eye spy

with my blue, blue eye ...

 

a female Satin Bower bird at the Melbourne Museum.  So pretty.

oh what a night!

God's work...

and we're off ...

One last steady from Daddy's reassuring hand and he was off. No trainer wheels! Just like that!

He's great as long as he doesn't have to stop. Mmm, a small problem. Tiggy's preferred method is to steer onto the grass and crash land. We're working on it...

Please note: If ever there is risk involved Tiggy pops his bright orange, "Go, Diego, Go" safety belt on. Funny lad.

hot autumn afternoon

It's supposed to be autumn but it's still muggy, clammy, heavy. Yuk.  Yet this  crazy bunch insisted on being outside after school on Tuesday.  So we set up a picnic and four were happy. 

Tigs had his first parent teacher conference on Tuesday afternoon.  He's doing well.  I'm proud of him.

pose of the 'beautiful' child

sometimes it's hard to get going in the morning

through my window

We have been playing musical bedrooms in anticipation of the arrival of 'our student', as Toby calls him.
So I have a new view from my window.
The children are happily sharing our big room which gives them company at night and room to play.
It is so pretty and reminds me that even though things are about to undergo a huge shift in our house and our lives that good comes from change too.

double happiness

 

Twelve months ago today our beautiful party pie eating, sauce soaked baby girl was placed in our arms. 

Magic!

She really is a dream child - our dream child.

As we arrived back at our hotel with Woo wrapped in our arms and our love, we recieved a text saying, "Mum and bub doing well".  "Yes", we thought we are doing well, snuggled in our own vaccuum and slightly puzzled by the text.  Upon reading and re-reading it the penny dropped.  Greg's brother's baby boy had been born two weeks early, as Woo was place in our arms! 

So today we celebrated this beautiful boy's first year.  And in only three more months he's going to become  big brother!

Woo's first helium balloon - provided a party's worth of entertainment.

Oh, he melts my heart.

Inevitably one balloon slipped free. Up and up and up, its string waving, "bye-bye".

 And I spared a little thought for Woo's birthmother on this joyful day of ours.

soggy

On Saturday Melbourne was hit by a super storm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.  We were heading to friends for a barbeque (ha!).  As luck would have it (ha!) I just happened to have my dear fancy camera with me.

Beaconsfield Parade

Port Melbourne

And then some fun in the rain ...

... followed by buckets of bubbles! 

spontaneous explosion

Dr Maria Montessori wrote of the 'explosion' into literacy. I've witnessed this happen to children in the classroom before, always with a feeling of great happiness and pleasure for the child undergoing this mind opening and life altering experience.

But oh my, what a wonderful feeling it is to witness it arrive in your own child. I'm just delighted to see my sweet clever little boy writing and finging his little messages popping up around the house. These were found all in one day!

Copied from the movie case.

The main ideas behind the teaching of Language:  The lovely clear explanation below is from the Montessori School of Orlando.

 When Dr. Montessori founded the first House of Children, it was the seemingly spontaneous explosion into writing and reading that first caught the world’s attention. Dr. Montessori was heralded as a genius who had “invented” a new way of teaching children how to write and read at an age when children were thought incapable of receiving instruction. Dr. Montessori had facilitated the process, but the manner in which children learnt to write and read (in that order) was demonstrated to Dr. Montessori by the children themselves.

Letter to Flossy (FLOC), Sam, Banjo (BAGO), and Spice (SPIS).  Shame it was on one of Greg's business envelopes!

Dr. Montessori observed that children learn how to speak without being taught at an age when they are thought incapable of instruction. The Montessori Method imitates the same process on the level of writing and reading. The general pattern of the learning of language follows a definite plan: firstly, there is the slow gathering of material and the painstaking acquisition of skill; secondly, there is the consolidation of that material and skill characterized by greater and greater proficiency; thirdly, there is the explosion into writing and then reading usually triggered by some stimulus in the environment.

jelly on a plate  - food on the brain?

Did you notice that the xray is of a skeleton (SCALTN)?

Children are presented with a series of exercises that develop the physical skill required for writing and reading at the same time that they are presented with a series of exercises to develop the intellectual ability to handle, sounds, words and sentences. At some point in their development, the skills and knowledge coalesce to generate a sudden and explosive growth into writing and reading. After the explosion into writing and reading, they consolidate their development further by applying themselves to an extended study of the manner in which words and sentences are constructed in their language.

And this was written while Greg and Tigs were at the phone shop. Do you know what it says?

Scroll down for the translation!

Can I have a icypole?

bubbles

Our jacuzzi is working!

This is a wonder that I'm still delighted by. The wire connected to the pump was eaten through by some feral rodent in the wall cavity, oh, about 4 years ago!

We had looked at it, some time ago, and had no idea how to feed it back through to the pump. We could see what needed to happen but, well it just seemed too tricky . And then Andrew, dear Andrew, the lovely fiance to my ex-sister-in-law (who I still call my in-sister-in-law - complicated, mmm, but still works for us) popped over. He quietly wandered in, had a look, grabbed some tools, et voila ... BUBBLES!!

And wanna know the best thing, he (happily) took away my old worm-farm in return. Double happiness! And it may even be triple happiness when his vegies feel the benefits of the worm castings.

Happy day everyone, we're waiting for storms here. I'm excited and SO ready for proper autumn weather.

E x

bloom!

And they did. Beautifully.

Thanks Flossy.

are you thinking what i'm thinking B1?

I think I am B2!

Tigs has a fruit snack in the morning at school and in order to avoid using disposable packaging, or any packaging at all in fact, I wanted to make sure he found his banana.

I didn't notice any others like this one on the fruit bench. Wonder why?

what are you?

I took this test via this blog and this is what it said:

I'm a CREATOR. - Correct!

Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional - Correct!

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.  - Correct!

What are you?  I'll be fascinated to hear if you think it's spot on  too!