We've had a busy start to February, now that school holidays are over and all our activities are starting up again. Monday we attended Yarra Junction homeschool group at the Yarra Junction library - the kids all played with a large train set, and I talked to the other mums - there was one other regular, long-term homeschooler there, and 5 families who were just beginning, so we had lots of chats about how it can work, things to make it easier, how to manage common anxieties and questions about it all.
Tuesday we spent visiting another unschooling family - I had met the mum at the Sandra Dodd conference last year, and we've met the kids at a couple of unschooling meets. Caitlin and the daughter have been skyping and playing Minecraft together over the summer. This is the first time we'd been to their house - and all the kids (there are 4 of them) had a great day, playing on the slip n slide, trampoline, riding scooters, dancing, playing the keyboard, playing tiggy, playing monopoly, talking and laughing. We were there until 6, then reluctantly left with lots of promises to do it again soon. On the way home we stopped at McDonalds for tea, and after eating the kids played for over an hour in the playground - it was a useful transition from being with friends to going home.
Yesterday Caitlin started cleaning out the kids' bedroom, ready to install the girls' new bunk beds. Millie and I played a game with counters, egg cartons and skylanders - we sorted the counters in to the egg cartons, then the egg cartons flew into Skylanders territory and the Skylanders came to investigate the strangers, there were battles between Skylanders and some made friends with the counters... LiAM joined in too and the game became quite complex and lots of fun.
In the afternoon we went to Yarra Glen library - LiAM was relieved to finally be somewhere where he could watch YouTube videos again. Millie played with her toys and the library toys on the floor, Caitlin rode her RipStik in the park. The girls went to Guides, and were joined by Caitlin's friend S who is thinking of joining Guides this year. S's brother joined LiAM at the library and they watched videos together while I chatted with their mum. After Guides the kids and I went to the IGA to buy food to make tacos, we came home and Tony cooked (his hours haven't increased a lot just yet so he was still around and happy to cook) while I finished sorting out the craft tub for Yarra Glen Homeschool Group - I wanted it to be neat and uncluttered for our first meeting today. It had collected a lot of scraps and half made items over the past year and it was getting hard to find anything. It's lovely and organised now!
The girls were very keen to sleep in their new bunk beds, so at about 8pm we decided we would put them up (rather than risk Tony being at work every evening from now on and missing a good chance to install them). We finished clearing stuff out of the room, then had an extended search for our Allen Keys so that we could take Caitlin's loft bed apart. We eventually found them, as well as a lot of other stuff while we were searching. Everyone helped put the new bed together then 2 very excited girls got ready for bed and happily jumped in. Millie slept in her lower bunk for about half the night before coming in to us - I don't mind if she doesn't sleep in it all the time, having an extra bed available is going to make night times a lot easier all round.
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