Cruisy Monday

Well, with Miss 9 still visiting her bio-dad, we tried to fill in the blanks as much as possible for Mr 6 and Miss 2.

We very bravely embarked on a plan to visit two, yes - TWO, public buildings on Saturday - Questacon (also known as the National Science and Technology Museum) and the National Library of Australia (NLA).

The first was always going to be a hands-down winner with the children as we visit often and they are always entertained, the second was a sorta hit and miss affair, particularly as we left it till last.

Well, Mr 6 was keen to show dad the new exhibit at Questacon - "Perception Deception", which is a whole room devoted to optical illusions and well worth a look.

Miss 2 was happy to explore Mini-Q which is for under sixes and has loads of role play and tactile exploration activities.

As we spent a good 2 hours there, you can imagine that the children were just about over it by the time we decided to head to the Library!

We did pick up the family trail pamphlet that gives children objects to look for and has a brief explanation about each item, but they just managed to look at the lovely stained glass windows and the Ballet de Russes exhibition and we headed home!

Will try again another day, as I'm sure the children will be more open to the experience if they are not in sensory overload! Plus, the Nick Cave exhibit is opening soon, so it will be well worth a look (for the grownups, anyway!).

On Sunday, Mr 6 told us that he was interested in war games. Now, we are pacifists, but hubby is a geek, so it is a given that he will be into some kind of war game either on the computer or old-school board games, right? His passion is ASL (Advanced Squad Leader), which is a little too much for a 6 year old, so we made a journey into 'town' (Civic) and visited a fantastic games store in Garema Place, by the name of Mind Games and purchased a board game based on the days of Roman expansion.

They've been playing it or talking about it ever since. Little geek in the making, perhaps??

We also stopped at Borders, but I've got to admit that I've noticed a huge difference in their stock in the last 6 to 12 months. It's not nearly so interesting and one is much less likely to find a 'hidden gem' these days. Give me Canty's any day!

Sunday night Miss 22 came for dinner. She is kicking about moving back in in November, but we do have a problem with space and available beds, living in a respectable, but not particularly spacious home. Plus the whole older adult-child in a family home with smaller children thing sorta limits who can share with whom! Keep you posted on this development.

Today, we had a continuation of our unschooling trial for Mr 6. As the children have finished two books at grade level this year for both Maths and English and we are into a third Science book (and I figure our political activities and explanations regarding wacky religious festivals are enough to cover Social Studies), I'm not adverse at this point to them looking around for personal interests.

I got up at about 8 am. Hubby had been up for a while and Mr 6 was reading the Mythology book that we recently purchased at Canty's - his favourites at the moment are the Ancient Chinese legends.

Miss 2 was looking at her books in her bed and 'reading' to her teddy.

We spent a lovely morning reading, playing on the trampoline, chasing stray puppies out of the yard, cooking, and snacking. Then we went to sport (an organised event between a couple of local homeschooling groups), where we saw Miss 9. It was a little up in the air as to whether her bio-dad would take her, but he and his wife did, which was excellent! Especially as it is held on the complete opposite side of town to where they are!

We also saw lots and lots of lovely homeschooling people and had the opportunity to make arrangements for catch up meets in the next few weeks.

Looks like we are going to be busy!