Things I’m Loving – This week away in San Francisco

Love that inspiration comes in all forms and life is never quite how it looks…

Enjoyed a visit to The Exploratorium in San Francisco this week, where life definitely wasn’t all it seemed to be!

We could have spent days there. The highlight for all three girls was playing with their shadows…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcpswCx80bc&w=640&h=480]

Love this quote from Charlotte Mason:

“If knowledge means so much to us, “What is knowledge?” the reader asks. We can give only a negative answer. Knowledge is not instruction, information, scholarship, a well-stored memory. It is passed, like the light of a torch, from mind to mind, and the flame can be kindled at original minds only. Thought, we know, breeds thought; it is as vital thought touches our minds that our ideas are vitalized, and out of our ideas comes our conduct of life.”

–Charlotte Mason {Vol. 6, p. 303}

The Exploratorium was a marvellous place for hands on learning, discoveries, experimenting and being aware of the senses in every way.

City life itself is an awakening to the senses for the girls and I – needing to be ‘street wise’ and alert in a different way to being in the country.

It’s been quite an effort for me to traverse the city streets with three children (particularly a three year old that tends to get constipated whenever we travel anywhere new – thankfully she had a good ‘motion’ on about day four and making her much easier to travel with… also doesn’t help that she has developed a phobia of a public toilets – ever since a particularly smelly one made her gag and puke!).

The girls have all done me proud though and supported me when I’ve had a few wobbles.

The man of the house has been working hard and as much as we’d all love to be together, the work has to get done. Thankfully the evenings have given us some time together and we have a weekend to look forward to, taking our time driving back down the Pacific coast to Santa Barbara, with a couple of nights staying in Monterey.

We all loved our visit to Santa Cruz Amusement Park on the drive up here last weekend. Seeing young Alice go on rides by herself, with such absolute delight, was one of those parenting ‘special moments’ for Dan and I – that warm fuzzy feeling, cheesy grins from the heart, and laughter at seeing a child’s sheer delight of having fun.

Of course the older girls were keen to go all out on the thrill rides and were tall enough to enjoy them. Needless to say, they loved it.

There hasn’t been so much formal learning this week, but the girls are learning so much just absorbing everything around them. I love seeing interconnections made in their minds – for example our eldest delighted in seeing a species at the ‘Californian Academy of Sciences‘ that she’d watched a nature documentary on. They are learning all the time, without it feeling like ‘learning’ – it is just a natural part of their lives.

Of course there’s been a good dose of fun too – shared in the evenings with the man of the house – at Pier 39. The older girls can’t get enough of the 7D Experience. I love their faces, as well as Dan’s, in this snapshot I took of them from outside!

Finally, I’ve loved staying in lush accommodation that is generous with chocolates, wine and cheese! The five o’clock wine and cheese in the lobby for guests is very welcome for this Mumma!

Joining in with the lovely Meghan, of ‘The Adventures of MNMs’, with ‘Things I’m Loving’, who is about to go travelling from New Zealand to Europe with her gorgeous family!