blueskydragonfly

A very excited three-coming-up-four year old has been on his first flight. The night before, not wanting to sleep, his comment was ‘Come on, let’s go to the airport now!’ Upon being told that our plane wouldn’t be ready, his solution was for us to sleep in the car overnight, at the airport!’ Understandably, this idea was not adopted. Come the next morning,  rearing to go, he passed time on the drive to the airport by considering the construction of various houses along the way.

 Upon arrival, ‘We need to go to the small one, not the big one around that other corner’. One would think he was a seasoned traveller rather than embarking upon his first flight.

Waiting seemed like such a long time for this wee boy. ” Is it ready yet? Why not? Can we go now? Why not? When are they going to call for us? Once aboard and settled by the window the questions continued. ” Wa-hoo!” as the plane gathered speed for take-off. He loved the thrill of the speed and once up in the clouds, well, that was another story. Much observation, many more questions.

 Arriving at our destination, Carol was there to meet us and help us find luggage; another delight for Liam; seeing his luggage miraculously appear on that ’roundy thing’.. Not such a delight though, to begin with, was the gradual knowledge that we were not returning to Auckland on the next flight. However, visits to local parks, driving to Lyttleton through the tunnel and spending time at the port, watching and taking in all the activity, discovery of new toys at Carol’s, best of all, the play dough, helped to disperse the feelings of home-sickness that naturally enough kicked in every now and again on that first day.

Next morning after a walk to the park, a drive to visit the black swans nesting on the river to find their cygnets had hatched. Another pleasure for Liam, feeding not only ducks and seagulls as he does at home but swans too; not that they ate much, preferring to take their babies to the relative safety of the far bank for a bit, away from the screeches of the seagulls and the sometimes fighting ducks.

Next a cafe for lunch, at a museum-come-cafe wonderfully organic food and the realisation that Liam had a good understanding of ‘the olden days’, given his comments regarding various items. A toyshop, another park followed by a much-awaited catch-up with Miriam and baby Sam, now just one. Lovely to see how gentle Liam was with him, but not surprising.

An earlyish night, given we were to be up for the shuttle back to the airport at the ungodly hour of 4:15am. Hugs and good-byes at the gate with Carol, another flight, luggage to collect again, and a drive to a local cafe for breakfast completed this memorable few days, for both Liam and me. Can’t wait until Amelia is big enough and we’ll do it all again!

Just the most gorgeous, highly perfumed red rose, almost out of season, but not quite!

I am loving the many and varied conversations with the smallest people in our family. Their questions show inquiring minds with a thirst for learning that are full of curiosity and wonder. Liam is very into knowing about how things work and making comparisons. The leading question about his oesophagus has his mum searching for a full colour book about the human body!

He loved our visit to to the open day at Auckland Uni’s School of Engineering not long after he turned two. ‘What do you want to see?’ the young guide asked me only to be very taken aback when Liam, not I, answered the question. ‘Things that move’ was his answer. And so he did, with great interest and many questions. Hope they have another one later this year!

The most recent question posed to me was at the weekend when, after sleeping over, we were depositing food scraps in the compost bin. ‘What is compost, really? Is it old food we don’t need any more? Where does it go?’ The discussion continued and concluded with his three-coming -up four-years -old proclamations regarding the similarity between this and bodily waste disposal which he currently finds most intriguing. I am continually floored by his ability to discuss, generate questions, make generalisations and summarise.

So why do I hear teachers  at work talking about children not understanding what a question is? Something is not right here. I do hope that in fifteen months time, when he starts school, Liam will be given the ‘personalised learning programme’ that the M.O.E. is promising to be available for all. Excuse my cynicism, I have just invested one day (and tomorrow yet another) at a seminar led by said organisation regarding education for the 21st century. The contradictory nature of information being imparted is amazing! Also, being a life-long advocate of and worker within public education, why am I beginning to think a private education will be the way to go for our newest generation? More about this later in the week on the work website; the intention for this one is to be generally of a much lighter vein!

 Back to Liam and his conversations. Visiting relatives at their Waiheke holiday home for the first time, his opening question was ‘Do you have a septic tank? How does it work?’ May children always be curious and seek answers to their questions.

Amelia, much smaller, is catching up fast. We communicate mostly in a bi-lingual setting, she’s a confident risk-taker and her language is generally quite experimental. But she does love a good story and is very happy not so much to ask, but direct ‘read please’ and deposit both a book and herself upon my knee. I am so looking forward to the nature of her questions in the months ahead! (New pictures on flickr shortly)

once a month or so can be relied upon for two-three hours of pure bliss and fun but on the edge of a long weekend after a hectic day… absolutely the ultimate relaxation.  Arrive, accept a glass of good red, sink into a comfy chair, catch up with the best hairdresser since Shane abandoned us all for his lover in Sydney… mind you he did continue to look after my hair at their home in Potts Pt whenever I visited for some time… .While she’s busy, ‘tolerate’ a heavenly head massage; the assistant apologised for taking so long ‘I was lost in my own world there’ she said. ‘Stay as long as you like’ was my grateful reply.

Time to wonder; why did I spend every Wednesday evening in May at Auck. Uni. Epsom Campus listening (mostly) to people presenting ‘case studies’, dubious at that, as research (really!) about gifted and talented education? Ha! Would have been better off reading a good book with the exception of the evening Mike Townsend presented.

Time to think about QBW coming up, not long to go now for a three-day-break. Time to appreciate living just out of town, living life on holiday I call it. Only it’s not always, when I think about the work to be done to complete this idyllic little place in the universe. Why I ever thought it would be a good idea to try and create a garden from someone else’s abondoned half acre covered in ginger, convolvulus and every other noxious weed is often beyond me, but I guess it’s beginning to work. THERE ARE NO WEEDS LEFT HERE! So I’ve done my bit for the greening of the coastal Waitakere foothills! Sure won’t be doing it again anywhere else so I hope who ever lives here next, in the long-distant future of course, appreciates and looks after it!

Time to be thankful for a wonderful family, good health and the ability to pay my power bill. As all of us who can, should be. Spare a thought for those who were not so fortunate.