanwhile, Purple and I are still hard at work improving the garden, here’s me mowing the lawn with my machete. It’s effective, good exercise and uses no fossil fuels :)

 

Leaving on a Jet Plane (Again)

Tonight Littletree and I fly to Thailand. This week has been pretty hectic with organising to have our bathroom remodelled, visiting people, saying goodbye, organising the people who will be living in our house while we're away...

Yeterday we went to the homeschool group; we were scheduled to go for a bush tucker walk, but it was cancelled due to rain, so the group met at the hall as usual. The kids had a great time playing and running around anyway.

Then we went to visit Rinka for a final 6-week post natal check-up. Mama and baby are both totally healthy and happy; great to see.

Littletree was surprised to see that the baby was still so small (Littletree already bought a present for the baby's 2nd birthday!)

So now I just have to work out how to fit all my birth kit and midwifery books into my backpack! (and maybe some clothes for Littletree and I too... if they fit)

Fungus

Nothing like being in the tropics for a little fungus. Littletree has a ringworm on the back of her hip. It started out small (which I foolishly didn't take a picture of) and just got bigger and bigger.

after one week:after two weeks: I sprayed some tea tree oil on it every morning and now it's getting better, almost faded. It looked pretty gross - it's about 4 or 5 cm across, and Littletree said it was a bit sore and itchy, but it didn't really seem to bother her all that much.

We talked a lot about fungus, and how they spread and grow. Then we got into talking about parasites, including the botfly larva Littletree had in her butt cheek when she was 13 months old. That was freaky - she had this red-kidney-bean-sized flesh eating spiky worm abut 2.5 cm deep in her butt cheek. poor thing. If you're not squeamish, look on Youtube for "botfly".

On a less gross side of life, I started making a wishlist on Amazon, which you can see here or by clicking on one of the fun buttons on the sidebar. I'll probably be adding new books to the list regularly; who would have thought that unschooling a small child and studying midwifery would require so many books!? But don't be shy! you too can be one of the first to Buy a Book for Majikfaerie!!!

Ack! I've Run Out of Mondays!

I've suddenly realised we've only got a week before we fly out. Somehow, it always feels like I've got ages to go, plenty of time. That is, until one day when I wake up and realise I've run out of Mondays.

I was making plans with some friends to get together. Naturally, now that we're going away, everyone comes out of the woodwork wanting to catch up. So we were making plans for Monday, and I asked if they want to meet this coming Monday or the one after.

That's when it hit me: The Monday after, I'll be in Bangkok! We fly in one week from tomorrow! (The April Resolution)

And I've still got so much to do. All the packing, and organising. I have articles to write, a house to clean and yard work to get done. Thankfully I found someone good (fingers Xed) to sublet our cottage, and some friends to car-sit for us.

Autumn and Earth-Mama have kindly offered to drive us to the airport, (well, I'm letting them borrow my car for 3 months), as well as baby-sitting all my midwifery books, storing a few boxes and taking my left-over food off my hands.

On top of it all, we still have our regular lives to live. Friends, homeschool group, library, markets, housework, writing.

We have organised to spend our last Monday with the other families in the homeschool group to go on a 'field trip' to the Ice skating rink that's about an hour away on the Gold Coast! Littletree is beside herself with excitement. I guess it will be part going-away party and part Littletree's 5th birthday celebration, since we will have her birthday in Israel.

The April Resolution.

A few months ago, I was stuck in the dilemma of what to do in April.
It seemed the problem was sorted out when my potential birth client decided to live in Melbourne, and I was asked to midwife for an old friend of mine, at the birth of her Twins!
So, yeah, duh. Attending the birth of twins is way higher on my priorities than a rainbow gathering or going to Israel, which I'll do anyway, just later.

The plan was set; Going to stay in Wollongong (just south of Sydney, about 1000km from home) for a month or so, to attend the twin birth in April, then flying to China in May, for the rainbow. I've been hired to attend a birth in Thailand in June, so then we'll go there, and then, after the babies are born, to Israel in July for a couple of weeks before coming home. I'll still miss the rainbow in Victoria, but that's okay; I probably couldn't go anyway because Putple has to work then.

BUT!!

The mother of the twins just went into labour and was rushed off for an emergency Caesarean section. She is now the proud mother of twin boys, born at just 29 weeks. Thankfully, they are all doing okay, though the babies are in the NICU in Sydney.

Of course, I'm glad they are all fine, and yes, I'm a little disappointed that I missed the birth. But, that leaves us free in April. So, it looks like we'll be going to Israel for Passover after all.

Then off to China for the rainbow in May, to Thailand for a birth in June, and back home in July. Handy, as I have another birth booked in August, and thankfully closer to home.

So, it all seems to work out.

I just bought for myself Anne Frye's Holistic Midwifery Vol I and II, which I'm really excited about. There's also a conference I really want to go to; Preparing for Birth and Parenthood. But it seems like it won't be an option; Purple will be in Israel in March, so there's no way I can go to Sydney for three days without Littletree, and even if I brought her with me, I don't know anyone there to watch her. sigh. There will be other conferences.

All that's left to do now is to find tickets to Israel in April.

Littletree's Garden

We went to the Storytime at the library today; something I've been meaning to do since we moved here.

I was a bit nervous about the idea, because I know how freaked out Littletree gets when there's lots of kids around. But I figured she would love the stories, and they do a craft activity after the story.

Of course, it was just our luck that when we got there double the usual number of kids came. There was literally 30 kids, with their assorted mums in this one little room of the children's area in our tiny local village library! It was like a circus!

So Littletree was painfully shy, and clung to me for dear life, wanting to go home. I just hugged her tightly, thinking that if she would get really upset we'd go. Anyway, though she wouldn't let go of me, she managed to sit through the two stories; one a non-fiction pop-up book about insects, and the other a beautiful story called Mrs Millie's Painting, about an old woman who paints pictures of flowers that come to life. It was really such a beautiful book.

So then they had the craft activity, which was glueing random stuff to make a garden picture. Of course, 30 kids and only space at the tables for about a dozen was quite chaotic. So I just grabbed a few things for her to work with and we sat on the floor. Littletree slowly came a bit out of her shell with all the glue and sparkly things, and she made a beautiful garden picture :)

Koalas, Haircuts and Dead Computers

Well, that's it! My darling computer is rattling her last throes. Yesterday we came home from town and the screen didn't work :( She seems to be working anyway, but its hard to tell with no screen. so I drove back down the mountain and took her to the computer shop. I'll know on monday if there's anything I can do. Of course, I knew the end was coming soon, and I spent the whole of the day before on the computer backing stuff up. and of course, I didn't finish. I hope I'll get to save the last of my files!

And now! I begin researching what kind of computer I will buy next. I really just want my old one back, in perfect working order. I love that computer, and without it I feel a little like my hands are cut off.

On the lighter side of the news, last night Purple came back from the toilet all excited - there was a Koala in a tree right outside our back door!

I guess that makes up for the snake having left us, after several days on our back step. So I grebbed Littletree out of bed (she was very close to falling asleep, but it was worthy to wake her up!). We snuck quietly out and marvelled at the Koala, which was, amazingly, in a palm tree, rather than a eucalypt. I had no idea Koalas ever go up in other trees. I snapped some photos, while Koala posed, and Littletree awed. It was a pretty special moment. Yesterday we searched for books on Koalas in the library...

Purple is also now sporting a new haircut, thanks to Littletree and Ana...

Journeying Within

We went to the Library last week, and Littletree was surprisingly uninterested in looking at picture books, or reading stories. I felt a little taken aback.
So we decided to leave, bookless.


But on the way out, I saw a cool looking book in the Adult Non-Fiction area, though it was clearly a non-fiction book for kids. Its called The Incredible Journey Through The Human Body and Littletree was instantly addicted! Its a really cool book, which basically describes how the body works, described in a way that feels like you are a tiny being travelling through the body's systems.

There are holes in the page, so you can see through to the next part, and great illustrations.

Basically, it starts at the mouth, and travels the length of the digestive system, at the end of which we end up escaping the fate of the other food and slipping through the intestinal wall into the blood stream, and then follow that through various organs, till we get to the lungs, learn about respiratory system, and up to the brain and nervous system, escaping out of the eye.

So now Littletree is constantly talking about how her body works, she is really aware of the different processes that make up her being. Before she knew that food gives her body energy to grow, but now she knows that food is broken down by chewing, digested in the stomach and the nutrients are absorbed through vili in the intestine, while waste is mixed back in and it all turns to poop.

She is really interested in how the taste buds work, and how different parts of the tongue taste different flavours; after we read that page, she ran to the fridge to start tasting different things on different parts of her tongue.

Unschooling at its best :)