Easter16

As a child Easter was a significant religious event in my life, but since my early 20s I have struggled to find meaning in this particular holiday. For a brief period I tried celebrating seasonal equinoxes and solstices, which meant celebrating Easter in October and Halloween in April, but I found going against the cultural grain too challenging to maintain my stamina. Instead, Easter has become a fun, but spiritually and seasonally meaningless celebration. As I grow older I care less about this, because I get so much pleasure from seeing the joy our eclectic Easter celebrations bring the children.

Each year since Gaia was three we have decorated eggs. Usually this involves hard boiling and then painting with food dye. We attempted a not entire successful (though, entirely fun!) drip method this year, as well as using paint brushes. In past years we've used felt, shaving cream with dye spots and simply dipping eggs in egg cups full of colouring. The kids look forward to this tradition. In related news: Frida's fingers are still green.

We use these colourful eggs for our hunts. We strayed from tradition this year by adding small chocolate eggs to the egg hunt. Well, you can imagine how fast the children ditched the hunt for the dyed eggs for chocolate! We also gave them the Lion King soundtrack to play while we're in the car.

This year we added two new traditions. After years of meaning to, but failing, we finally got around to crafting some Easter bonnets. They turned out absolutely adorable! Gaia kindly hand sewed the girls each a small felt bag to collect their tiny chocolate eggs in (pictured below).

The second new tradition was an afternoon of family atheletics. It started with an egg and spoon race which became a frog race, a regular race, stacks on and horsey rides on one another. Lots of infectious laughter. Our best Easter yet, and rather quiet at that.

Happy Easter from our little bunnies...and carrot.

Inspired by Jan Senbergs

Last week we had such a lovely, albeit busy Sunday. One of the many things we did was add another favourite artist to our list. Jan Senbergs' work are wonderfully detailed and get the imagination pumping.





We had packed so much into a single day that we didn't get to spend as long as we would have liked at the exhibition, so we returned today and took in every piece. Gaia brought her sketchbook and pencils to draw her favourite. Yemaya was inspired to do the same.

Every Senbergs is fascinating and we had a great time listening to the girls discuss the pieces that spoke to them. It was a surprise to learn which works they favoured. Yemaya liked the black and white sketches Senbergs had drawn of his studio space and kitchen and a painting featuring kookaburras (Otway Night). I learned that the epic wall art at The High Court of Australia is a Senbergs, appreciated how he captured our bushfires with his brush, but mostly favoured his epic city scape drawings. And Gaia was most struck by this piece (Platcha):

Gaia really loved this Antarctic landscape and the bushfire paintings.

I'm selfishly pleased Gaia is such an art-lover and that her love extends beyond the sheer joy of creating, that she likes to take in an exhibition with me, discussing the works and how they inspire her. It is wonderful to have someone to share this with. As we wandered and talked and admired and critiqued I wondered if one day I might find myself sipping champagne at one of my prolific daughter's art shows. As she sat on the gallery floor, lost in the pages of her sketchbook I smiled to myself, satisfied that our school free journey so far has fostered the artist in her. May I always be a great support rather than a critic and stay out of her way, let her create as she feels moved to create, and not try to push her toward a particular style or medium. It was always the pushing and the comparison, no matter how subtle, that quashed my own drive to paint and draw. I have to supply the materials and then walk away, only giving my impressions when specifically requested and just give her the freedom to unfurl. It is my hope that in so doing, one day she will be a self-assured adult who creates unique, original art that gives her great satisfaction, and I have no doubt that if she becomes that woman, she (and her art) will have many adoring fans.

Senbergs' is on exhibit at NGV Ian Potter Centre, level 3, Federation Square, Melbourne. Check it out!

More on Senbergs here:
Jan Senbergs paintings are a brilliant shock to the senses

Jan Senbergs: observation-imagination

'It is very hard to think these days": Jan Senbergs stays true to his art

And to finish, a few of my favourites...

Melbourne

The Swimmer

Another Melbourne

Manic Mondays

Just another "manic Monday" I chortle ironically. Another Monday with our nature walk group meant: many sun and sand filled hours at the beach with a handful of home schooling families.

Frida spent a full four hours digging holes, mainly with her fingers. I'm not sure she noticed anyone else was at the beach! She was totally consumed with her hole digging. In jest we call her our "little fezza" (feral) because she delights in this sort of play: where she gets grubby and comes home with miscellaneous black caked beneath her fingernails.

Yemaya ran around with the other kids for a while, but the outdoors, the people, it all got a bit much.  She buried herself beneath our towels with a my little pony and managed to keep herself content until everyone else was ready to leave (we were very grateful!). I checked on her regularly and she was happy so long as the towels covered her and she was left alone with the pony.

Gaia was a non-stop socialising machine. Sports on the sand, story telling behind the surrounding bush land, a lot of running, building and burying with sand, some splashing in the sea, she was all over it. After everyone left and we climbed into our car she devoured the contents of her lunch box, confessing between mouthfuls: "I was having so much fun I forgot to eat" (again!)

And why wasn't Mum making sure she ate? Too lost in her own conversation with another home ed mum. There's nothing quite like starting your week with occupied children, sunshine, while discussing religion, politics and health on the beach.

I don't envy our parallel universe selves who spent the day indoors working at desks, on tasks set by others. (On that note: thanks Eale for making today possible by working a thankless job so that one day the kids might not! xoxo)

Doing Science (with fire!)

"I like to do science." Gaia says often.
"What do you mean, hon?" I asked, "What's 'doing science'?"
"Experiments! Where you change the colour of something."
This led to a discussion about what science is, what purpose it serves and how we go about 'doing science' for ourselves. But academics are not what Gaia craves, she'd already told us it was about colour, it was about the spectacle, she's after the performance art side of science.

Eale came across an at-home science experiment he thought Gaia might find fun. And I found a printable outlining the major terms and the process involved in "doing science" for future conversations.

Gaia and Dad's scientific investigation of fires' need for oxygen.

THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS

Choose a problem: Does fire need oxygen to live, like we do?

Research your problem: (this part involve pre-reading and researching the ideas. In this case Dad did that and came home with the experiment...Gaia just wants to do the experiments, not waste her precious free spirited/8 year old time with research).

Develop a hypothesis: Fire needs oxygen to continue burning

Design an experiment: 3 identically sized candles lit, 3 different sized glass cups placed over a candle. Observe to see how long each candle stays lit.

Test your hypothesis: See photos below

Organise your data: 8 year old likes to organise her data with an oral presentation to anyone who will listen :) She observed that the candle under the largest glass burned longest, candle under the smallest glass burnt out fastest.

Draw conclusions: the more oxygen available to the candle flame, the longer it will stay lit. Fire needs oxygen.

8 year old with a message for her government

I mentioned last week that we've embarked on some Australian themed social studies. Gaia's questions about refugees came just in time for the epic Palm Sunday walk for justice.

She can't comprehend the government's current policy (and it's got nothing to do with her comprehension!) She made a sign and experienced her first protest march yesterday (actually...she's been to other protest marches in a baby sling, but this is her first on foot and by her choice).

A couple of weeks ago we joined a group of families in our area to stand together for a photo to contribute to the #letthemstay social media movement. We made some new friends and Gaia learnt about refugees. Afterwards she said "next time, can we make a sign?" I was pleasantly surprised she had already decided there would be a next time she stood up for asylum seekers.

We have so much in Australia, we could share it. The reality is that asylum seeking families are being used by our government as political pawns, and not just by our current governemnt. For well over a decade now, the political party in power has used refugees and emigration to divide the nation and incite fear. By keeping us divided and afraid they are free to rule as they please and sell it to us as keeping us safe: "protecting our borders", "turning back the boats" as if we're under attack. We are not being invaded, we are being asked to find our compassion and open our doors to people who have lost everything and risked the rest (including their lives) in search of basic human rights (food, shelter, water, safety from bombs). 

At the Palm Sunday gathering speakers from Jews For Refugees, a Christian minister and a Muslim gentleman stood together and each told of how their religion teaches that the Australian Government's treatment of refugees is immoral. The woman from JFR said many of the people alive in Australia today owe their lives to people smugglers of the 1930s and 40s in Europe. This is not to suggest that people smugglers are honest people doing this work out of the goodness of their hearts, we know that high prices are paid to smugglers for entry into abominable conditions on the high seas, just for a shot at a safer life (or a life at all!). And when they reach our shores they're turned away to camps on surrounding islands where they spend years waiting to "be processed". 

A man who had lived in one of these camps in the late 1990s shared some of his experiences at the Palm Sunday rally. He said there were no real doctors, and when you were ill you were told "drink more water." In recent years we've learned that many asylum seekers have been sexually abused by their captors, including children. The Australian Government has worked hard to cover up these autrocities and have threatened imprisonment to any doctors who go to the camps and make public what they witness. But teachers and doctors have listened to their consciences over their fears and spoken up.

Australia has a long history of hypocrisy and subjugating any group that is not of white-Western-European descent. Sometimes our schools teach students how abhorrent our past is...and yet no connection is made between the horrors of the past and horrors of the present (or at least they weren't when I was in school, I'm sure some schools do so today, including the one's represented at the rally on Palm Sunday). I'm fed up with my Government apologising for "mistakes" they were very committed to in our history. Saying sorry means you will do everything in your power not to repeat your mistake (is what we teach our children), but our Government continues to do the wrong thing and try to convince us it is for our own good.

The solution is simple and would cost The Government less than the current inhumane policy.

Let them stay.

For more on refugees and Australia:

Asylum seekers can be managed with cheaper and more humane options

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Australia: Damning evidence of officals' involvement in transnational crimes


Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children 

Illegal Maritime Arrivals - Australian Government Department of Immigration and Boarder Protection 

Julian Burnside - human rights lawyer 

Manus Island: What will it take to shock us?

Mums 4 Refugees

Naru detention centre not safe for children, says Senate committee calling for full audit into abuse claims 

White Australia's Black Past, an introduction.

Today's book learnin' is brought to you by Mum's white guilt. Gaia was confusing refugees with Indigenous Australians, so we set to work clearing that up with a discussion about pre-history,  First Australians, European imperialism, colonialism, & reconciliation. 

One of the passages we read mentioned a shift in European thinking in the 1700s from enlightenment/all men are created equal philosophies to the hierarchical racist thinking which continues today, that European society is civilised & other cultures are inferior. The author suggested this shift occurred as Europeans came in to more frequent contact with First Nations peoples around the world. It was satisfying to see how utterly insane these concepts were to an 8 year old. She couldn't fathom anyone thinking one group of people are better than another. She believes difference is natural and important, that it makes the world a better place. Racism is learnt. 

We have just scratched the surface of White Australia's Black History, a subject we will never stop learning in this lifetime.

We pulled out Mum's fine arts books cataloging some of the work of Indigenous artists (art is Gaia's favoured language). We learnt that the legend of the rainbow serpent is the longest surviving belief in human history! She already knew a little about ancient indigenous art and "dot paintings", but we also took a look at some more contemporary works. It's important for all Australians to understand that our black history is not in the past, and to begin this with Gaia, we've started appreciating a wider range of art by 20th and 21st century First Australian artists.

Once she grasped the fundamental difference between Indigenous Australians and refugess (the former being The First Australians, here for tens of thousands of years and the later coming to Australia for the first time, in search of safety) we explored some of the links between Indigenous Australians and refugees. This links included: European Australian racism and hypocrisy, and draconian governmental approaches to the issues faced by both groups (though I may not have used the word "draconian").

It was a lot to take in, but she is hungry for more, and I'm relieved I didn't overwhelm her. I resent the way our black history was taught to us in school in the 80s and 90s (though I recognise I was fortunate to attend schools that mentioned it at all!). Australian history was presented in an Us Vs The fashion, which left students with the impression that Indigenous Australians were whiney and stuck in the past. It certainly was not taught in a way that promoted a thirst for more knowledge or desire for reconciliation or treaty. I was determined not to let that happen at our home school.

Beach Therapy

We needed today quite badly. We have been having a challenging time this past...year, but especially the last six months. Today we managed to shake some of the stress, exhaustion, hurt & worry off with a day at the beach. For a really wonderful change, we had Ealesy with us on a Monday, so the whole family went to the beach, where we met up with a few other home ed families.

The six of us scaled the rocks and sand for every shell we could find (which will be used to fashion mermaid crowns in the near future). Watching Yemaya & Frida get lost in the task was especially wonderful. Children are so divine when they're deep in their private universe, focused and determine. It's a personal and very love-filled form of meditation to quietly stand by and watch them at the work. They somehow simultaneously bring you back down to earth while carrying you away to another world.  

In a rather epic role reversal: Yemaya didn't want to leave, and Gaia was the first to ask for home! This was a testament to how engrossing the sea shell collecting caper was to our dear May.

We inspected a rock face that was a little cave-like, strolled through rock pools and played on the sand with buckets, shovels & a ball. There were hand stands and laughter and lots of conversation. There was also a great mix of home schooled kids and parents of many ages (and they worry about socialisation!)

In addition to all the great folks at the beach, we also met this little fellow, who completely delighted the children:

 

'twas another #blessedasfuck day;)

Gaia's First Stage Show

It was a big week for Gaia, she was in a play for the first time. She learned the lines and lyrics for 2 supporting roles, spent 24 hours in rehearsals over 5 days, helped me create her costumes & finally performed on stage in front of a crowd.

We are positively bursting with pride. It must also be said that I'm quite proud of myself too, it was a very demanding week for parents too. But I manged not only to keep my cool all week, I also found the fun and actually enjoyed costume making with Gaia. Unbeknowns to her I was fa-reaking out that we wouldn't finish her costumes in time...but I took notice of the little voice reminding me that my daughter doesn't want perfect costumes (especially if it comes with a grumpy mother) and instead I soaked up some mother/daughter bonding as we finished the costumes together the night before. Gaia used a sewing machine for the first time and made use of her hand sewing skills to complete her outfits and she also had the pleasure of making a fairy wand.

It was a thrill to see the kids put on a show with such determination and joy. I'm wondering how we can find more opportunities for Gaia to stretch her thespian muscles in the future (though I'm in no rush to make another costume!). 

February Moments

a busy month of getting back into the swing of the school(free) year.

Beach days, telling time, pizza making, music classes, first smiles, water park holiday, family reading nights, picnics and parks, a first hair cut and plenty of play and craft at home in between.