Travels in New Zealand and beyond, going back to 2003!
Our 11 year old daughter has been awesome in supporting her 9 year old sister settling into a new school this week. Friends, family and regular readers will know that our 9 year old daughter has been homeschooled these past three years, due to school anxiety; but having made a lot of progress in overcoming…
Documenting our learning journey; with two children learning from home and one at school. Last week I visited the ‘Tyrannosaurs – Meet the Family‘ exhibition (currently on at Te Papa museum, Wellington, till 8 February 2015) with my four and eight year old daughters. It was really fascinating to stand up against a real T-Rex…
There’s a room in our home that I’ve always loved, ever since we first bought the house – back in 2006. It’s the laundry room, off the back of the garage, and is a sun magnet in the afternoon. It’s a large room and a space I’ve always filled with paint, paper and craft materials…
An inspiring home-school, Mum, friend invited my two younger children and I to a shadow workshop at the City Gallery in Wellington last week. It was the perfect distraction from the troubled start to our week (I’ll get around to the ‘magic moment’ alluded to in the title of this post after a slight detour…!)….
It’s been a wonderful first week in our last rental home in California. We have one month in total here. It’s a beautiful home, with a lovely swimming pool, chickens in the garden, a great tree swing and in a friendly neighbourhood. A great place to finish up over a year of living in Santa…
We’ve seen the groundhogs, (also known as woodchucks), playing peek-a-boo, we’ve stopped in our tracks as a little (or not so little) lizard dashes across our path (or up a wall of the house) and we’ve noticed the colourful, varied birdlife and numerous damsel-flys and dragon-flys. Living in a new country offers great opportunity for…
The Goldfields Mining Centre, located on the banks of the spectacular Kawarau Gorge, treated us to a fascinating morning of history. We stepped back in time and walked paths to mine shafts and tunnels, where the land had been laid bare by ground slicing, and through the old Chinese Village. We learned about the life…
This week, we’ve embraced both technology and nature in our learning and play. There has been plenty to love in the mix… ⤠Nature putting on a show, a stone’s throw from Wellington city, with Stingrays in the lagoon on the waterfront…. ⤠Technology keeping Shakespeare in vogue and making it all the easier to…
Very late to the ‘Things I’m Loving‘ party from last week. Last week just seemed to be so full of good moments, living and learning. But, in the back of my mind is the creeping feeling of the evenings starting to draw in, even though the weather is still amazing, and that we may be…
The biggest gift my parents bestowed to me was a love of nature. No matter where I am, what my life’s circumstances are, there is always nature to marvel and amaze. As a young girl the mantra, ‘No matter the weather, we’ll have a good time,’ was drummed into my subconscious. We would wrap up…
For years I shirked my health and partied hard after work, then I had children and put them first – keeping active and fairly fit, but still not prioritising my health. Finally, this year, I am listening to friends and family and making this time, right now, the time I take back my health and…
So much to love this week – but then the sunshine and continued light evenings make it very easy! Loved seeing young Alice write the first letter of her name in the sand at beautiful Lyall Bay… Sophie had a fabulous play at the beach with Alice too. I love Sophie’s enthusiasm for the water…
This week we’ve had so much spontaneous fun and physical action in the home that I thought it would be worth tying in this post with the ‘Becoming the Mama I Want to Be’ linkie, over at Miriam’s ‘Create Hope Inspire’ blog. The Mama I want to be is one that says ‘yes’, wherever possible,…
Loving a last blast of summer sunshine (and hoping today’s slightly cooler temperatures ease off for a little longer yet). We enjoyed a gorgeous last few days with Grandma & Granddad, at Scorching Bay on Tuesday morning and Zealandia on Monday, (before they flew home to a very cold welcome in England… thankfully their neighbours…