Our creative space....

Well its the big owlet's, really. I've been working on some new simple shapes for appliques for baby and kids stuff for the owlet shop for autumn. Big owlet has been playing with shapes too. First she traces all the shapes on my old school math-o-mat. Then she adds character to them. I think they're just brilliant. So we're collaborating. One or two might make it onto clothes for the owlet shop and another one or two just for big owlet to wear with pride. I'm particularly loving the confused looking owl...

See some creative brilliance at Kirsty's place, as usual.

Spiced Banana and Yoghurt Cake

This is a cake Mum used to make when we were owlets. I've altered it slightly with more wholemeal flour, and rapadura instead of brown sugar. I'm using Mum's old cake tin and it sometimes gets stuck to it and looks all rough, like in the picture, (usually if we've removed it from the tin too soon due to hungry owlets), but it tastes just brilliant with a cuppa, or served warm with ice cream or yoghurt.

1 cup wholemeal self raising flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tspn bicarb soda
2 tspns cinnamon
2 tspns nutmeg
1 cup rapadura
125g butter
1 tbspn honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup yoghurt
3 ripe mashed bananas

Melt butter, rapadura, honey in a saucepan. In a separate bowl, add flour, soda & spices. Add melted mixture to flour mixture. In another small bowl, put two eggs & 1/2 cup yoghurt and beat until well mixed. Add to the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Add 3 mashed bananas and stir through evenly. Place in a greased cake tin (2 small loaves or a ring tin like mine work). Bake in a moderately slow oven (160 deg. C) for 45 minutes or until ready. Stand a few minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

unschool monday :: why?

We are fortunate to live in a lovely neighbourhood. The school two streets away is deemed to be one of the best around, with a high school next door. It has great facilities and lies right on the river. The educational programs are supposedly great. A princess went there for goodness sake!! Yeah, ok, its a great school. So then why do we choose not to wander round there with the owlets? Because we can. We have tried to provide a non-competetive environment for our owlets.Praise and rewards based systems do not fit with our home life. When it came time for us to find somewhere for big owlet to begin her learning, we discovered that many of our options didn't fit with our parenting... and our owlets are unhappiest when in situations that involve competition and rewards and lots of structure... for example, at a party they will happily dance around, but would prefer to sit out musical chairs. So that ruled out the local school. The Steiner school was lovely and big owlet attended for two kinder years, but it was still not 100% right for us... and expensive!! We could afford to travel to Europe several times over for what it would cost us to send the owlets there for all of their schooling!! Lets do that instead!!

But what about me? Do I get time to myself? Yes. As learning happens all the time, Huz is involved too, so its not all on me to edumacate while he's at work. Sometimes we'll do maths at bedtime or writing at the dinner table, figuring out how to write THE! in carrots.


So I have nights to myself and for the moment an afternoon a week where the owlets spend time with their grandmother. There are also playdates, sleepovers, weekends... They'll want to spend less time with me soon enough. Often people will comment "gee you must really like spending time your children".. Sure, but its not a life sentence. We make it work week by week just as any family does. "Oh, but its such a big commitment!"... Actually I found it harder to commit to handing our children over to an institution or teacher for most of their days. I think we took the easy way out. We know exactly what they are learning and when and we know that their needs are being met. If there comes a time that their needs are not being met and school can meet those needs, then we'll look for the right one. I have one or two in mind when and if that happens... I think if we said this is forever, no room for change, we'd all go mad. We just keep checking in and make sure we are all happy. So far so good...

Dream catcher take two

Big owlet has been suffering very vivid, very bad dreams of late. She requested a dream catcher. We've made one before, but not quite a proper one... this time we needed the real thing. So after a google and a rummage, we had a go. Its blue. Her favourite colour - pink is sooo last year!! Oh dear. Must say, I'm happy to see the back of the pink phase, but as you can tell from the pic, we're in for a bedroom makeover... to match the dream catcher...

My creative space... mobile

We're about to leave the house for the day... leggings to buy, a rally to go to, little owlet's first gym class, the library, back to gym for big owlet... oh I'm exhausted already!! On days like this, I make sure we go prepared with things to do in a quiet moment so we can feel a bit centred. While the owlets somersault about I should be able to add to my hair clip stash for the next market - not so much creative as therapeutic. I'm hoping big owlet will finish reading me Frog and Toad while I sew... I'm so loving watching her enjoy the same books I enjoyed when I began reading!

Visit Kirsty for some creative space fabulousness!

tweed, tweed!

Tuesday afternoon is my time at home sans owlets. Mysteriously, the phone rings constantly, I catch up with a blog or two and its gone... Theoretically its my time to make stuff and work on the owlet shop a bit... here's what I should have done: made more pants like this for the next market. They are wool, fully lined with cotton and warm!! Sadly though, no elastic. Will work on that for next tuesday. I'm hoping to make it to crafternoon this evening and make up for my lack of Tuesday craft thus far... hey if you're in Hobart and would like to be a part of crafternoon (read: drinking tea, eating biscuits and chatting about magazines, design, etc., while pretending to finish off craft projects), let Bec know.

unschool monday :: unschool social

So the next question we usually encounter when we chat about our owlets learning is: "But what about socialisation?" The simple answer is that they do loads of activities with kids their own age... gym, ballet, school holiday activities... we meet twice a week with local home educators and their families to play in the park... Big owlet's closest friend is home educated too... But beyond that, we like to think that they are learning in a more natural social environment day to day. They encounter people from many different backgrounds and witness a range of social interactions in a trip to town. They spend time with the neighbours, extended family, experience life with a community around them. They do not spend days with children their own age and adults who work with children, but people of all ages, working in different fields and living in the real world. If they want for company, we find it for them. We meet their needs, surround them with community. Simple really. "But what about developing a tolerance for others, even those you don't get along with?" Try spending 24/7 with a strong willed 3yo and see how your tolerance level is...Seriously though, they encounter all sorts of people in daily life and witness us dealing with social situations. They are living in the real world already. "But what about social etiquette, and how to behave in the real world?" Well they miss out on learning to sit up straight, raise their hand to speak, ask to go to the bathroom, queue up at the tuck shop, sure... but we treat them like people and they manage to figure out most stuff. The owlets are free, but that doesn't make them completely wild... well not always...



You can read more about socialisation and kids here...