spring clean

The last day of spring. The last day of a super busy and exciting season in the owlet nest. The last day of Huz's leave and the last day of our babymoon... so naturally we decided to do a complete declutter and spring clean of all things belonging to the owlets! They seem to have accumulated a vast array of stuff... spilling over from their bedrooms and into the rest of the house on a daily basis. Too many boxes of random...Huz and I were feeling a little overrun. The mess of a day's play and learning was becoming a little too much. Then there was the thought that Christmas is on the way and there might be more stuff to cram into those rooms. Impossible!! So we tipped out all the boxes of random, found homes for everything, threw out the homeless bits, the broken bits, the things we didn't love. The owlets rummaged in their rooms for things they had finished playing with so they could donate them to charity in time for Christmas. Next we moved some furniture around and set up the little kitchen in the lounge room again, complete with a reading nook. Then I tackled the craft cupboard... It took all day. Now I'm exhausted. But its clean and we can think clearly again. And the owlets have rediscovered so many things. A perfect way to end our little time of renewal. Bring on summer!!

unschool monday :: freestyle craft

Well our babymoon is drawing to a close... tomorrow actually. Its been very much holiday mode as we've all drifted gently through the days. Huz has had a chance to really reconnect with the owlets and spend time doing things with them. Origami continues to be a huge hit. The rest of the time has seen the owlets becoming relatively self sufficient.



They fling open the craft cupboard doors and help themselves to whatever is in there...



This week has seen them crafting fleece butterflies, collage, junk castles, experiments with paper, and numerous spirograph pictures.



Big owlet seems to have overcome her block with hand writing and is now annotating all her work... even her own body as on more than one occasion she and little owlet have taken to drawing on themselves with a black pen. Big owlet proudly presented her foot one morning, which was covered in a picture of her and her friend dressed as fairies with the words "best friends forever" and my first reaction was "yay! she's writing!!", before realising that much of her skin was covered in biro tattoos... little owlet was very proud of her "cartoons" too and annotated her designs with loads of tiny markings representing letters from her name.

Tomorrow we look at getting ready for our days without Huz around, getting organised and cleaning up the craft cupboard *sigh*. Freestyle craft is fantastic, but gee it leaves a trail of chaos sometimes...

Feel free to join in with our unschool mondays by adding your link below. Even if you don't unschool full time... perhaps you notice unschooling happening during the school week or you take a more traditional approach to home education and have a day off from time to time... Learning happens all the time and it'd be great to see what it looks like at your place!

{this moment}

Playing along with Soulemama

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

unschool monday :: life lessons

Well never let it be said that I'm not completely committed to my children's education. If I do say so myself, this spring unit study on birth and reproduction has been positively inspired! We've all learned so much!! Seriously though, there has been a great deal of learning going on around here despite a rather cruisy, mesmerised, baby gazing kind of week... Tiny owlet has mastered breastfeeding, sleeping and pooing with great aplomb. Her eyes are beginning to focus on us and interesting shadows and patches of light on the walls. Little owlet is coming to terms with being a big sister and finding a new level of independence. Her interests are mostly physical this week, asking to go to the playground daily. Big owlet is focussing on the academic, looking at measurement, currency and figuring out counting to 100 in tens, fives, twos and threes. Oh and the origami love continues. She made a paper cup smaller than tiny owlet's pinkie fingernail.

Its been lovely to watch them all at their varying stages and know that one day soon little owlet will begin reading and writing, big owlet will be moving onto more complex things as she masters the basics and tiny owlet will be walking, talking and doing all of the above... but all in good time and not too soon I hope!

Here's a little snippet of our day today. Tiny owlet's first foray into the big wide world...


If you are playing along with unschool monday this week, add your link below. xx

her creative space...

I've been preoccupied with other creative pursuits this week, so big owlet has taken over the creative reins today. I've been waiting for her to show an interest in origami. I had the paper, the how to books, suggested it from time to time, but no go. We watched the fantastic documentary Between The Folds on iView a few nights ago and her interest was finally sparked. So in true big owlet style, she completed most of the book...



And made a bowl full of little cups which we'll use for our activity advent calendar this year.

Visit some lovely creative peeps via Kirsty.

wordless wednesday :: first cuddles

more here

born yesterday...

I'd like to introduce you to Tiny Owlet... she is here at long last!! Tiny was born at 4.35am yesterday, in our lounge room and into my own hands. Her first moments were spent looking around and cooing rather than crying. She's 4.5kg of cute and perhaps not so tiny after all... in fact the largest of our owlet babies! She's incredibly peaceful and chose a lovely day to be born. The 15th of November marks 15yrs since Huz and I first met and 10yrs since he proposed :) Cute, huh? We're soaking her up and taking the days very quietly. xx