Wednesday

We woke everyone up early this morning and got ourselves ready for an outdoors picnic breakfast.  Unfortunately the gas fittings to our new camping cooker were wrong so we had to miss out on the bacon, eggs and mushroom deal Pete was dreaming of!  Instead we packed left over burgers, loaf of bread and lots of mangoes into the esky, along with the thermos and we were ready.

 

Pete had sus’ed out the spot yesterday when he was driving back from a job but he kept it a secret so the kids had no idea where we were going.  No idea being the truth as the whole exercise revealed that they had no sense of direction either!  We must work on being “more savvy” about our local area!  Not sure I can teach them N-S-E-W though, as I was about as bushed as they were!

 

Once we arrived we were totally impressed.  Down by the side of the river was a nice grassy patch (not that usual in the Australian bush!) and a gum tree to give us shade (plenty of those!).  So we sat there to eat our breakfast watching the river rush by.  There were plenty of rocks around which gave “rapids” to look at and lots of river-water-moving noise.

 

Even though the weather cried out for a swim we were in crocodile territory so there was strictly no swimming for the day.  We didn’t see any crocs but that is not the point!

 

Once breaky was over the kids went exploring.  Daniel took his Nature journal and sat quietly on the rocks drawing whatever he saw.  The others clambered rocks to their hearts content.

 

There were two pelicans sunning themselves so Pete took the kids to sneak up on them to try and get some good photos.  Daniel and I arrived a little later and he stood there, hiding behind some rocks, drawing them.  I was really surprised at Daniel’s dedication to drawing during the morning.  It was if being outdoors actually brought a calm over him and he was content to be.

 

Then there was more exploring.  Peter and Josh went big walk-about around the other side of the sunning pelicans (who didn’t seem to mind us hanging around on the river edge).  The girls explored the rocks and Daniel continued to draw.

 

Come 8.00am it was too hot and it was time to head home.  We packed the car and the kids chattered all the way home. 

 

The rest of the day was in relax mode.  The kids listened to a lot of Narnia (We really need to get some other audio books!) and kept their hands busy at the same time, mainly with drawing and Lego.  They also all had some time on the computer working on stories.

 

Daniel had an OT session this afternoon.   I have wondered at the direction she is taking with Daniel (very school orientated thinking in her assessment of him) but today Daniel was writing his letters a lot more legibly so that is a good thing so we will stick with it for a while longer and see what develops.  I have picked up a lot of clues and strategies to work with Daniel to help him be the best he can be so it has been a helpful journey.  We see her fortnightly.  Next year I may look into moving the Speechy fortnightly so we have one appointment a week.

 

 

Thursday

Today was a go-slow day.  Josh and Jess both completed a math lesson but other than that it was independent table time.  The children kept themselves productive and occupied in the Family Room for most of the day.  We spent about 1 ½ hours processing mangoes.  It was great to be doing that all together.  The three oldest cut the cheeks off the seed, I scooped the flesh out of the skin and Daniel helped me bag them.