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…

Leaving Gili Air

The last days, sad to leave, but happy to be heading home, and saying goodbyes amid promises to be back next year.

Littletree did her daily Bahasa Indonesia work over breakfast…

And we got to meet the freshly born twins, Nadiya and Nadira – the newest additions to the family we stay with on Gili Air (pictured being held by their grandmother and great grandmother.)

Littletree spent our last morning playing with Naiela, the little three-year-old girl who lives next door to us; Naiela absolutely adores Littletree, and taught her a bunch of nursery songs in Indonesian.

As a parting gift, Littletree decided to give her soccer ball to Naiela, seeing as proper soccer balls are at such a premium on Gili Air. A very valuable gift indeed!

Naiela was so happy, and Littletree too. Until finally, it was time for us to get on the boat back to Bali. The whole family came out to hug us goodbye, we shall miss them so much!

The Life of Littletree

Littletree started her own blog, called The Life of Littletree

It seems that she plans to write about all manner of things; her adventures, science, kittens, and ALL the things!

You can check it out here: http://thelifeoflittletree.blogspot.com/

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.

Scuba for the planet

While Littletree has been having an awesome time snorkelling on the reef almost every day, the kids have also been drawn to go scuba diving. At first, I thought Littletree was too… well… little. But it turns out the PADI dive centre offers “fun dive” courses for children starting at ten years old, so I said she could do the training session in the pool, and see how she goes.

Several of the kids here for the home school adventure did the course together

Watched the training video and listened to all the instructions from the dive master

Got kitted up with wetsuits and masks – they even had a small sized tank and scuba equipment to fit Littletree

Then they went through the training, learning how to use the apparatus, respirators, equalise ear pressure, underwater sign language, and so on.

And finally, practiced diving!

By the end, Littletree was quite proficient, and given the go-ahead from the dive master to join the group out on the reef… but finally, she decided instead to go to a lecture about the delicate ecology of the reef. She then joined in with a clean-up effort organised by the dive school to collect rubbish from the beach and reef, and protect the dune areas where turtles are laying their eggs.

Littletree came home very excited, happy to have done her bit for the day as a “wildlife warrior”.

Happy Mothers’ Day

Apparently, it was Mothers’ Day (these things always catch me by surprise), and Littletree took it upon herself to get me a present – a gorgeous new sarong; perfect, because I needed a new one. And it’s even green! How did she know that’s my favourite colour?

Then about half the families here for the unschooling camp went to the organic restaurant for a fancy feast, and a bunch of the bigger kids got together to put on an after-dinner show for all the mums!

It was pretty awesome, and hilarious!

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!

Party!

We held the party for Littletree’s birthday yesterday, so we had about a dozen tween kids running amok around the place (about half of whom ended up sleeping over)! I survived, and all I got was this t-shirt pile of dishes.

The kids all had an awesome time

Making a mess, playing on the trampoline

Swimming and kayaking in the creek

I made (at Littletree’s request) a very elaborate Red Velvet Cake (all natural, organic, coloured with beetroots, and iced with raw-butter cream-cheese frosting – I’ll make a post about the cake separately, with a recipe)

The cake was a huge success

Littletree got lots of lovely presents

And got to spend time with lots of her best friends (actually, half of the home school group came!)

Of course, the five girls who slept over stayed up till midnight giggling, but thankfully, the kids’ room is at the other end of the house from mine, so I wasn’t disturbed in the slightest :-P

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!